The Lord Himself is our Shepherd, bringing us, His sheep, back to the good and rich pasture, giving us inward rest, binding up the broken onse, strengthening the sick ones, exercising judgment to clear away all unjust things among us, causing us to be one, taking care of us with all our problems, and caring for us so that we obey Him as our King and come under His kingship.
Lord Jesus, we love You as our Shepherd. We open to Your shepherding today. As Your sheep, we don’t know what we need, but we just open to Your organic shepherding. Bring us back to the good and rich pasture for us to feed on the all-inclusive Christ. Give us rest in all things and cause us to lie down in satisfaction. Thank You for binding us when we are broken. Thank You for strengthening us when we are sick. Thank You for taking care of all our problems. Amen, Lord, we love You and we obey You as our King. Amen!
How we love our dear Lord Jesus, our good Shepherd! He set some to shepherd us, but sometimes those who shepherd us do not do a good job but rather, they may feed themselves instead of feeding the flock.
But praise the Lord, the Lord comes to be our Shepherd Himself, and He cares for all our needs. We believers are symbolised by sheep, for we are under the organic shepherding of Christ.
God is our Shepherd; from the beginning to the end of the Bible we see that God is our Shepherd, and He shepherds us in all the situations and things of our daily life.
We can testify that, when we were in the world, dead in sins and offenses, and far away from God, Christ came as the Shepherd to search for us and seek us out.
We can testify that, when we were in Christianity, in the denominations, wandering and being restless, having no satisfaction nor knowing what God’s eternal purpose is, Christ came as the Shepherd to search for us and seek us out.
How thankful we are to the Lord for shepherding us into the church life where we can feed on Him as our rich pasture together with all the saints!
He brings us back, in His tender loving care, to our own land and to the high mountains. He brings us into the full enjoyment of Himself as the all-inclusive Christ as the life-giving Spirit, and He gives us to drink of the springs of living water, the Spirit of life.
We can testify that, as we meet with the saints in the church life and as we contact the Lord personally in our time with Him, the Lord shepherds us to enjoy Him, be richly fed, and have our thirst quenched. Amen, how we love the Lord’s organic shepherding!
The Lord as our Shepherd Brings us back to Enjoy Christ as our Life Supply, Gives us Inward Rest, Binds up the Broken Ones, and Strengthens the Sick Ones
Ezekiel 34 gives us a wonderful picture of Christ as our Shepherd and how we can enjoy His marvellous organic shepherding.
In verse 14 we see that the Lord as our Shepherd brings His sheep back to the good and rich pasture, signifying Christ as our life supply, and He causes them to lie down, indicating that He gives them inward rest (Ezek. 34:14-15; Psa. 23:2; John 10:9; Matt. 11:28-30).
As the Lord’s sheep, we are often lost, we run astray, we become weary, and we are famished. The Lord as our good Shepherd brings us back again and again to Himself as our portion, our rich pasture; as we eat Him, we are filled and we are satisfied, and we have rest.
Many times we are quite anxious; we worry about our health, our future, our job, our family, and so many things.
So much anxiety plagues our human life. But the Lord comes to give us rest. He gives us to drink of the streams of water of life, the life-giving Spirit, and He brings us into the rich pasture, Himself as our food and our rest.
Thank the Lord that we are under the care of our Shepherd, drinking by the streams and feeding in the pasture!
As we see in Song of Songs 1:7, Christ pastures His flock, making it to lie down at noon. He feeds us, shepherds us, and give us to drink, and He also gives us rest.
We often have the sense, especially when we are in the church meetings, that the Lord gives us rest in our soul. We may sit down outwardly in the meeting, but inwardly, we are lying down to rest, for the Shepherd brings us into the enjoyment of Himself as our rest.
We believers in Christ are not the strong ones but the weak ones; we can’t do that much, for we depend on the Lord.
Without Him as our Shepherd, we can’t do anything. We learn to receive His supply, we learn to lie down and receive His inward rest. We come to Him in our labouring and striving, and we enjoy Him as our supply and our rest.
Ezekiel 34:16 further tells us that the Lord as our Shepherd binds up the broken ones and strengthens the sick ones (Ezek. 34:16a; Zech. 10:3; 11:7).
The Lord visits us, sees our wounds and hurts, and He binds our wounds and heals us. How much we need the Lord’s binding and healing!
