阅读经文 

在一百五十篇诗篇中，第二十三篇可能是最为人熟识的一篇。这是一篇能安慰和平静人心的诗篇，怪不得人们特别喜爱它。

一般人认为诗篇二十三篇是大卫王所写的，他年轻时曾牧养他父亲的羊群，他是一位后来成为以色列王的牧羊少年。他非常适合作君王，因为在圣经的年代，领袖往往被视为牧者；他们有责任保护自己的臣民和供应他们的需要。当时的人说“耶和华是我的牧者”，意思是指神是他们平安和福气最终的源头。

耶稣宣称自己是“好牧人”。换言之，祂是神子民真正的君王；然而祂也是一位与众不同的君王，按照传统，君王会拿起刀剑和召集军队来与他子民的敌人争战得胜；大卫正是这样做的，根据预言，耶稣也一定会这样做。

然而，耶稣战胜强敌，并不是使用武器来残杀对方，祂乃是藉着自己被杀来战胜敌人。祂容许罪和死并一切邪恶的权势施展它们最坏的技俩，而它们果真如此行了。但是它们却没有能力控制耶稣，死亡不能抓住祂。

耶稣从死里复活了，祂是我们的好牧人，祂是我们平安和福气的最终源头，从今时直到永远。

Psalm 23 may be the most well known of the 150 psalms. It's a comforting, calming psalm. No wonder it's a favorite.

Psalm 23 is credited to King David, who tended his father's sheep when he was young. David was a shepherd who became Israel's king. That was fitting, for in the biblical world, leaders were thought of as shepherds. They had a responsibility to protect and provide for their people. To say "The LORD is my shepherd" is to say that God is the ultimate source of safety and well-being.

Jesus calls himself "the good shepherd." In other words, he is the true king over God's people. But he is a different sort of king. Traditionally a king would take up a sword and raise an army to defeat the enemies of his people. That's what David did. That's also what some people expected Jesus to do.

But Jesus didn't defeat great enemies by slaughtering them with weapons of war. He defeated them by being slaughtered himself. He let sin and death and all the powers of evil do their worst. And they did. But they had no power over Jesus, and death could not hold him.

Jesus rose from the dead. He is our good shepherd. He is our ultimate source of safety and well-being, now and forever.