It was King David who began Psalm 23 with words that should inspire every Statesman:

The Lord is my shepherd (Psalm 23:1).

He, as a ruler, was continually challenged with threats beyond his capacity. Here, he presents the image of himself as a vulnerable sheep dependent upon a protective shepherd to care for him and guide him – that shepherd being none other than God Himself. He skillfully uses that imagery throughout this short Psalm. This is a humbling analogy because the sheep represents a class of animals least able to protect themselves from their natural predators. The sheep’s only hope for survival is a responsible and caring shepherd who would even risk his life to protect the sheep. Here, even though he was such a powerful ruler, King David recognizes his own inability to face his challenges by himself.

What seems even more amazing is that he recognizes God not only as his shepherd, but as his personal shepherd. Notice in King David’s opening declaration the word “my”: The Lord is my shepherd.  Even though he is only one of the many kings in the world and millions of individuals, he recognizes that God is personally focused on meeting every one of his needs. King David describes God as able to give personal care as if he were the only person in all of creation.

Please meditate upon this expression by this king with me:

¹ The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack.

² He lets me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.
³ He renews my life; He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
⁴ Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff—they comfort me.

⁵ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

⁶ Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Let us briefly reflect on King David’s meditation.

There is nothing I lack.

To paraphrase, he is saying: My God, Your care for me is perfect and You are not failing me in any way. There is nothing more I need than what you are providing for me. As my personal Shepherd, I know You are meeting my needs in spite of the challenges around me.

This also acknowledges that my personal Shepherd has everything around my life perfectly under control. There is also the acknowledgement that God’s recognition of what I need is more accurate than my own interpretation.

Then, he begins to itemize specific areas:

² He lets me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.

God provides for me to be at continual peace, confident that no crisis can overwhelm me as I continually cling to the protective care of my Shepherd.

³ He renews my life; He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

He guides me to do the right and just thing. He does all these things for me with His reputation at stake. Because I declare myself to be dependent on Him, He promises to care for me, glorifying His name in the process. This gives me even more confidence than if only my personal well-being were at stake. I can do this because I trust Him in His perfect love for me.

⁴ Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff—they comfort me.

No matter what challenge I face, I know You are by my side, caring for me. I know You are the active God intervening on my behalf, overcoming every challenge I face.

⁵ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

Even the presence of adversaries and critics cannot steal my joy and my peace.

You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

King David expresses a confidence of God’s continual blessing upon him.

⁶ Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, < and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Application to the life of the Statesman. Am I able to envision Almighty God as my personal protector and caregiver as King David did? Can I envision all-powerful God as acting on my behalf as if I am the only person in the whole world? Am I able to have the same confidence of Almighty God’s care for my life and my governing? Do I need to place a higher priority on developing my dependence upon God as my Shepherd and drawing Him into each step and action that I take?

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The foundational truth is that there is one God who created the universe, every person within it, and every nation, that He is moral and He intends to bestow His love on humanity. Since God revealed Himself to mankind, we as a human race have been asking “What would a nation that is obedient to God look like?” We have promises for national blessing in response to obedience to Him:

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people He chose for His inheritance (Psalms 33:12).

Now if you faithfully obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all His commands I am giving you today, the LORD your God … All these blessings will come and overtake you, because you obey the LORD your God … But if you do not obey the LORD your God by carefully following all His commands and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overtake you … (Deuteronomy 28:1-2,15).

These promises were initially made to a single nation. However, the character of God makes clear that He loves all peoples and intended for that original nation to be a visible model of His intended blessings for every nation that would obey Him. Thus, He has also promised:

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people (Proverbs 14:34).

Righteous exalts any ꟷ and every ꟷ nation. Hence, we know that these promises for national blessing are available to any and every nation that would place their trust in Him.

Realistically, no nation has received the full blessings God has promised to the nation that would fully depend upon Him. While we strive to be that nation, what would that nation look like?

1. 1. It would consist of every member striving to live in dependence upon Him from the lowliest to the greatest.
2. It would serve as a visible model for all the other nations of the blessings a nation would experience that would depend upon Him.

I submit to you that the leader who desires the best for his/her people wrestles with how that nation can experience God’s blessings. That leader understands that the challenge is greater than his/her own ability to trust God. There is also the challenge of motivating the whole population to live in dependence upon, and obedience to, God. Even if that leader does the best to live in obedience to God and His instructions, there is still the remainder of the population.

What would that obedience look like as a nation? Although we must depend upon God’s complete instruction book, the Bible, there is one instruction that give us rich insight into what is necessary:

Mankind, He has told you what is good and what it is the LORD requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8).

In reflecting on what our Creator expects of us, we seem to have a good portion of our answer.

“To walk humbly with your God.” This means to submit to His will in every issue we face as human beings. In every decision we make, we must ask “How would God have us make this decision according to His will?” It would be reflected by every action taken within society, including every decision made within Government.

“To love faithfulness.” I suggest that this means to be faithful to God, not to betray Him or misrepresent Him by our actions.

“To act justly.” Every human interaction would manifest justice, fairness, kindness. It is as if this is an external measuring stick of how effectively we as a society are satisfying our Lord’s requirements. This defines the way every human interaction, including how we relate to each other within our families and within society, would manifest justice, fairness, kindness.

Fulfilling this condition “to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God” would impact every aspect of our society. This would impact every member of our society from the lowest to the highest.

The obvious question arises of how much of the society must make this commitment to our Lord God. I cannot be certain. The only safe approach is to attempt to gain 100% cooperation on the part of the members of our nation.

