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Psalms 23:1  (King James Version)
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<< Psalms 22:31   Psalms 23:2 >>


Psalm 23:1-6

Here is a summary of the lessons in this amazing psalm:

Verse 1: Do I really recognize God's right to me? Do I respond to His management?

Verse 2: Sheep must be free from tension within the flock, fear from the outside (e.g., pests, predators), and not hungry.

Verse 3: Though we may become cast down, our Shepherd will seek us out to save us from ourselves.

Verse 4:

  1. Instead of loving myself most, I am willing to love Christ best and others at least as much as myself.
  2. Instead of being one of the crowd, I am willing to be singled out and set apart from it.
  3. Instead of insisting on my own rights, I am willing to forgo them in favor of others.
  4. Instead of being boss, I am willing to be at the bottom of the heap and to eliminate the drive for self-assertion, self-determination, and self-pleasing.
  5. Instead of finding fault with life and always asking why, I am willing to accept every circumstance in life in an attitude of gratitude.
  6. Instead of asserting my will, I am willing to learn to cooperate with God's wishes.

Verse 5: The only way to the tablelands (our goal) is through testing and trial, but we learn through these that He is with us. His rod denotes correction and His staff denotes guidance.

Verse 6: He has gone on before us to prepare the tableland. He thoroughly identifies with us and ensures that we can make it. He anoints us, cares for us continually, and promises that we will be in His flock.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Psalm 23 (Part Three)



Psalm 23:1-5

Psalm 23:1 says, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want," another instance of Yahweh. This name for God is frequently combined with other words to form more specific descriptions of Him. Psalm 23 is in reality a brief expounding of eight names of God in the first five verses. It brings to light:

YHWH-Roi—God our shepherd—Psalm 80:1.

YHWH-Jireh—God our provider—Genesis 22:14.

YHWH-Shalom—God our peace—Judges 6:24.

YHWH-Nissi—God is my banner—Exodus 17:15.

YHWH-Ropheka—God our healer—Exodus 15:26.

YHWH-Zidkenu—God our righteousness—Jeremiah 23:6.

YHWH-Shammah—God is present—Ezekiel 48:35.

YHWH-Mekaddishkem—God who sanctifies—Exodus 31:13.

Each of these names provides us with building blocks of knowledge to strengthen and encourage us in the use of faith.

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Third Commandment



Psalm 23:1

Because our God is our Shepherd—and He is the most powerful, wise, balanced, loving, and caring Being ever—we are never going to want, that is, lack for proper management. It does not mean that we will never lack things. David himself lacked things. There were times when David did not have a home to hang his hat in, and he had to run from cave to cave to escape Saul. There were times when he was hungry and thirsty and times when he thought his life was hanging in the balance, but he always understood that what was being worked out in his life was part of the will of God.

He knew God's attention was focused on him, and he was receiving the management that he needed in his life at that time. He understood that all the events of his life were pointed toward the goal of his being in the Kingdom of God.

We may lack things, but we will never lack the best in care and management. We will have the very best in guidance and spiritual provision at any given moment. As a result of this, we have to ask ourselves several questions: Do we recognize His right to us? He died for us. He paid for us. We belong to Him. He has every right to manage our lives in the way He sees fit.

This next question is part of the first question: Do we belong to Him? It is pretty hard to belong to Him if we do not recognize His right to us. Our answer to this question will determine how we will react under His management. If we do not react in the proper way, it is probably because we do not see ourselves as really belonging to Him or recognize that He has a right to allow these things to occur in our lives.

Do we respond to His authority? Do we find freedom and fulfillment in this arrangement? Do we have a deep sense of purpose, mission, and direction as a result of the Lord being our Shepherd?

Those are things we can respond to, meditate on, and find application for in our lives. It begins with an acknowledgment that we really do belong to Him and that we really are the recipients of the very best in management and care. We sing that "He's got the whole world in His hands," but then we act as though everybody else has the best care, but not us.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Psalm 23 (Part Two)



Psalm 23:1-6

Many of us know this psalm, written from the standpoint of a sheep, by heart. Have we ever considered it to be a Sabbath psalm? Or one of God's Kingdom or of Christ's life, death, and resurrection into His rest?

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Christ's Death, Resurrection, and Ascension



Psalm 23:1-2

Notice, first, that as our Shepherd, Christ takes the initiative to lead us to still places. Leading us "beside the still waters" ranks among His highest priorities, along with providing for our needs and giving us rest and security. He wants us to have ready access to still places for our well-being and growth.

Second, this psalm is written from the viewpoint of a sheep. What about "still waters" would a sheep consider a blessing? Literally, "still waters" refers to ponds, lakes, or slow-moving rivers or streams—any body of fresh water that does not rush. Because they are very skittish creatures, sheep will refuse to drink from rushing waters. A rushing brook will frighten and agitate them. They prefer a placid, still environment, which is the kind of environment that a good shepherd will provide for his sheep. Peaceful waters make for contented sheep.

Having found a quiet, still place where we are at peace, however, we are only halfway to our destination of being still. What do we do when we arrive there? Just because we have found this environment does not mean that we have completed this assignment from God to be still.

Many of the Eastern systems that advocate this kind of relaxation—yoga, transcendental meditation, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc.—encourage practitioners to empty their minds once they find this peaceful, relaxed state. However, the godly way of being still requires only that we rid our minds of the aspects of this present world that fog the way we think, particularly those influences that Satan broadcasts (Ephesians 2:2-3; Romans 13:12). When we are still, God does not want us to be mindless, which will only open us to demonic persuasion (Matthew 12:43-45).

