The Lord is my Shepherd (Psalm 23:1)

At one time this psalm was so well-known in Scotland and so loved by its inhabitants that it could have qualified as the national anthem of the country. It was often the first words of the Bible that were memorised as children and frequently its words were the last spoken by those about to leave the world. Mothers sung them to their infants and then years later the infants, now adults, sang them to their dying parents. Individuals have sung its lines in churches, in schools, in hospitals, at weddings, at special family occasions, at national events, and at funerals. Martyrs sung it in Covenanting times in Edinburgh and exiles sang it as they were forced to leave their homes. Poems and hymns have been based on it, countless sermons have been preached on it, books have been written about it, and devotional thoughts for the day frequently refer to it. Its words speak powerfully to our souls because they describe our need to have a Shepherd in all the situations of life that come our way.

There are songs classified as popular, which are sung when people gather together. How many songs from a hundred years ago are sung by the masses of people? Their restlessness is revealed even in their inability to sing the songs of their predecessors. But here we are singing a song written three thousand years ago. And the reason why we still sing it is because every generation discovers that its words are true and real and personal. Little did David know how precious his song was going to be.

We do not know when the author, David, often called the sweet psalmist of Israel, wrote the psalm. What we do know is that he was a shepherd and that he functioned as a shepherd in two ways. When he was young, he was a shepherd boy looking after his father’s flock, leading them to pastures and protecting them from wild animals, and perhaps those sheep heard him as he first sang the words. Later, after long years of waiting, he became a shepherd king of Israel – monarchs in Israel were regarded as the shepherds of the people because they were responsible for the administration of the government and for the protection of the nation. Maybe he wrote the song to remind his advisors that there was one greater than them in whom they should trust. We can see it would not be difficult for David, in either and in both of his life circumstances, to see his roles as pictures of the ways God cares about his people, about those who trust in him.

Old Testament usage

In the Old Testament, God is frequently referred to as a shepherd both by individuals and by the nation of Israel as a whole. Jacob, when looking back on his long life and when looking ahead to the lives of his grandchildren, described God in these words: ‘The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys; and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth’ (Gen. 48:15-16).

David, in another of his psalms, prayed to God with deep feeling, ‘Oh, save your people and bless your heritage! Be their shepherd and carry them forever’ (Ps. 28:9). Another psalmist, Asaph, also used this description when praying to God in Psalm 80:1: ‘Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock.’

The prophet Isaiah, when describing how God would care tenderly about his people, also used the imagery of the shepherd: ‘He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young’ (Isa. 40:11).

Ezekiel, another prophet of Israel, in chapter 34 of his book describes the response of God to the fact that at that time no one was caring for his people. The Lord therefore promised: ‘“I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down,” declares the Lord God. “I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy”’ (Ezek. 34:15-16). We can see in that quotation from Ezekiel that there is both consolation and a threat in this description of a shepherd that God uses of himself. There was consolation for the weak, but there was the threat of punishment for those who abused them.

The New Testament

When we turn to the New Testament, we find that Jesus used the picture of a shepherd in his teachings. We are familiar with the parable he told about the lost sheep that the shepherd went looking for until he found it, and then rejoiced as he carried it home to the fold. In the parable he was describing himself as our Saviour who finds us in our lost condition, who carries us through life after we trust in him, and who will welcome us into the fold when we arrive there at the end of life.

In John 10, Jesus says that he is the good shepherd (John 10:11). This is one of the seven ‘I am’ sayings of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of John. He says in that passage that he knows who his sheep are and that he is going to lay down his life for them. In saying this, he was indicating that he would be a substitute for them when he died on the cross, that there he would pay the penalty for their sins.

As has often been pointed out, in the New Testament Jesus is called the good shepherd (John 10:11), the great shepherd (Heb. 13:20) and the chief shepherd (1 Pet. 5:2).  We could summarise those three descriptions under the titles of character, success and seriousness. As the good shepherd, he looks after his people in the opposite way that false shepherds did. The false did not care about the sheep, but Jesus loved and died for them. As the great shepherd, he has been raised from the dead and has been exalted to the highest place in heaven. And as the chief Shepherd he will yet assess the lives of his servants and give to them the crown of life.

The opening statement

The psalm is not a prayer. Instead it is a statement of faith by a believer in God. And that is how I would like us to consider it as we look at its opening clause, ‘The Lord is my shepherd.’

The first comment that can be taken from the clause is that here we have a man contemplating the future. David is able to look ahead and think about possible consequences that may occur in his life, some pleasant and secure, others wearisome and frightening. Because he is a man of God he is not afraid to consider what may happen. He knows that in all situations of life the Lord will look after him, that he will be his shepherd. In fact, he cannot imagine a situation in which the Lord will not be his shepherd.

