The LORD is my Shepherd floods my heart with so many truths, emotions, and gratitude. Think with me about what this means to all of us who believe God and accept His free gift of salvation.

Knowing who God says, He is, is shocking and liberating. It opens our eyes to see what religion and the world never wanted us to know. He is not that judgmental “old man” who causes or casually allows us to suffer.

We have seen that the LORD is merciful, compassionate, gracious, patient, full of mercy, and that never changes. We have seen that He is a covenant-keeping God. He is loyal and faithful.

The New Testament sheds much light on the Old Testament and vice versa. We now know that God loved His creation so much that He became one of us. God took on human flesh and lived with us.

Jesus is God in human flesh, so Jesus is LORD and God. Jesus is my Shepherd.

Just think about this: God loved you so much that He wanted to feel everything you feel, see and hear what you hear from your level, so much that He humbled Himself to become one of us.

That love finds its perfect embodiment in Jesus, our Shepherd.

The LORD is present tense, right now, in this instant. He doesn’t take us as His sheep on the good days and abandon us on the bad days. He is our Shepherd. Jesus will not be your Shepherd if you do or don’t do certain things. He is our Shepherd. His blood bought us on Calvary. He carried our sins, and we belong to Him not only because He bought us, but also because He made us.

Jesus loves us with an unchanging love. He never fails or changes, and neither does His love. Circumstances change, people change, and our feelings change, but I AM does not change.

Our Shepherd is faithful because He can’t be anything else. He is I AM. He promised, and He can’t lie.

My is a possessive word. The LORD called me His, and I call Him mine. He came and found me in my sin. My Shepherd carried me on His shoulders, loving me all the way back home to the party and celebrating His finding me.

He cares for, protects, guides, and provides for us. More than that, Jesus clarified He didn’t call us servants, but friends. John 15:15 He is a faithful friend. You can be completely open and transparent, and He will still love you. Jesus will be there when you are ugly and wrong and when you are right. He lives in you and promised never to leave you.

Remember, He became a man, a human, to live with us and not be a spirit friend, but an actual friend who walked, talked, ate, played, and just lived life with us. We are friends and family.

Finally, we can say something that David couldn’t say. We call our Shepherd, the LORD, our Father. We have the great privilege of God showing us so much love that He calls us His children. I John 3:1.

Maybe one of the more shocking statements the religious crowd of Jesus’ day heard was when He said we are to pray to “Our Father.” Matthew 6:9. In the Old Testament, Moses taught God was their Father (Deuteronomy 32:6), but they never addressed prayer to their Father. They didn’t even like to say the word Yahweh and left out the constants to not be able to take His name in vain. Moses told the Pharaoh that Israel was God’s firstborn son. Exodus 4:22-23, but the intimacy that Jesus taught was utterly new.

Believers today have the Holy Spirit crying out in our hearts that He is not only Father, but Abba Father, or Daddy. A most tender, sweet, word of relationship we enjoy with God our Father. Galatians 4:6.

The great “I AM THAT I AM” is not only my Shepherd, but He is my Father, my Dad, Daddy, the sweetest father-son relationship possible.