Sermons

It may not be pastoral at all. The shepherd image in the ancient Near East was standard royal language, not rural nostalgia. Kings called themselves shepherds of their people all over Mesopotamia and Egypt. So "the Lord is my shepherd" isn't Yahweh-as-country-idyll, it's Yahweh-as-king, making a political claim in the middle of a psalm everyone reads as cozy. The whole poem is arguably a statement about who actually rules, dressed up in pastoral clothes.

Scripture References: Psalms 104:1-35

From Series: Summer in the Psalms | More Messages from Rev. Tom Hathaway