Secondly, the clause reveals the reason for the author’s confidence. It is found in the name that he uses for God, Yahweh. This divine name was a special name by which God revealed himself to Israel through Moses and the way it was revealed is described in Exodus 3. The name signifies that he is eternal, and that although he is eternal he wanted to have a special relationship with his people, even although they were in terrible straits at that time. Yet he had great plans for them, which Moses was instructed to convey to them, and then to deliver them from their troubles. A long time had passed since those days, yet because Yahweh is eternal, he maintains the same commitment to his people throughout all their experiences in all periods. He does not change because he is always perfect. The experiences they go through can improve them because he can so use those circumstances for their benefit, but he is ever the same perfect God.

Thirdly, we see here a contrast the psalmist makes between himself and others, with the contrast focussing on the relationship he had with God. As we know, the role of a shepherd was to look after and protect sheep. Everyone needs someone greater than themselves to care for them. This was as true in the psalmist’s day as it is in ours. Many people depended on something or someone for care and protection. Sometimes they invented idols and imagined they could provide protection; at other times, they made treaties with surrounding nations in order to come under their protection. The contrast was that David trusted in the Lord whereas many other people trusted in something else.

Fourthly, we see in the claim of David a choice that he made. At some stage in his life, when he was very young, he had chosen to serve the Lord. When we first meet David in the pages of the Bible, in 1 Samuel 17 where his encounter with Goliath is narrated, we see that he was already trusting in the Lord. And he never changed his mind about that choice. He later became known as the man after God’s own heart. The Lord was his God for ever, the one with whom he had made an everlasting covenant, and he knew that the Lord was his shepherd for ever.

Jesus as the shepherd

We can take those four details – contemplation, confidence, contrast and choice – and apply them to how we think about Jesus at the moment. Regarding what may come our way in life, whether it will be good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, we can look at them knowing that when they come, Jesus will be there as the shepherd if we trust in him for mercy.

I suppose we can imagine a sheep thinking about the potential troubles it could face – wild animals, provision in a world of drought, wandering away by itself. Imagine saying to the sheep, ‘How are you coping with all those possibilities?’ The sheep turns and looks at the shepherd and says, ‘I trust him because he always knows how to take care of me!’

That is how we should think of the future. We don’t know what the future holds, but we do know the One who will be there to keep us when it comes. We have his promises to focus on: ‘My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one’ (John 10:27-30).

Then there are the reasons for our confidence. Yahweh had revealed himself to Israel as the eternal God of the covenant who cared for his people in their distress and sent to them a deliverer in Moses. Jesus didn’t send a deliverer to help us – instead he came as the Deliverer. He journeyed to the cross and there dealt with the powers that held us enslaved to sin. At Calvary, he paid the penalty for our sins and delivered us from the powers of darkness who had blinded us regarding our need for God’s grace. And it is said of Jesus, as it was said of Yahweh, that he is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb. 13:8).

Third, there is the contrast between believers in Jesus and non-Christians. The latter look to other things or people to help them as far as the needs of their souls are concerned. The range of alternative failures increases every day and all of them succeed in disappointing those who trust in them. Even as David was different from the others of his day, so Christians are different from the others that arise in the present. Yet this is a difference that has to be vocalised. David had to vocalise the distinction in the clause, ‘The Lord is my shepherd,’ and we have to make a verbal confession also, otherwise people will assume that we are like them.

Fourth, there is the choice that believers make to follow Jesus. They may not begin at the same young age that David commenced following the Lord, although if we are that age, then we should follow David’s example and begin the life of following. Every Christian has made the choice to begin following Jesus. The circumstances of each at that time will be very different, but they have this common aspect, which is that they gladly chose to follow him.

Two more aspects

There are a couple more details that we can observe about their choice to have Jesus as their shepherd. The first is that God also chose him to be his shepherd. The Father says so in Zechariah 13:7: ‘“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me,” declares the Lord of hosts.’ Jesus is the Father’s choice of shepherd, n0t because he personally required one, but because he knew that we needed the best, indeed the only, Shepherd that could take care of us. It involved the eternal, almighty hand of the Father being raised against his beloved Son, his chosen Shepherd, in order for all the sheep to be safe. And the hand was raised at Calvary against Jesus, the good shepherd.

Secondly, we can ask what kind of person makes this confident assertion? The answer to this question is those who are contrite, those who are humble, who confess that only the Shepherd can save them. The ones who sing this song are those who know that they need Jesus every moment of every day, and who know that he will be there whatever is happening. And they delight to say so, which is why they sing about the Lord who is their shepherd.