“The Lord is my
shepherd; I shall not want.” –Psalm
23:1. “I am the good Shepherd. I know
my own and my own know me. Just as the
Father knows me and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.” John
10:14-15 (ESV).
The great I am is the
Shepherd of the sheep. In John 10, Jesus
uses an illustration the Jews were familiar with to show His relationship to
people who heard His voice and followed Him.
He declared, in this context, “I
am the good Shepherd. I know my own and
my own know me.”.The Lord as Shepherd is a common motif in Old Testament
teachings. The Jews who heard Jesus
would be familiar with this designation of God the Father. And in John 10 Jesus revealed that because of
His special relationship with the Father, He, too, is the Good Shepherd who
stands at the door of the sheepfold and knows his flock, accounting for each
one. In verses 16 and 17 of John 10,
Jesus tells how He has sheep “not of this flock.” To whom does He refer? He indicates that the message of the Good
Shepherd for all to come into the safety of the sheepfold is not just for the
“regular” flock (which would mean the called, chosen nation of Israel),
but includes others “not of this
fold”—or the Gentiles who would hear and respond to the gospel message and be
drawn into the fold. Jesus was including
us—for we are “Gentiles,” and thankfully His flock because we have entered the
fold by means of the Door who is Jesus Himself.
God as Shepherd is used
in the Old Testament in other places other than in that great Shepherd hymn,
Psalm 23. In Genesis 48:15-16, Jacob
(now called Israel) was in Egypt seeing Joseph, his son, and his two grandsons,
Ephraim and Manasseh, and blessing them.
He said: “The
God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my
shepherd all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all
evil, bless the boys and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my
fathers, Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of
the earth” Other
Psalms express the idea of God as shepherd.
Another, attributed to David as is Psalm 23, is Psalm 28. The prayer in verses 8-9 reads: “The Lord is the strength of His
people; He is the saving refuge of His anointed. Oh, save Your people and bless Your
heritage! Be their Shepherd and carry
them forever.” The
song in Psalm 80 attributed to “Asaph” (perhaps a choirmaster in Temple
worship) pleads: “Give
ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock…stir up Your might
and come to save us. Restore us, O God;
let your face shine, that we may be saved!” (verses 1, 2b, 3). And Psalm 95:7
declares: “For He is our God,
and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.”Psalm
100:3 reinforces the belief of God as our shepherd: “Know
that the Lord, He is God! It is He who
made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.” The idea of the Lord as
Shepherd culminates in that wonderful reward that awaits all the faithful in
heaven as expressed in Revelation 7:17:
“For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be
their Shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will
wipe away ever tear from their eyes.”
Do you sometimes feel
alone, perplexed, unsure of the way to go, troubled? Just quietly go apart, or even as you lie
sleepless on your bed at night, and quote to yourself the reassuring message of
Psalm 23. Know assuredly in your
heart that “The
Lord is my Shepherd.”
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