Sheep are dumb.  Sorry to be so negative about these furry creatures who share their wool, but let’s face the truth. Sheep are dumb. 

Powerful animals make great mascots for sports teams.  I can think of the Detroit Lions, the Chicago Bears, the Seattle Seahawks.  But sheep or lambs, no way.  Max Lucado pondered this thought as he tried to make up a decent fight song for the cheerleaders. . . not very powerful is it.

“We are the sheep,
We don’t make a peep.
Victory is yours to keep.
Count us if you want to sleep.” *

Why did David have to use “sheep” as the metaphor for “us.”   Couldn’t he have found something stronger, more flattering.  Truth is, David had been a shepherd.  He had spent days in the fields tending his sheep.  He knew they needed him, so he slept with them.  He watched over them day and night.  And all this reminded David of the way God cares for us.  So, in the 23^rd Psalm, David said, “The Lord is my Shepherd.”  This my friends, very clearly implies, “I am his sheep”

Like it or not, we do not have the roar of the lion, the sight of the eagle, the stealth of the fox or the strength of the elephant.  Sorry, but we are sheep.  We need a shepherd or we go astray.  And thanks be to God; we have that shepherd.  The most loving, ever-present shepherd of all – our Lord Jesus Christ.  Yes, David knew what he was talking about when he penned that beautiful 23^rd Psalm. 
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”  Thanks be to God that he is our Shepherd.

Judy

*Max Lucado, Traveling Light, Thomas Nelson Publishing, 2001,  p. 26