According to the writer of Hebrews, Jesus is the Great Shepherd of the sheep (Hebrews 13:20). A shepherd provides protection from creatures and things that would harm; provision of needs and personal attention; direction for advancement and safety; correction. Which do you need today? What are your circumstances? What do you need from Jesus?

This psalm petitioning God, also foreshadows what our Great Shepherd endured. What can we learn from this psalm?

Cry to Jesus

¹(To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David.) My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? ²O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.

Sometimes, do you feel alone? Sometimes do you feel God does neither hear nor answer you?

Jesus, our Great Shepherd, felt forsaken when He hung on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins and my sins. Jesus completely understands the human condition and He cares.

What does it mean to you that Jesus understands the feeling of being forsaken?

Remember your history with Jesus

³But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. ⁴Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. ⁵They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded. ⁶But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. ⁷All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, ⁸He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. ⁹But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts.

What has Jesus accomplished for you?

What has Jesus accomplished through you?

In what ways did Jesus help you?

Express your need for Jesus in current trouble

¹⁰I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly. ¹¹Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help. ¹²Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. ¹³They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. ¹⁴I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. ¹⁵My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. ¹⁶For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. ¹⁷I may tell all my bones: look and stare upon me. ¹⁸They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. ¹⁹But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me. ²⁰Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog. ²¹Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

Strength =physical, mental, moral power

Help = to save, to rescue, to aid

A lion is a predator, whose roar can be heard for 5 miles. On average a male lion weighs 500 lb. and can run 50 miles per hour. The lion symbolizes your enemy’s ability to swiftly remind you of the past and to frighten you for the future and about what others think of you. Remember satan wants to ruin your life, destroy your testimony, steal your earthly inheritance and take others down with you.

Praise Jesus

²²I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.²³Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel. ²⁴For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard. ²⁵My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him. ²⁶The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever. ²⁷All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. ²⁸For the kingdom is the LORD’S: and he is the governor among the nations. ²⁹All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul. ³⁰A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. ³¹They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.

What does this psalm mean to you?

How do you relate David’s imagery to your current situation?

Our focus = Hebrews 12:¹Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, ² Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

Our challenge = Dearly Beloved,

Run with your eyes on Jesus alone!

Run in faith that Jesus loves you, has uniquely designed and created only one you, has a good plan for your life, runs with you and will accomplish His purposes for you and through you!

Run in His strength alone!

Run with your eyes on the prize!

Run with the desire to finish strong!

Run with the desire to finish with your lamp burning!

Run with the expectation of being in His physical presence when you cross your finish line!

Run to His glory alone!

Run and keep on running!

Coach Patti