What does it mean that the Lord is your shepherd?

In Psalm 23, the most beloved psalm in the Bible, David calls the Lord "my shepherd." Dr. Toby Holt unpacks why this short psalm has comforted God's people for three thousand years. To call the Lord "my shepherd" is a bold, personal claim — and admits we are sheep, prone to wander. The psalm gives two pictures: God as Shepherd who guards, provides, and leads, and God as gracious Host who anoints our head and fills our cup. Jesus took up this image as the Good Shepherd. Its hope reaches to "the house of the LORD forever."

Questions this study answers:

1. Why is Psalm 23 the most beloved psalm? Because it speaks of God's personal care in life and in death. Its comfort meets people in their deepest needs.

2. What does it mean to call the Lord "my shepherd"? A claim of trust — and an admission that we are sheep who need leading, providing, and protecting.

3. What does it mean to be one of God's sheep? Knowing the Shepherd's voice and following Him, kept safe by the One who laid down His life for them.

"The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want." — Psalm 23:1 (NKJV)

Dr. Toby Holt is President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio. Find more verse-by-verse Bible teaching at newgeneva.org; support this ministry at newgeneva.org/give.

You know, whenever I conduct a funeral or a memorial service, I typically ask folks, I say,

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is there any text that you'd like me to read? Any particular text you'd like to have incorporated

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into the service? With that said, the number one selection, time and time again, it's this text

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that we're looking at in Psalm 23. Psalm 23 reminds us two important things. Number one,

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it reminds us that God cares, and number two, it reminds us that He's at our side. See, it's one

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thing if God just cared for you, but he was so far removed from you that he couldn't do anything

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about it. It'd be one thing if God shouted, I love you, through a megaphone so you could barely hear

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it or you could barely see it in the pages of scripture. It'd be one thing if God's care was

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remote, but it's not. Not only does God care for us, not only does he love us, but he's with us,

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upholding us in the midst of our hurts. Psalm 23 doesn't try to hide the reality that this world

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is hard. Outside these doors, inside our hearts, there's all manner of things that can absolutely

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bring us to our knees. It doesn't matter how strong we are. There are things that exist in

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this world, among which is death, that can cause us to crumble. If it hasn't happened to you in

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times past, beware. It can happen in a time yet ahead. There's all manner of things outside these

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doors that can and should remind us that although today is pretty and beautiful and sunny and the

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like. In a spiritual sense, this is the valley. This is the valley, the shadow of death. Scripture

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doesn't hide that fact, whether it's Psalm 23 or elsewhere. A couple weeks ago, we considered that

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this world is really not all that it's cracked up to be. There's a reason why God is going to wrap

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it up like a scroll at the end of time. This is a fallen earth. And even on the best of days,

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we have hardship. Although Scripture is honest with us about this, Scripture also reminds us

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that even though we live out our days in the valley, that we can fear no evil. God tells you,

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you live out your days in the valley of the shadow of death. But at the same time, and in the same

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breath, says that while you're living out your days in the valley of the shadow of death, you can and

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should fear no evil. How can that be? The reason you can fear no evil while living out your days

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of the valley of the shadow of death is this, because you're not alone, because God is with

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you. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil,

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because thou art with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. This morning, do you need to be

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comforted? This morning, do you need to be comforted? When you think about your life,

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the obstacles that have risen up against you in times past, or maybe on the horizon,

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when you think of the suffering that you've gone through, or maybe going through right now,

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do you need encouragement for today and tomorrow? Encouragement to take another step. Psalm 23

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was written and given to provide us just that. Encouragement for the next step. If you have to

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live out your days in the valley, if you have to walk through it, if you have to keep your head

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down and plow forward, and if you've got another step to take today and tomorrow, the encouragement

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in this text is to take that step knowing that God is with you as you do so. All right, let's read

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about this shepherd now. Let's look at verse 1 of the text, and we'll just work our way through the

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balance. Verse 1, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. All right, over the course of its six

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verse totality, Psalm 23, it's split roughly down the middle into two different allegories. Now,

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in the first four verses, we see God depicted as a shepherd. We see him as one who guards and

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provides for his flock, one who leads them down safe paths and down the road that they're called

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to travel. And then the last two verses, the final two, God is depicted then as a benevolent host.

