As we read and meditate on Psalm 23, we are hearing the heart of King David, the man in Scripture whom Yahweh calls, “a man after my own heart.” How amazing to have a window into the heart of someone whose heart was in complete unity with the Father, whose soul was moved by the Holy Spirit to give us the thoughts of God himself!
When I started begging the Lord to give me His heart, I found myself drawn to spending more and more time in the Psalms. Calvin himself called the Psalms, “An Anatomy of All the Parts of the Soul.” Certainly, I was amazed to observe how the whole range of emotions are expressed. The Holy Spirit gives us words to be able to express our messy motions in a faithful way which doesn’t dishonor God!
I found through the Psalms a way I could honestly voice to the Lord my joys, sorrows, confusion, even my complaints! As a result of stopping and dialoging in prayer through Psalm 23, I found myself being transformed. As a result, I found myself wanting to share with other women how they, too, can grow closer to the Shepherd. How they, too, could grow to know the nearness of His presence and to have His heart.
” The Holy Spirit gives us words to be able to express our messy emotions to God in a faithful way which does not dishonor Him nor damage our faith.
Yahweh, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever spoke by His Holy Spirit through various authors throughout history. Grasping the message of this ancient book, written to a people of a far different time and place, requires that we enter their world. We need to know the context of the writer, the passage itself, as well as surrounding details.
While growing up, King David was the youngest of seven brothers, all of whom were shepherds. He had spent many days and nights out in the elements, in all manner of weather conditions, guiding, providing for, protecting and defending the sheep. In his testimony to King Saul, before he went up against Goliath, he recounts how he, as a young man, killed both a lion and a bear while defending his father’s flock (1 Samuel 17: 34-36). He knew both darkness and danger, suffering, weariness, and the loneliness from being out in the fields for extended periods of time with perhaps only his harp and his sheep as companions. We are told that he was “a skillful musician, a mighty man of valor, a warrior, one prudent in speech, and a handsome man, and the LORD was with him” (1 Samuel 16:18).
The man whom we are told was a “man after Yahweh’s own heart,” was the one through whom the Holy Spirit worked in order to give us the gift of his meditations, intricate Hebrew poetry, prayers, even messianic prophesies such as Psalm 22. David authored many of the psalms, including the psalm before and after Psalm 23.
When we consider the overall narrative of Scripture, we would do well to be curious about the placement of Psalm 23 in the collection of the psalms. What is its context? What kind of psalm is placed before it and after it? What implications does this have for the Shepherd psalm?
“Come with me, and let us walk together with the true Shepherd, the guardian of our souls, the Lamb who will guide us to the springs of living water.
Psalm 22 is a messianic prophesy regarding the coming of the suffering servant. Not only is it prophetic, but it overflowed from Jesus’ heart while on the cross. This psalm is written in a particular literary form called a lament. About one-third of all the psalms are laments, as are other significant portions of Scripture. A lament is described by Mark Vroegop as “a prayer in pain that leads to deeper trust.” In the words of Psalm 22, we see Jesus, the Shepherd who will be king who passed through the deepest valley imaginable, not simply at the cross and leading up to it, but also throughout His whole life. The Holy Spirit tells us in v. 24 “For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, nor has He hidden his face from them, but when He cried to Him, He heard.” We know that Jesus went through that deep suffering in order to identify with us, to take upon himself the wrath and judgment of God for our sin. As a result of His identification with us in our suffering, His heart towards us is all compassion. We can also see from Psalm 22: 27 – 28 that He will come forward as the king, the ruler over all nations.
Before the time when God comes in glory to judge all mankind, He uses under shepherds to care for his people. God’s prophets throughout history call out those who wrongfully mistreat and oppress His people, describing them as false shepherds. Jesus calls himself “the good shepherd” in his extensive discussion in John 10. In the process of describing himself, He is calling the false shepherds of his day to account for their hypocrisy and oppression.
Come with me, and let us walk together with the true Shepherd, the guardian of our souls, the Lamb who will guide us to the springs of living water.
Shalom