The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

Shepherd

Long before God, through His son Jesus, taught us to call him “Father” and long before we were called to an intimate knowledge of Him, human to human, through Jesus, God revealed himself as a shepherd to us. Throughout the Psalms, God tells us that He is our God and we the people he shepherds. The only name we were given by him for us to call him was “I am” but we could understand his nature by thinking of him as being a shepherd.

While we all relate and are comforted to God as a shepherd, much of what it means to be a shepherd is no longer part of our modern understanding. In the US, the numbers of sheep being raised has plummeted many fold over the last 50 years. While we still see flocks of sheep as we drive through the country side or walk through the stalls at a fair, the common language of the shepherd has been lost. Flocks, diminished in numbers, are still tended but the work is done by men and women who go out to the field to tend the sheep but then return a home that is not out in the fields or pastures with the sheep.

When I was very young there were still great flocks of sheep throughout the west and in my home country of Beaverhead and Madison counties. My great uncle kept both sheep and cattle, something that was not common until the 50’s and 60’s years. Most of the large sheep ranchers hired shepherds to accompany the flocks during the spring, summer and early fall months while the sheep were in distant pastures and ranges. I have only the slightest memory of a shepherd who must have worked for my uncle and his brother-in- law who owned a neighboring ranch.

As a caution, I cannot be certain if the memories are real or if what I remember is really just a blending of images and learned knowledge piled up in my head over the years. If what I share is not the truth, literally, I hope to share a truth we can all grasp.

My uncle’s shepherd was a Basque man who seemed old and very mysterious. He wore dark clothing very different than the denim and button up shirts we all wore and his hat looked like a stretched out Irish flat cap similar to hats worn by many of the Irish in Butte and Anaconda instead of broad brimmed western hat associated with ranch life. I don’t recall his name, if I ever knew it, so I will just call him “Artzain” which, according to Google is the Basque word meaning shepherd. He was the only person I have ever known whose vocation was to be shepherd.

Artzain arrived in mid spring when lambing season was getting started and he lived in the bunk house behind the barn through the spring until lambs were weaned and it was time to move the sheep out to the summer range. Artzain drove a WWII vintage Dodge Powerwagon pickup equipped with an old style shepherd’s wagon modified to fit in the bed of the pickup. The wagon was originally an old buckboard with a modified Conestoga type design. Inside was a bunk, a small wood stove and some pots to cook with and limited basics to serve as food stuff.

From the time the sheep reached the summer range until the first frosts signaled it was time to move the flocks back to the winter pasture, Artzain remained with the sheep 24 hours a day except for one or two days a month when he drove back to the range to collect his pay from the my uncle. Artzain would take a few dollars from the envelope and head into Dillon for a day or two before heading back to the range. My uncle would then put the rest of the pay back in his big desk until the end of the season. 

There were rumors what Artzain would do while in Dillon. Some of the stories involved big dinners at the Lion’s Den. Others involved lots of drinking at a bar frequented by other ranch hands and shepherds which sometimes involved in some fisticuffs between shepherds and cowboys. The only thing I can really remember was that Artzain said he went to Dillon so he could go to mass at St. Rose of Lima. Coming from a protestant family, the concept of a Catholic Mass was the biggest mystery of all. He spoke in very heavily accented and broken language and seemed communicate best through facial expressions and hand gestures. I was never exactly sure what he was saying but given the frequent laughter that marked their exchanges, my uncle and he understood each other well enough.

At the end of the season, Artzain would take a few dollars from the pay envelope but then have my Aunt mail the rest somewhere. After the business was done, Artzain drove away to where I don’t know but would guess it would be the join the other Basques living in Idaho or Utah. I don’t know to who or where the money was sent but it was clear Artzain did not trust himself with the cash. At some point the story ended. I don’t recall when exactly but as my uncle and aunt prepared for retirement, much of the ranch was sold at the same time the demand for sheep great diminished. My father finished college and we moved further away so we spent considerably less time at the ranch. Artzain and the rest of his kind faded first from the landscape and then from memory.

This story is not so much about who Artzain was but what he did and how his vocation could be associated with God and we who are his flock.

So what does a shepherd really do? We think of a shepherd as being in charge, being a master, if you will, of his flock. This seems to fit in well with the social construct of the ancient near east in which culture as defined by a master/servant relationship. Everyone had a place either as a master or servant in any particular setting and from the very top of a community to the very bottom. A master would tell the servant where to go, what to do, when to do it and so on. The servant would comply or be punished. The rules were very simple.

It is easy to see God as shepherd who masters throughout the Old and New Testaments. Our entire history as a people of God is that of a people called to respond to the will of God. God called us out of Egypt, he told us what to do to feed ourselves in the desert during the Exodus and gave us a law to follow to seek his favor. Truly, if the shepherd says “Go”, the sheep must to go where directed or risk consequences.

There is more, however. Artzain remained with the sheep day in and day out. Whether the sun was gently and warm or blasting hot, whether wind was a comforting breeze or a freezing gale, whether rain was gentle or poured down, whether the moon rose up to brighten the darkened night sky or clouds obscured its journey, the shepherd remained. What the sheep encountered, he encountered as well. If a coyote edged in at night, the shepherd would keep watch to drive him away. If an eagle circled over a young lamb, the shepherd would stand guard. The shepherd suffered with the sheep, he tended their wounds, searched out the lost sheep and kept watch to be sure they ate well but did not overgraze a pasture. He was not just their master, he served them as well.

To understand God as shepherd is not to see him as just a master but in the person of Jesus, we see him as our servant. He brings us what we lack, he knows what we want.

Want

We pray in the Psalm we shall not know want. What does it mean to not know want? This Psalm is familiar to me from all the way back to first grade when we were taught to recite the Psalm by memory. To a 6 year old, to not know want is to have all of the basic needs provided. Clothing, food, shelter, toys and so on. Beyond those things, to not know want was to feel loved, cherished, cared for and to note be alone. At 60, I have come to believe to not know want is more than having physical needs met. We all experience illness, thirst, hunger, grief and poverty even if don’t know any of them in great measure. We have witnessed those who have been struck by those things in great measure remain faithful to God despite their hardships. The lesson from them is to not know want is to embrace Christ and to seek food and drink only he can offer us which brings purpose and value to our human lives and find consolation and compassion which will bring comfort from affliction.

The shepherd cannot hide from the blazing sun or dry up the snows and rains which threaten life. The shepherd cannot stop the wind or prevent all danger from finding the flock. The good shepherd remains with the flock and shares and understands their joys and sorrows. He celebrates their success and comforts them when they are injured. The shepherd knows everything that happens to his flock and he shares in their lives. In return the flock knows the shepherd and they rely on him for everything. The lesson for us to be like the flock and know God and to rely on him for every need and we will be freed from want.

The psalm concludes with the answer to the riddle of what it means to not know want. It is to know that through green or parched fields, through still or raging waters, through the very moment of death, we will know goodness and mercy all the days of our lives. Mercy, to know mercy regardless of all else is to always to be from want.

Mercy is the gift of the Shepherd to his flock that surpasses all other things.