My Shepherd

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. 

Psalm 23:1 

Christ is the Shepherd of His people. The new Testament presents Him as the Good, Great and Chief Shepherd. He makes quite a point of His position in John 10, where He describes Himself as the Good Shepherd, and articulates in great detail how He executes that role. David had extensive evangelical knowledge as the Holy Spirit revealed eternal truth to him. He well understood Christ and the role He occupies as the Shepherd of His people. David wrote this psalm as a highly personal statement of his relationship with Christ. He begins the psalm with the categorical statement, ‘The LORD is my shepherd.’ David was abundantly clear that his Shepherd is Jehovah. He was equally clear that Christ was His Shepherd. The logical conclusion is that Christ, the Shepherd, is Jehovah. What makes the psalm so personal is the pronouns. David does not say, The LORD is a shepherd; the shepherd, or even our shepherd; but ‘The Lord is my shepherd.’ Christ has personally entered into a relationship with him that means his custodian is no one less than the eternal God. Sheep do not choose their shepherd. Shepherds choose their sheep. Christ was David’s Shepherd, and is ours’s because He has chosen us as His own sheep. This is a most blessed relationship. ‘The LORD is my shepherd.’ 

Our Gracious God and our Savior, 
we rejoice that You have made us Your own. 
We praise You that have undertaken to care for us, 
in such an intimate way.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning