VI. He Leadeth Me in the Paths of Justice for His Name’s Sake. VII. Yea, Though I Walk in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I Will Fear no Evil, for Thou Art With Me. VIII. Thy Rod and Thy Staff They Comfort Me. IX. Thou Spreadest Before Me a Table in the Presence of Mine Enemies. X. Thou Anointest My Head With Oil; My Cup Runneth Over. XI. Surely Goodness and Mercy Shall Follow Me All the Days of My Life; and I Shall Dwell in the House of the Lord Unto Length of Days. Footnotes Nihil Obstat: M. A. WALDRON, O. P. S. T. M. J. A. McHUGH, O. P. S. T. Lr. Imprimi Potest: J. R. MEAGHER, O. P. S. T. Lr. Imprimatur: ++ J. CARD. GIBBONS. PSALM OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in pastures of tender grass. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of justice for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou spreadest before me a table in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord unto length of days. INTRODUCTION. No types more beautiful could have been chosen under which to picture the character of our Lord and the souls He came to redeem than those of a shepherd and his flock. As nothing on earth could more fitly illustrate the infinite love and sacrifice of the Saviour than the enduring labors and tenderness of a shepherd, so nothing here below could better portray the multiple wants of our spirits than the needful dependent nature of sheep. After the knowledge we possess of our Redeemer, only a slight acquaintance with the characteristics of pastoral life, as it exists in oriental countries, is needed to discern the charming fitness of these comparisons. The similarity is at once striking and most easily understood. Hence it is that our Lord, as well as those who described Him before He came, so often appealed to shepherd life when speaking of the Messiah’s mission; hence, also, it is that He was so fond of calling Himself the Good Shepherd, and of alluding to the souls He loved as His sheep. It is the purpose of the pages that follow to trace some of these beautiful and touching resemblances of the shepherd and his flock, on the one side, roaming over the hills and plains of Palestine, and the Saviour of the World with the souls of men, on the other, pursuing together the journey of life. We have taken as our guide, in noting these charming likenesses, the Twenty-second Psalm, or the Psalm of the Good Shepherd, every verse of which recalls some feature or features of pastoral life, and sings of the offices, tender and varied, which the shepherd discharges towards his flock. As this shepherd song was composed and written in the Hebrew tongue, the language of ancient Palestine, we have employed here a literal translation from the original language, simply because it expresses much more beautifully and more exactly than does any rendering from the Latin or Greek the various marks and characteristics of the shepherd’s life and duties. The oriental languages, like the people who speak them, are exceedingly...