The Lord is my Shepherd.  Psalm 23:1

King David’s resume would have looked strange to a professional headhunter.  

Shepherd. 12 years

Fugitive. 10 years

King. 40 years

For the first portion of his life, David was in the fields.  Sheep were his companions.  When Samuel anointed him to be king, there was no throne to occupy.  David wouldn’t commence his reign for another decade.  He would live, instead, as a fugitive. 

He became the man on the run. King Saul was envious and wanted David dead. Statistically, Saul had the upper hand, with an army and a pool of military strategists to plot the hunt. Outnumbered, David fled through the Judean hills, searching for caves and crevices. But Saul had not factored in God’s mighty power that works to achieve His purposes for those whom he has called.

It was in this tumultuous period that David wrote Psalm 23.  Perhaps you’ve pictured him in better times writing about green pastures and still waters.  It would explain the rich pastoral imagery, but that wasn’t the context.  David was trying to stay alive.  He needed a Shepherd to guide, protect, and comfort.  Only God could bring this fugitive out of hiding and set him securely on a throne.  

God had done something similar before.  Joseph once told his brothers, “Every shepherd is loathsome to the Egyptians.” Genesis 46:34  Yet Joseph, from a shepherding clan, became a ruler in Egypt. When God writes our story, humble beginnings and cultural biases are irrelevant.  Shepherds could become kings.  (And Nebuchadnezzar, a king who dishonored God, ended up in the wilderness, out of his mind, eating grass.) 

The Hebrew Bible’s unique term for shepherd, ro’eh tzon, means lover of the flock.  Our Jehovah Rohi is a caring father figure.  Isaiah says he “gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart.” Isaiah 40:11  

God carried David all the way to the throne, from fugitive to king. God is never outnumbered by our enemies, physical and spiritual. If we had spiritual eyes, we would see Him guiding, protecting, and comforting us as He bears our weight and carries us in His arms.