Who is Leading You?     

Read: Psalm 23 KJV – The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not – Bible Gateway

“He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” Psalm 23:3 KJV

Psalm 23 is the most recognized portion of Scripture outside of John 3:16 for most Christians. There is a lot of ground covered in these six verses. The primary focus is the Shepherd-King providing comfort and supplying our needs all through life including our appointed time of death. But there are several nuances within Psalm 23 that expand beyond the comforting nature of the psalm.

When reading, ‘He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake’ I saw that in a different light as I read the 23^rd Psalm recently. As I thought through this, a few things came to mind. Our shepherd will never lead us down the wrong path. So, why do we often find ourselves going the wrong way? Is it because we are not following our shepherd, as sheep tend to drift away? Are we allowing someone or something else to lead us astray? The psalmist writes, ‘He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness,’ which He can only do, meaning if we end up on the wrong road we are not following Him but following another or even ourselves. And that is not the righteous way!

The Lord leads us down paths that will always honor His name. The roads we travel on our own without God’s guidance rarely end up honoring His name. If the Lord is truly our shepherd, then we need to surrender all our will to His will and not fight against it and take that hard turn back on the right road. It leads to ‘righteousness for His name’s sake.’