The Shepherd's Song Pt. 2 (Psalm 23)
This morning, we will complete our study of the Shepherd’s Song, also known as Psalm 23.
Last week, I spent some time pointing out that this Psalm is unique in that it has had mass appeal in popular culture for close to a century. Most everyone, Christian and non-Christian alike, is at least somewhat familiar with this passage of Scripture.
Rappers quote it.
Death metal bands quote it.
It is recited in science fiction blockbusters and even in horror movies.
Somehow, this passage has become one that an unbelieving culture is strangely at peace with.
Last week, I offered some reasons for its widespread popularity. The main reason is that it has been used in Western funeral liturgies for over a century. As a result, we’ve reached a point in history where many, if not most, Americans believe this Psalm somehow applies to them.
And this, of course, couldn’t be further from the truth.
This Psalm only applies to one group, and one group alone: those who, from the heart, make the same confession David makes in the first verse.
Only those who truly confess, “The Lord is my shepherd,” can claim any of the comforts of this Psalm for themselves.
The Shepherd’s Psalm is only for the sheep.
It isn’t for goats, snakes, or wolves.
Unbelievers do not, and cannot, apart from repentance and faith, receive the blessings of this Psalm.
All the wonderful comforts of provision, protection, and guidance promised here belong to the sheep and the sheep alone.
That’s why we spent an entire sermon slowly working through what it means to confess, “The Lord is my Shepherd.” Let me summarize briefly:
If this is your confession, it means you’ve come to see that you are a sheep. You are weak, vulnerable, foolish, and needy.
If this is your confession, it means you’ve come to see that Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd you so desperately need.
That’s why in John 10, Christ said, “I am the Good Shepherd; the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” This statement ties together the main points of both Psalm 22 and Psalm 23.
Psalm 22 is a Psalm of the cross. It details how Christ laid down His life for the sheep. In essence, Psalm 22 is the gateway to Psalm 23. The only way to the Good Shepherd is through the cross.
This is exactly the point Christ makes elsewhere in John 10:
“So Jesus said to them again, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.’”
Everyone wants the good pasture and the abundant life promised in Psalm 23. That’s why it is so popular. That’s why it resonates. But you can only enter through Christ. He alone is the door. You must confess that Jesus is your Shepherd.
So today, we will look at all the blessings that flow from this opening confession in Psalm 23.
This is a strong, engaging continuation of your sermon, particularly as you unpack the powerful meaning behind the phrase, "I shall not want." Your personal story and the vivid imagery you use to explain human nature as goats—consuming without satisfaction—make this teaching accessible and relatable.
Let’s read the entire Psalm:
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters.
He restores my soul;
He guides me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You have anointed my head with oil;
My cup overflows.
Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
"I Shall Not Want" (Verse 1)
This opening phrase is essentially a summary statement of everything that follows in the Psalm. It captures all the benefits of having the Lord as your shepherd in one simple yet profound phrase:
“I shall not want.”
What a beautiful declaration. What a wonderful promise. Because the Lord is my shepherd, “I shall not want.”
But let it sink in. You’ve probably heard it countless times: **I shall not want.** It's an incredible statement, partly because it almost seems **too good to be true**.
I shall not want? Really? Is this your experience? Have all your desires, cravings, and longings been met? Are you satisfied and content? Is that me? Is that us?
The natural state of man is always wanting. He is never satisfied. We refuse to find contentment in anything. A little more money, a little more pleasure, a little more recognition—there’s always room for more. We are gluttons.
Proverbs 30:15-16 captures it perfectly:
The leech has two daughters,
‘Give, Give.’
There are three things that will not be satisfied,
Four that will not say, ‘Enough’:
Sheol, and the barren womb,
Earth that is never satisfied with water,
And fire that never says, ‘Enough.’
We are like the fire that consumes and consumes, drinking every drop of water but still says, "More."
Let me give you an illustration that fits well with the theme of the Psalm.
As a child, I lived on my grandmother’s farm. It was a large farm with cows, goats, and sometimes horses. It was a great place for a boy to grow up—no kids my age nearby, so I was forced to use my imagination. I made swords from old 2x4s, fought dragons (which were actually trees), and went on epic adventures.
