I Lack Nothing

The Lord is my shepherd, the familiar psalm begins, I shall not want.

Or: I have all that I need.

Or: I lack nothing.

And that’s where I’ve stopped this week. I’ve stopped on that second phrase as I’ve thought about the many needs I see.

Children who need their parents back. Husbands and wives who long for unbroken marriages. The empty womb aching to be filled. Patients desperate for news that their cancer is in remission, their surgery was successful, the medication is working.

I think of my own small needs, which pale in comparison but are still needs. A moment of quiet. Energy to get through each day. Time to plan and work. A cup of coffee.

We all realize that, regardless of our level of contentment, there are needs we have in this life, unavoidable ones that don’t make us greedy or selfish but just… human.

So how can David possibly speak those words: I shall not want. I have all that I need. I lack nothing. We know it is because of the first five words: the Lord is my shepherd.

And then we wonder, if He is our shepherd, why He doesn’t provide? He is provider, isn’t He?

We wonder why He doesn’t heal. He is Healer, correct?

We wonder why He doesn’t step in and save us from the gaping, slavering maw of need that threatens to overwhelm us, chew us up, and spit us out.

We find ourselves back at that most basic of questions: if God loves us, why does He let such bad things happen to us? We hear Christ’s words, “blessed are those who mourn”, and we can’t help but cry out: but I don’t feel blessed!

And into our agony, Christ whispers the words He gave David all those years ago: The Lord is your shepherd; you lack nothing.

We lack nothing, not because He fixed or provided or healed, but because He gave us Himself, because being our shepherd means that He is with us, no matter the rocky terrain we have to traverse, no matter how long the dark night, no matter how the storm rages.

And we have to admit to ourselves, sometimes that doesn’t feel like enough. We don’t feel blessed. And He says again: I am enough. You shall not want. You have all that you need. You lack nothing. Because you have Me.

So we learn to trust in new ways. We learn to be satisfied in Him even when He doesn’t give us what we want. We learn to see Him as the greatest need we will ever experience so that once that need is met, all of the other ones fade away. We learn to tell Jesus when we feel like He’s not enough, because our doubts don’t change the truth of who He is.

The Lord is my shepherd; therefore I know—I know—I know that I lack nothing.

We tell these words to ourselves again and again. And we pray that we can learn to understand them in tangible ways. We pray that we would find our satisfaction in Christ. We pray that we would be able to say “I lack nothing” and know it to be true.