Ps.23:1 – The LORD is my shepherd;

I shall not want.

This has to be the most famous Old Testament passage maybe only rivaled in the New Testament by the Lord’s Prayer. The reason it is so powerful of course is because of the obvious inspiration of the Holy Spirit but there is still something else about this Psalm that makes it ring true. I think it has to be because of the obvious sense of authenticity in this Psalm that cannot be faked. David had spent countless days and nights alone with these sheep, he had pondered their dependency on him and His dependency on the Lord. He saw himself as part of the herd of sheep that belong to the Lord. The Lord would go to extreme lengths to take care of the hurting sheep as well as to seek out those who had wandered off. We are surely the sheep of His pasture. Here is how Martin Luther described this passage.

“A sheep must live entirely by its shepherd’s help, protection and care. As soon as it loses him, it is surrounded by all kinds of dangers and must perish, for it is quite unable to help itself. The reason? It is a poor, weak, simple little beast that can neither feed nor rule itself, nor find the right way, nor protect itself against any kind of danger or misfortune. Moreover, it is by nature timid, shy and likely to go astray. When it does go a bit astray and leaves its shepherd, it is unable to find its way back to him; indeed, it merely runs farther away from him. Though it may find other shepherds and sheep, that does not help it, for it does not know the voices of strange shepherds. Therefore it flees them and strays about until the wolf seizes it or it perishes some other way.”

Jesus Himself used this picture of the Shepherd when He called Himself the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep. He went to the greatest extreme possible to save His sheep as well as find each of us who had wandered off into whatever possible situation. Do you remember the horrible mess He found you in? If you were like me you had fallen into a pit of sin and there was no possible way out. Now that you have been restored its best to stay as close to the Shepherd that you can.