My Shepherd

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. - Psalm 23v1

Psalm 23 is quite possibly be the best known and most familiar passage in all of scripture. It is indeed and beautiful song of rest and comfort and assurance. It is hard to comment on this wonderful song because chances are that anything that might be said already has been said.

However, I think it always good to be reminded of the thoughts and words expressed here.

The psalm starts with a very simple phrase – 'The Lord is my shepherd...'

As I read that this time through I remembered the one day in my life when I worked with a family who owned sheep. I am so glad I did that because now I have my own 'shepherd stories.' Anyway, the job that days was to move the sheep from the fields into the wintering shed. They told me that day to dress in 'work clothes' and their warning was not without reason.

This family went into the field with their oldest clothes. They wore wellies and rugged farm gear. The reason was that dealing with sheep was dirty work. When we see picture of David relaxed, dressed in a spotless white robe, playing on his harp with spotless white sheep in the background we miss the point. There are plenty of sheep in this country and as you drive by them you realise that they are not bleached white. They are dirty and mud encrusted. Waste clings to their coats. They stink. They ignore anyone but their shepherd.

And yet this is the analogy God uses over and over to illustrate His relationship to man. It is especially used in reference to Jesus Christ.

That is an astounding truth. The LORD – Jehovah – the Creator and Sustainer is a shepherd. The High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity is a shepherd. The spotless One enters the field with the dirty, grungy, filth encrusted sheep that make up humanity. He does that because He loves His sheep.

Not only that. Not only is The holy, eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, unchangeable Lord is not not a shepherd.

He is MY shepherd.

Wow!