"THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD"
1: The Identity of This Shepherd
Psalm 23

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The present psalm is in the middle of a trilogy. Psalm 22 presents Christ as the Suffering Savior, forsaken by God when He died for His people. Psalm 23 presents Christ as the Supplying Shepherd, meeting all the needs of His people. Psalm 24 presents Christ as the Supreme Sovereign, ruling over His people.

Let us here learn a most valuable lesson: None can truly claim "The LORD is my Shepherd" but those who acknowledge Christ as both their Savior and their King.

Men universally recognize this Shepherd-Psalm as a most beautiful piece of literature. But how few of them truly know the Shepherd of this psalm enough to faithfully confess "The Lord Jesus Christ is my Shepherd"!

What kind of Shepherd is Jesus Christ?

I. Christ is the divine Shepherd (Psalm 23:1). We may read this text as "Jesus Christ is my Shepherd" because Christ is Jehovah! The Son of God is co-equal and co-eternal with Jehovah the Father because He is eternally "in the form of God" and "equal with God" (Philippians 2:6). He therefore declares "that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him" (John 5:23). If Jehovah is your Shepherd, Christ is your Shepherd.

The deity of Christ the Shepherd is also declared by Paul the apostle when He informs us that the flock of Jehovah, "the church of God", was "purchased with His own blood" (Acts 20:28). It was Jehovah the Son, not Jehovah the Father, who shed His blood for the purchase of God's sheep.

II. Christ is the Israelites' Shepherd (Psalm 80:1). Asaph the psalmist identifies Christ as such when He prays, "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock" (cp. 78:71). The Father identified Christ as such when He declared Christ would be born in order to "shepherd My people Israel" (Matthew 2:6), and that "He shall stand and feed His flock in the strength of the LORD" (Micah 5:2, 4). And Christ declared, "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matthew 15:24).

This Israel is the "Israel of God", comprised of all who have forsaken boasting in their flesh, and now boast in Christ their Shepherd alone and walk according to His rule (Galatians 6:14-16). Those who do not believe are not His sheep (John 10:26). The Shepherd of Israel has forsaken the self-righteous "sheep" who see no need of repentance in order to seek and find His true sheep and bring them into His fold (Luke 15:1-7). He will forever sanctify Israel His flock from all others when at the final judgment "He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats" (Matthew 25:32ff). The Shepherd of Israel will then usher His sheep into eternal glory, while consigning all others to the eternal torment they deserve. On which hand of the Shepherd of Israel will you be found on that day? This Shepherd of Israel is an abomination to those in false religions (Genesis 46:34; cp. Revelation 11:8).

III. Christ is the "David" Shepherd (Ezekiel 34:23). Jehovah prophesied of His flock, "I will establish one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them - My servant David. He shall feed them and be their shepherd." When David was a young man, the Lord said to him, "You shall shepherd My people Israel, and be ruler over Israel" (2 Samuel 5:2). David was in this regard a type of Christ the Shepherd-King par excellence. As surely as John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, was the prophesied Elijah the prophet to all the discerning (Malachi 4:5f with Matthew 11:11-14; 17:10-13), so is Christ the prophesied David the shepherd. Jehovah says of such discerners, "David My servant shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd; ... and My servant David shall be their prince forever" (Ezekiel 37:24).

IV. Christ is the ideal Shepherd (John 10:11, 14). Christ sets forth this truth by declaring, "I am the good shepherd." The Greek word here translated "good" (kalos) is not used of something that is good comparatively, as when we compare things that are "good, better, best". Rather, it is used of that which is good intrinsically, as when we speak of that which is the ideal.

The distinguishing characteristic of Christ as the ideal Shepherd is this: "The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep." This is in contrast to three other sorts of persons: thieves, hirelings, and false shepherds. As for the first: "The thief does not come except to steal [or proselytize], and to kill [or martyr], and to destroy [for personal gain]. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly" (v.10). As for the second: "But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep" (vv.12f; cp. "the worthless shepherd" of Zechariah 11:17; contrast Christ in Psalm 23; also Numbers 27:15-17; Isaiah 40:11; Ezekiel 34:12; Micah 7:14). As for the third: false shepherds require their sheep to die for them (as with Mohammedan suicide-terrorists, and followers of Jim Jones-types).

V. Christ is the only Shepherd (John 10:16). While Christ tended His flock during the days of His incarnation, He looked down through the ages and then declared, "And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring ...; and there will be one flock and one shepherd." He thereby teaches us that all the people of God throughout all the ages comprise but one flock (which is the church of God), and that He is their only Shepherd. Christ has therefore been confessed as the Shepherd of the church by patriarchs (Genesis 49:24), psalmists (Psalm 23; 28:9; 78:71; 80:1; Ecclesiastes 12:1), prophets (Isaiah 40:1; Jeremiah 31:10; Ezekiel 34:12; Micah 7:14; Zechariah 13:7), and apostles (Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 2:25; 5:4).

VI. Christ is the eternal Shepherd. This truth results from the preceding point. While false religions follow a succession of shepherds who one by one die and must be replaced (as do Romanists), or follow a shepherd now occupying a grave (as do Mohammedans), Christ the Shepherd has no successor and ever lives to care for His flock. Furthermore, He says of His sheep, "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand" (John 10:28).

VII. Christ is the great Shepherd (Hebrews 13:20). More precisely, He is "our Lord Jesus ..., that great Shepherd of the sheep" – not merely a great shepherd. The Greek word translated "great" (megas) is predicated of rank – as in "our great God and Savior Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13).

Jesus Christ is "that great Shepherd of the sheep" for three reasons set forth in the context. First, because of what God has done for Him: "the God of peace ... brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead" – thereby exalting Him over all things (Philippians 2:9-11). Second, because of God is doing through Him: "may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ." Third, because of what God will require be given to Him: "to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."

VIII. Christ is the chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4). As we have already observed, Christ has but "one flock" (John 10:16), "the church of God which He purchased with His own blood" (Acts 20:28). And Christ is its only Shepherd, the "Shepherd and Overseer of your souls" (1 Peter 2:25). But Christ has placed many under -shepherds in His church (Ephesians 4:11-16 - the Greek word for shepherds being translated "pastors" in v.11). Each of these is exhorted to "Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock" (1 Peter 5:2f). They who faithfully do so are promised that "when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away" (v.4).

IX. Christ is the Lamb-Shepherd (Revelation 7:17): "for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters." Here is set forth both the divine and the human natures in the one person of Jesus Christ. His divinity is set forth in His identity as the "Shepherd", reminding us that "Jehovah is my Shepherd" (Psalm 23:1). His humanity is set forth in His identity as the "Lamb", by which designation He is identified with the rest of His flock. As Shepherd, He provides for all the needs of His flock. As Lamb, He knows experientially what those needs are. He has partaken of their flesh and blood in His incarnation, thereby experiencing all their needs and enduring all their temptations (Hebrews 2:14-18).

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