It may come as a surprise to many readers to learn that Ps 23 has not traditionally been considered a “messianic” psalm, nor does the NT quote from it. Even so, it probably alludes to it, and the psalm evokes some of the most basic recollections of the person and work of Jesus Christ. The quote by John Calvin at the beginning of this chapter identifies the principle objective of shepherd metaphor: the humble descent of God into the affairs of humanity. Put differently, the metaphor illustrates the self-humiliation of God as he enters into the world on behalf of humanity to identify with and care for it on the most personal level. Given that God evidences his affection for humanity by “stooping low” (à la Calvin) to care for its basic needs, the shepherd metaphor in Ps 23 anticipates the incarnation of Christ in the NT. It is difficult to do better than C. Hassell Bullock:
The theology of this psalm arises out of the practice of life, the practice of the lowliest of occupations, shepherding sheep. In the broad outline of biblical theology, it is not an exaggeration to say that this imagery is a hint of the incarnation of God in human flesh, in Jesus of Nazareth. That God would condescend to the level of a shepherd is remarkably assuring, affirming his love for humanity.136
Granted, there are other images of God in the OT that convey various aspects of his relationship to his people (e.g., king, creator, father, fortress, rock, etc.), but none captures the meekness of God like the shepherd image. The incarnational theme of God as shepherd comes into even sharper focus in Jesus Christ as the good shepherd (John 10:1–30). Shepherding is such a prominent motif in Scripture that it is difficult to be precise as to which OT passage John has in mind. The two most likely candidates are Ezek 34 and Ps 23, and these are not mutually exclusive because they both speak of God as the shepherd-king of his people. In the former passage, God condemns Israel’s kings for failing to pastor the nation (Ezek 34:1–10). They have fleeced the flock, and have failed to protect it from being scattered and devoured. In short, they have not reflected the shepherd heart of God. As a result, Ezekiel prophecies a time when God himself will tend his flock, bind its wounds, and care for it in a way reminiscent of the divine shepherd of Ps 23 (Ezek 34:11–31). In John, Jesus, like Ezekiel, pronounces judgment on the Jewish leaders for duplicating the failed shepherding of Ezek 34.
While Ezek 34 is likely the most immediate scriptural background to Jesus’s discourse, there are also obvious echoes of Ps 23, the paradigmatic passage describing God as the shepherd of his people. John echoes the relationship between the divine shepherd and his sheep in Ps 23 when Jesus declares that his sheep know his voice and follow him rather than a stranger (John 10:3–5). In short, they “know” him. He, too, knows them and calls them by name (10:3). He is also the entry point through which they must pass to find pasture (10:9). John summarizes this closeness of relationship between the shepherd and his sheep when Jesus affirms: “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me” (10:15). Finally, the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep (10:11, 15, 17), undoubtedly a reference to his vicarious sacrifice in John’s Gospel.137 The life of the psalmist that is nourished by green pastures, refreshed by waters, and protected from life-threatening dangers reaches its full end-times invigoration when the good shepherd provides “eternal life” to his sheep (10:28).138 He renders powerless the ever-present dangers of the darkest valley in Ps 23 so that his sheep “will never perish” (John 10:28).
It is beyond the scope of this chapter to discuss all the comparisons of the “Good Shepherd discourse” in John 10:1–30 with the divine shepherd of Ps 23. The associations are so numerous that it is not a stretch to refer to the twenty-third psalm as the “Good Shepherd Psalm.”139 In fact, Beauford Bryant and Mark Krause note, “The early church remembered Jesus as its shepherd (Matt 9:36; 26:31; 1 Pet 2:25) and applied OT passages to him that pictured God as shepherd (particularly Psalm 23).”140 Similarly, given that the Good Shepherd discourse culminates by proclaiming the unity between the Father and Son (“I am the Father are one,” John 10:30), Christians should be quite comfortable paraphrasing Ps 23:1 like Augustine of Hippo: “Since my shepherd is the Lord Jesus Christ, I shall not lack anything.”141 Jacobson, too, aptly summarizes the incarnate shepherd: “When the New Testament names the one who lays down his life for the sheep as the Good Shepherd, the New Testament is faithfully confessing the incarnation in Jesus of the same divine shepherd whom the ancient psalmist trusted.”142
As Ps 23 evokes the NT image of Jesus as the good shepherd, it also evokes the image of Christ as the host of a banquet, the so-called “messianic banquet.”143 Given the emphasis on table fellowship in the early church, especially the Lord’s Supper, it is not difficult to hear echoes of this sacrament in the words of the psalm when interpreted christologically: “You prepare a table before me” (Ps 23:5). As in Ps 23, where the images of shepherd and host relate to each other as metaphors of God, they come together again in Mark 14. The context is Jesus’s last Passover meal, which prefigures the Lord’s Supper. It is at this meal where he is the host who prepares a table for the twelve apostles (14:22–25). We can fairly speak of Jesus as the “host” of this meal because he is the one who blesses the bread, breaks it, and distributes it to his guests, along with the cup (vv. 22–23). He also offers the words of institution about the new covenant and the role that this reconstituted meal would have in the kingdom of God (v. 24). Further, the pericope that immediately follows this host scene speaks of a shepherd: “I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered” (14:27; cf. Zech 13:7).144 What is more, an earlier pericope shows Mary of Bethany anointing Jesus’s head with oil (Mark 14:3–9), which was a common sign of hospitality in the ancient world, calling to mind Ps 23:5b, “You anoint my head with oil.” To be sure, Mary does more than she realizes: what for her was a sign of hospitality was for Jesus a prophetic action, preparing him, as the God’s Messiah, for his burial (Mark 14:8). The psalm, then, is the testimony of the Lord’s Anointed One when read in a Christian context.
Mark 6 also brings the two images of shepherd and host together in the person and ministry of Christ. All four Gospels recount the story of Jesus feeding the crowd of 5,000 (Matt 14:13–21; Mark 6:30–44; Luke 9:10–17; John 6:1–15). McCann notes that the story has “obvious eucharistic overtones,” evidenced in Mark’s use of eucharistic verbs to describe how Jesus “took” the bread, “blessed,” “broke,” and “gave” it to the disciples (Mark 6:41; cf. 14:22).145 Here is another meal that prefigures the Lord’s Supper, yet also looks back to the shepherd’s provisions in Ps 23. While each of the four Gospels records the same story, only Mark notes that Jesus had the crowd sit on the “green grass” (Mark 6:39), a detail that recalls the twenty-third psalm’s “green pastures” (Ps 23:2).146 Similarly, only Mark gives Jesus’s motivation as pastoral compassion and care: “He had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6:34; cf. Ezek 34:4–5).147 Both Mark 6 and 14 share the images of shepherd and host with Ps 23, and early Christians perceived these images as integrally linked in Jesus Christ.
Psalm 23:4 affirms the presence of God in the life of the believer (“You are with me”). Further, God’s presence may lie behind the reference to the temple in verse 6—that is, the temple is the symbol of God’s presence. McCann observes that the final line in the psalm is another way of affirming that “you are with me” (v. 4).148 The metaphors of
