David As Underling – Psalm 23

A text – Psalm 23

23:1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.
23:2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters;
23:3 he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.
23:4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff– they comfort me.
23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD my whole life long.

A reflection:

It is hard for me to imagine myself to be a sheep. I can do it for a short while when I play with stuffed animals with my grandson. But to imagine the life of a sheep is a little tough for a city person like me. However, David, who worked as a shepherd on his father’s land, David knew what it was to be a shepherd and also perhaps what it might have been like to be a sheep.

When you take care of animals, especially over time, you begin to understand what makes them nervous, what makes them happy or relaxed, what makes them run, what makes them calm down. It’s surely true for the owners/pet parents of dogs and cats. It must be even more true of folks with animals that live outdoors, who are moved from place to place to find grazing land. Those creatures get hungry and thirsty, they get lost, they get threatened by predators.

David is comforted, as a sheep, by his shepherd’s rod and staff, tools that kept the sheep on the path and kept the predators away. But David notes that his shepherd goes beyond mere protection. The Lord treats David like a favored son and exalts him above his enemies, anointing him, giving him every single  thing he could ever want. David is grateful to be the beloved child of this God.

Even though at first David speaks of himself as a sheep, and in verse 5 speaks of himself more as a human, he remains just a follower, a sheep or child, a dweller in the Lord’s house, a grateful underling. The Lord is the shepherd. The Lord is the lord. In this beautiful psalm, David never forgets his place. Maybe that is why the psalm is so comforting.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for caring for us and giving us what we need to thrive. Help us never to forget that you are the source of every good gift, that you are our creator, and that you are our source of comfort and joy. Amen.