The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Psalm 23

Every year on this Fourth Sunday of Easter, those who follow the Revised Common Lectionary observe what is informally known as “Good Shepherd Sunday.” Our gospel reading this Sunday is always from John 10, the section of John’s Gospel where Jesus describes himself as our good shepherd. And the psalm appointed for this day is always the same one: Psalm 23. 

This is a very familiar psalm to many, if not most, of us. It is not only the most well-known psalm of them all, it is arguably the most beloved. It is a personal favorite of mine. And what I have noticed over the years is that this psalm teaches me something new whenever I spend time with it. 

I have mentioned this psalm in a number of sermons, but never devoted an entire sermon to it, so that is what I plan to do today: Offer a sermon on Psalm 23, simply taking it verse by verse. Six perfect verses that teach us as much about our life with God as anything in all of Scripture. Beginning with that very first verse: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” 

All We Want

We all probably have some idea of what it means that the Lord is our shepherd. It is a beautiful picture of our God, describing a God who is not a distant deity, but one who takes a personal interest in our lives; a God who cares for us deeply, and who takes care of us daily. The Lord is our shepherd. What a gift. 

But what about the next part of this verse – “I shall not want”? What does this mean? This, to me, is one of the keys to this psalm, and one of the keys to our life with God: Learning to find in God everything that we could ever want. 

As human beings living in this world, we all want many things. Some are for ourselves, but many are for others, or for our world. This first verse, to me, is not describing our life with God as it is; it is describing our life with God as it should be. It is a goal of where God wants to take us, rather than a description of where we are. And where God wants to take us all is to that place where we find in God everything we could ever want. 

Praying this first verse, in other words, is not simply thanking God for being our shepherd, or Jesus for being our Good Shepherd. It is also asking God to help us want nothing besides him. It is a way of reminding ourselves that underneath all of the other wants in our life, there is just one that matters, and that is our life with God. And when we want that above all, there is nothing else we want or need. 

Restoring Our Souls

The second verse begins to describe what a life with God looks like on a daily basis. The rest of the psalm will be describing that. But it starts with God making us lie down in green pastures, leading us beside still, refreshing waters, and restoring our souls. It is beautiful imagery, very peaceful. But let me just say a word about the last part of this verse – “He restores my soul.” 

Our souls need that restoration, don’t they? And not just once, but again and again. Life has a way of depleting our souls, of causing them to be thrown off-kilter. Our souls need constant restoration, and that is something that only God can do. It makes me think of the invitation from Jesus in Matthew 11: “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” 

That is how our souls are restored – by coming to Jesus, by learning from him. He is our Good Shepherd, and he wants to lead us beside the still waters; he wants to restore our souls. And all we have to do is accept his invitation. Come to him, spend time with him, learn from him, and our souls will be restored. And our restored souls will find rest. 

Led on Right Pathways

But not rest without purpose. Jesus’ invitation is not simply to give us rest, but to lead us. Which brings us to the next verse of this psalm: “He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.” Or, in the King James Version, he leads me in paths of righteousness. But what is this path of righteousness? What is the right path? How do we know if we are on it? 

There is one sure way to know that we are on the right path, this psalm teaches us: Follow Jesus. Don’t trust the path; don’t trust your instincts; don’t trust your family or friends; don’t trust me; trust Jesus. He promises to lead you and guide you on the right path. All we have to do is follow him. Every day. Spend time with Jesus. Learn from him. Listen to his voice. Follow him. And trust him to lead us on the right path. 

In a famous prayer by Thomas Merton, he begins by saying: “My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.” But he trusts that simply desiring to please God is itself pleasing to God. And, he prays, “I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.” But not only that, he goes on to say: “And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.”

This is the prayer of someone who had made Psalm 23 his own. And who had come to believe that his shepherd would lead him along right pathways, even when he felt a little lost. That is the promise of our shepherd. 

Through Dark Valleys

But even when we do follow Jesus faithfully on the “right path,” and we are assured that we will not get lost, we still might find ourselves in dark valleys. This brings us to the next verse: “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

At the exact middle of this psalm we find the phrase that is at the heart of it: “You are with me.” In Hebrew there are 26 words before this phrase, and 26 words after it. The very middle of this psalm is the truth on which it all depends: “You are with me.” Nothing is more important than that. It is why we need not fear, even when we face dark valleys, even when we are in the shadow of death, even when there is evil around us, enemies. It’s all okay because God is with us. Our shepherd. Who leads us, guides us, and lays down his life for us. “We know love by this,” as John tells us in our 1 John 3:16, “that [Jesus Christ] laid down his life for us.” 

The Upper Room

Think back a moment to the night that Jesus arrested, and you will have a perfect image for the fifth verse of Psalm 23: “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” Isn’t that what Jesus did for his disciples that night? Surrounded by enemies, he prepared a table. He anointed their feet. He raised the cup and offered it to them. He re-enacted this psalm, in other words. Just as he does for us every Sunday. No matter what is going on in the world or in our lives, we come here to find the table prepared. The meal ready. The cup of grace, love, and mercy overflowing. God’s goodness and mercy in abundance. Here in the house of the Lord. Which brings us to the last verse of this psalm: 

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” 

I love the idea of God’s goodness and mercy following me around all day, every day. Always there for me, for us. But this promise is even stronger than that. It literally says that God’s goodness and mercy pursue us – they chase us down, never letting us go, the “hound of heaven” always on our tail, refusing to quit until we are chased back into the arms of God’s love. And not just us. But our friends and loved ones who have given up on church, or even on God. Think of God’s goodness and mercy as pursuing them, chasing them down, until they are shepherded back into the arms of God’s love, into the safety of the house of the Lord. What a wonderful promise!

This Psalm Is Meant for Me

There is a famous story about this psalm that I first came across in a commentary on the psalms by George Knight. It is the story of “two ministers who went on holiday together tramping in the Welsh hills. High on the moors they met a shepherd lad and stopped to chat with him. They found this boy had never been to school and that he knew nothing at all of the Christian faith. The two ministers finally read to him the 23rd Psalm, and to help him find a personal faith they got him to repeat the words, ‘The Lord is my shepherd.’ 

Next year they were back in the same hills. This time they called at a cottage to ask for a drink of milk. The lady noticed them looking at a photograph of a lad on the mantelpiece. ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘that was my son. He died last winter in a snowstorm while tending his sheep. But there was a curious thing about him, his right hand was clutching the fourth finger of his left hand.’ ‘Well now,’ one of the ministers replied, ‘we met your boy last year. In fact, since he was a shepherd boy, we taught him to repeat the first line of the 23rd Psalm, and we told him whenever he said it to himself, to pause at the fourth word, and think ‘This psalm was meant for me’.”

That is the promise of this psalm, and the gift of our shepherd – to be with us always, to lead us beside the still waters, and to bring us to the house of the Lord, where we will dwell forever. 

Closing

The 23rd Psalm is truly timeless. It is a psalm to memorize – to tuck deep in our hearts – and to return to whenever we feel distant from God, afraid, or restless. Let our Lord lead us beside still waters and restore our souls. Know that God is with us, now and always; his goodness and mercy following us wherever we go. Believe that this psalm is for you. The Lord is your shepherd. There is nothing else to want. Amen.