Psalm Chapter 23

Psalm 23: The Psalm That Knows Your Name

There are only six verses here, and yet the whole of human life fits inside them — provision and want, rest and journey, darkness and feasting, pursuit and homecoming. The genius of this psalm is not its comfort, though it is endlessly comforting; it is its audacity. The speaker is not merely safe but lavished upon: anointed, overflowing, followed by goodness as if goodness were a living thing that refused to let him go. And all of it rests on a metaphor so common it nearly disguises how strange it is. A shepherd. The God who flung galaxies into the dark is here imagined with a staff in hand, counting his sheep, leading them to water so still it will not frighten them. One might expect the Creator to appear as something grander — a king, a warrior, a consuming fire. Instead, he makes us lie down. He restoreth. The most powerful being in the universe, it turns out, is also the most gentle. Perhaps that is why this psalm has been whispered at more bedsides and gravesides than any other words ever written — it meets us where we actually are, which is almost always in need of being led.

00:00 The Lord Is My Shepherd
00:15 Green Pastures and Still Waters
00:25 Through the Valley of the Shadow
00:40 A Table in the Presence of Enemies
00:50 My Cup Runneth Over
01:00 Dwelling in the House of the Lord