The author of the Twenty-third Psalm is quite possibly an old man who has lived the better part of a lifetime. In his day he may have been a shepherd. But now the years have siphoned his stamina. So he sits and reminisces on what used to be. And as he does so he observes another shepherd silhouetted against the sky leading a flock to a greener pasture. Instinctively, the sight turns the poet’s mind to the numberless days and nights he tended his own flocks under God’s watchful eye; and once again, as has happened so often before, he finds his heart flooding with gratitude: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want" (Psalm 23:1).

The psalmist knows a personal shepherd. He claims the Almighty’s hovering care for his own. Thus, he can face the twilight years with thanksgiving and in peace sin…