The Lord is My Shepherd
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil for Thou art with me;
Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
And I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
Psalm 23 (KJV).
It has been called, “the pearl of the Psalms.” If asked to choose your Top-Five or your most beloved passages from the entire Bible, Psalm 23 is very likely going to be among them. We all learned it at a very young age. As a child, you were probably asked to recite it aloud on more than one occasion. Oddly enough, the King James Version of Psalm 23 is the version we all remember and love, despite the archaic verb conjugations and personal pronouns. I can think of only two other beloved passages that everyone, without really knowing why, remembers in the KJV; Matthew 6:9-13, The LORD’S Prayer and Luke 2:1-14, the Nativity Story, especially as told by Linus in A Charlie Brown Christmas). There is just something about them in the KJV that, like the old biscuit mix jingle, “Often imitated, never duplicated.”
Psalm 23 is a Psalm of David, the shepherd boy who slew a giant and later became king of Israel. Scholars are not sure if David wrote this song in his youth or after attaining kingship. It really doesn’t matter. What matters is the imagery of a shepherd and his flock. Abel, the second son of Adam and Eve, was the first recorded shepherd in the bible. Abraham was a shepherd. Isaac was a shepherd. Jacob was a shepherd, as was his wife, Rachel. Moses became a shepherd after fleeing Egypt when he killed the Egyptian. Protecting the flock was important. After the occupation of the Promised Land, when the Israelites changed from wandering nomads to more settled crop cultivation, the job of shepherding became less exalted and was often given to younger sons or servants. Later, the kings of Israel were often likened to be the shepherds of the people. Kings were expected to lead, protect, and feed the people entrusted to their care. Even today, The Pope of the Roman Catholic Church is given a shepherd’s staff as part of his ceremonial regalia. Shepherds were important because sheep were important.
But sheep can be difficult and being a shepherd isn’t always easy. Like all domesticated livestock, sheep cannot survive without constant care and attention. My Uncle Wes raised sheep. He fondly called them “just wooly bags of bones looking for new ways to die.” Sheep are susceptible to a myriad of diseases, any or all of which can wipe out an entire flock; Maedi- Visna, Caseous Lymphadenitis, Footrot, Bluetongue, Ovine Johne's Disease (OJD), and Sheep Scab to name just a few. Not to mention the numerous predators that prey on sheep, especially lambs; foxes, wolves, bears, lions, even hawks and eagles. Shepherds had a close bond with their flocks. Sheep were important because sheep were wealth. Sheep provided wool for clothing, milk and meat for food, and skins that made leather for tents and sandals. Also, sheep were acceptable sacrificial animals under the stringent Mosaic Law. Sheep were valuable. Sheep mattered, so the job of a shepherd mattered. We will be looking into this pastoral Psalm this week. There is a lot going on in this short poem.
Some points to ponder:
What is the role of the shepherd?
Consider the very beginning of this Psalm, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside the still waters” (Psalm 23:1-2). We’ll start there tomorrow.
Respectfully yours,
Jerry Lipscomb
