Jehovah Rohi
Psalm 23, John 10:1-21
This Psalm is one of the most popular of David’s poems. It begins with the famous line, “the Lord is my shepherd,” or in Hebrew, “Jehovah Rohi.”
Jehovah is an iteration of the divine name of God, Yahweh. We’ve seen it quite a few times in this series. If you remember from our study of the name, “Adonai” [Hebrew for Lord], the Israelites would replace the divine name with “Adonai” in texts and speech in order to give the name “Yahweh” due reverence and avoid using it flagrantly.
In order to remind people to say “Adonai” when they came across the name “Yahweh,” Hebrew scribes came up with a visual device: They combined the consonants of the name “Yahweh” (Y-H-W-H) with the vowels of “Adonai” (A-O-A). In texts, this looked like “Yahowah,” and it reminded people to say “Adonai” when they came across it while reading the scriptures aloud.
Eventually, when English-speaking Christians started translating the Bible, they adopted this visual queue word into our English writing system, rendering it the name “Jehovah.” This name now shows up as “LORD” in our English Bibles because it is an iteration of “Yahweh.”
This LORD, whose name is so holy that people hesitated to even speak it, is our “Rohi,” our shepherd. Like a kind shepherd, he leads, guides, and comforts his people. This infinitely holy God walks alongside his people. He cares for them deeply. He does not leave them, and will not forsake them.
Jesus must have had this poem in mind when he spoke to the Pharisees in John 10. They, as diligent scholars of Hebrew literature, would have had this poem memorized. They knew that David was writing about Yahweh the Rohi in this poem, and here is Jesus, claiming that He is indeed this Rohi. No one in their right mind would have made such a claim - no wonder the Pharisees called Jesus “demon possessed.”
But Jesus is not crazy, He is telling the truth. He is the Rohi from Psalm 23 in the flesh. He proves it by laying His life down for the sheep, and not just the Israelites, but for all people. The “other sheep” Jesus speaks of are the non-Jews who will trust in Jesus, becoming “one flock” under the lordship of the Good Shepherd. We, as these followers, have an unhindered relationship with the shepherd by the power of his death and resurrection. We are free to follow his guidance, lean into his comfort, and draw strength from his love.
As a way of leaning into God as our shepherd, I encourage you to memorize one verse of this Psalm. Read over the Psalm and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal a truth you need to be reminded of.
Next time you find yourself feeling overwhelmed or believing a lie about who you are, recite that verse back to yourself. Pray it over your situation. And even in the darkest valleys, lean into the loving shepherd who gave himself up for the flock.
