There Really is a Good Shepherd

I don't know that I can say definitively what is the most well-known passage of Scripture among believers or even unbelievers, but if I was guessing I think it would be Psalm 23. [Read] This great Psalm tells me there is a God. He is not an impersonal force, or a far off deity who may or may not care about me; but rather this Psalm introduces me to a very personal God, He is "my Shepherd," and He has everything I need: provision, rest, peace, encouragement, guidance, courage, companionship, comfort, protection, power, and security. There is something there for all of us! If there is a god, certainly this is the very kind of god we would be looking for. Most of us know very little about sheep or shepherds, but this sounds pretty good. The Jews certainly knew this Psalm and would have had it memorized. The heritage of the Jews was as shepherds. They knew what a really good shepherd looked like and meant to sheep. The sheep don't even acknowledge it, but their very lives are in the hands of this all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful shepherd. Their faith was that their God was like that good shepherd. As well known as the Psalm is to the general world, it is even more intimate and more of a hope to the Jew. So can you imagine praying to and trusting in this Shepherd, and then one day you are in town and you stop and listen to what looks to be a rabbi or a teacher of some sort and He says, "I am that Shepherd you have sought in Psalm 23."