Have you ever seen a shepherd in living color? Near our home in Southern California several years ago, we would occasionally observe this rare phenomenon on grassy hillslopes of the San Gabriel Mountains. The sheep looked the part, except their wool coat didn't have that washed-in-Tide appearance. The shepherd wore boots, blue jeans, and a Texas straw hat. With a two-way transistor radio strapped to his belt, he could communicate to his wife that he'd be home by six.

Such a description is a far cry from David's model of the Twenty-Third Psalm. People don't talk about shepherds and sheep nowadays. They converse more in terms of the Dow average, synthetic fibers, and silicone chips. So we ask, "Why not throw such pastoral references to religion out the window?" They served their purpose in …