this care exercised by a shepherd over sheep, the Lord Jehovah is pleased in His Word to assume the title of the Shepherd of Israel; and feeling as we all must, that our Heavenly Father is our sole Protector from all devouring evils and falsities—those wolves and beasts of prey—as well as our Guide into the paths of righteousness, we can each one say with David, "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want." How can we want any good thing, while He who is the Shepherd of Israel, is our Protector, Nourisher, and Everlasting Father? We cannot want. His fulness supplies all human necessities. His providence is all-sufficient for us, and we can each say with David, "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul; He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake." In many passages of Scripture the Lord God is called a Shepherd, and the Shepherd of Israel (Isa. xl. 11; Psalm lxxx. 1), and that He would come to redeem and save us. It is indeed a truth that none can restore the soul but He who created it; and none but the One Lord God Almighty, the Shepherd of Israel, can be a Redeemer and Saviour. Now as Jesus is the true Messiah—the Lord God manifest in the flesh, in whom all divine fulness dwells—therefore in his divine humanity he assumes his proper title of The Good Shepherd who giveth his life for the sheep. (John x. 11.) As there is none good but One—God, so He, as the Good Shepherd, is that One; for this truth is eternal, "I and the Father are one." (John x. 30.) St. Paul calls Jesus the Great Shepherd (Heb. xiii. 20), and Peter says, He is the Chief Shepherd. (1 Pet. v. 4)
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