It is safe to say that when Psalm 23 is read in church tomorrow almost nobody will be hearing it for the first time. It has sung its way into more hearts than any other part of the Bible, except perhaps the Lord's Prayer. In days gone by, a tiny tot would memorise it before being able to read, and on many occasions at a death-bed I have breathed it quietly into the ear of someone already unconscious. "If you are trusting the Good Shepherd to receive you into his presence, can you squeeze my hand?" I have whispered. And many times the grip in response has been a firm statement of assurance.
This is a personal confession of faith in the God who cares. There are no requests in the psalm; rather, it is a commitment without reservation: "The Lord is my shepherd. . .I fear no evil. . .I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever."
The most beautiful analogy in the Old Testament of the covenant relationship between God and his people is that of the shepherd and his sheep. Israel was a semi-nomadic nation and the patriarchs had flocks and herds. David the shepherd lad became the shepherd king of Israel, a man after God's own heart. All the kings of Israel were to be worthy of the role of good shepherds and when Messiah would come in the future, Ezekiel the prophet saw him as God's shepherd par excellence. For "I will place over them one shepherd, like my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd" (34:23).
However, the scale is the thing here. What is exquisite is God's care of an individual sheep. The word "my" is not even a whole word in Hebrew; it is tacked on the end of the noun "shepherd"; but how important it is. The Lord is my pastor - which is not to say I shall have everything I want, but that I shall not lack that which the Shepherd knows I need.
This Shepherd not only guides and provides, he is also the comforter. As the eastern shepherd led his flock through deep and dark ravines, so the presence of the Good Shepherd banishes fear, even in that lonely, never-before-trodden valley of the shadow of death.
Psalm 23 seems to shift slightly at the end from the figure of a shepherd to that of a sheikh who prepares a banquet, and even though enemies are hovering, there is no interruption of feasting, with the cup overflowing again and again. The imagery is spot-on, for this God cares for all his people as individuals and provides abundantly for their needs. The psalmist's assurance that he will enjoy this hospitality for ever is where the Old Testament saint shares with his New Testament counterpart a longing for heaven. The two come together at this point, for in the Book of Revelation, in heaven itself, "The Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd" (7:17).
The Christian mind, on reading Psalm 23, does not need to surf the scriptural web for a moment before bringing up the tenth chapter of John's Gospel where Jesus identifies himself in terms comparable only to the Lord God: "I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. . .I know my sheep and my sheep know me."
In Jesus of Nazareth, the Shepherd-God became incarnate. If we long to know the intimate, loving, never-ceasing and never-failing care of the Good Shepherd, then it is the voice of the Lord Jesus we must hear and he is the one we will follow. Psalm 23 will then become our autobiography, too.
G.F.