The Lord is My Shepherd (Eastman Johnson) The Lord is My Shepherd (Eastman Johnson) The Lord is My Shepherd is an 1863 oil on wood painting by American artist Eastman Johnson. The painting measures 16 5/8 x 13 1/8 in. (42.3 x 33.2 cm.) and is on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The title of the painting comes from Psalm 23, which begins with the line: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." Johnson painted it just after the Emancipation Proclamation was announced in 1863. Its imagery includes an African-American man reading the first part of a Bible, possibly the Book of Exodus.
Psalm 144 Psalm 144 Psalm 144 is the 144th psalm from the Book of Psalms in the Masoretic and modern numbering, corresponding to psalm 143 in the Vulgata Clementina. The text is attributed to David in the Masoretic text. The Septuagint has the additional specification of "David against Goliath", putting the text in the context of the narrative of David's fight against Goliath in 1 Samuel 17. The first verse is rendered in the KJV as "Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight". This translates the Hebrew , where "my strength" renders