Pastoral Pondering

Written by Rev. Martha Langford, Senior Pastor at Second/First Church of Rockford, IL
12 May 2025

One of the “lections” (scripture readings) assigned for Sunday, May 11 is Psalm 23.
This week’s pondering is drawn from this Psalm.

Key Verse: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Psalm 23:1

Reflection: “Don’t be a sheep…” This was the tagline for a Hyundai commercial; one
that advertisers knew would resonate with American culture—no matter how ironic.
“Don’t be a sheep,” could be the American motto; Google finds it more than 288 million
times on the web. Even urban dwellers can identify that sheep are followers, that sheep
are dependent, that sheep are somewhat dim of intellect. What could be worse than
being a sheep, right?

Yet this beloved Psalm, one we might have memorized as children, implies that we ARE
sheep even as it assures us that the Lord is our shepherd.

In his treatise Imagery of Shepherding in the Bible, Thomas Golding writes “For the
most part the qualities desired in a good shepherd involved things that sheep lack…” In
Iron Age Israel, shepherds were responsible for guiding, defending, and keeping sheep
from getting lost. Sheep without a shepherd would wander away facing injury, animal
attacks, or starvation. A sheep without a shepherd was a fearful thing.

In the Bible, kings are lauded as good shepherds whenever they promoted justice
bringing peace and equity and security to their people. David was a shepherd-king, yet
even David counts himself among the sheep saying, “The Lord is my shepherd…”

David’s words express radical trust in a sovereign God and implicit trust in God’s
presence that guides and sustains us even in the darkest of circumstances.

I wonder… what might it sound like for us to tamp down the tag line of our culture and
declare our own radical trust?

Dear Lord, cultivate in us the depth of trust needed for us to stop pretending we have total control of
our lives. Help us become aware of your presence in the precarious moments of our lives. Amen.