April 17, 2025 - Psalm 23 - God's Faithful Shepherd

Psalm 23

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever."

Many of us find solace in Psalm 23, viewing the LORD Jesus as the Shepherd of His sheep. However, before being unveiled as the Shepherd of the sheep, He first served as God’s Shepherd for them. We understand that the LORD Jesus embodies the fulfillment of all Scripture. When He arrived at the appointed time in the world, He fulfilled the Old Testament Scriptures. Therefore, when reading Psalm 23, we perceive how our LORD Jesus fulfilled them before His Father, serving as the God-Man in the flesh.

"The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want:"

As the Father was the Shepherd of the LORD Jesus, He lacked nothing to fulfill His Father's purpose for the salvation of His people. "Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God" (Hebrews 10:7).

"He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters."

The LORD Jesus, as the appointed Shepherd of His Father, guided His sheep in the same pastures and waters where He found rest in His Father during His earthly life. These represent His Gospel—His Person and His finished work at the cross—preceding us as our Forerunner. "Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec" (Hebrews 6:19, 20)

"He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake." Despite His soul being offered for sin (Isaiah 53:10–11), the LORD Jesus’ suffering never tainted His soul. His perseverance stemmed from upholding His Father's righteousness. As His sheep, our souls are revived due to the righteousness He earned and bestowed upon us at the cross. “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.“ (I Peter 2:24).

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."

Our LORD traversed the valley of death’s shadow in His suffering, but He trusted His Father to sustain Him. The rod and staff of God's chastening were a source of comfort, knowing He bore it for His people's salvation. "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5).

"Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over."

He was the Father’s Anointed One (The Christ). Even in the presence of His enemies, His joy lay in that table prepared for Him by the Father. Despite drinking the cup of wrath dry, fulfilling the Father's will, He ate and drank of those sufferings with joy, knowing that the Father had prepared the table before Him. Eating the bitter herbs and drinking the cup of His wrath would, for His people, become a table of blessing—Christ being the Bread, and the shedding of His blood unto death being the Wine—by which we have fellowship with God. "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Matthew 26:26-28).

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever."

Christ’s completed work as God’s Shepherd ensures that goodness and mercy accompany Him always. Having finished His work and seated at the right hand of the Father, He remains endlessly in that Spiritual House. "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25)

While we rejoice in Christ as our Shepherd, our joy is amplified knowing that, even before being revealed as our Shepherd, He was already God the Father’s appointed Shepherd.