The Lord is my shepherd;
there is nothing I lack.
He lets me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters. (Ps. 23:1-2 HCSB)
The 23rd Psalm is one of the most quoted chapters in the Bible. It is often quoted at funerals. I think people find comfort in verse 4:
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. (NASB)
This chapter is so much more than merely comfort for the grieving. In the first verse, David emphatically states, “The Lord is my shepherd”.
During Biblical times, a shepherd was a common profession. Everyone knew what a shepherd was, and the role they played in the life of the sheep. These days, the profession is not as prevalent. Eerdman’s Bible Dictionary says:
Shepherds stayed with their sheep day and night. They provided their flocks with food and water, defended them against thieves and wild animals, and searched for any sheep that wandered astray.
According to David, the Lord fulfills this role in our lives.
All four of the gospels tell the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. I like Mark’s version (Mk 6:30-44). Mark is known for keeping things brief. He’s not known for wasting words. So, when adds extra detail, it must be important:
When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. (Mk 6:34 ESV)
This passage is all about Jesus introducing Himself to the crowd as the Good Shepherd.
I love to find parallels between the Old and New Testaments. Mark, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, uses this text to remind us of the 23rd Psalm.
In Mark 6:34, Jesus sees that the people were like sheep without a shepherd. In Psalm 23:1, David tells us that the Lord is my shepherd.
Then, in Mark 6:39, Jesus tells the people to sit down on the green grass. Remember, Mark doesn’t use more words than he has to. He simply could have said that Jesus had them sit down. But he specifies that Jesus had them sit on the grass. He further clarifies that it was green grass.
In Psalm 23:2 we read “He makes me lie down in green pastures”.
The Holy Spirit inspired David to write “green pastures” just as he inspired Mark to write “green grass”.
The point of Psalm 23 is to proclaim the Lord as my shepherd. The verses after that simply show us how the Lord is our shepherd. This was an important enough message to be repeated in Mark’s account of the feeding of the 5,000.
If the Lord is your shepherd, then you lack nothing, because He provides it all. That is enough for me to proclaim, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever!” (Ps. 23:6 NASB)
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