I Shall Not Want — The Ordinary Is Ordained by God

✦ David's Conclusion

James Smith — Le's pastor across two centuries — does what he always does. He takes her by the hand and says, "Look at this. Can you believe it?" And what he shows her today is the simplest, most complete sentence in Scripture: I shall not want.

Not David's wish. Not David's hope. His conclusion. Drawn from one premise: the Lord is my Shepherd. If that premise is true — and David staked his life on it — then everything else follows logically, inevitably, completely. The silver and the gold are His. The cattle on a thousand hills. All spiritual blessings. And He has — Smith names it with the gentleness that is his signature — a kind, tender, and liberal heart. He will give. Not might. Not could, if asked correctly. Will. 🙏

✦ Whenever Were the Righteous Forsaken?

Smith asks the question that silences every anxiety: whenever were the righteous forsaken? Search the Scriptures. Search the history of God's dealings with His people. Find the one time — the one time — when He promised to supply and failed. When He promised to protect and forgot. When He promised to conduct and lost the way. There is no such time. His conduct toward His flock in old times is a sufficient guarantee. What He did for David, He will do for you. What He did for the woman who touched the hem, He will do for the woman who rises before dawn.

Four verbs — supply, conduct, protect, present. He will supply every need. He will conduct every step. He will protect every danger. And He will present His flock — not battered, not diminished, not barely surviving — upon Mount Zion. The destination is guaranteed by the Shepherd. 🙏

✦ Fears, Anxieties, Forebodings

Smith meets the fear head-on — and the sharpness of his words is not a rebuke. It is a rescue. He is pulling the anxious soul out of the wind — Lewis's wild animals rushing at you each morning — and saying: stop. Look at your Shepherd. Conclude.

Your fears are follies. Not because the circumstances are easy. David's were not. Your anxieties are groundless. Not because the future is clear. It never is. Your forebodings are sinful. Not because feeling afraid is a crime — but because forebodings assume that the Shepherd will fail. And He has never failed. You have a God to provide for you, and you ought to rejoice.

Macduff said it from Villeneuve-lès-Béziers: do not dwell with painful apprehension of the future. Smith says the same from Cheltenham: your fears are follies. Not because the troubles aren't real. Because the Shepherd is real. And His supply — Paul's word in Philippians 4:19 — is according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Not according to your assessment of the situation. According to His riches. Which are glorious. And inexhaustible. 🙏

✦ Redundant Stores

Redundant stores. Not barely sufficient. Not just enough to get by. Redundant — overflowing, more than needed, exceeding the demand. Paul said it: exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. Anne Johnson Flint said it: when we reach the end of our resources, God's full giving is only begun. Augustine said it: perdoas dívidas sem que nada percas com isso — He forgives debts and loses nothing. And James Smith sings it: what want shall not our God supply from His redundant stores?

The question is rhetorical. The answer is: none. There is no want that He cannot supply. There is no need that exceeds His stores. There is no stream of mercy that His almighty arm cannot pour. I shall not want. David's conclusion. Smith's hymn. The pilgrim's anchor on Maundy Thursday. 🙏

✦ The Ordinary Is Ordained

After the soaring theology of this Holy Week — Augustine's fire, Lewis's eggs, Spurgeon's treasury, Pope Leo's King of Peace — Chambers does the most unexpected thing possible. He points to the kitchen table. To the cup of coffee. To the walk with Jolie. To the ordinary conversation with Roger. And he says: these are ordained by God.

As amenidades comuns da vida — comer, beber, andar, falar — são todas ordenadas por Deus. The common amenities of life — eating, drinking, walking, talking — are all ordained by God. Not tolerated. Not beneath His notice. Ordained. Placed there by His design. Woven into the fabric of the life He created.

And the proof — nelas também Nosso Senhor viveu. In them also our Lord lived. The Son of God ate bread. Drank wine. Walked dusty roads. Talked with fishermen and tax collectors and women at wells. The common amenities of life participated in the existence of the Son of God. The ordinary was good enough for Jesus.

✦ Not Above the Master

O discípulo não supera seu mestre. If the Master lived in the ordinary — in eating, drinking, walking, talking — the disciple is not above living there too. The temptation is to think that only the dramatic counts. Only the fiery entries. Only the Augustine soaring. Only the Lewis thunderclaps. But Chambers says: no. The ordinary Tuesday morning when nothing spectacular happened in the devotions — that morning was ordained by God too.

Jon Bloom called them ordinary daily devotions — and said God is making something extraordinary through them. Chambers says the same from a different angle: the ordinary is not a lesser category of existence. It is the very category in which the Son of God chose to live. Comer, beber, andar, falar. These are not interruptions of the spiritual life. They are the spiritual life.

And on Maundy Thursday — the night of the Last Supper — this truth lands with particular force. What did Jesus do on this night? He ate bread. He drank wine. He washed feet. He talked with His friends. The most sacred night in human history was made of the most ordinary actions. Eating. Drinking. Washing. Talking. The common amenities of life — elevated by the One who lived in them, died through them, and made them eternal. 🙏

✦ I Shall Not Want — In the Extraordinary or the Ordinary

Smith and Chambers together complete the picture. Smith says: I shall not want — the Shepherd provides for every need, from His redundant stores. Chambers says: the ordinary needs are also His concern — eating, drinking, walking, talking are ordained by Him. The I-shall-not-want of Psalm 23 covers the extraordinary and the ordinary. The fiery trial and the quiet morning. The dramatic conversion and the daily bread. The Augustine fire and the Tuesday cup of coffee.

The Shepherd provides for the pilgrim who soars — and for the pilgrim who simply rises before dawn, reads her Bible, drinks her coffee, walks her poodle, and talks with her God. Both are ordained. Both are supplied. Both are the spiritual life. And in both — I shall not want. 🙏