Names of God (Old Testament)ናሙና

Jehovah-Rohi: The Lord is my shepherd

We can easily take for granted what’s contained within the best-known psalm. You are totally across Psalm 23’s portrait of the God of everything as a personal comforter and protector. But take a moment to stand back from familiarity and bask in the incredible glow of such intimacy and care.

I was able to do a brief podcast series on Psalm 23. Theologian and lecturer David Hohne shared about how the shepherd description of God points back to the roots of the psalm’s author (King David) and forward to ‘the Good Shepherd’ (Jesus). Our modern, sanitised world can obscure the grit and danger of what it was to be a sheep saviour during biblical times. So many constant threats, from predators to weather. The dependence of a sheep can be almost insulting when we apply it to ourselves. But the inspiring promise of God’s guidance and might in Psalm 23 should stir us to embrace our ‘inner sheep’.

If God is the shepherd, embodied in the goodness and love of Jesus, being part of the flock is admitting who we truly are and what we desperately need.

Written by BEN McEACHEN