Christmas 2021: A Baby, a Savior, and a Shepherd

“The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.” (Psalm 23:1, ESV)

“‘Listen carefully: you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and eminent and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob (Israel) forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end.’” (Luke 1:31-33, AMP)

We’ve been at this for many years: since August of 2017. Over the years, Christmas has become an ever-increasing difficult topic to unpack over and over. Each year, I worry about how I can make it different, and put it in a slightly different vein than the years before. And I’ll admit, some of our Christmas devotions are my absolute favorite; finding completely new things to make Christmas and God brand new all over again.

So this year, I was concerned over how I’d be able to pull it off all over again. And then I thought: Why not take a non-Christmas passage and relate it back to the Christmas story. So, for the next few weeks, I’d like to experiment with you and see what we can discover together by taking Psalm 23– one of the most recognized and culturized passages of scripture– and see if we can view it through the lens of Jesus’ birth to see anything new.

The first thing that’s worth mentioning is that David, Jesus’ (insert the appropriate amount of greats) grandfather, is the author of this psalm. If anyone had any kind of understanding of what it was like to not only be a shepherd, but also a king, it was David. You see, it’s important to understand that the social and economical standings of those two roles could not be more opposite. A king was the top of the social food-chain. He wanted for nothing and everyone was subject to him. He lived in a palace and ruled over a nation. On the other end of the spectrum, was a shepherd. It was a lowly, menial job that took place completely outdoors, subject to the blazing sun, icy rain, and howling wind. Not many people want to fill the position, as it means a long day of watching over sheep, a completely defenseless, vulnerable animal that spends most of its day eating grass.

The role of the shepherd was usually dumped off on the lowest of people, which is why David, as the youngest brother in his family, was left to do it in his youth. But David was not destined to stay in his father’s fields to watch over sheep forever. Instead, God was able to take those skills stewarded in the fields and develop them to equip David to rule over the whole of Israel. He went from the lowest job description to the highest role in a nation, and even as a king, he never forgot what it meant to be the boy-shepherd sitting out in his father’s field watching over sheep.

But the cool thing is, Jesus did the same thing. Jesus, the mighty and unconquerable King of kings and Lord of lords, left His throne room in heaven to come and become a weak, vulnerable, lowly man. He was born to an earthly father that was a carpenter, and a mother who was a normal, Nazarite woman. On the day of His birth, He had no home, no cradle, and no baby blanket. None of the creature comforts of a stable home were present. Instead, He was born in a stable, laid in a rough-hewn animal trough, and wrapped in cloth. 

You see, Our savior didn’t require a palace. He never thought Himself too good for the lowly struggles of human existence. 

And so, when David calls the Lord his shepherd, it is no flippant statement. He knows every aspect of what it means to be sheep and shepherd, because ultimately, the master always knows the needs of his sheep. 

As a sheep, we are the possessions of the shepherd, following Him and trusting Him to keep us safe– to feed us good food, give us good water, lead us to a safe place where we can be and rest. As a sheep, David was able to make both the decision and the resolution that he would not want with God as the shepherd. Indeed, there is no need we could ever have that God could not fill and satisfy, and for us as sheep to not want, we acknowledge that anything God provides us is good enough to satisfy. We don’t have to question or beg God to provide. 

For David, the shepherd became a king, but for Jesus, the king chose to be born to a lowly carpenter in order to become a shepherd to the lost. And the fact that He is our shepherd doesn’t take away from His greatness or eminence. In choosing to become our Shepherd, He did not forfeit His throne or His deity. Instead, He decided to be both, but not be so unapproachable that we, as sheep, could not come near to Him.

Because sheep don’t fear their shepherd. They don’t worry that they are bothering Him when they are grazing in the fields or resting at His feet. I’m sure that as a boy, David walked amongst his flock and knew each and every one of them. To call God his shepherd, he understood it was a personal relationship, one full of nurturing, protection, and trust. 

In truth, God could have saved us from His home in heaven, but instead, He chose to walk among us in the dusty, dirty pasture of this life. He chose to give Himself and sacrifice Himself so that we could be made His possession. 

Praise Him for His awesome love for us. A love that would choose to become a baby. A love that would elect to be made weak and lay Himself down for us. A love that would volunteer to leave His palace to meet us on this lowly, dusty earth to rescue us. 

I admire Him for the way He chose to come to this world, not in royal acclaim and celebration, but in a quiet meekness– a soft rumble that would grow in fervency to shake the world and change the course of all history. For us. For me and you.