Psalm 23—The Lord is My Shepherd

"Surely his goodness and love will chase after me..."

Psalm 23 puts us back in Eden with its calm waters, rich pastures, and moment-by-moment closeness with God. Also like Eden, the psalm is not without an element of danger, yet because God is near, safety and abundance remain.

The psalm is an important point in the developing image of God as a shepherd. It is a song of David, the shepherd king himself. The image of shepherding runs throughout the whole Bible. It is developed most fully in the prophets; a few are shepherds (Amos, Moses). We meet David as a shepherd boy who kills Goliath to save Israel just has done to lions to save his father’s sheep. The image reaches its high-water mark in John 10 when Jesus, the true prophet and king, declares himself to be the “good shepherd” who lays down his life for his sheep.

Rendition of Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd.
With him, I lack nothing.
He leads me to rich pastures.
He guides me to waters of rest.
He seeks me when I wander into danger.
He walks with me along the good paths
For his name’s sake.

Even when I stray
Into the valley of the dark defile,
I will fear no evil 
Because he is near
With his rod and his crook
To protect and guide me.

Even when he lays a table
In the very presence of my enemies,
He anoints me with holy oil
And my cup overflows.
Surely his goodness and love
Will chase after me
All the days of my life,
And I will always return
To the house of the Lord forever.

---

Catching up with the Darking Psalter

If you are new to the Darkling Psalter, it is a project to create renditions of the Psalms (artistic rewordings based on the original Hebrew) and original poems to pair with each one.

Psalms with poems: 1, 2, 6, 8, 13, 14, 16, 19, 22, 29, 31, 32, 34, 38, 39, 40, 42, 46, 51, 53, 65, 73, 74, 84, 86, 88, 90, 107, 121, 123, 130, 131, 137, 142, 147.

Psalms only: 3

Photo by Karsten Würth on Unsplash