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Psalms 23:1

King James Version (KJV)

“In our prayers we talk to God, in our Bible study God talks to us, and we had better let God do most of the talking.”
— D.L. Moody

Scripture focus

A Psalm of David. The LORD [is] my shepherd; I shall not want.

Psalms 23:1 — KJV

Commentary

Commentary on Psalms 23:1

Theological / Devotional

My shepherd. The figure representing Jehovah as a shepherd and His people as sheep, is common in the Scriptures. The earliest occurrence of the image is Gen. 48:15, where “the God which fed me” is, literally, “the shepherd of me” (see Gen. 49:24). Elsewhere the figure is found in Psalms (78:52; 80:1; 119:176), in the prophets (Isa. 40:11; Eze. 34; Micah 7:14), and in the NT (Luke 15:3–7; John 10:1–18; 21:15–17; Heb. 13:20; 1 Peter 2:25; 1 Peter 5:4). To understand and to appreciate the beauty and meaning of the imagery, one must know the hazardous nature of the Judean wilderness, and the intimate life of the shepherd and his sheep, especially the devotion that springs up between them during the many hours of solitude that they spend together.

I shall not want. A statement of absolute trust in God. This clause is the keynote of the psalm.

By SdaBc