The short book A Shepherd Looks At Psalm 23 by real-life shepherd Phillip Keller was a fixture on the oval leather-topped coffee table that held the center of the family room at my grandparents’ home. I’d seen it there, among the National Geographics, photo books about Georgia and Tennessee and Colorado (places where our family members lived), and pine-needle baskets . It didn’t occur to me as a child that it was anything but one more charming artifact of my grandmother’s.
When as an adult I sought a deeper faith and a better understanding of scripture, I enrolled in class after class at our church, reading and soaking up scripture in a different way than I had ever before. I shared with my grandmother my desire to teach an adult Sunday school class, as she had. Immediately and startlingly she placed in my hands the little book with the torn dust jacket. She said “Read this, it will help.” On the long drive back to Memphis, Russell drove, and between handing sippy cups to the back seat, I read.
I remember thinking and taking to heart both the insights of the author about the text of the psalm and about its application but also how to go about study of the Bible. Even a Christian like me with minimal Bible teaching as a youngster had read the 23rd psalm and could recite it from childhood, but I didn’t realize how much I was missing from the scripture. The HOPE I found in those pages was palpable and I learned to use that feeling of hope to further my study and my faith.
This passage is one that most Christians remember best in the King James Version:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Psalm 23
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