I was sitting at the dining table one morning in August 2023 after another sleepless night, spoon-feeding my twelve-month-old baby girl in her high chair. Weary and worn out after months of sleep deprivation and doing life with three little, somewhat spicy, humans under six, I turned to the Psalms seeking refreshment for my tired heart (not that I could read well through my puffy, blow fish eyes). I had read the words of Psalm 23 many times, but this morning, in God’s kindness and in my desperate need, they had a particular effect on my heart.
A Balm to My Aching Soul
Being a songwriter, singing is sometimes how I pray and process things, it’s how I feel close to God and worship him. Thus, I began to sing the words of Psalm 23 into my iPhone voice memos. What came out became the song “The Lord is My Shepherd”. It came as a prayer from the overflow of my heart—a heart longing for and revelling in the tender fatherly love and goodness of God. In spite of feeling as though I had nothing to give—precisely because I had nothing left to give—his loving care was so sweet and real to me. Such is his love and kindness that he doesn’t crush us in our inadequacies, or ask us to harden up, or belittle our suffering. Instead, he lavishes his grace and love on us. I was humbled by the kindness of God. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, in light of God’s wonderful revelation, I was able to perceive and experience this profound love in my heart and it was like a balm to my aching soul.
The Father Was Christ’s Shepherd; Christ Is Our Shepherd
Upon reflection, what is most profound about the comfort I felt is that it is a window into the very comfort that Christ received from his heavenly Father who shepherded him through his earthly life. I began to draw connections to various theological metaphors used in Scripture connected to sheep, shepherds and lambs.
Just as the Father shepherded his only begotten Son, so the Son now shepherds us—for Christ surely is our good and kind Shepherd, who protects, cares and knows what is best for his sheep (Jn 10:1–18). God the Father shepherds us through Christ, the incarnate son of God (see Ezek 34:21–24).
Yet how is this made possible? My mind goes to the garden in Gethsemane, where Christ prayed to his Father “not my will, but yours be done.” I think of how agonising it must have been for Christ to lay down his life, and for the Father to willingly offer his Son. But what is so mysterious and profound is that God provided the Lamb that was to be sacrificed for the sins of his people. Jesus is both the Good Shepherd and the Lamb of God.
The Shepherd Is the Lamb
While it is true that we can say with David, and with Jesus, “The LORD is my Shepherd”, and that Jesus is our Good Shepherd, who lays his life down for his sheep; Jesus is not only our Good Shepherd but also our sacrificial lamb. In Revelation 7:17 these two descriptions are combined: he is the Lamb in whose blood the elect have “washed their robes and made them white” (verse 15), and as the Lamb,he will also “be their shepherd; ‘he will lead them to springs of living water’” (verse 17).
What makes Christ the perfect shepherd is that he was and is the sacrificial lamb, and thus able to truly empathise and identify with us in our weakness and suffering. Jesus knows intimately and truly what it is like to be a lamb—one that faced death alone (in anguish), so we would never have to face death alone, without a shepherd.
He is also the triumphant lamb on the throne who we read about in Revelation. One glorious day Christ will shepherd us into the kingdom of heaven, where his rule knows no end; we will know and experience the fullness of his goodness, mercy and love. Isn’t God so gracious, generous and kind to have provided for all our needs through his precious Son? How comprehensive and sufficient is his salvation! Grace upon grace upon grace.
Do You Know the Good Shepherd?
Do you know this Good Shepherd? The one who laid down his life for his sheep, only to take it up again? This spotless lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world? I don’t want to face this life without him, and I rejoice that I can sing these words with confident hope and assurance: “I’ll see the goodness of God when he carries me home.”
My experience testified to me that there is no valley so deep or dark that Christ can’t meet me there, as he did that morning through his word. The sad reality of this life is that one day we will all pass through the deepest valley, the valley of our death. Yet we can know that even in that valley we are not alone, for we have already passed from death to life in Christ. What a wonderful and sufficient Shepherd we have in him!
When I woke that bleary-eyed morning, that is what I needed to see, what I needed to revel in, what God, by his Spirit, revealed to my heart and mind. He told me I wasn’t alone, that he saw me, loved me, and was with me. He had gone before me, he would walk beside me, and he would carry me home. While I still felt tired and sleep deprived, and while I still have fears of the future, this makes all the difference. He makes all the difference. I pray this song serves as a reminder, and a prayer, as it did for me, that we can rest in and bask in the joy of his lavish mercy, his abundant grace, and unending love. We can trust his tender, abiding, gracious care. Even if/when we can’t get enough of that elusive shut-eye.
This article was originally published at Stories I’d Tell You at Dinner.
The Lord Is My Shepherd
The Lord is my Shepherd
And I shall not want.
He maketh me strong
Though I am weak.
The Lord is my comfort
Oh he is my peace.
He is my song
When I cannot speak,
When I’m in the valley,
I will not fear.
For you are near,
To you I shall go.
Into the flowing waters of love,
Into the streams of mercy that flow from above,
Into the grace that surpasses all we can know,
Into the Father’s arms that will carry us home.
The Lord is my Counsellor,
Oh he is my King.
For he is robed,
In majesty.
His throne knows no end
And he will redeem.
All of creation
Will soon be set free!
Into the flowing waters of love,
In the streams of mercy lavished on us,
Into a grace that surpasses all we can know,
Into the Father’s arms that will carry us home.
I’ll see the goodness of God when he carries me home.
The Lord is my Shepherd
And I shall not want.
He maketh me strong
Though I am weak.
