Today’s Passage: Psalm 23
There are only six verses here, and David wrote them, but the whole psalm is already gathered into its first line. The LORD is my shepherd. I shall not want. Everything that follows only opens out what that one sentence already holds, so we need not turn the green pastures, the dark valley, and the house of the LORD into three separate sermons. There is one claim running through all of it, and one Shepherd.
As you read, hold this: The LORD is my shepherd. I shall not want.
Context Of David
“A Psalm of David,” the superscription reads, and that heading is itself part of the inspired text. David had kept sheep as a boy, and he also knew what it was to be kept by God. Yet the psalm does not linger over his history. It names the LORD, and then it simply begins to walk.
Psalm 23:1 (BSB)
¹ A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Word study "My shepherd" — ro'i (Psalm 23:1)
Hebrew: רֹעִי (ro’i), pronounced ro-EE. From רָעָה (ra’ah), Strong’s H7462.
The startling word is not the image. Scripture already calls the LORD the Shepherd of Israel (Psalm 80:1). The startling word is my. First person. One man claiming the King over every king as his own. Ezekiel later hears the same claim from God’s own mouth: “I Myself will search for My flock… I will tend My flock” (Ezekiel 34:11, 15).
I shall not want. This is not a promise that nothing will ever be missing, but the settled confidence of a life already claimed. The rest of the psalm will only show us what that first line already is: green ground and quiet water, a dark stretch of road, a table, and a house, all of it held under my Shepherd.
Psalm 23:2-3 (BSB)
² He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. ³ He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for the sake of His name.
He makes, He leads, He restores, He guides, and it is the same hand doing all of it, holding rest and direction together in a single breath. A life that only rested and was never led would starve, and a life that was only driven and never restored would collapse, so the psalm keeps both on purpose. And the reason given at the end of verse 3 is not first of all the sheep. For the sake of His name, He guides, and the path and the honor turn out to be the same road.
Psalm 23:4 (BSB)
⁴ Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
Study notes From "He" to "You"
Verses 1 through 3 speak about Him, but verse 4 turns and speaks to Him, and the turn comes at the worst place in the whole psalm. For You are with me. The nearness of the language tracks the nearness of the need, and the rod and the staff bring comfort by their presence in the Shepherd’s hand, ready for use rather than laid aside.
I will fear no evil, for You are with me. That is the heart of the verse. The valley is still the valley, and he never says it has become something else. What holds him is the “You.” The rod and the staff are named as comfort in the very same breath as the dark, and they are with him because the Shepherd is with him.
Psalm 23:5 (BSB)
⁵ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
The enemies are still there. The table is set in their presence, not only after they have gone, and the oil and the overflowing cup are poured out in the middle of exposure rather than once the exposure is safely over. That is a different promise than “the trouble will end first.” The psalm lets the table and the enemies share the same room.
Psalm 23:6 (BSB)
⁶ Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
Goodness and mercy will follow, and they will follow all the days, so that the shepherded life is not only kept from disaster but actively pursued by good. And the last line opens into a house, not only a path. I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. The first line named a Shepherd, and the last line names a home, the same claim carried all the way through.
The New Testament does not leave the first line in David’s mouth alone.
"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd, and the sheep are not his own. When he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf pounces on them and scatters the flock. The man runs away because he is a hired servant and is unconcerned for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father. And I lay down My life for the sheep." John 10:11-15 (BSB)
Jesus names Himself as that very Shepherd, and He adds what David’s six verses had not yet said: this Shepherd lays down His life. The hired hand runs when the wolf comes, but this One stays, and dies. Every comfort in the psalm finally rests there. Psalm 23 trusts that such a Shepherd exists, and John 10 tells us His name.
The LORD is my shepherd. I shall not want.