Godly Motivation is: ‘The Lord is my Shepherd’
‘The Lord is my Shepherd’ (Psalm 23:1) is a heart posture. It is a declaration that Jesus is my caretaker and my king. My whole person is arranged under His care and rule. When we declare ‘The Lord is my Shepherd’ we are acknowledging that we have submitted our entire person to the care of the One who cares for us best. My family is not my shepherd, my intellect is not my shepherd, my principles or values are not my Shepherd, a human leader is not my shepherd, a government system is not my Shepherd, my goal or dream is not my shepherd, my own effort is not my shepherd. Jesus is. Jesus is the One who directs me. Jesus is the One who I submit to. I trust Him for my care. Completely.
‘The Lord is my shepherd’ is a declaration of Lordship. I am declaring who rules me.
‘The Lord is my shepherd’ is a declaration of Lordship. I am declaring who rules me.
In stark contrast to any psychological theory of motivation, the Bible defines the question of human motivation as a question of lordship. Who or what rules this pattern of thoughts, emotions and behavior: The Lord or a substitute? We were created to worship: Who or what do you bow down to? Who or what do you arrange yourself under? Human behavior is simply a strategy that expresses motives: trusts, wants, fears, needs, pursuits. When those verbs are attached to anything but Jesus, a substitute is ruling.
This is idolatry.
I’m going to stop here to point out that if you have declared with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believed in your heart that He has been raised from the dead, you are saved (Romans 10:9-10).
[If you haven’t declared with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believed in your heart that He was raised from the dead, then I invite you to read the Gospels with an open heart, asking God to reveal Himself to you. He will. It’s one of His promises (Jeremiah 29:13)].
That means that you belong to Him. You are sealed and secure. Your security in His family is based on Him and He will complete the work that He has started (Philippians 1:6). If this blog post (or anything else) sends you into some kind of introspective self-examining spiral, then please, stop reading this and go directly to Ephesians 1 and 2; do not pass go, do not collect $200. Remind yourself of who you are in Jesus. Guard your heart. Do the first commandment. Meditate on Him and what He has done for you in His obedience, death and resurrection. Jesus’ perfect obedience is credited to you – that’s wild. The true Gospel radically de-centers people to look outside of themselves (Powlison), so if you are in an inward spiral, you have lost sight of the true Gospel and are centered on a false one. Stop reading this and re-focus on who He is and what He has done for you.
As you continue reading remember: if you have been saved then no amount of idolatry in your life changes who you are in Jesus. You are sealed.
Ok, so back to motives as a question of Lordship. Who or what is directing you in any given situation? Who or what do you trust, fear, love, want, pursue, need? The answer to these questions will inform what David Powlison calls ‘intelligent repentance’- a moving out of yourself, towards Jesus. Repentance remember is sweet, because we turn from what ensnares and run back into the forgiving arms of Jesus.
From this place of security, comes the reality of the following statement of Psalm 23:1:
I shall not want.
Under Jesus’ care, I lack nothing. Under His care, you lack nothing.
Does this mean that you should not trust, fear, love, want, pursue, or need other things in this life? No. He certainly wants you to appropriately trust and love people, He wants you to fear being hit by a car when you cross the street, He wants you to pursue goals He declares to be Good, and He wants you to eat food to sustain the body that He has entrusted you with. Simply put, you are to seek His kingdom first and trust Him for everything else (my paraphrase of Matthew 6:33).
‘Not wanting’ or ‘lacking nothing’ means that under His care, He directs you to what is best and re-defines your very motives; your trusts, your fears, your pursuits, your loves, and your needs.
And so practically, daily… How is Psalm 23:1 lived out?
One way to live it out is to begin to pay attention to the verbs that come out of your mouth. Trust. Love. Fear. Want. Need. To whom or to what are these verbs attached? Who or what is motivating you? Who or what is ruling your thoughts, emotions, behavior? Who or what is your Lord? Do you begin to see an idol take shape?
In my case, the frequency and variety of idols of my heart are varied and exponential. Frankly, seeing these can lead me to a place of discouragement and morbid introspection.
But then I am reminded that the true Gospel will radically de-center me; to look outside of myself. In my morbid introspection, I have believed a false Gospel – that I can or should be able to fix myself, or that I should be better than this by now.
Lord Jesus, I’m sorry. I love you and want to believe Your Word. I believe Lord, help my unbelief. Please, forgive me.
And He does.
From this place of security and freedom, I can then look at the verbs that have entangled my heart to lesser things, and ask for His forgiveness.
Our greatest need is Jesus. As we allow Him to re-attach the verbs of our hearts to Himself through repentance, we are changed. The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.
“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.” (Psalm 23:1–2 ESV)
Nancy Beattie is a Certified Biblical Counselor with the Association of Biblical Counselors, a Christian Trauma Care Provider, CTHN and has a BA in Psychology from Concordia. You can book a consultation with Nancy by clicking HERE