Synthesis

While this psalm was a highly personal psalm — "the Lord is my shepherd" — once the psalm was incorporated into the Psalter and became a song of national affirmation, it was very likely that its interpretation would take on other dimensions. One likely dimension would have been to sing this psalm with echoes of the exodus in mind. Moses, reminding them of the arduous journey that they have made through the wilderness, recalls that "these forty years the Lord your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything" (Deut 2:7). Then, in challenging the Israelites to look forward to the Promised Land they were headed for, he describes it as a land where "you will lack nothing" (Deut 8:9). Psm 23, therefore, allows itself to be read and sung as an echo of the God who led—and who continues to lead—and provided for—and continues to provide for—Israel.

In the same tone of confidence but with the immediacy of personal ownership Jesus picks up the theme of the Shepherd who leads and protects the flock. More pointedly then David could have put it, Jesus speaks of God as the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine sheep in the field to seek to one that was lost (Lk 15). He expresses the heart of such a shepherd, as he pours out his compassion on the crowds that he kept seeing as "sheep without a shepherd" (Mk 6:34). In Jn 10, Jesus identifies himself as the good shepherd who "lays down his life for the sheep."¹ However the text is interpreted, Rev 7:17 promises that all the faith, hopes and aspirations David sank into his psalm Jesus will fulfil in for the elect in the most ulimate ways: "For the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

Psm 23 has not become almost every Christian's favourite without good reasons. But, so much so, few preachers preach it, perhaps because it is so familiar. It bears preaching. An it is one of the easiest passages of Scriptures to preach. Preach it.

¹ It is possible, though the text would have been less likely to come quickly to mind for most of his audience (or us), that Jesus also had in mind Eze 34.