The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
What does Psalms 23:1 mean?
David is saying that the Lord is not a distant God but a shepherd who knows, leads, and provides for his people. If the Lord is your shepherd, you are not finally left without what you truly need.
Key themes
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Keep this verse inside its immediate passage and alongside a few nearby related passages.
Commentary on Psalms 23:1
A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. The Lord is my shepherd - Compare Genesis 49:24 , "From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel;" Psalm 80:1 , "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel." See also the notes at John 10:1-14 . The comparison of the care which God extends over his people to that of a shepherd for his flock is one that would naturally occur to those who were accustomed to pastoral life. It would be natural that it should suggest itself to Jacob Genesis 49:24 , and to David, for both of them had been shepherds.
Key words
- shepherd
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This is to be understood not of Jehovah the Father, and of his feeding the people of Israel in the wilderness, as the Targum paraphrases it, though the character of a shepherd is sometimes given to him, Psalm 77:20 ; but of Jehovah the Son, to whom it is most frequently ascribed, Genesis 49:24 .
Context in Psalms 23
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Psalms 23 belongs to the early movement of the book, especially the section often described as Book I. Psalms is the Bible’s great book of sung prayer, teaching the full range of faithful speech from anguish and repentance to jubilation and doxology. Read this chapter with the wider themes of prayer, praise, and lament in view so the individual verses keep their proper weight.
Related topics
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Passages on thanksgiving to God, grateful worship, and the discipline of remembering God’s goodness in ordinary life.
Bible verses about grief and loss
Passages for sorrow, bereavement, lament, and the difficult work of hoping in God without denying what has been lost.
Who quoted Psalms 23:1?
Find out who used Psalms 23:1 in their speeches and writings. Which famous people quoted Psalms 23:1?
Franklin D. Roosevelt used Psalms 23:1 in Proclamation 2571—Thanksgiving Day.
Ronald Reagan used Psalms 23:1 in Remarks at the Memorial Service for Edith Luckett Davis in Phoenix, Arizona.
APP: Remarks at the Memorial Service for Edith Luckett Davis in Phoenix, Arizona »
Quotes found on Wikiquote (match for «the Lord is my shepherd»):
2012 (film) · Dorothy Ripley · ER (season 7) · Francis of Assisi · Friday (1995 film) · Good Shepherd · J. P. Donleavy · Last words in Lost media · Little House on the Prairie/Season 1 · Louis Nizer · Psalms · Robot Chicken (season 5) · Roger Waters · Salem's Lot (1979 miniseries) · Tanakh