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Most people are not familiar with sheep and shepherds. Yet, the 23rd Psalm is among the best loved all the 150 Psalms in the Psalter. Writing in his helpful booklet, The Hymnbook of the Ages, Paul Christopher Warren explains:

"This Psalm represents religion…primarily as experience, a personal relationship to God."

When the preacher Phillips Brooks was asked what place personal relationship had in Christianity, he replied:

"Personal ...

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Most people are not familiar with sheep and shepherds. Yet, the 23^rd Psalm is among the best loved all the 150 Psalms in the Psalter. Writing in his helpful booklet, The Hymnbook of the Ages, Paul Christopher Warren explains:

"This Psalm represents religion…primarily as experience, a personal relationship to God."

When the preacher Phillips Brooks was asked what place personal relationship had in Christianity, he replied:

"Personal relationship is Christianity. The Lord is MY shepherd."

Warren gives a second reason for the 23^rd Psalm’s appeal:

The Shepherd figure represents God as answering a human’s essential needs.

All through it runs the thought that every want is supplied: Provision, guidance, refreshment, restoration, protection, comfort. And at last when day is done, we shall not lack shelter. ‘Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.’"

And Warren gives still another reason why we prize Psalm 23:

"Jesus made it a parable of His own life and took the Shepherd title for Himself."

Jesus’ own words reflect this idea:

I am the good Shepherd…I know my own and My own know Me…I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly…The good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. (John 10)

As you read these words, give thanks for the benefits this great and good Shepherd provides to you. And resolve to follow Him more closely. Then, pray this ancient prayer for those in special need:

Good Shepherd, who came to seek the lost, have compassion on those who have wandered, feed those who hunger, bind up those broken in heart and strengthen those who are weak. Amen.

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We do not know for sure who wrote "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us." It was unsigned when it first appeared in Dorothy Thrupp's collection, Hymns for the Young, in 1836. It was the custom of Miss Thrupp to not sign her hymns or poems, usually initialing them D.A.T. or using a pseudonym, Iota. However, this one had neither. She may have forgotten to initial it, or else it came from a different source.

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We do not know for sure who wrote "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us." It was unsigned when it first appeared in Dorothy Thrupp's collection, Hymns for the Young, in 1836. It was the custom of Miss Thrupp to not sign her hymns or poems, usually initialing them D.A.T. or using a pseudonym, Iota. However, this one had neither. She may have forgotten to initial it, or else it came from a different source.

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