Instead, God wants us to meditate on wholesome thoughts and godly attitudes (Philippians 4:8; I Timothy 6:11)—to condition our minds to think as He does. We think best when we are free of Satan's influence, which clogs our minds with attitudes that inspire hurt, mistrust, conflict, and pride, ramping up stress and inner turmoil. God wants us to take the time to be still and think about right and good things, which generate positive emotions and peace.

The story of Job provides a clear illustration of how being still works. Early in his trial, after all of the calamities that had befallen him, Job is joined by three friends, ostensibly to comfort him in his grief and pain. When Job finally speaks, he maintains that he is righteous before God; he can think of nothing he had left undone of all that God requires. His friends, however, are just as convinced that Job had sinned, that he had not recognized something sinful in his life. They persist in contending that he is a sinful man and needs to do something to appease God, but after hearing Job adamantly justify himself, they give up. Once they do, a young man named Elihu, who had been listening to their arguments, apologizes for his youth yet says he can no longer contain himself—he has to give his opinion. And so he begins to answer Job.

What he says in Job 37:14 is part of his conclusion: "Listen to this, O Job; stand still and consider the wondrous works of God." Elihu is trying to get Job, first of all, to see God and then to consider his personal problems from God's perspective. Job's justifications were based on his looking at his own works and all that he had done. He was so full of argument and agitated, frustrated and full of questions, because he was fixated on himself. Elihu urges him to turn his viewpoint away from himself so that he can see the true crux of the problem.

Elihu's advice is, "Job, be still and consider what God has done." He suggests finding a place of peace and quiet and then meditating on God's wondrous works—in nature, in the heavens, in man, in His people, and in His plan. Look, Elihu says, at what God is doing! In other words, he recommends that Job compare himself and his pitiful good works to God and the utterly magnificent works that He does every day. Interestingly, when God speaks to Job beginning in Job 38, He tells him essentially the same thing.

Once we can see ourselves compared to our great God, we will be in the proper attitude to receive instruction, correction, direction, or whatever God wants us to have. So, when we enter a still place, to achieve the proper frame of mind, we must turn our minds from the mundane and consider God and what He has done.

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Beating the Rat Race (Part Two)



Psalm 23:1-3

"The LORD is my Shepherd." Could we not also say that this psalm applies to the Lamb of God, as if written from His standpoint? The Lord was His Shepherd too. Jesus said He went through what He did for all righteousness—for God's name's sake, for His glory! Consider Christ's work, His life, in these first three verses. Verse 4, then, reminds us of His death.

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Christ's Death, Resurrection, and Ascension



What Is Psalm 23 About?

Many things could be and have been written about this beautiful, meaningful psalm. It is chock-full of spiritual instruction, but we can only touch on a few highlights here.

The psalm begins, "The LORD is my shepherd." David, the author of this song, portrays God as a shepherd guarding His flock. He proudly, almost boastfully, proclaims himself under God's personal care. He says that God is his Protector and Provider, the One he looks to for all his needs. Christ Himself—the greater David—when He was human, said, "I can of Myself do nothing" (John 5:30). Because we are weak, corruptible, mortal human beings, we have to depend entirely upon God for everything.

The song continues, "I shall not want." Want here means "lack." David is confident that he would lack nothing to support his body and life, that God would provide all his needs. Psalm 34:9-10 echoes this sentiment, as does Matthew 6:25-34.

David writes in Psalm 23:2, "He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters." David compares himself to a lamb contentedly grazing, resting, and drinking while the Shepherd watches over him. Such activities have spiritual counterparts in Bible study, meditation, and prayer. The New Testament refers to God's people as lambs or sheep (Luke 10:3; I Peter 2:25). Jesus Himself is called both a Shepherd (John 10:1-30; Hebrews 13:20; etc.) and the Lamb of God (John 1:29, 36; Revelation 5:6, 12: 13:8; etc.).

The psalmist continues, "He restores my soul." David, aware he is a sinner, also knows that God redeemed him and gave him life. David elsewhere expresses his great joy at having his sins forgiven (Psalm 51).

David's next thoughts are, "He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake." What is righteousness? "All Your commandments are righteousness," answers the same author in Psalm 119:172. When we obey and are blessed, God is glorified. But even the will to obey comes from God; no man can find the path to true righteousness without being led to it by God (see Romans 2:4).

Looking forward, David writes, "Yea, 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." David has such confidence in God that he shows no fear even in the face of death! This peace of mind comes only from God. Paul tells the young evangelist Timothy, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear; but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (II Timothy 1:7; see I John 4:18).

David goes on in Psalm 23:5, "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over." God promises to bless us even though enemies may surround us. Not only will He supply our needs, but He will supply "exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20). Jesus says God will give to us "pressed down, shaken together, and running over" if we follow His way of give (Luke 6:38).

The psalm concludes, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever." Because of following God's way of life and living in the care of the Good Shepherd, David looks forward to a full physical life, and after that, abundant, eternal life in God's Kingdom.

Amen.

Additional Reading:
Goats on the Left
The Shepherd's Voice
Be Still!
Psalm 23 (Part One)
Psalms: Book One (Part Six)
Psalm 23 (Part Three)




Other Forerunner Commentary entries containing Psalms 23:1:

Psalm 23:1-5
Luke 15:3-7
John 10:3

 

<< Psalms 22:31   Psalms 23:2 >>



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