“The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.”

“We know the words of Psalm 23 so well, yet they remain as fresh and challenging as when they were first sung millennia ago. Alongside Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15), we are given a glimpse into the heart of God: a Shepherd who refuses to lose even one of His flock.

“The shepherd in the parable does not shrug and settle for ninety-nine out of a hundred; he searches until the one is found. The woman (in the second part of the teaching) does not accept nine coins as ‘good enough’; she turns the house upside down until the last is restored. And when the lost is found, joy erupts, on earth and in heaven alike. These images invite us to trust. To say with conviction, even in the darkest valley:

“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want … Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”

“This is a declaration of truth. The sheep’s safety does not rest on the sheep’s hard work or cleverness. It is not about mustering enough wisdom or grit, reading enough books, or being more virtuous than the next. It is about daring to entrust ourselves to the One who has assumed responsibility for us.”

That is how Rev’d Daniel George started his sermon during our service on 14 September 2025. A big thank you to Daniel for reworking what he said into the reflection that you can read in full at this link. And do think about the “Points for reflection” on the final page.

The image is one of the oldest representations of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, found in the Crypt of Lucina, part of the Catacomb of Callixtus, and shows Christ as the Good Shepherd who carries and cares for his flock. Attribution: unknown artist, Rome, 3rd century AD, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons