Words for the Wise, Psalm 23 New International Version - UK (NIVUK), The Lord is my Shepherd

Psalm 23

A psalm of David.

¹ The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
²     He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
³     he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
    for his name’s sake.
⁴ Even though I walk
    through the darkest valley,^[a]
I will fear no evil,
    for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

⁵ You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
⁶ Surely your goodness and love will follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
    for ever.

The Bible Panorama

Psalm 23

V 1–2: SHEPHERD David knows, as we can, that the Lord is his Shepherd. The meeting of his wants, rest and refreshment come through that wonderful relationship. 

V 3: SOUL With his soul restored, he is guided by his Shepherd in the paths of righteousness ‘for His name’s sake’.

V 4: SHADOW Even when death casts its shadow in the valley, there is no fear of evil, because of the presence, protection and guidance of the Lord

. V 5–6: SURELY The present experience of being fed and anointed by God encourages David to know ‘surely’ that goodness and mercy will be his during the rest of his life and throughout eternity.

Abundant Life (23:2–3) Niv Application Commentary

The shepherd leads his sheep in pleasant places full of all the necessities of life: green pastures of grass and quiet streams providing water for drinking. Those who have visited the undeveloped lands of the Bible will know just how unusual this picture is. At best the land is a dry, rocky set of rolling hills covered with a sparse and tough grass. Water sources are few and often seasonal. Shepherds had to be ready to take their flocks on long migrations from one source of grazing and water to another.

The psalmist paints a scene of abundant life in three descriptive statements—each speaking of the shepherd in the third person and employing an imperfect verb form. The shepherd causes the sheep to lie down, makes them approach quiet waters carefully, and leads them faithfully on the correct paths. All three images emphasize the shepherd’s role as provider.

Obviously grass and water are the sheep’s staff of life, and the shepherd knows how to find them both and leads the hungering, thirsty sheep to them. Although “paths of righteousness” may have an unusual ring to our ears, it can mean no more than the “right path,” that is, the one that gets you where you need to go. The ambiguity of language and context, however, allows a moral quality to creep in. If the shepherd and sheep are images of a life fully dependent and trusting on Yahweh, then “paths of righteousness” take on the meaning of a way of life that fulfills God’s expectation for his follower. The sheep are not left to their own devices but are led by God himself to take the correct path—the one that gets the sheep where they need to go.

For his name’s sake. The shepherd (God) acts in ways that reveal and confirm his character and nature. In the Hebrew culture, a personal name was often thought to reveal the character of the individual named. God’s revelation to Israel of his personal name Yahweh at the time of the Exodus gave her unprecedented knowledge of his nature and access to him. This knowledge and access had to be protected by the prohibition against abusive use of the divine name. Closely related to this idea is the concept of reputation. To have a “name” is to bear agood reputation, while to be disreputable is to have no name at all (Job 30:8). Here, however, the shepherd/Yahweh acts to benefit the sheep, not just in order to preserve his character or reputation but in a way that is consistent with the nature the name reveals.