The Shepherd (Blake) of The Shepherd as Christ is initially found in another Song, The Little Black Boy. Psalm 23 depicts God as a shepherd of mankind, and the capitalization of the word 'Shepherd' in the first and last lines furthers the idea that the Shepherd is a symbol of God. In the bible, a shepherd's presence is representative of guidance. In this poem, the Shepherd can be viewed as the spiritual guide or a savior of the herd, rejoicing in their numbers. Jesus is also referred to in the bible as the Lamb of God. Since the poem depicts The Shepherd as
Psalm 97 König überall" (The lord is King everywhere), it is catalogued as SWV 195. Johann Sebastian Bach based the first movement of a wedding cantata, "Dem Gerechten muß das Licht", BWV 195, on in possibly in 1727. Friedrich Ludwig Benda set the psalm in German as a cantata for three soloists, choir and orchestra in 1786. Otto Nicolai set Psalm 97 in German as a psalm motet for choir a cappella with solo passages, "Der Herr ist König" (The Lord is King) in 1832, published by Bote & Bock in Berlin in 1977. Antonín Dvořák set verses 2–6 in Czech to