The Lord Is My Shepherd ~Restoring Faith

The Lord Is My Shepherd is an excellent book written about the 23rd Psalm by Roy Smith a Seventh Day Adventist.


This was the Psalm my sister Irene recited to our mother when she went to be with the Lord on the evening of March 30, 1992. Along with the Lord's Prayer, and the 100th Psalm, our  mother taught us to memorize it when we were very young.  


In his little book Roy Smith wrote this advice near the end of the last chapter:  

The greatest terror of our day is not the threat of an invader but the assaults that being made on faith.  Even worse than to live under a tyrant is to live under a great fear of utter death.  To enter the grave is only an incident in life, but to lose confidence in the moral order of the universe and the final victory of righteousness is to die a terrible death.


As the aged psalmist watched the curtain of death drawing down upon life, and saw the lights going out one by one, he lay down in peace with the prayer upon his lips; "I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever."  


As we stand in the midst of a shattered world, with great cities and *hoary traditions lying in ruins all about us, the psalmist's confidence may be ours also.  The surest defenses of a nation are not in its military equipment but in its spiritual resources. The great need of the hour is for great faith.  And in this emergency the ancient shepherd's psalm, a mighty assertion of faith comes to guide us and hearten us.


The gate of the sheepfold is closed. The sheep are asleep. High overhead the stars and the centuries look down upon us, and across the ages there comes a song: 

The LORD Is My Shepherd
A Psalm of David.
1	The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2	He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:          he leadeth me beside the still waters. Rev. 7.17
3	He restoreth my soul:          he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
4	Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,          I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5	Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:          thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6	Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:          and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

http://www.abebooks.com/Lord-Shepherd-Smith-Roy-L-Review/866106910/bd

*In this instance hoary means ancient.