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He's first depicted as a shepherd, then he's depicted as a benevolent host who protects us

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and provides for us. With that said, as we look at verse one, let's talk about the implication

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of this statement that the Lord is my shepherd. Who wrote Psalm 23? David. David wrote Psalm 23.

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Now, what was David's occupation when he was younger?

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Shepherd.

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David, when he says, the Lord is my shepherd, he's not just talking out of his inexperience.

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When he says, the Lord is my shepherd, he's talking out of a wellspring of experience

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because he knew what shepherds do and he knew who shepherds are.

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Furthermore, he knew about sheep.

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And he knew that sheep are wayward and they're prone to wander.

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They're kind of stupid if you've ever dealt with sheep.

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He had all sorts of experiences with sheep.

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And he knew that sheep are some of the dullest, most obstinate creatures on this earth.

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So David had these experiences.

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He had been entrusted when he was younger with the welfare and the nurturing and the

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provision and the safety of a flock of sheep.

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And it's in that context that he says that the Lord is my shepherd.

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That statement has two implications.

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The first one is to put God in the role of the shepherd, the one who provides and nurtures

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and makes those safe who are in his care.

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That's one implication.

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The second implication is that David, if he's saying God is my shepherd, he's saying that I am a sheep.

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That's the other implication of this.

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He's saying I am a sheep.

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And if he's saying that I'm a sheep, he's saying that I am unruly and prone to want or prone to make mistakes, prone to stupidity, prone to doing things I shouldn't do.

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But I have a shepherd.

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David knew that there's things outside his doors, our doors, that he needed protection from.

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He knew that he needed guidance.

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He needed to be led.

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He needed to be watered.

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he needed to be cared for. But his protection wasn't only from external dangers. The biggest

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threats aimed at you aren't actually aimed from an external source. David knew that the dangers

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that were manifest in his own heart were greater still. Remember Bathsheba? David knew that even

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as a sheep, and especially as a sheep, he was prone to wander. He was prone to mess up. He was

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prone to do things that he ought not, as we are. And so David, even though this is no slouch of a

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guy. You know, if you're talking about like the greatest man who ever walked the face of the

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earth, David's got to be in your top five, top 10. David's no slouch. David is no slouch. And yet he

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says, the Lord is my shepherd. He says, I'm a sheep. But I want you to notice when he says,

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the Lord is my shepherd. If you circle the word my, you would be wise to do so because he doesn't

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just call the Lord a shepherd in the abstract sense, but rather he makes a bold relational

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claim. He says, the Lord is my shepherd. Not just a shepherd of someone else or some other people.

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No, he says, the Lord, the Lord is my shepherd. You know, in order for a sheep to benefit from

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the graces and the care of a shepherd, there has to first be a relationship between the two.

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In order for a sheep that's out wandering the hillsides to benefit from the care of a shepherd,

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There has to be a relationship between both.

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On a couple of different occasions, I've had the opportunity to preach and teach in Ireland.

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And, you know, you ever see postcards of Ireland and there's all these kind of stones and fields

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and there's sheep jumping over them and they're like, well, that's all real.

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That's definitely, that's like Western Ireland, pretty much all that.

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But, but it was different than what I expected.

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In our sense, you look at a farm and you might see sheep or cows or something,

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but there's always fences and it's pretty clear whose property is whose.

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and like that's not the way it works in western ireland there wasn't a fence that i could see

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there was just sheep that seemed to be roaming everywhere and one of my questions of the

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missionary that i was with one of my question is well how did they know who's sheep or who's

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and i said this from a distance as i saw these and he says wait till you get closer

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wait till you get closer and you'll uh you'll figure that out well as we got closer as we got

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closer to these sheep just all over the place i noticed something and it was it was weird if

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never seen this this doesn't make the postcards but what was weird was that the various owners

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or shepherds of these sheep they had marked each one not through a brand but through a spray paint

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you go up and you see the sheep in ireland and a lot of them will have just a stripe of pink or

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purple or green or yellow or something on their side or on their back maybe an x marks the spot

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they're really kind of ugly it makes the sheep look kind of modeled but i'll tell you this much

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you know whose sheep is whose. The farmer who puts a green X on the sheep, that's his sheep.

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You don't mess with his sheep. And they might go from here to there and so forth, but the sheep,

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who they belong to, is not in doubt. Now, with that said, as odd as that is, something else I

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noticed about the sheep is that there was a vehicle that had a particular, I don't know,

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old F-150 or something, but it had a rumble to it. And as the vehicle, I saw drive through down

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one of the neighboring streets, I noticed that some of the sheep bolted, went to this vehicle,

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Not all of them, but some of them did.

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And I thought, well, that was weird, too.

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And he says, well, they just know that's old Pete.

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You know, that's the old farmer Pete, and he's out feeding the sheep.

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And I said, well, how in the world do the sheep know?

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And he says, well, they know which car it is.

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They know which truck.

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Now, man alive, my mind is just connecting all these preaching points that are coming out of this.

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This picture of the sheep knowing the voice or knowing the sound or what have you of the shepherd

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and then running to him when he came in and being marked in such a way,

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This is a wonderful picture, not only of Psalm 23, but of Christ's text when he talks about the sheep.

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In John 10, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees, and he said this.

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He says, you don't believe because you're not of my sheep.

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My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

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And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand.

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Jesus Christ, whether it's way back in Psalm 23,

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whether it's way forward in John 10, or on into Revelation,

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Jesus Christ is repeatedly described as a shepherd.

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With that said, the real question for you this morning,

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the real question for you is, are you one of his sheep?

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Because not all are.

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And Jesus said that straightforwardly.

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He says, you do not believe because you are not of my sheep.

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My sheep hear my voice.

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I know them and they follow me.

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This suggests that some are his and some are not.

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Can you make the bold relational claim that David made?

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Can you say that the Lord is my shepherd?

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I mean, it's all the voices.

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I mean, it's all those who would attempt to lead me or direct me or manipulate me to whatever ends.

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The singular voice that I will respond to.

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The singular voice that drives me comes from the Lord who is my shepherd.

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I hear his voice.

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I run to him.

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This is David's invitation.

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David's view of his own faith.

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Let's look at verses 2 and 3 as he builds on it.

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Verse 2.

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He makes me to lie down in green pastures.

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That sounds nice.

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He leads me beside still waters.

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He restores my soul.

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Leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

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You know, in order for us to appreciate Psalm 23,

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We have to realize who the focal point of this whole psalm is.

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Psalm 23, in the verses we just read, repeatedly, repeatedly, the word that comes up is the word he.

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He makes me.

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He leads me.

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He restores me.

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He leads.

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Why does he do these things?

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Verse 2-3 says, for his own name's sake.

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The sheep are not the focus of Psalm 23.

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The shepherd is.

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Remember that at funerals.

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Remember that when you encounter the text.

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Remember that whenever you hear this text read.

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On the one hand, it has direct application to the hearts of we sheep who are herding.

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But the prime focus of Psalm 23 is not the sheep, it's the shepherd.

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Now, right off the bat, we read that this shepherd, this one, makes us to lie down in green pastures.

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Now, the word makes, the English translation of this, the word makes, it's a telling word choice.

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You see, the language here suggests that this action of lying down by green pastures is not of our own volition, but it's primarily of God's.

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The implication is that left to our own devices, we wouldn't necessarily seek out green pastures.

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We wouldn't necessarily travel in the paths of righteousness.

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Left alone, what does sheep do if there's no shepherd, no voice, no leading?

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Well, they just wander forever.

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They wander to places that are deadly to them.

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If we were truly left alone in this world, if we were left alone, we would dive headfirst

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in all manner of sins and snares.

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We would regularly drink from water that does not quench.

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We would regularly lay down like every naive and stupid sheep does.

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I mean, within the grasp of every wolf for a country mile.

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But fortunately, God's not an absentee shepherd.

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Remember we said earlier, it's not like God just made us and formed us

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and yells at us occasionally through a bullhorn from a billion miles away.

