Real Hope: Psalm 23Sample

Our Shepherd

David is the shepherd. The Lord is David’s shepherd, and David knows exactly what this means. The comfort it brings because that is the role of the shepherd – to protect and look after the sheep. It’s a skilled job, requiring courage and bravery. It is not like Australia where a sheep farmer might have hundreds or thousands of sheep and use a lot of equipment to look after them and move them around. In David’s time it would have been a small flock that a boy could look after and protect.

David knows that he is protected and looked after by God, so he lacks nothing.

Sheep are nervous around running waters, so still or quiet waters are helpful for the sheep and the shepherd. When sheep lie down, it means they feel completely safe and secure. Green pastures mean plenty of food – time to eat and feed the sheep, to protect them and ready them for times when there is little food.

In John 10, Jesus says in verse 11, ’I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep’. And then in verse 14, ’I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me’.

Jesus is our shepherd, so we lack nothing because He knows how to care for us and protect us from all the things that come our way. He knows us, He loves us and has given His life so that we might have eternal life. The Lord is our shepherd, we shall not want.

Written by DAVID BARKER