Who is my shepherd? (Psalm 23)
It took me decades to realize Psalm 23 isn’t exactly about Jesus.
To receive these posts by email each Monday, sign up.
For more commentary on this week's readings, see the Reflections on the Lectionary page. For full-text access to all articles, subscribe to the Century.
Raise your hand if you memorized Psalm 23 at some point in your childhood. Now raise your hand if, like me, you took a while (decades) to realize that the shepherd in this psalm isn’t actually Jesus. That is: New Testament references to Jesus as the Good Shepherd are referencing the psalm, not the other way around. My confusion, I’m sure, came from the fact that I memorized this psalm before I understood in any meaningful way the difference between the Old and New Testaments.
