(A Psalm of David.) Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not want.
David's opening line is the shortest creed in the Bible: a name, a relationship, and a conclusion. Everything else in the psalm rests on whether you can say that line and mean it.
Anyone can agree that God cares for people. This psalm turns on one small word.
Everyone can say the Lord is a Shepherd. So all the significance of this statement hangs on the little word "my." To say "my" Shepherd is the language of faith. The word "my" is the doorway into the psalm... And what follows? "I shall not want." We shall not want, not because we are sheep, but because He is our Shepherd. This conclusion flows, not from what we are to Him, but from what He is to us. Many of us begin with ourselves, and as we see what feeble, wayward creatures we are, we fall into doubts. When we begin with the Lord instead, we gain a well-grounded assurance that we "shall not want." For surely it belongs to the Shepherd to provide for the sheep.
Trusting Him to forgive is one thing. Following where He leads is another.
Every believer can say, "The Lord is my Saviour." But have we all truly submitted to His leading, so that we can each say, "The LORD is my Shepherd"? He has told us that He is "the Shepherd." But have we each told Him, You are "my Shepherd"? Have we accepted Him as our Saviour, who died for us to save us from our sins? And have we also submitted to Him as our Shepherd, to lead us home through all our difficulties?
The verse names no supplies. It names a Person. (This writer uses "Jehovah," the divine name the ESV prints as "the LORD.")
Its subject is "Jehovah is my Shepherd" — the constant, unfailing care He gives. It is not what He gives which assures the heart, but Himself. Power, grace, goodness, interest in the faithful One — all assure. They assure in all circumstances, for ever and always. He has taken the care of His faithful ones on Himself. These cannot want. We do not have to think about what may come, or what means He may use.
David does not reach this line early. He reaches it after the worst has happened.
But in Psalm 23 he cannot say, Jehovah is my shepherd, until he has been through all the power of evil... He counted on Jehovah, and learned to count on Him through all the difficulties of the way.
We secure ourselves by listing what we have. The psalm lists nothing.
There are the daily needs of the body. How are they to be met? The Psalmist does not say, "I hold a good job, I shall not want." He does not say, "I have kind friends who will care for me," or "I have plenty of money," or "I have youth, and health, and abilities." The LORD may meet our wants in all these ways, and many others. But the Psalmist speaks of none of these means. He looks beyond all secondary causes and providential ways, and he sees the LORD.
Sheep fail in four ways. Each failure has an answer in the shepherd.
If the sheep are hungry, the shepherd is there to guide them into green pastures. Are they foolish? He is there to keep their wandering feet. Are they weak? He gently leads his sheep and carries the lambs. Are they timid? He goes in front to lead them through the rough valleys, and to defend them from every enemy.
Three names describe the Shepherd, each tied to a psalm.
As the "Good Shepherd," who laid down His life for the sheep. (Compare John 10; Ps. 22) As the "Great Shepherd" — risen from the dead, He takes charge of the sheep as they journey through "that great and terrible wilderness." (Compare Heb. 13; Ps. 23) As the "Chief Shepherd," who will give a crown of glory to all His under-shepherds at His appearing and kingdom. (Compare 1 Peter 5; Ps. 24)
Commentators differ over which reader the psalm addresses first. Some read it straight as the believer's own song; others place its first application with Israel.
He is the Shepherd of each person who trusts in Him. He is also the Shepherd of Israel as a nation. The Patriarch Jacob spoke of this when he said, "the God which fed me," or, literally, "my Shepherd."
- Three names. The Good Shepherd laid down His life; the Great Shepherd leads the sheep through the wilderness; the Chief Shepherd will crown His servants at His appearing.
- Claim it. "My" is the doorway. The Shepherd's existence comforts no one until faith says the pronoun.
- Follow Him. Saviour means He died to save us from our sins. Shepherd means we submit to His leading.
- Count on Him. Job, friends, money and health may all be His means. The assurance is the Shepherd Himself, in every circumstance.
- He supplies what sheep lack. Hungry, foolish, weak, timid — each need answered by One who walks in front, all the way home.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside still waters.
Psalm 23 opens with a bold claim: the Lord Himself is the shepherd. Verse 2 shows what that shepherd does — He puts His sheep down in good grass and walks them to quiet water.
The verse describes gifts, but the psalm's confidence rests on the giver. One writer puts the difference plainly:
The point is not "Jehovah has given me plenty of green pastures" — though He does give them. The point is "He is my shepherd." Then come the green pastures and still waters. But he is not looking only at that.
The pastures matter because of where the sheep is standing:
In the wilderness path there are not only temporal wants, but spiritual needs. For the Christian the world around is an empty wilderness. There is nothing in all its passing vanities to feed the soul. Its pastures are dry and barren; its waters are only waters of strife. If "the LORD is my Shepherd," He will lead me into His green pastures and beside the still waters.
A hungry animal does not rest. So the lying down tells us something that the grass alone does not:
The spiritual food the Shepherd provides is always fresh, because He leads into the "green pastures." And the Shepherd does not only feed. He satisfies. He makes His sheep "lie down in green pastures." No hungry sheep would lie down surrounded by plenty. It would feed first, and lie down when full.
Lying down is also how sheep learn. One writer warns that busy searching is not the same as feeding:
Our Good Shepherd, in pasturing His sheep, does not make them run over the pastures, but "lie down" in them. Going after knowledge is not feeding. There are those who are "ever learning" and yet never come to the knowledge of the truth. They are always on their legs, but seldom, if ever, lie down.
