Crystal Writes A Blog

The Lord is My Own Personal Shepherd

Shepherd with Flock by Flickr User Will Humes CC License = Attribution, NonCommercial, Share Alike
Scripture from Isaiah 40:11 from Complete Jewish Bible
Click image to open new tab to the original image and access to photo stream.

I can share all kinds of stories and Bible words with you, but the thing that carries the most strength is what God means to me personally. The most established scholar cannot compete with the actual testimonies of my life with God. Of course, there must be balance in that my testimonies about God should be supported by His word to show that I am actually following Him and not just my own ideas. If I am following Him as my Shepherd, I will go where He goes and try to imitate what He does.

Today’s reading from Genesis 48:10 through Genesis 48:16 goes back to Jacob/Israel on his death bed as he prepares to bless the sons of Joseph. He was having trouble seeing, but Joseph brought his sons close enough to him that he could see and embrace them. He praised God for allowing him to not only see his son again but also to see his offspring.

Joseph guided his eldest, Manasseh, to Israel’s right hand and his youngest, Ephraim, to Israel’s left hand for their blessings. But Israel purposely crossed his arms and placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head and his left hand on Manasseh. He began his prayer for them with a beautiful statement that Yahveh Almighty had always been his own Shepherd.

I love the personalization in that. He not only proclaimed Yahveh as God of all the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and himself, but by proclaiming Him as a shepherd, he declared himself to be a sheep that needed guidance. And, because he and his family were a family of shepherds, Jacob also connected to God in similarity of occupation. He knew God as both above him and with him in all things. As a matter of fact, there is a Scripture in Deuteronomy that I want to share now even though we will eventually get there in the studies. It’s from Deuteronomy 4:7, and in the Amplified Bible it says, “For what great nation is there who has a god so near to them as the Lord our God is to us in all things for which we call upon Him?”

There are many Scriptures that proclaim God as a shepherd, including the one on the above picture. The most famous, of course, is David’s Psalm 23. To personalize that Psalm, back in 2004, I wrote my own version of the psalm as attributed to myself as a writer. I’ll close this with that parody.

THE LORD IS MY EDITOR, I SHALL REWRITE

By Crystal A Murray

 

The Lord is My Editor, I shall rewrite.

He lays me down in green pastures

   – Of fresh ideas.

He leads me by the quiet torrents

   – Of conflict and resolution.

He develops my characters and subjects.

He leads me from beginnings to middles…

   – And from middles to endings…

            – For the plot’s sake.

Yea, though my protagonist walks

Through pages of shadows of death,

   – He fears not the antagonist,

            – For a good ending is promised.

God’s red pen and word-processor;

   – They correct me.

God prepares new writers’ books before me,

   – In the presence of my Amazon “wish list”.

He anoints my printer with ink,

   – My paper tray overflows.

Surely, acceptance and paychecks

   – Shall be offered me,

            – For every story I write.

And I shall dwell in my home office

   – As a freelancer…

             – All the days of my writing life.

December 15, 2013 Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) | Bible Study, Nonfiction, Poetry, Torah Commentary | Adonai, Almighty, Bible, Bible Gateway, Bible reading, Bible study, blessing, Complete Jewish Bible, Creator, crystalwriter, Ephraim, Genesis, God, Holy Bible, Israel, Jacob, Joseph, Lord, Manasseh, Old Covenant, Old Testament, Parashah, poem, poetry, Portions, rewrite, Scripture, shepherd, The Complete Jewish Bible, Torah, Torah commentary, Torah Portions, Torah Reading, Word, Word of God, Word of the Lord, write, www.biblegateway.com, Yahveh, Yahweh | Leave a comment