One of my jobs was to take care of the goats. They were the barnyard’s natural lawnmowers. But I had to keep the goats on a long chain, nailed into the ground, because after they ate the grass, they'd go for the bark on the trees. They would eat anything—they were like machines.
That’s us in our natural state. We are goats. We eat, we consume, we devour, but we are never full. Never satisfied.
Listen to what John Calvin says:
As those who enjoy the greatest abundance of outward good things are empty and famished if God is not their shepherd, so it is beyond all doubt that those whom He has taken under His charge shall not want for any good thing.
You can have an abundance of wealth and still be empty. Take the story of Markus Persson, the man who created Minecraft and sold it for 2.5 billion dollars. Here’s a quote from an article about him:
“Persson looked like he was having a blast, living the big life. He bought a $70 million mansion, complete with a massive wall of candy, and threw wild parties. But he’s deeply lonely, as he revealed in a series of tweets:
‘The problem with getting everything is you run out of reasons to keep trying, and human interaction becomes impossible due to imbalance,’ he tweeted.*
‘Hanging out in Ibiza with a bunch of friends and partying with famous people, able to do whatever I want, and I’ve never felt more isolated.’”
When David says, *“I shall not want,” he’s not saying this because he’s wealthy, good-looking, or a well-respected king. Those things don’t bring the satisfaction David writes about here.
No, David’s rest is in **Christ**. The only One who can satisfy his deepest longings. Augustine said it well, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless, until they can find rest in You.”
God doesn’t exist to make your dreams come true. He’s not a genie in a bottle or a lottery ticket. He offers something much better.
Matthew 9:36 says, “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.”
What do people look like when they pursue their cravings? They look like scattered, distressed, and dispirited sheep without a shepherd.
Sheep don’t know what’s good for them. They need a shepherd to lead them to green pastures and still waters. My kids would play video games, watch cartoons, and eat ice cream until they exploded—if it weren’t for their parents herding them toward what’s best for them.
They may want plenty of things, but they don’t lack what they truly need.
Scripture says, “The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.” You lack no good thing. If God withholds something, He does it for a reason.
So, when David says, “I shall not want,” he doesn’t mean you’ll live a life where every desire is met. Rather, it means you will not lack what is truly good for you in Christ.
Listen to Paul in Philippians 4:
10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. 11 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. 12 I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. 13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
What is Paul’s secret? That he can do all things through Christ. Christ is his portion. Christ is the source of his contentment in a world full of ups and downs. Christ is his shepherd, and Paul has found it is good to be in His pasture.
Spurgeon says, “The wicked always want, but the righteous never; a sinner's heart is far from satisfaction, but a gracious spirit dwells in the palace of content.”
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Praise the Lord. Now let’s consider the particulars of our God’s provision, found in the remaining verses.
Verses 2-3:
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters.
Green pastures and still waters are essential to the life of a sheep. A shepherd ensures the sheep under his care have all they need.
And our Good Shepherd does the same.
It says He makes them lie down. It’s not a matter of forcing them to lie down, but rather the quality and wisdom of His leadership, His oversight, and protection create the atmosphere where the sheep are able to lie down and rest.
In A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, Philip Keller writes that sheep do not lie down easily and will not unless four conditions are met. Because they are timid, they will not lie down if they are afraid. Because they are social animals, they will not lie down if there is friction among the sheep. If flies or parasites trouble them, they will not lie down. Finally, if sheep are anxious about food or hungry, they will not lie down. Rest comes because the shepherd has dealt with fear, friction, flies, and famine.
Knowing that the Lord is our Good Shepherd allows us to rest, both in a physical sense and a spiritual sense.
Someone shared a helpful metaphor from N.D. Wilson with me the other day. Forgive me if I get it slightly wrong, but the essence was this: the difference between enjoying a fair ride and being absolutely terrified by it is the brake man. As you spin at high speeds on the tilt-a-whirl, you know the brake man can bring the ride to a stop at any time, so you just enjoy the ride.
But imagine being on a tilt-a-whirl and looking over to see no brake man—no one in control, just you spinning and being jerked around by a power greater than yourself. That would be a terrifying situation.
