The lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing.

​If you've ever been to a funeral, chances are you've heard Psalm 23. Ministers often use it to bring comfort to those who've lost a loved one.

I've been digging into this Psalm this week. I've discovered there's comfort to be found in it long before we lose a loved one.

I suppose it's spoken to me because I grew up on a farm that raised sheep. I understand this relationship between the shepherd and his flock. So just as Kind David reflected back on his youth and his life as a shepherd while writing this psalm, I too reflected back while reading it.

That starts to explain why this Psalm strikes me the way it does this week. King David is indeed a king when he's writing this, yet, when he's looking for the most intimate way to connect with God, he turns to seeing God as a shepherd. A shepherd was considered the lowliest of vocations in those times, but instead of seeing God as his king, David chooses to see him as his shepherd.

Why?

I think David remembered sheep being far more at ease and far more at peace with his guidance as a shepherd than he saw in the people he was leading today as their king. I think David was missing how easily he once offered comfort to those he was leading.

I think David also missed how easily the sheep came to trust the shepherd. David's words here - "the Lord is MY shepherd" - would have caused a bit of a stir in biblical times. No one considered God to be their own personal God - he was always a much bigger more all encompassing OUR God.

In today's culture, and maybe even back then, this whole "sheep" relationship gets a bad name. One slang definition I found this morning is: a person who follows the crowd, is meek and is easily led.

Yet, as David reflected on the sheep, and how easily they followed the shepherd, he longed to be that sheep; he longed to claim God as his shepherd.

He longed to lie down in green pastures.
He longed to walk beside quiet waters.
He longed to trust he was always going in the right direction.
He longed to know that even in the hardest times, there was nothing to fear.

As king, David is reflecting back and realizing just how often the sheep he tended as a kid wanted for nothing - and just how deeply, as their young shepherd, how that was all he lovingly wanted to provide them.

He spent long days making sure his sheep wanted for nothing.

In reflecting on this Psalm this week, and how resistant I so often am to seeing God as my shepherd - how resistant I am to being meekly and easily led by him - I think the reason for that is because not a day goes by that I don't focus at least a bit - often a lot - on what I'm wanting and lacking in my life.

And when I get to focusing on those things, I think I get to longing for a king to come down and make my wants magically appear.

I'm resistant to having a shepherd come into my life, trusting that he will make the pastures right where I'm at green, that he'll quiet the turbulent waters all around me.

The truth is, when my life gets to feeling empty, I'm looking for a force bigger than a shepherd or a baby in a manger or a helpless man hanging on a cross. I'm looking for an "our" God and not a "my" shepherd.

But here's David - a king - a king who has been through it all. A king who has faced every hardship you and I have faced and more. And yet here's that king, longing to be a sheep who can lovingly cling to a shepherd.

I'm not going to a funeral today, but I'm hearing Psalm 23.

I'm hearing it's not such a bad thing being a sheep; we just have to pick the right shepherd.

Because the reality is, we're all sheep. We're all picking a shepherd whether we admit it or not. And if I'm being honest with me, the shepherd I most often choose to lead me - is me.

And even though I grew up raising sheep, I'm no longer a great shepherd. I lead myself to places where I feel like I'm lacking.

But here is David saying, I lack nothing....