Psalm 23

Today I needed a distraction from my roaming thoughts. So I took a memorized scripture (Psalm 23) and went word by word through the passage. If you haven’t ever done this and feel like your thoughts aren’t focused on godly things, this is an awesome way to focus them.

Something hit me while I went through this Scripture (well actually several things did). First things was what a ‘shepherd’ signified to me. I think of sheep, which I have heard are quite (to put it bluntly) dumb. Without a shepherd they simply graze and roam. But what does a shepherd do for sheep?

He watches over them, He tends to their needs, He leads and guides them, He finds them a place to get water, and He continues to stay with them. This is his livelihood- even in the account of Jesus’ birth we see the shepherds still with their flocks while they were sleeping as if they didn’t go home. Being a shepherd is more than a full time job. Shepherds in biblical times were people who were usually overlooked. They lived very different lives that were set apart from the rest of the culture. Isn’t that our God? He gets overlooked by those who are caught up in their lives, because the life He leads us to have are of a very different speed and style.

The shepherd makes us lie down in green pastures, leads us beside quiet waters, restores our souls. This is a life that we rarely see because we are too caught up with our own lives.

But then when we hit the valleys of the shadow of death, it is then we either fall further away from God or we call to Him for help. This part of the passage stuck out to me. In the first couple of verses, the writer (I’m assuming David) writes of God as a distant person. He refers to Him as ‘the Lord,’ a ‘shepherd,’He.’ But when we reach the part about going through the Valley of the Shadow of Death suddenly God is not so distant.

I will not be afraid,
      for You are close beside me.
   Your rod and your staff
      protect and comfort me.
 You prepare a feast for me
      in the presence of my enemies.
   You honor me by anointing my head with oil.
      My cup overflows.

I can’t help but notice that as this person is walking through the Valley of the Shadow of Death he gains a new intimacy with God. He now refers to Him in first person, and as he refers to Him this way, He is blessed and you see Him gain strength.

Not only is the Shepherd close by in the ordinary days of our lives, but He comes even closer in the valleys. Never forget that.