Pastors sometimes need a pastor. That is, someone who can encourage them and help them through difficult times. I know. For many years I was a pastor, and there were lots of times when I needed someone to “pastor” me.
King David was a shepherd in his earlier years, and when he reflected back on his shepherding experience, he wrote – “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…” The shepherd needed a shepherd, and David the Shepherd knew that the Lord was his shepherd. That’s exactly how Psalm 23 begins: “A Psalm of David.” “David the Warrior” – “David the King” – had once been David the Shepherd.
Many scholars feel that David wrote Psalm 23 later in his life when he was a king – when he had experienced some of the hard times in life. He had fallen into sin, and he needed someone to lead him out of the dark valley of guilt and separation from God. His son Absalom had rebelled against him and threatened to take the kingdom, and there were other troubles in his family that were heart-rending. He needed the rod and staff, so familiar to him as a shepherd, to pull him out of the thicket – to rescue him from the edge of the precipice – to comfort him in his time of sorrow. There were enemies that threatened the tranquility of his kingdom, and he needed to know that the Great Shepherd had prepared a table for him in the presence of his enemies. “David the Shepherd” needed someone to shepherd his life; and he knew that the Lord was the One who did that for him.
“A Psalm of David, the Lord is my shepherd…”
Say – have you discovered how wonderful the Lord is? He’s the Good Shepherd. In fact, He can be your Shepherd!