by Marilyn Ehle
“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul”.
Psalm 23:1-2
Probably no psalm is more quoted at funerals than the twenty-third. Its words bring peace as grieving family and friends contemplate a loving Shepherd whose presence brings peace for the moment and strength for the future.
We often show pictures to children of young David in the fields, surrounded by sheep and lambs grazing in green grass with a peaceful stream nearby.
But there is another aspect of God as shepherd that we often neglect to investigate. In the Near East and Israel in the time of David, the word shepherd was a commonly used metaphor for king. Any sentimentality I might attach to a grass and stream portrait is modified when I think of a Shepherd King. I much prefer the quiet view to a bloody after-battle scene. The “table prepared in the presence of enemies” would have been a vivid picture to the Hebrews as peace was assured often only after a battle when the two warring sides sat down on the body-strewn field for a celebratory treaty meal.
Life in the twenty-first century is far more similar to a battle than to any pastoral scene. Whether it be an earthquake-devastated country, a broken marriage, an incurable cancer on another heartbreaking loss, we need both the gentle Shepherd and the victorious King. The wholeness of our God “both Shepherd and King.” is necessary for times of both struggle and stillness.
I need you in my life as my good Shepherd, Father, but thank you for also being my King.
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