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 42 Psalm 42 Psalm 42 is the 42nd psalm of the Book of Psalms, generally known in English by its first verse, in the King James Version, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God". The Book of Psalms is the third section of the Hebrew Bible, and a book of the Christian Old Testament. In the Hebrew Bible, Psalm 42 opens the second of the five books (divisions) of Psalms. In the Greek Septuagint version of the bible, and in its Latin translation Vulgate, this psalm is Psalm 41 in a slightly