The Lord Is My Shepherd

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” -Psalm 23:1 (KJV. Read Psalm 23).

The 23rd psalm, one classified as a “Confidence Psalm,” is the most-memorized of all the psalms. Children learn it in Sunday School. Ministers read it at funerals of Christians. People quote it in the night to bring comfort and at trying times to bring strength. Its beauty is unparalleled, its truths deep and meaningful, its poetic expression balanced and flowing. King David, known as Israel’s “Shepherd King,” himself a shepherd, wrote it. The psalm’s familiarity to us may cause us to overlook the extent of its meaning and its application to our Christian life. I will spend several days exploring this magnificent psalm. My thoughts will be guided by what I know about the psalm and what it means to me but also by what W. Phillip Keller, himself a shepherd, wrote about the Psalm in his wonderful book, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 (c1970).

“The Lord is my shepherd.” Who is the Lord whom David calls Shepherd? To David, he was Jehovah God, the Lord God of Israel, the one true God. Centuries after David’s time when God became flesh and dwelt among us, Jesus Christ, Savior, said of himself, “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for my sheep” (John 10:14-15). Furthermore, the Good Shepherd promised, and it came to pass: “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16-17a). This Lord, the Shepherd is “God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God the Father—the author, the originator of all that exists. It was in His mind, first, that all took shape. God the Son, our Saviour, is God the artisan—the artist, the Creator of all that exists. He brought into being all that had been originally formulated in the Father’s mind. God the Holy Spirit is God the agent who presents these facts to both my mind and my spiritual understanding so that they become both real and relative to me as an individual.” (-Keller, p. 16).

This Holy Trinity, the Three-in-One, Originator, Saviour, Teacher is my Good Shepherd, my manager, my owner. And I have the distinct privilege and relationship of being His sheep! He bought me with His very life blood. I can trust Him with His ownership of my life, my soul, my very being. I can follow Him as a sheep follows and depends upon the shepherd, for the best interest of the sheep is paramount. I sense a purpose and deep contentment because I am under His direction. “The Lord is my Shepherd!” How utterly awesome and thrilling! Selah!

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Wednesday, June 2, 2010