But that’s not our situation. We are Christians. We are the people of His pasture. Psalm 4:8 says, “In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for You alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.” We can rest because God is the brake man, and more importantly, He is the Good Shepherd.
Thus, physical rest is deeply connected to spiritual rest. And how we need spiritual rest!
Listen to Hebrews 4:
There remains, therefore, a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us, therefore, be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.
We have rest in Jesus. We are no longer working for our salvation. It has been purchased for us, and we rest in the finished work of Christ.
Those still and quiet waters come from the hand of the Good Shepherd who said:
Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.
We have everlasting life, peace with God, and a life of rest and comfort in the loving care of our Shepherd, Christ.
Now, keeping that in mind, look at verse 3:
He restores my soul;
He guides me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.
We need to be restored and guided into paths of righteousness. Why? That old hymn captures it perfectly:
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
Sheep wander away from the flock and the shepherd. We wander and go astray from God’s green pastures.
Jesus says in Matthew 18:
What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.
How many of you have wandered for a time? Wasn’t the Lord faithful to restore you?
David experienced this. He seduced another man’s wife, got her pregnant, and then had her husband murdered. The prophet Nathan rebuked him, and David repented. In his repentance, he wrote these words:
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation
And sustain me with a willing spirit.
If you have wandered, repent. God will restore your soul. You can experience the joy of your salvation again.
Sin and a guilty conscience rob you of peace, joy, and rest.
For example, consider the sin of theft. Thomas Watson writes: "The thief is a terror to himself, he is always in fear. Guilt breeds fear. If the thief hears but the shaking of a tree, his heart shakes.”
Those who have been restored by the Shepherd aren’t weighed down with a guilty conscience. They have been made right with God, and therefore boldly walk “the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” Jesus is both the Lamb of God and the Lion of Judah.
As we follow Him, we become like Him. We are sheep, but also lions.
Proverbs 28:1 says, "The wicked flee when no one is pursuing, but the righteous are bold as a lion."
Verses 4-5:
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
Life, even for the Christian, is not a life of ease. Life is difficult and full of dangers. There is real evil in the world. There are real threats. David’s metaphor is powerful.
It is a *valley*, not a mountaintop or a plain. Life is full of ups and downs—high points and low points. And some of those low points feel like a valley, where you are closed in on all sides.
This is a valley of the shadow of death—David was not facing the substance of death itself, but merely the shadow of death.
Spurgeon says:
Death in its substance has been removed, and only the shadow of it remains…. Nobody is afraid of a shadow, for a shadow cannot stop a man’s pathway even for a moment. The shadow of a dog cannot bite; the shadow of a sword cannot kill; the shadow of death cannot destroy us.
The psalmist continues:
I fear no evil, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
David won’t fear the lingering dangers because God is with him.
God has His rod and staff with Him. One commentator wrote, “The rod and the staff seem to be two names for one instrument, which was used both to beat off predatory animals and to direct the sheep.”
He guides and protects us in the dark valley.
I like how Calvin explains this verse:
As a sheep, when it wanders up and down through a dark valley, is preserved safe from the attacks of wild beasts and from harm in other ways by the presence of the shepherd alone, so David now declares that as often as he shall be exposed to any danger, he will have sufficient defense and protection in being under the pastoral care of God.
This world can be scary, but in John 16:33, Jesus said:
“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
Romans 8:31: "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?"
You don’t have to be dominated by fear. You can live with courage and comfort in dark times if the Lord is your shepherd.
Verse 5:
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You have anointed my head with oil;
My cup overflows.
These words have a simple meaning: as we live in a world full of enemies, God will provide all our needs.
People are always talking about the end of Christianity. People are always trying to stamp out the church. But the church is unstoppable because Jesus is our shepherd.
David’s confidence in his Shepherd is clear in the final verse of Psalm 23: "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
He’s not just a guest; he’s a permanent member of God’s household—he is a son. He isn’t relegated to the guest house; he truly belongs in the household of God. This relationship isn’t temporary. When David says he will “dwell in the house of the Lord forever,” he expresses confidence that his relationship with God is eternal.
Revelation 7 echoes the Davidic confidence:
I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them. They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”