We are living in a time that we have not seen or experienced before…. Within the span of only a few weeks the whole world was thrust into a Pandemic of disease, fear, and economic chaos.  Prophetic words have suggested an unsettling scenario:  re calibration – reset- upheaval – never the same again!

What should be our response to these things?

I would like to suggest 7 anchors of peace and hope to hold on to, gleaned from the 23rd Psalm in The Passion Bible.

The Lord is my best friend and my shepherd
I always have more than enough.
² He offers a resting place for me in his luxurious love.
His tracks take me to an oasis of peace, the quiet brook of bliss.
³ That’s where he restores and revives my life.
He opens before me pathways to God’s pleasure
and leads me along in his footsteps of righteousness
so that I can bring honor to his name.
⁴ Lord, even when your path takes me through
the valley of deepest darkness,
fear will never conquer me, for you already have!
You remain close to me and lead me through it all the way.
Your authority is my strength and my peace^]
The comfort of your love takes away my fear.
I’ll never be lonely, for you are near.
⁵ You become my delicious feast
even when my enemies dare to fight.
You anoint me with the fragrance of your Holy Spirit;
you give me all I can drink of you until my heart overflows.
⁶ So why would I fear the future?
For your goodness and love pursue me all the days of my life.
Then afterward, when my life is through,
I’ll return to your glorious presence to be forever with you!

Verse 1: “The Lord is my best friend and my shepherd…”

This brings to mind the old hymn:

What a Friend we have in Jesus,
  All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
  Everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
  O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
  Everything to God in prayer!

Indeed, Jesus is our friend, and He invites us to share our every thought, fear and need with Him.

Psalm 95 says:

 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker.⁷ For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

The best friend a sheep has is the SHEPHERD.  Jesus identifies Himself twice in the gospel of John as the Good Shepherd who “gives His life for the sheep.” And Jesus taught in the parable of the lost sheep in Matthew 18:12-13:

“If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying?  And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.

Our Good Shepherd is very intentional about guiding us and keeping us from getting lost and falling into the pit falls of life.

“…. I always have more than enough.”

In John 10:10, Jesus said He came to give us ABUNDANT LIFE:

“I have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect—life in its fullness until you overflow!”  (The Passion Bible)

In Philippians 4:19, Paul exhorts us:

“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

Anchor 1: Our God is a God of Safety and ABUNDANCE! – With Jesus as my friend and shepherd I will always be safe in his arms and have what I need; even more than enough!

Verse 2 in Psalm 23:

“He offers a resting place for me in his luxurious love. His tracks take me to an oasis of peace, the quiet brook of bliss. That’s where he restores and revives my life.”

This is reminiscent of the words of Jesus in John 16:33:  “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

Then Jesus assured us with these words in John 14:27:  “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

One of the Names of Jesus is Jehovah Shalom – Jesus IS PEACE!  And Jesus lives inside of us and fills us with His Peace!  And He invites us to come and abide in Him, the Prince of Peace… (John 15:4-7; Isaiah 9:6)

 Anchor 2: God offers me a quiet place of peace and rest in Him at all times, for His Presence restores and revives my life.  Do I go there often to commune with Him?

Verse 3 of Psalm 23:

“He opens before me pathways to God’s pleasure and leads me along in his footsteps of righteousness so that I can bring honor to his name.”

David spoke of pathways in Psalm 16:11: “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

The Psalmist in Psalm 119:105 described the Word of God as a lamp that shines to lighten our path:  “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

And Psalm 118:19 speaks of pathways leading to righteousness:

Open to me the gates of righteousness;
I will go through them,
And I will praise the Lord.

Anchor 3: God’s pathways bring pleasure and joy, and His Word lights my path with revelation. He leads me on a path of righteousness so I can bring Him praise and honor.

Verse 4a of Psalm 23:

“Lord, even when your path takes me through
the valley of deepest darkness, fear will never conquer me, for you already have!”

Paul admonished Timothy that “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” ( 2 Timothy 1:7)  Fear is not a part of who we are in Christ.  Instead, Paul said in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  There is nothing I will face that will be too difficult for me – for if God is for me, who can be against me? (Romans 8:31)

In fact, we must see testings and trials as gifts to help us learn to overcome…James said, “My fellow believers, when it seems as though you are facing nothing but difficulties see it as an invaluable opportunity to experience the greatest joy that you can! For you know that when your faith is tested it stirs up power within you to endure all things.”  (James 1:2-3, The Passion Bible)

Anchor 4: I am empowered by God to endure and prosper in every temptation and trial of life, and to navigate through the deepest darkness.

Verse 4b of Psalm 23:

“You remain close to me and lead me through it all the way.
Your authority is my strength and my peace. The comfort of your love takes away my fear. I’ll never be lonely, for you are near.”

Romans 8:35-39 is perhaps the greatest passage on the power of God’s love to keep and to save. Paul’s beautiful words resonate across the millennia:

“What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?… Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The prophet Isaiah penned these words on the keeping power of God in Isaiah 26:3-:

“You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
⁴ Trust in the Lord forever,
For in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength.”