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That's not Emmanuel God with us.

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Rather, our shepherd, he's not an absentee shepherd, but he's a close one.

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Instead of being an absentee shepherd, our God takes us by the hand.

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He leads us.

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Sometimes he sets us down in green pastures and still waters.

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And in that moment, we might not understand how peaceful things are for us.

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In that moment, we might be kind of bored.

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We might say, well, God, don't you have something better for me?

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In those moments, he may be training us, nurturing us, preparing us for the storm to come.

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But God does this when we oftentimes wouldn't do it for ourselves.

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And a repeat emphasis of verse 2 and 3 is that he does this not because of us,

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but often in spite of us, in spite of our tendency to run the other way.

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Now let me add that God's provision should not be confused with protective bubble wrap.

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There are some, even some in the greater evangelical world,

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that in essence say that the minute you turn to God,

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the minute you turn to this shepherd, that there's health and wealth and prosperity,

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and things will always go well for you.

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That is not the teaching of Scripture.

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These verses don't suggest that just because you have a shepherd

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that you're insulated from the fact

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that there are wolves out there.

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What it suggests is that when you face them,

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you don't face them alone.

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Let's see in verse 4 how this is built on.

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Verse 4.

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Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

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I'll fear no evil, for you are with me.

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Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

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You have to see the distinction here.

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The distinction is this.

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You are sheep.

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You have a shepherd, and that is good.

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And there are seasons in your life

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there'll be the green pastures and still waters and all of that but the reality of the spiritual

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landscape around you is still deadly you have a sheep but as long as you're on this side of the

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mortal coil as long as you live out your days here you have a shepherd who will watch out over you

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but the landscape itself remains the same you see that that's an important distinction to make

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the spiritual terrain outside these doors was as deadly when you came into church as it will be

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when you go out of church. The landscape, the valley, the shadow of death is there. The distinction,

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the hope, the promise that we have is that when we face it, when we go out these doors, we're not

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facing it alone, that the shepherd is with us. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow

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of death, it will happen, it does happen, it'll happen again, I will fear no evil. And I won't

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fear evil because you are with me. Your rod and your staff, which is the shepherd's tools to beat

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off the wolves and to draw the sheep close. They are in your hand, O God, and that comforts me.

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You know, in military conquests, one of the least ideal forms of topography that you can ever enter

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is a valley. A valley. Now, why is that? Well, when you enter a valley, your vision is usually

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limited by the terrain that has risen up on each side, and so you can be more readily ambushed in

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a valley by an enemy that is just out of sight and should you turn to flee should you get ambushed

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when you're inside a valley and should you turn to run from it what you may find is that you're

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bottlenecked again the train hems you in it closes you off and support has trouble even getting to

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you even the most trained soldier even the rambo of soldiers is going to be apprehensive about going

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into a valley, especially, and not just any valley, mind you, but especially a valley that exists in

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enemy territory, where you already know that there's an enemy looking out to get you. With that said,

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where do you think we live? Well, the short answer is the valley. This is a spiritual valley. I know

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in reality we're on sea level here, but this, spiritually speaking, is a valley. There are

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enemies you can't see around the next bend. There are things behind you that are chasing you. This

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is real. This is true. The devil's like a prowling lounge seeking those who he might devour. There

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are evils and dangers around every bend. Some of them have already left scars on our backs

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to testify to their reality. And these evils are not benign.

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They are malignant to the extreme. And they have you and I in our crosshairs.

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David knew that.

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Even if you and I just kind of shrug our shoulders at that,

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David knew the reality of that.

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He was a man who was hounded and persecuted

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and had enemies just again on every corner.

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His travels had taken him through valleys

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that had claimed other men's hope

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and had claimed other men's lives.

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And yet, even though he knew that geography would not change

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just because he penned Psalm 23,

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he knew that geography would not change

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when he went to bed and woke up

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in the next morning, though he knew that was true, though he knew the geography would not change,

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and that sin and war and betrayal and temptation, all that would still be there, even though he was

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a man beset on all sides. He says, I fear no evil. I fear no evil. Now, how is that possible?

