CUFI’s Word of The Week – The Shepherd’s Sacrifice For Us

CUFI’s Word of The Week – The Shepherd’s Sacrifice For Us

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

— Psalm 23:1

David, a shepherd boy who became Israel’s greatest king, viewed his relationship with the Lord in terms of shepherding. To him, the Lord was his shepherd—the one who owned him, cared for him, protected him, and guided him. All his good was in God (Psalm 16:2). The patriarch Jacob, long before David, described God as the one who had been his “Shepherd all my life to this day” (Genesis 48:15).

Jesus picked up this imagery and declared, “I AM” the “Good Shepherd.” Our Savior knows us by name and calls us personally and intimately to follow Him—and He can be wholly trusted. From His hands no one—not even ourselves—can snatch us. We are eternally secure.

The greatest testament to our Shepherd-Savior’s trustworthiness in caring for us was His willingness to lay down His life for His sheep. As the Lamb foreknown before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:18-20), Jesus chose to die on our behalf to bring us to God.

It is His sacrifice which secures our salvation and ensures goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life (Psalm 23:6)—because we have a Shepherd who lived and died and rose again to give us life and life to the full.