They are dumb and they are dirty and they are timid and defenseless and helpless. Sheep are, beyond question, the most stupid animals on the face of the earth. Now goats I can abide, because they may be obnoxious, but at least they're smart. In high school I was in the 4-H club, and I had a herd of sheep and goats. I don't like that analogy, frankly, because I don't like sheep. It occurs to me that if Jehovah is to be our shepherd, then we have to begin by recognizing that we are sheep. But if the Lord is our shepherd, David says, we shall not want. If dope is our shepherd, as one rock artist said recently, then "we are wasted". If another person is our shepherd, we are always disappointed and ultimately we are left empty. If education is our shepherd, then we are constantly being disillusioned. If our vocation shepherds us, then there is restlessness and feverish activity and frustration. Or, if anyone or anything else is shepherding us, we are never satisfied. If there is emptiness and loneliness and despair and frustration in our lives, then the Lord is not our shepherd. If the Lord is my shepherd, then I shall not want but if I am in want, then it is obvious that the Lord is not my shepherd. It struck me as I was studying this psalm that there are really only two options in life. He wants us to be independently dependent upon him, to need him alone. That is the place to which God wants to bring us. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want (Psalms 23:1 RSV)īecause the Lord is my shepherd, I do not lack anything. It is a psalm for people who are shaken and in turmoil.ĭavid begins with a statement of the theme of the entire passage: Perhaps you too have children who are rebelling, or your home is in turmoil, or some long-standing relationship in your life is breaking up. This is a psalm for people who, like David, are experiencing a major upheaval in their life. The images in this psalm are drawn right out of his experience as a young shepherd. Perhaps, because so much of his early life had been spent as a shepherd in that same wilderness, the circumstances recalled his shepherd life. His life was in jeopardy and he was hunted and hounded for a number of months. David was forced to flee into the Judean wilderness with his family and servants, and for a period of time he was unable to reclaim his throne. In the fifteenth chapter of Second Samuel there is recorded the instance in David's life when his own son rebelled against him and toppled him from the throne. We know something of the circumstances of its composition.
It ministers to our deepest spiritual needs. It is a great psalm, one I am sure you have turned to many times in periods of trial. It has been a wonderful experience for me this past week to look through this familiar psalm and to have the Lord speak to me again out of this passage. I memorized the twenty-third psalm when I was a small child, but I have never had an opportunity to study it in detail.
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