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Again, David's enemy is outnumbered ours. You could spend the rest of your life trying to make

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enemies, and you still won't get to the mountain that David had. So, how could he say, I fear no

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evil, given the amount of evil that was looking for him. Well, again, he says, you're with me,

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God, you're with me. And that means something to me. Praying to David is not like praying is to

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sometimes to us. Sometimes for us, prayers are these wispy trial balloons. We kind of float up

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and we hope that they reach the ears of God and that maybe he'll respond. Maybe he'll hear,

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maybe he'll do something. For some of us, that's what prayer life is. For David, it was much more

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that. He says, I'm a sheep. I cry out. My shepherd hears and he responds. And he had seen it happen

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time, time again. You know, if a sheep goes out into the wilderness and meets a wolf,

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it's game over for the sheep, unless, unless he is tucked behind the standing and the stature

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of his mighty and impressive shepherd who can defend and protect him. Now, let me stop here

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for a second. You and I might be able to look at verse 23 and say, all right, I understand that

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we're sheep-like, sheep-ish. Most of us get that. It comes with the territory. If you read enough

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scripture, this understanding that we're sheep-like. However, we do something kind of odd. I've said

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this before. I've used this statement before and I'll use it again because it comes to mind most

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readily when I think about sheep. You and I, we sort of get that we're sheep. We see it in scripture

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and so we nod our head and we say, okay, I'm sheep. But guess what sort of decisions

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we make, say, this week? Guess what sort of decisions that we make? We know that

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we're sheep. We know that there's some sort of spiritual lion out there and there's enemies and the like.

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We know that's true. And we know that we're sheep as we wander out into that

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wilderness. But we wander out thinking we're far stronger than

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we are. Sometimes we go into the heart of the most dangerous circumstances and

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settings and we're not necessarily trusting in the shepherd. We are trusting

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We were trusting this picture that although we're sheep, we're some sort of special sheep.

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And we can endure something our lesser brothers and sisters can't.

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We think that we're some sort of commando sheep is a phrase I've used.

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Ninja sheep.

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Some of us think that when it comes to evils out there and the music and television and the institutions around us,

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that, well, I'm strong enough in my faith.

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I'm stronger than those who are somewhat weak and new in the faith.

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And I can endure all this.

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We march down places, you know, Bourbon Street or the spiritual equivalent of that

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in our everyday choices, thinking that somehow we can enter into those scenarios

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or have those conversations or watch those shows and that it has no effect on us.

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Because why? We're ninja sheep.

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We're somehow more powerful and stronger than our peers.

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That's wrong. It's unbiblical and it's deadly and it's stupid.

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If you and I, if we could only see, if you could only see in a spiritual sense

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the claw marks that this world has already laid upon your back if you could only see the way in

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what your world view maybe it was years ago maybe it's today but the way in which your world view

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has been manipulated and infiltrated with the most ungodly heathen ideas beliefs opinions and the like

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the world has left claw marks on our back and we don't recognize it we think we're stronger than

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we are. So we play with fire. Well, David's emphasis is don't. He says, yea, I walked through the valley

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of the shadow of death, but I feared no evil because you were with me. I turned to my God. I don't trust

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in my own strength. I trust in His. All right, let's look at verses 5 and 6. These verses wrap up

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the psalm. In these verses, there's a transition from the image of God as a shepherd to that of a

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host or a benefactor. Let me explain what we mean. Let's read verses 5 and 6. You prepare a table

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before me in the presence of my enemies you anoint my head with oil my cup runneth over

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surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of

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the Lord forever you know in the centuries preceding the time of Christ it was customary

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for those who were visitors in someone else's home in the ancient days to have their head and

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their feet anointed in oil some of that's because people had traveled long distances and kind of

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smelly so you would anoint people's heads and the feet with oil or perfume and this gesture when you

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did this for someone who was visiting you someone who came into your house this gesture along with

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if someone gave you their wine glass as a visitor you fill it to the brim almost to overflowing

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these sort of gestures were intended to convey to your guest that when you're in my house you lack

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nothing. As long as I am the one responsible for your care when you are in my house, you will lack

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nothing. Break the most expensive bottle of oil, perfume, pour it on your feet of all things.

