Behold, I, even I, etc. The words, as the last reference shows, and as we find in Ezekiel 34:23-31, do not exclude, rather they imply, human instrumentality, just us our Lord's do in Matthew 18:12 and Luke 15:4-7; but they reveal the truth that Jehovah is the true Shepherd of his people.
Not the sweet psalmist of Israel only, but the lowest outcast, might use the language of Psalms 23:1-6; and say, "The Lord is my Shepherd." He will gather the sheep that have been scattered in the "cloudy and dark day," the day of the Lord's judgment (Ezekiel 30:3).
For the prophet the words pointed to that vision of a restored Israel, which was dominant in the expectations both of Isaiah (or the Deutero-Isaiah) in Ezekiel 40-48; and in Jeremiah (Jeremiah 33:12-18), which floated before the minds of the apostles (Acts 1:6), and to which even St.
Paul looked forward as the solution of the great problems of the world's history (Romans 9-11.).