March 26, 2023

Psalm 23: 1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. (NIV)

What should we desire, but that all our purposes may agree with God's holy will?*

God has promised to provide for our needs, but in this verse, David didn’t say, “I shall not be in need.” His words were, “I shall not be in want.” My paraphrase of the first verse of David’s most famous psalm would be: God is my provider. I lack nothing. I don’t just have everything that I need; I have so much more than that. I have the things that money can buy and the things it can’t. I don’t have to remember to ask for my daily bread because it has already been provided.

But is material provision really what David was writing about? Don’t forget that David was a poet and he uses beautiful imagery here to deliver a deeper message. This psalm wouldn’t have much meaning for some people if possessions and success and health were all David was referring to. Not everyone can say, “I have everything I want,” unless there is another layer of meaning to the words.

We find ourselves distracted by the last words of this verse, so we often overlook the first clause: The Lord is my shepherd. The shepherd provides for his sheep, yes; but that’s not the first duty that comes to mind when we think of a shepherd. Our first thoughts are of the sheep’s dependence on the shepherd for protection and comfort. With the Lord as his shepherd, David viewed his life as one that was “full of God’s presence and purpose.”* It was this same David who wrote, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37: 4) That sounds like a life of fulfilled need and want.

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.*