The Lord who Shepherds me
Lately I have been drawn to Psalm 23. It divides nicely into three sections. The first (vs.1-2) talks about the secret to a happy life. The second (vs.3-4) talks about the secret to a happy death. The third (vs.5-6) talk about the secret to a happy eternity.
Penned by King David, over 3000 years ago, it begins with the words, “The LORD is My Shepherd” (Psalm 23:1). In the English Bible, the title LORD is in capital letters. That’s because “LORD” is the regular word for Jehovah, one of the primary names of God in the Old Testament. The name Jehovah combines the three tenses of the Hebrew verb “to be”: Yehi = “He will be” (the future); Hove = “He is” (the present); Hahyah = “He was” (the past). So, when you combine the first three letters of Yehi are taken with the middle two of Hove and added to the last two letters of Hahyah, we get Yeh-ov-ah (Jehovah). [1]
The name signifies God as the One who is, the One who was, and the one who is will be, the eternal One. He is the One who created all things at the command of his Word. He spoke, and the world was made. He spoke and animals were made. He spoke, and created man.
He is the God of the Old Testament. He is the One who revealed himself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and Moses. He is the one who said to Moses: “This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you’” (Exodus 3:14). And, then, God said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD (Jehovah), the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation” (Exodus 3:15). So, the LORD, Jehovah, is the great “I am.”
When we come to New Testament, Jesus arrives on the scene and he claims something that no one had ever before claimed: Jesus said, “Before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:58) What Jesus was saying in effect was this: “You know the One that revealed himself to Moses? The great ‘I am’? Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? That’s me! Before Abraham ever existed, I have always existed.”
Perhaps it’s no surprise that the next verse says, “At this, they picked up stones to stone him” (John 8:59). The ‘they’ in this verse is referring to the unbelieving Jewish audience listening to him. Why did they want to stone him? Because Jesus was claiming to be Jehovah, in human flesh. To the unbelieving Jews this was considered blasphemy, a crime worthy of death.
It was no coincidence that Jesus also said on another occasion, “I am the good Shepherd” (John 10:10). By that, he was deliberately using the familiar language of Psalm 23 and indicating that the same Jehovah who David confessed to be his shepherd and master was Jesus Christ. Though David didn’t know the name Jesus, he did know the Lord personally and that is the secret of a happy life, death, and eternity.
It’s not knowing about the Lord that counts. It’s knowing the Lord personally that counts. David confessed, “The LORD is My Shepherd.” The all-important monosyllable is “my.” David doesn’t say, “The LORD is a Shepherd” or even “The LORD is the Shepherd.” He says, “the Lord is my Shepherd.” Can you say that? That’s the all-important issue and the key that unlocks the secret to a happy life, death, and eternity.
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[1] John Philips, Exploring the Psalms, volume 1 (Kregel: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1988), p.174.