How does this awareness impact the leader? Those who are leaders must realize that if we attempt to lift our people while ignoring the need for our Creator’s desired blessing upon our nations, we are wasting much of our effort. Also, “to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God” cannot be accomplished by increasing the efforts of our police force. It must become internalized in the heart of each member of society. Realistically, the fulfillment of the condition for obedience is not primarily the responsibility for the Government leader. There are three institutions that our Creator has ordained in the building of a healthy society: Family, Religious Institution, and Government. Moving our society toward one that is in obedience to our Creator requires the agreement and participation of those within all three institutions. Clearly, the Religious Institution must be the driving force to achieve this goal. Furthermore, Family plays a critical role in passing to the next generation the underlying values essential for sustaining the blessing. Thus, it seems that the correct view is of the head of nation is as visionary and a cheerleader. The Government leader must encourage and support everyone in working to establish a nation in obedience to God. Such a leader must work harmoniously with the influencers of every segment of society ꟷ that is, not just the Government, but also the Family and the Religious Institution. In fact, the latter two must be considered the significant sources that feed individuals committed to obedience to our Lord into the service of Government.

Let us encourage every resource within our society to help each member grow in trust and obedience of our Creator and Master. Let us as a society learn to grow in knowledge, confidence and trust in our unseen Master. Let us cooperate in re-directing the hearts of our people to worship the God of the Universe who desires to bestow His love and fullest blessing upon them. And let us who are aspiring to serve our people as Statesmen grow in our knowledge of Him so that we can lead as He intended. As one wise head of nation taught us:

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding (Proverbs 9:10).

With so much at stake, why would the leader who cares about the well-being of the people not want the nation to operate in obedience to God and experience His promised blessings? Is this not the very essence of leadership?

Food for Thought: What steps would I be willing to take as God seeks to move my nation closer to being obedient to Him and experiencing His full blessings?

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God made an astounding promise to Abraham, the father of ancient Israel:

all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you (Genesis 12:3).

This promise is repeated numerous times. Let us seek to understand what it was that made this promise applicable to other nations:

Abraham is to become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him so that he will command his children and his house after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just. This is how the Lord will fulfill to Abraham what He promised him (Genesis 18:18-19).

What was it that God asked of Abraham as the basis of installing His blessing upon the nations? Simply stated, it was:

to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just.

We learn more as God repeated His promise to Abraham’s son Isaac:

I will be with you and bless you.… I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham…. all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring… 

As God proceeded with Isaac, He provided more insight into the key to that blessing:

… because Abraham listened to My voice and kept My mandate, My commands, My statutes, and My instructions (Genesis 26:3-5).

Clearly, the uniqueness of Israel may only partly be understood by the human mind. It was the people through whom His Saviour for mankind would come. Israel was also to be a visible teaching lesson to all the nations. God’s interaction with Israel would be a visible demonstration of God’s character as it applies to nations. Israel would be an object lesson for every other nation of the blessings God desires to bestow upon every nation, with the clear understanding that each nation would listen to His voice and obey His instructions.

God provided a clear measuring stick for Israel which we must understand applies to our nations as well in evaluating whether our nations are experiencing God’s intended blessings:

Now if you faithfully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all His commands I am giving you today… All these blessings will come and overtake you, because you obey the Lord your God: You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. Your descendants will be blessed, and your land’s produce, and the offspring of your livestock, including the young of your herds and the newborn of your flocks. Your basket and kneading bowl will be blessed. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out… The Lord will make you prosper abundantly with children, the offspring of your livestock, and your land’s produce in the land the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open for you His abundant storehouse, the sky, to give your land rain in its season and to bless all the work of your hands … you will only move upward and never downward if you listen to the Lord your God’s commands I am giving you today and are careful to follow them. Do not turn aside to the right or the left from all the things I am commanding you today, and do not go after other gods to worship them (Deuteronomy 28:1-14).

Can our vision for our nations be any greater than this? Let us continue with God’s clarification:

But if you do not obey the Lord your God by carefully following all His commands and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overtake you: You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. Your basket and kneading bowl will be cursed. Your descendants will be cursed, and your land’s produce, the young of your herds, and the newborn of your flocks. You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out…because of the wickedness of your actions in abandoning Me…. You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because locusts will devour it… All these curses will come, pursue, and overtake you until you are destroyed, since you did not obey the Lord your God and keep the commands and statutes He gave you. These curses will be a sign and a wonder against you and your descendants forever. Because you didn’t serve the Lord your God with joy and a cheerful heart, even though you had an abundance of everything,… If you are not careful to obey all the words of this law, which are written in this scroll, by fearing this glorious and awesome name—Yahweh, your God— He will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, severe and lasting plagues, and terrible and chronic sicknesses (Deuteronomy 28:15-59).

As we get to know the character of our God, we recognize that He desires to show love and bestow His blessings upon every human being. His desire is to bless and not to harm. His character is expressed:

“For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration— “plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).

However, He only asks that we give Him His proper place in our lives individually and as nations. Israel was intended to be a visible demonstration of what our Creator would do for the nation that would obey Him.

As we evaluate our nations using the measuring stick of blessing and withholding of intended blessing from our Heavenly Father, where does my nation lie? If I perceive that my nation is not receiving the blessing He intends, what steps can I and my people take? God gave this prescription to the God-fearing people in ancient Israel:

If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the grasshopper to consume the land, or if I send pestilence on My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves, pray and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:13-14).

This must also be considered the prescribed course of action for those of every nation.

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