The first line of Psalm 23vs1 says, “The Lord is my shepherd”. The definition of a shepherd is one who tends to, herds, feeds and guards sheep. And this is what the Lord does for us – He looks after, guides, provides for, and protects us.
One of the Hebrew words for “shepherd” is “raah”. When we look at the Hebrew letters that make up the word “raah”, we see an added dimension to the word “shepherd”. The word “raah” is made up of three Hebrew letters – resh, ayin and hey which look like this: רעה.
As the Hebrew people read from right to left, the first letter of the word is ר – resh. Resh means head and is symbolic of headship or leadership.
The second Hebrew letter in the word “raah” is ע – ayin, which means eye. The eye is symbolic of sight, vision and light. Think Matthew 6vs22 (The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light).
The last Hebrew letter of “raah” is ה – hey, which means to look or behold. It is also symbolic of revelation or breath. Without breath, there can be no life
When we look at the word shepherd, we therefore see a new dimension to the word. Not only does the Lord care for, guide, provide for and protect us; He is also:
- Our resh or leader
- Our ayin or source of light – 1 John 1vs5 says, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all”.
- He is our hey or revelation and breath (and therefore our source of life) – Job 33vs4 says, “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life”.
Considering the above, let’s look at the first line of Psalm 23vs1 again: The Lord is my shepherd – my caregiver, guide, provider, protector, leader, source of light, revelation and breath of life. If we think of it this way, it means that the Lord is our everything. It’s no wonder David the author of Psalm wrote: “I shall not want” in the second part of this bible verse.