As we live in our family life, at work, at school, and in society, we are very much hurt, and many times we don’t even know how hurt we are until someone speaks with us and we react in a certain way.
As the weak ones, as the Lord’s sheep, we are weak, we are hurt, and we are feeble; we need a Shepherd.
Many times as we come to the meetings of the church and open to the Lord, we have the sense that we are under the Lord’s tender binding. We sense that our wounds and broken places are bound up by Him.
At other times, we sense that He strengthens us and heals us. Through His cherishing and nourishing in this way, Christ as our Shepherd causes us to become a horse of majesty in battle.
We don’t start as a horse; we start as a weak sheep, a sheep that is hurt and needs shepherding, and through the Lord’s shepherding, we can join Him for spiritual warfare.
As we remain under the Lord’s shepherding, He cares for us, and God will cause His enemies to come and prostrate and bow down.
As we rely on the Lord, trust in Him, and allow Him to shepherd us, we become like a horse mighty in battle, one with the Lord, and the enemy is defeated.
How we love our dear Shepherd! How we need His shepherding! And how much we love the church life, for both in our personal time with the Lord and as we meet with the saints, He comes in as the Shepherd to take care of our inward being and shepherd us!
Lord Jesus, we open to Your shepherding today. We open to be led by You by streams of water of life for us to drink of You as the life-giving Spirit. Amen, Lord, only You can quench our thirst. We come to You in Your Word, and we present our bodies as a living sacrifice as we come to the meetings of the church. We love being under the care of our Shepherd, drinking by the streams and feeding in the pasture! Amen, Lord, we come to You with our struggling, striving, and toiling; give us rest for our souls. Cause our soul to lie down in rest and enjoy full satisfaction in You. Thank You for coming to us as the Shepherd to bind up the broken ones and heal the sick ones. Amen, Lord, how we need Your binding and healing! You see how weak we are. You know how hurt we are. We open to Your tender binding so that the wounds and broken places in us may be tenderly cared for. Oh Lord, we open to Your strengthening and healing by means of Your shepherding. We love You as our Shepherd and we open to Your shepherding! Amen!
The Lord Exercises Righteous Judgments to Clear Away all the Unjust Things among God’s People so that we have Genuine Oneness with the Saints, and He as the Shepherd Feeds us and brings us to Obey Him as our King
On the positive side, the Lord as our Shepherd gives us the life supply, waters us with living water, binds our wounds, and heals us so that we may be satisfied and at rest in Him.
On the negative side, as seen in Ezekiel 34:17-22, the Lord exercises righteous judgments to clear away all the unjust things among God’s recovered people. He judges between one sheep and another. He judges in us and among us anything that needs to be judged.
The One who nourishes and supplies us causes us to have an accurate sense concerning our relationship with others.
When we have such a sense, we judge ourselves, and as a result, we have genuine oneness with the saints as one flock (Col. 3:15). This is very precious.
As we enjoy the Lord’s rich supply, we experience His binding and healing, and He gives us a clear sense concerning our relationships with the saints.
We confess before the Lord, we judge ourselves before Him, and we have a genuine oneness with the saints as the one flock.
In Ezekiel 34, the Lord said that He will judge between one sheep and another, between the rams and the male goats; He judges when there’s fighting between the sheep. Sometimes some sheep push against another and kick them.
Some pushed with their flank and shoulder, and butted all the weak with their horns until they are scattered abroad.
Christ comes to rescue His flock, and they will no longer be prey; He will judge between one sheep and another. He judges between the fat sheep and the thin sheep.
Oftentimes in the church life we may have conflicts, we may have arguments, we may have differences; the Lord comes in to shepherd us, and part of His shepherding, He brings in a righteous judgment.
He gives us an inner sense of what is right, what is wrong, what is of our natural life, what is of God, and what is of the flesh.
When we live by our natural life, our judgment is off; we judge ourselves good and others bad, always thinking that others are wrong and we are right.
But when we’re under the Lord’s shepherding and do not depend on our own strength and viewpoint but on His shepherding care, His shepherding will bring in a righteous judgment. We can testify that we have experienced this in the day-to-day church life.
Sometimes we may find ourselves in an argument, in a conflicted situation, and we justify ourselves and try to put the blame on others.
We are in a struggle, beating others down and saying they are wrong.
But then we touch the Lord and come under His shepherding, and as His seven eyes look at us, we get exposed and subdued; we repent and confess that we are the ones in the wrong; we have been too much.
We are judged by the Lord’s shining, and there is a righteous judgment. Then, we have an accurate sense wrought into us so that we can have a proper relationship with one another.
In our relationship with one another in the church life, how can we have a sweet coordination with the saints in one accord and in harmony? It all depends if we are under the Lord’s shepherding care so that we may be tempered, properly judged, and connected together.
As we see in Zechariah 11:7, the Lord shepherds the flock that is afflicted with two staffs: Favour and Bonds. The Lord graces us with His favour, and He binds us into oneness. By His shepherding, He graces us and He binds us into oneness to heal all our relationships.
Christ as the real David is set up as the Shepherd to feed us and cause us to be filled and satisfied (Ezek. 34:23; Psa. 23; Rev. 7:17; 22:1-2).
He takes care of us, including all our problems and responsibilities and every aspect of our living. He is David the King, the real David, and He both shepherds us and rules over us.
He takes care of us not only in spiritual things but in all things related to our human needs.
As we see in Psalm 23, the Lord takes care of us in every aspect of our living. Since He is our Shepherd caring for us, we should not worry about our problems or about our living; instead, we should learn to put our trust in Him.
It is good to pray to the Lord as our Shepherd, thanking Him for His care. We don’t need to ask Him to do this and that; as His sheep, we are under His shepherding, and He knows what we need.
We simply need to place ourselves under His care; He knows our spiritual needs, the needs of our soul, and even our physical needs, and He shepherds us.
As the Lord shepherds us, we can testify as Psalm 23 says, that we lack nothing in Him.
On the negative side, He deals with us to get rid of all the rebellion in our fallen nature; on the positive side, He brings us under Himself as our King.
The issue of the Lord’s caring for us as our Shepherd is that we obey Him as our King and come under His kingship. He shepherds us, and He brings us under Himself as our King, for He is the real David, the king.
It is by His shepherding care that we are brought under His kingship for us to submit to Him as our King.
May we open to His shepherding today. May we remain under His shepherding. May we allow the Lord to shine on us and expose what needs to be exposed, and may we let Him shepherd our inner being back to Himself as our King.
Lord Jesus, thank You that we are under Your care. Thank You for being our Shepherd, caring for all our needs. We open to Your shepherding today. We open to Your nourishing and cherishing. Thank You for exercising judgment to clear away all the unjust things among Your people; exercise judgment in us, Lord, and remove anything negative in us. Thank You for not only supplying us but also giving us an accurate sense concerning our relationship with others. Amen, Lord, under Your light we judge ourselves and have a genuine oneness with the saints as one flock. Amen, Lord, You are our Shepherd, and we are Your one flock. Thank You for caring for us with all our problems and responsibilities. Thank You for caring for us not only in spiritual things but also in all things related to our human needs. You are our real David, our Shepherd, who feeds us and causes us to be filled and satisfied. We love You, Lord, and we open to Your shepherding. We obey You as our King and we come under Your kingship. Amen, Lord, we love You and we submit to You today! Amen!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother James Lee on this topic, and portions from, Life-study of Ezekiel, msg. 16, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Believers (1) (2026 July Semi-Annual Training), week 5, “Living Stones and Sheep” – day 5.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Dear Shepherd of Thy chosen few, / Thy former mercies here renew; / Here, to our waiting hearts, proclaim / The sweetness of Thy saving Name. / Here may we prove the power of prayer / To strengthen faith and sweeten care; / To teach our faint desires to rise, / And bring Thy light before our eyes. (Hymns #862 stanzas 3-4)
– The Lord’s my Shepherd, I’ll not want; / He makes me down to lie / In pastures green; He leadeth me / The quiet waters by. / My soul He doth restore again, / And me to walk doth make / Within the paths of righteousness, / E’en for His own name’s sake. (Hymns #527 stanzas 1-2)
– My Shepherd Himself is my pasture, / My Shepherd, the waters of rest; / I eat of His riches in spirit, / I drink, and O how I am blest! / My Shepherd my soul is restoring, / My will, and emotion, and mind; / And though through the valley I’m walking, / O what a Companion I find! (Hymns #1170 stanzas 2-3)
