Psalm 23 is so familiar that it can sound like comfort music. Its first sentence was a bold claim. Kings in the ancient world called themselves shepherds, so to say 1"The LORD is my shepherd" is to say who the king is. The small word "my" matters. One person stands before a crowd of shepherd-kings and names only one.
1"I shall not want" says the sheep lacks nothing it needs, and sheep need a great deal. They are nearly helpless without someone to find pasture and water, to shelter them and tend their wounds. He makes the sheep lie down in 2"green pastures" and leads them beside quiet water. The country east of Jerusalem falls away into wilderness, dry and dangerous most of the year, and grass and quiet water there are found by a shepherd who knows the ground. 3"He restores my soul" uses a verb that means to bring back, and the same verb is used elsewhere for turning back to God. A wandering sheep and a wandering soul share the word.
Then the valley. 4"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." Something happens to the grammar here. Until now the psalm has spoken about the shepherd: he makes, he leads, he restores. In the valley it turns and speaks to him: 4"for you are with me." The word "you" appears for the first time in the darkest place. Rod and staff follow, one to defend and one to guide, and the comfort is that both are in the hands of someone who is there.
Verse 5 shifts from shepherd to host. 5"You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies." To sit at someone's table was to come under his protection. The enemies watch, and the meal goes on.
The last line hides a surprise. 6"Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." The Hebrew verb for "follow" is the ordinary verb for pursue, the verb for what enemies do to a man they hunt. Here goodness and mercy do it. The psalm has just mentioned enemies, and it ends with the discovery that what runs behind the sheep is love.
Jesus takes the shepherd's name for himself: "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep" (John 10:11). He went through the valley of the shadow of death on behalf of the flock. And Revelation says the Lamb "will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water" (Revelation 7:17). The still waters lie at the end of the road.
We say this psalm at bedsides and graves and read it fast. Slow down enough to hear where the pronoun changes. There are valleys where talk about him will not do and only "you" will. And keep the last line close: whatever is behind you, goodness and mercy are coming after you today.
Prayer
Father, you are the shepherd we could not have improved on. Forgive us for wandering, and for how little we have wanted what you provide. Thank you that in the valley you give us yourself, and that Christ went into the darkest one for us. Hold us when we cannot see the path. Let goodness and mercy find us every day, and bring us home to your house. In Jesus' name, amen.