A mother had taught her little boy, "The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want," as a morning text, and in the evening she asked him if he could repeat it. He immediately complied with, "The Lord is my Shepherd. So I don't want it." It was not the text of course, but how wonderfully true it is that those who can say, "The Lord is my Shepherd," from heart knowledge of Him, do not want the countless things that others crave for. They do not want the world, they are not attracted by the glamour of it.
"They have heard a sweeter story,
And found a truer gain."
A great part of the misery and discontent in the world results from lust for things men do not possess and envy of those who do possess them. We shall be preserved from these miseries if we know the meaning of the words, "The Lord is my Shepherd."
I pass on the child-interpretation of the text to those who are tempted to grasp the world and run after its pleasures, say, "The Lord is my Shepherd, so I don't want it."
"The treasure I've found in His love
has made me a pilgrim below."
Like Christian and Faithful in Vanity Fair, who could turn away from all the gay things of it, and be deaf to the voices of the sirens in it; because a brighter vision had shone into their souls, and a great love had taken possession of them.
I recall the story of Abraham, that hero of faith. He was a warrior when need called, and could strike a swift and decided blow for right and liberty, as was proved, when he pursued King Chedorlaomer and the Kings that were with him by night, and smote them and delivered their captives from them. A great man was Abraham that day, but he was greater by far when he stood up in the presence of the King of Sodom and said, "I will not take from a thread even to a shoe-latchet; and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich."
What made him so morally great? "I have lift up mine hand to the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth," he said. That was the secret. So he did not want what the King of Sodom could have given him. God was his everlasting portion, his shield and his exceeding great reward.
We may all show the same moral superiority to the world. We may all say, "The Lord is my Shepherd, so I don't want it."