The opening words of Psalm 23 can be some of the most comforting words ever written. To be sure, to know that the Lord is watching over us like a shepherd is to know that we are in his absolute care.

To be sure the question comes to mind who are his sheep? We know who the Shepherd is but who belongs to His flock?

From what I understand, David was the writer of the psalm. He certainly was one of God’s sheep. The Bible makes that very clear. On the other hand, he had sons that were not likely part of the flock. One son raped a daughter. The other killed another son and one of his sons tried to kill David and take his kingdom. (Those are only the ones I can remember offhand) I’m not going to go out on a limb and say that any one of them was not part of the flock, but it would seem so.

The fact is, many who think they are part of the flock aren’t. If Jesus is not your Shepherd, the above words are do not apply to you. Indeed, they should bring you fear. You see you have a choice. You can choose to be part of His flock. On the other hand you can chose not to in his flock. Therefore, the entirety of the 23rd psalm does not pertain to you. It’s not that you will die but that you have no life in you now. Until you receive the Lord Jesus into your heart and accept him as your savior, His life (spiritual) is not in you. Being as God is the source of all life, if you do not have God, you are without life (spiritually).

If you die (physically) without Jesus as your savior, it is final. Not only will you be without life, you also will be without hope.

If you cannot truly say that the Lord is your Shepherd, maybe you need to seek the Lord, while you are able.

As an aside: Communism and Christianity cannot coexist. Hence, communists fight to disprove the existence of God, this while they try to claim some similarities with Christianity.