Have you ever meditated on the 23rd Psalm?  The dictionary says that to meditate is to think deeply or focus one’s mind for a period of time.  For the first 15 years of my life I attended a Spanish-speaking church that my grandfather pastored in the south Bronx.  So as a young girl I memorized the 23rd Psalm in Spanish.  I have to admit that this psalm is even more beautiful in Spanish… after all, it is one of the romance languages.

The great King David had been a shepherd boy.  He loved his sheep and he knew what they needed.  I love the way the Lord does not waste anything that we go through.  So He used what David experienced, as he tended to his sheep, to reveal Himself to David (and to us) as a Shepherd.  This however was not a new concept or way of describing God.  In Genesis 49:24 Jacob, speaking about his son, Joseph, says, “But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,”

The 23rd Psalm only has six verses.  In the first three verses David talks about what the Lord does for him.  He shepherds him…He makes him… He leads him… He restores him… and He guides him.  Then, in the fourth and fifth verses, David speaks directly to the Lord.  Oh, how I love the way David writes.  One minute he’s speaking to us, the reader, the next minute he just can’t help taking his thoughts directly to the God he loves!  And lastly, in the sixth verse he declares what will “follow” him all of his days.  I don’t believe too many of us ever think about what’s coming behind us.  How wonderful, though, that David realizes that it’s not just a God who leads him but One that is also following him with “goodness and mercy.”  Warren Wiersbe, a wonderful Bible teacher, helped me understand how Solomon, the son who followed David, is such a clear example of “goodness and mercy” coming together.

Why don’t you take the time to read this beautiful, very familiar psalm, to meditate, think deeply, and focus your mind on our great Shepherd who not only leads us but follows us, too…

1 Comment

1. 

   Thank you for the revelation on psalms 23 it has brought a whole meaning to me .

   Comment by Oripah Zishiri — August 8, 2009 @ 5:24 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.