The Shepherd

The Shepherd

You my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are people, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign LORD.

Ezekiel 34:31

IN WORD “The LORD is my shepherd. . . .” It’s a familiar psalm and a familiar concept. When God gave the prophets the image of Himself as a shepherd, it was an image every Jew could relate to. In an agrarian society, everyone knows what a shepherd does.

Most of us today know simply that a shepherd tends sheep. We may not realize how important the job is—that a sheep that strays is a disastrous blow to the family income in terms of wool, milk, meat, and generations of offspring. It might not dawn on us how much danger wolves and jackals pose to a flock, or how acutely a sheep needs to be able to hear its shepherd’s voice. We might not consider how vigilant and enduring a shepherd’s task is as he works around the clock to guard his sheep from all kinds of dangers and provide for their every need. And, if we haven’t been around sheep very much, we might not understand, frankly, how obstinate and stupid sheep can be.

But all of these aspects of the shepherd role are common knowledge in more pastoral cultures. When God called Himself a shepherd—through David’s psalm; through the prophecies of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, and Micah; and through the words of Jesus—He gave us a very loaded image, a picture worth far more than a thousand words. He painted a self-portrait of treasured ownership, loving care, intense vigilance, patient endurance, and extreme generosity and sacrifice.

IN DEED Read through that last sentence slowly and deliberately. Think of God’s self-portrait as a shepherd, and specifically of that self-portrait as it has applied to your life in the past and today. Why? Because many of your struggles today are larger than they ought to be, larger than they would be if you were convinced of how diligently your Shepherd watches over you. The Shepherd is deeply, intensely focused on your wandering, even if He seems to be strolling at the rear of the flock. He will never cease to keep you safe and well.

Savior, like a shepherd lead us; much we need Thy tender care.

—DOROTHY A. THRUPP