Psalm 23:1 Commentary

"THE LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. " This is surely the expression of a heart that is filled and occupied with the Lord Himself. It may be the expression of one who only knew the Lord as Jehovah, revealed to Israel; or, of one who knows Him as Jehovah Jesus, who saves His people from their sins; but it is evidently the language of one who is truly godly, whether Jew or Christian, and who makes the Lord his only trust. The soul, under all circumstances, is here viewed as resting on the unfailing care, and quietly enjoying the varied resources, of the well-known Shepherd of the sheep. And that, not only for the present time, but for all times and for ever.

This is precious faith! Mark it well, O my soul, and patiently meditate thereon. It is most practical; "The Lord is my shepherd." It rises, observe, above what He gives, what He does, what He promises, blessed as these are, and calmly rests on what He is Himself. As the eye of Abraham rested not on the promises, when he put forth his hand to slay his son, but on Him from whom the promises came, so here, the eye of the pilgrim resting on the Lord, he can say, "I shall not want." When such confidence fills the heart, peace, evenness and quietness will characterise the life.

"The Lord is my shepherd" sounds like the voice of one rejoicing. "I shall not want," like that of quiet confidence.

That Blessed Saviour, Whose cry of agony opens the preceding Psalm, when the face of His God, Whose eyes are purer than to behold iniquity, had to turn away from His holy and beloved One, because our sins and iniquities were then and there laid upon Him, made sin for us — that same Blessed Saviour, we behold at the opening of Psalm 23 as Jehovah the Shepherd, drawing forth from the sheep and lambs of His pasture, that expression of calm and joyful confidence, "I shall not want."

Jesus Christ alone is "the good shepherd," "the great shepherd," and "the chief shepherd."

Could we admit, after these words, the shadow of a thought of want? Perish the doubt, that would dare to tread upon the heels of that glorious truth, "The Lord is my Shepherd." The following words, "I shall not want," are, for the logic of faith, only the natural and necessary conclusion of the first part of the sentence. They are twin-truths, so to speak, inseparable. Just as we would say on a fine spring morning, "The sun is risen, consequently there will be plenty of light and warmth." Once this statement repeated in the assurance of faith, "The Lord Jehovah Jesus is my Shepherd," you cannot help adding, "I shall not want." A natural man's way of thinking and feeling is just the opposite. He first feels his wants, and then bethinks himself of one to supply it. Faith thinks first of the One Who supplies every want, and then says, "I shall not want at all."

But, Christian reader, let us on the other hand beware of the whisper of the proud and independent heart, that would say, "I shall not want," without the preceding, "The Lord is my shepherd." Such was the thought and language that characterized wretched and lukewarm Laodicea. She said, "I am in need of nothing," but disconnected with Christ.

When we have learnt the deep lessons of the twenty-second Psalm, we shall understand the path of the twenty-third; and further, we shall rejoice in hope of the glory of the twenty-fourth. The three Psalms are linked together. But the twenty-second must be learnt first. … We must travel, in faith, through the twenty-second to reach the twenty-third; there is no other path to it.

We cannot know Him as our Shepherd if it is an unsettled matter about sin being forgiven. God cannot let sin into His presence. There must be a conscience purged. Christ has been accepted, and He puts us into His place, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

Now God is my Shepherd, and we may have confidence in Himself, for it does not say, He has done this and He will do that; but "I shall not want." There never can be a want to the soul that has the supply. It is the application of this power and goodness of God to my everyday need that I shall feel; and all this must go on the ground of sin forgiven.

To be able to say by faith, "The Lord is my shepherd," is to be assured of everlasting immunity from spiritual want. The path of light and safety is made plain and even through the wilderness of life to the poor and feeble saint, who, needing all the grace and power of Divine sufficiency for his guidance and comfort here below, finds God's full treasures opened in all their richness, and ministered with ever ready application to his own peculiar need by the sympathizing tenderness of a Saviour who claims the friendship of the saved.

Confident assurance of unfailing blessing, grounded upon the known name and character of Jehovah as He is now made manifest in "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever."

The words are David's; but as the Spirit of the Lord spake by him, his experimental utterances have a meaning in them far beyond the limits of his personal communion. It is for those in whom Christ dwells by the spirit of adoption to enjoy to the full the language of this Psalm.