Psalm 23

A Psalm of David

1The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. 

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. 

3 He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. 

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. 

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. 

6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. 

One of the places listed as sites we will ride this time when I visit Israel we did not ride last time are the grazing fields of the upper Judean desert where David walked with his father’s sheep. Here, possibly, a young boy played his instruments and, having fought lions and bears to keep safe those sheep, penned the words “Yehweh is my Shepherd.” 

 I don’t know a ton about sheep, but I do know a bit. 

 I have border collies. 

My Border Collie, Mac

 I’ve had sheep step on me, knock me in the head with their own hard heads as they leapt to get away from dogs, run over me, around me, seemingly through me, look to me for comfort, try to get away from me when a dog got too close, look at me with a “really?” look in their eyes as, yet again, I sent a dog out behind them. Though we have not worked sheep nearly as often or as long as we would have liked, I love to see the sheep, especially the babies, who, when they latch onto a bottle or Mom for a meal, wag their tails to beat the band and express, “happy, happy, HAPPY!” as well as ever it has been said. 

Phillip Keller ran a sheep farm in South Africa and wrote a book called A SHEPHERD LOOKS AT PSALM 23. Though it’s been years since I read it, I can never see the psalm the same again. 

“The Lord is my Shepherd.” Having shepherded sheep for so much of his young life, David knew and understood that relationship in ways city dwellers could not. Whereas he knew how a bad shepherd could hurt the sheep, could lose the sheep, harm them, let them be killed, he also knew a good shepherd protected, loved, fed, cared for them. They trusted him. To David, the Lord was a good shepherd. 

“He makes me lie down in green pastures;” Sheep will not lie down if they are afraid; after eating their fill, they would lie down, feeling safe in their shepherd’s care. 

“He leads me beside quiet waters.” Sheep cannot drink from running, turbulent waters. If their wool gets wet, they can be pulled down and drown easily. Quiet, still water lets them drink without worry.

“He restores my soul;” As David followed the Lord in the way the sheep follow a good shepherd, his worries left him. His soul rested from worry—his soul restored. 

“He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.” As the shepherd leads sheep in paths good for grazing and safety, the reputation of the shepherd is enhanced. He is known as a good shepherd because the sheep show their good care. 

Fields Today Where David Kept Sheep

 “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” Though of course, we know that God is with us at the hour of our physical death, there are also places in Israel considered as possible sites for a physical “Valley of the Shadow of Death,” like the Wadi Qelt, a deep gorge in the Judean wilderness. Whether this is the site mentioned or not, it references traveling through dangerous, worrisome paths where hazards and peril await the next steps. 

“I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” The sheep, even in the dangerous trails, do not worry, for they know the shepherd they trust. His rod was a big, sturdy stick used as a weapon to fight off attacking animals. David told King Saul that he had saved sheep from a lion and bear; his rod would have been the fighting tool for that. The staff is the stick curved at the end we are used to seeing with shepherds. If a sheep fell down into a ditch or cervices, he would reach down, grab the sheep around the neck with his crook, and pull the sheep out. The rod and the staff were tools for comfort—the shepherd would fight for and rescue a sheep. 

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;” Picture a wonderful picnic laid out for us and surrounding the meal, watching, are the enemies of the sheep—lions, bears, wolves, all watching, all powerless to do any harm because the Good Shepherd watches. They are helpless in the presence of the good, strong shepherd. 

“You have anointed my head with oil;” As bugs bite or the sheep scratch their heads, they itch; rubbing their heads on trees or rocks for relief, again the raw skin gets worse irritation. The shepherd anoints the sheep’s heads with oil to sooth their irritations. In life, the good shepherd sooths our lives as well. 

“My cup runneth over.” As he gives us gifts, as he pours out blessings, David says, my blessing cup is not only full, but my blessing cup overflows with all the blessings the good shepherd gives me. 

“Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,” It doesn’t say David will follow after goodness and lovingkindness. It says that because of the goodness of the Good Shepherd, goodness and lovingkindness will follow David, wherever he goes—not dependent on his actions, but on the love of the shepherd. He is not chasing goodness and mercy (another translation of the word); mercy and goodness chase him all the days of his life. 

“And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” And when life ends, the house the Lord has prepared will be David’s home—because his Shepherd is the Lord. 

Riding in Israel

And then the Good Shepherd came and said, “My sheep hear My voice and know Me.” At times shepherds with different flocks let them all merge together and graze or rest as a way to have more sheep watched by fewer watchers for awhile. Then, the shepherds came out to the big group of sheep composed of the different flocks, called to their own sheep, and the sheep separated themselves to go with their own shepherd. 

 Their Good Shepherd. 

 David illustrated that truth hundreds of years before Jesus spoke it. When I walk or ride that Holy Land, it brings alive these stories, makes more real these lessons and lives from Scripture. And when I ride those fields where David wrote about the Lord being his Shepherd, I will remember his song, his psalm, and give a not to the shepherd boy who killed the giant, became king, and who Scripture calls, “A man after God’s own heart.”