It is a romantic picture — a shepherd leading the way through a winding valley while a flock of sheep lazily follow at his heels. On the edges of the flock one might even imagine a black and white border collie darting after a straying animal attracted by some tasty looking clump of grass. The picture is quiet and peaceful, even serene.
Psalm 23 sketches this idyllic scene across our minds with the words “the Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.” Today few people understand those words experientially. Experience today is about mass production and traffic jams, about supermarkets and subdivisions. We know little about the role of the shepherd except that he was responsible for the sheep in his flock.
But that doesn’t stop us from picturing the rugged shepherd of the Bible dutifully leading and caring, providing and protecting the sheep that meant life to him and his family. We see David fending off the wild beast bent on devouring the flock, or the Good Shepherd treading through a stormy night hunting for a lost lamb.
Sometimes when life is tough, when pain and loss threaten to overcome us, we even wish that we had a shepherd; someone to look after us like the shepherd looked after the sheep.
Pain and loss have a way of isolating us from one another. Whether the pain is physical or emotional, one of its results is to make us feel alone because each person has to deal with their own hurts. No one can grieve for us or hurt for us.
Emptiness that comes with grief
In grief, whatever its cause, one commonly feels alone. There can be a tremendous void where once joy bubbled up. One can feel empty and vulnerable.
It is not unusual for pain to drive one to panic, especially where one feels inadequate because of the new circumstances. Anxiety is high because of uncertainty about how we will cope with the new situation.
Depression can take many forms. One can live in a fog where it is difficult to remember. One can stop sleeping or eating. More common is the feeling that nothing matters anymore so why get out of bed or why not binge on a quart of Blue Bell ice cream.
In our experiences with grief and pain who has not felt the temptation to just pull the covers over one’s head and stay in bed all the time, safely hiding from the pain of life?
Viktor Frankl in his famous book “Man’s Search for Meaning” relates his three-year experience in Kaufering, a Nazi concentration camp affiliated with Dachau concentration camp. From watching others Frankl eventually concluded he could predict which fellow prisoners would live or die by looking into their eyes.
He wrote that if a person had a reason to live, that person would find a way to survive no matter the circumstances. But if one had no reason to live, that person could not be kept alive.
A concentration camp is far from the pastoral scene of a shepherd and sheep but the words of Psalm 23 speak to the hurting no matter their circumstances. Psalm 23 assures that God is with us because “the Lord is my Shepherd.” The Psalm assures that when we are with God, we are in a safe place because of the promise that “I shall not be in want.”
Psalm 23 never promises to take away the pain or to restore the former circumstances. Instead it promises that the person who knows God as their Shepherd will never be alone. God will always be present in every circumstance. His presence is not limited to the idyllic times of life. He is always with us.
One writer observed the most important thing about Psalm 23 is the assurance that one does not have to face bad things alone.
Still one might protest that they are unable to face the new circumstances; that they just do not have the physical or emotional strength to live with the changes. Like some in the concentration camp, their pain is so great they have no reason to live.
That might be a correct statement. By one’s self an individual may not have the inner strength to deal with the new circumstances created by pain and loss. But that is the glory of Psalm 23. One is not alone. One doesn’t have to depend on one’s own strength.
It is the Shepherd who helps one lie down in green pastures, who leads beside still waters, who restores the soul, who leads through the shadows of death itself. When one has a Shepherd, one relies on the strength and resources of the Shepherd.
It is the Shepherd who drives the pain and emptiness from the eyes of hurting sheep and, through a personal relationship between the sheep and the Shepherd, fills the eyes with hope.
Psalm 23 says so clearly that despite all the pain and hurt, grief and loss we can get up every morning to face the world because we know there is Someone who cares for us. That Someone is our Shepherd.
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