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The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths for his name's sake.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I fear no evil; for you are with me;
your rod and your staff—they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow
me all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
my whole life long.

--Psalm 23 (NRSV)

Young Semoine was only 12 when he had to confront a lion. He was in the company of six boys who were grazing a herd of 300 cows in the Maasai Mara game reserve. The other boys scuttled away when the lion surprised them, but Semoine hesitated. The lion was about to strike Reoyi, the cow Semoine had milked that morning, and he was not going to see it die! He threw his spear and stabbed the lion in the chest. The wounded beast turned on the boy and struck his right leg, breaking it instantly before mauling his head. Then it limped away without touching the cattle.

The boy might have died, but an emergency flying doctor's service airlifted him to a hospital in Nairobi, where he spent nearly two months receiving medical treatment. From his hospital bed, Semoine declared he would challenge lions again if they attacked his father's herd.

In rural Africa, people take good care of their domestic animals at great expense to themselves. Shepherds move for miles with their animals in search of lush pasture, salt licks, and watering holes. These are the same items of survival sought after by the grazers among the wild animals such as zebras, buffaloes, and gazelles. Unfortunately, marauders and predators such as lions, leopards, and hyenas, out of necessity for food, do their hunting in the same localities. Often herdsmen have a hard time keeping marauders from attacking them as well as their herds and flocks.

In places where inhabited areas border game reserves, real conflicts develop between humans and game reserve animals. The latter have government protection. The natural tendency is for people to track down the marauding animal that has snatched a sheep or goat and to kill it. In Kenya the government often has to intervene because herdsmen will stop at nothing when their flocks and herds are in danger from wild animals.

Even deep in the inhabited areas, hyenas, leopards, and pythons are known to take their loot from a herd or a flock. Chege, an old man of 83, recently fought a leopard that had menaced his herd of goats. He determined that before he died that leopard must die. So he set up a trap that caught the leopard by a foreleg. Armed with a club, Chege moved too near, and the leopard caught his leg below the knee. In spite of the searing pain, he concentrated on hitting the leopard's head until the animal died. Chege was later to declare,

"I'm not proud of what I did. I just destroyed an enemy. & amp;#hellip; The animal having wiped out all my goats, I did not care whether I lived or died in the process of fighting it."

In this psalm, the psalmist declares his confidence in God's protection even though he is surrounded by adversity (see also Psalm 11:1 ; 27:1-6 ; 62:1-8). Boldly he can testify that no good thing will be withheld from him (Psalm 23:6).

Shepherd is a very appealing metaphor, conveying God's devoted care for the well-being of the sheep (23:1-3). The individual sheep in the flock is cared for personally with rich pasture and a place to rest before taking the journey through the dangerous pass ahead. God may ensure the national welfare of Israel, his flock (Psalm 79:13 , 80:1 ; 95:7 ; Isaiah 49:10), but the individual also can be confident of God's personal attention and concern, as illustrated by the Lord's parable of the shepherd who seeks the one lost sheep even though there are 99 others in the fold. The shepherd is the guardian of the flock who recognizes each sheep individually (John 10:3-5, 14).

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June 12 2000, Vol. 44, No. 7