The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. Like any other familiar quotation, these nine words from Psalm 23 are well-known but perhaps never fully reflected upon. What is a "Good Shepherd," and why is this a title with which Jesus chose to identify himself? The psalmist speaks of God as a shepherd of the people of Israel, and the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel speak of the Lord as a shepherd to the people as well. Jesus, in his public ministry, identifies with the prophetic images of the shepherd as a personification of the merciful nature of the Heavenly Father. The shepherd cares for the vulnerable sheep, and God himself becomes vulnerable to care for us who are susceptible to the powers of evil.  In all the imageries of the divine in the various religious traditions, it is the...