“…my cup overflows.”
Oh the generosity of the Good Shepherd! If you haven’t sensed it by now you need to revisit this Psalm several times today. The love and care of the Good Shepherd is lavished on us as His sheep. He has held nothing back. He has made it possible for us to lie down in green pastures and leads us beside quiet waters. He refreshes us and calms our fears as we walk through the dark times in our lives. He protects us and even continues to feed us in the presence of our enemies. He tends to our wounds when we get ruffed up on this journey and has anointed us as His own. Wow! My cup overflows! How about yours?
Read through the Psalm again.
Our God is a generous giver. He gives without hesitation and in abundance to those He loves. He stands ready to bless His sheep. The most well known verse of all describes God as a giver;
“For God so loved the world that He GAVE His only Son…”
Not only did He give, but He gave everything! He didn’t hold anything back. The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross of Calvary was the clearest picture of God’s generosity and the love that motivated it. In fact, it is only because of God’s generosity on the cross that we can have the relationship described in Psalm 23. We were dead in our sins, according to Scripture, but “the free GIFT of God is eternal life” and that eternal life is available because of the work of Christ on the cross! We were sheep without a shepherd. We had all wandered and gone astray. Then Jesus took upon Himself the sin that separated us and made it possible for us to become His sheep…to become part of His flock…to experience the care of the Good Shepherd.
Paul expressed it best in Romans 8,
“What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own son, but gave Him up for us all – how will He not also, with Him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)
Praise be to our generous Shepherd!