Monday, February 25, 2008

"The Lord is my shepherd,,,"

"The Lord is my shepherd..." These words from the 23rd Psalm, attributed to David, the king of Judah and Israel, are among the best-known words of faith. But the idea apparently didn't originate with David. In Genesis 48:14, Jacob/Israel, in preparing to bless Ephraim and Manasseh, the two eldest sons of Joseph, says "The God before whom my ancestors Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day... bless the boys...". The date when this passage was actually written down is unsure, but the experience of God as our shepherd is attributed to Jacob, who was himself a shepherd and a wanderer most of his life, many generations before David. Again in Gen. 49:24 Jacob refers to God as "the mighty one of Jacob, the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel". In II Samuel 7:7 God speaks of the leaders before David whom he had "commanded to shepherd my people Israel". It would appear that from the time of the patriarchs the idea of God as shepherding his people, both directly and through appointed leaders, had been a part of the faith of Israel.

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