Psalm 23:1
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Throughout the Bible, God takes on the role of one in authority where His people are in a position of subjection beneath Him.  He is God—a King ruling over His people, a Father raising His children, a Master directing His servants, a Lord sustaining His kingdom, a Husband guiding His wife.  But God is also the Shepherd to His sheep, and in that relationship, there are a lot of ways we are like sheep.

When looking at it this way, we can see ourselves as less equal.  Obviously the gap is wide between God’s wisdom and our own, between His power and our own.  And the truth is, when we decide to give God that particular role in our lives, we are never left wanting.  He will be our guide, our provider, and our protector.  He will be our way of life.  We will never go without and we will never lack exactly what we need.

A shepherd stays with His sheep, and God is always with us.  We can cry out to Him, and we can go to Him for any need.  His eye is constantly upon us, and He knows where we are at all times.  He guides our path and leads us in the right way to go, leads us to better places than we could have gotten to on our own.  He sustains our lives with the nourishment of His Word, the sweet-tasting water of fellowship with Christ.  He gives us shelter and rest.  In and of Himself, our gracious Shepherd is everything that we need.

Maybe we’ve accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior.  Maybe we’ve submitted to God as our Father and Master.  We’ve surrendered to our King and given Him authority over our lives.  But now will we allow Him to be our Shepherd, too?  Can we place ourselves that far below God and humble ourselves to the level of a sheep?  Will we count on Him for everything and find true life at His feet?  Will we dwell closely in His fold and trust His leading no matter where it may take us?  Will we listen for His sweet voice ringing out on breezes above our pasture and always heed what He says to us?  Because ultimately His mercy raises us up to something even more precious than a sheep is to a shepherd.  We are God’s own children, so let us allow Him to sustain us completely as our Good Shepherd.