One writer reads the two halves of the verse as food and drink:
Food for the body is not only meat. It is meat and drink. In the same way, it is not only the tender herbs that make the pasture. The "still waters" (or "waters of rest") are part of it too. Jesus Christ is the "Bread of Life." That comes first and matters most. But then His Spirit is the "Water of Life." … Christ, through His Spirit, feeds us in the pasture of the Word of God, which is "a written Christ," as another has put it.
One writer compares the two kinds of water a person can drink from:
The stream that makes the most noise and show is always where the rocks are thickest and the water is shallow. The still waters are quiet but deep. The Shepherd can calm our souls and quench our spiritual thirst with the deep things of God, far away from the noisy, shallow arguments that occupy people and too often distract the Christian.
Quiet water is the second half of the verse. One writer traces where that quiet came from:
Everlasting goodness takes us by the hand and leads us beside the still waters. These waters were not always quiet. They were not quiet in the previous psalm. But now He has stilled them for His own beloved sheep. When the waters came into His soul at the cross (Ps. 69:1) they were a mighty flood. But those water-floods have passed. Christ has stilled them; He has made them "still waters" for us.
That quiet does not come from calmer circumstances. One writer draws out what this means in a storm:
It is a greater thing to go through the storm resting in perfect confidence in Him than to have it removed for us. We can let Him lead us beside the still waters while the floods roll around us. That honours Him more than a change of circumstances to suit our lack of faith.
The rest of verse 2 is not the end of the journey. It equips the sheep for the path of verse 3:
He who in verse 2 leads us beside still waters, in verse 3 leads us in paths of righteousness. Having led us in, He leads us out. We are satisfied with His provision, refreshed by His blessing, encouraged by Himself. And so we may walk here to His praise and glory.
- Shepherd — The assurance is not a full field but a person. He gives the pastures, but the confidence rests on Him.
- Supplies — The world's pastures are dry and its waters are waters of strife. Every real meal for the soul comes from Him.
- Satisfies — He does not just feed. He makes the sheep lie down, and a hungry sheep never rests among plenty.
- Stills — The waters are quiet because the flood went over Him at the cross; the calm was bought, not found.
- Sends — He leads the fed and refreshed sheep back out into the path of righteousness. Rest is preparation, not the destination.
He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
The psalm moves from rest in green pastures to walking. Two questions follow: what does it mean that He restores, and what weight rests on the closing phrase "for his name's sake"?
The comfort here is narrowed to a person. Andrew Miller traces the recovery to the Shepherd, not to the good things He gives.
The deeper the trial, the stronger the expression of His love. And now we can say, out of the rich experience of our souls, "HE restores my soul." Not the green pastures and the still waters, pleasant and excellent as they are — no; but the Lord Himself. The path becomes more and more individual; there must be greater nearness to the Lord as our Shepherd, and more direct fellowship with Himself.
One sense of the word is recovery after wandering. The danger often comes right after the richest blessing.
We enjoy the green pastures and the still waters and then we wander… The Lord has been leading His weak and weary sheep into green pastures and beside still waters. He spoke to them of the Father's home, and of His coming to receive them to Himself. They close that time of sweet fellowship by singing a hymn. But at once the Lord warns His sheep that, on that same night, they would all fall away because of Him… Singing a hymn in His company one hour, falling away and scattered the next… But if they wander, He restores. Peter breaks down and denies the Lord, but he cannot restore himself. The Lord's prayer for Peter, the Lord's look upon Peter, the Lord's private interview with Peter, brought about his restoration.
The word is not limited to failure. Commentators also read it as reviving a tired soul for what lies ahead.
When it says "He restores my soul" it means, He invigorates my soul. He gives me spiritual tonics. They are not tonics that brighten you up for a few hours and then leave you more depressed than you were before. When the Lord invigorates us He makes us strong for what is before us.
The path takes its character from whose way it is. Sheep once had a way of their own.
It was once true that all we like sheep turned every one to his own way. Then our straying feet trod the paths of unrighteousness. But now we have heard the Shepherd's voice, and as we follow Him obediently and adoringly we are walking in the paths of righteousness, for we are taking His way, not our own.
That path leaves no room for our own confidence. Sincerity alone will not keep us on it:
The path of righteousness, in which He leads, is a "narrow way" in which there is no room for the self-confidence of the flesh, and we can only walk it with the LORD as our Shepherd before us. An Apostle found this out. With real sincerity and zeal, but with great self-confidence, he said, "Lord, I am ready to go with you, both to prison and to death."
Restoration first, then righteous paths. Being restored is not permission to sin again.
We are not restored so that we may go and sin again more lightly, but so that we may "go and sin no more." The deeper my sense of the grace of divine restoration, the deeper will be my sense of the holiness of it also… The proper path for a divinely-restored soul, is "the path of righteousness." In other words, having tasted divine grace, we walk in righteousness.
The last words give the reason behind all this care, and it is not in the sheep.
They also say what God is after: to be known.
These last words give us the principle of these tender and holy ways — a principle which guarantees their consistency absolutely. He does this "for His Name's sake." His Name is how we know Him; it shows what He is. God wants us to know Him — to know Him, so that we may trust Him; to know Him, so that we may delight in Him.
- Restored — the recovery comes from the Shepherd Himself, not from the pastures and waters He gives.
- Brought back — the Shepherd brings the wanderer home; Peter could not restore himself, and neither can we.
- Strengthened — He invigorates: strong for what lies ahead, not cheered for an hour.
- Led — righteous paths are His way instead of our own, a narrow way with no room for self-confidence.
- For His name — He restores and leads so that we may know Him, trust Him, and delight in Him.