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Fill your cup to overflowing and that's just the start of it. So verse 5, David is contrasting

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God's provision for us with these customs because the people would have understood that. Now if you

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think back to the night of the Last Supper, you can see Jesus doing this very thing in a sense,

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when he washed the feet of his disciples. Jesus, this great host, this great benefactor,

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he washes the feet of his own. And then in their presence, he broke bread and he poured out the

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wine, suggesting that he was going to offer from his own abundance, his own merit, that which would

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overflow the spiritual needs of those that were gathered there. If you think about the banquet

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to the prodigal son. Remember, the son goes off, he does crazy stuff, he comes back to the father.

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What does the father do? Does the father just kind of go, well, all right, come on. Does the father

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just kind of indifferent to the return of the son? Not at all. The father just rushes across the

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field. Father gives him his robe, he gives him his signet ring, he kills the fatted calf, and he says,

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we're going to have a banquet. These are pictures of a God whose love and provision, even for

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wandering lost sheep when they come back to him just overflows. You have no idea what God is

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willing to give for you, what provision God is willing to make for you and for your life and for

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your needs and your concerns and your hurts and the like. Good gravy. He sent his own son to die

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on the cross. What do you think he'd withhold from you? What good, now or eternity, do you think God

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is going to say, meh, not for you? If he was willing to give up that which was the most precious to

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himself, his own son's lifeblood on Calvary. For some of us, there are people we've loved

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who've let us down. For some of us, we have an experience that there are those in our life

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who have withheld from us that which we've needed, who were stingy, maybe with resources,

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maybe with their love and attention in our times of need. In our own experiences, there are folks

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who have let us down in the past, God never will. David looks at this picture, this abundance. He

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says, you set up a table in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. He says,

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there's nothing you don't do. He says, you make every provision for me, no matter how terrible

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my situation is. You are with me. You preserve me, and you protect me, and ultimately, you're

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going to take me out of this into something far better. He says, this is a God I can serve. He

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says, this is a God I can love, and this is a God I can trust in when things go badly tomorrow.

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The fact that something goes badly in your life tomorrow or next week does not mean that God

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doesn't love you. Some of us, we think that God's love hinges on how good we're doing or what our

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circumstances are like and so forth. The love for God for you will not change based on that what

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you do or don't do. With that said, we are called to trust, but it doesn't come easy. Even trusting

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God for some of us is hard. And that's because there are others who have let us down. And so we

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have difficulty even trusting God. Sometimes people acknowledge God's existence and his power

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and all the stuff we sing about, but they say that that love and that power and that grace and that

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mercy applies to someone other than me. Because as sheep go, I've done a lot of things that God knows

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and he can't possibly forgive me for.

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If that's you this morning,

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you have to understand there's absolute unity

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between God's power to help you

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and his willingness to do so.

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God doesn't have the power to love his child

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and only give them half of that love.

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There's absolute unity between God's power

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and his willingness to pour out that power

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and that grace in order to assist us.

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Now, David got this.

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All this he got, and it meant the world to him.

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The things we've talked about this morning,

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this idea that God really does care

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and he really is there

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and he really does provide and that's not going to stop tomorrow none of that's new or ground

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shaking if it is you haven't been in church long enough none of that's new or ground shaking the

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problem is again that some of us have trouble just really buying it we understand it intellectually

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or theologically but then when tomorrow comes and a danger comes up on a radar some hurt or

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some diagnosis we really don't end up trusting them as much as we might think we would theologically

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intellectually. David got this, and so he consistently marched right down the valley,

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huddling his head up high, knowing that God was with him. For David, tomorrow was never in doubt,

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and that's why he could close this psalm by confidently declaring the same words that we'll

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close the sermon with, and the same words I hope that you hold dear. David closes the psalm saying,

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Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Not just one, not just some,

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Not just when I'm being nice or good or God especially loves me.

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He says, surely, truly, take it to the bank.

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Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

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And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

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That is an encouraging thought for David.

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It's an encouraging thought for us.

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Let's pray.