What does Psalm 23 mean?

What does “The Lord is my shepherd” mean?

In Psalm 23:1, which reads “Yahweh is my shepherd” on this page, the line pictures God as a ruler who protects and provides. In the ancient Near East, a shepherd stood for the authority and care of a god, or of a king. Around 1750 BCE, King Hammurabi held that he did his royal duty the way a shepherd does. He gave his people pastures and water, and settled them in a peaceful place.⁵

Psalm 23 begins with the same two gifts: “green pastures” and “still waters.” Its first line is “Yahweh is my shepherd.” Beth Tanner reads that line as a royal title.¹

In Israel’s exodus stories, God leads a whole people out of Egypt like a flock, as in Exodus 15:13 and Psalm 78:52-53. The prophets used the same picture for the road home from exile in Babylonia.² The verb in “I shall lack nothing” is the one Deuteronomy 2:7 uses for Israel’s forty years in the wilderness.⁵ In Psalm 23, the shepherd of a whole people becomes the shepherd of one speaker, who trusts him.²

What are “the paths of righteousness”?

In Psalm 23:3, Phil Botha reads “the paths of righteousness” as both safe tracks for a flock and a right way of life for a person.²

As a shepherd’s road, the paths are right tracks. A good shepherd does not take crooked roads that cut illegally or secretly across fields and gardens. Some interpreters hear only this sense, because care and safekeeping fill verses 1 to 4.²

The Hebrew word for these paths occurs 16 times in the Hebrew Bible, and seven of those are in Proverbs. In Proverbs it names the road of a life lived by what wisdom teaches. Read alongside Proverbs, verse 3 makes the shepherd a teacher as well, guiding a student in how to live.²

The rest of verse 3 speaks of righteousness and of Yahweh’s name: “for his name’s sake.” With those words, the picture of a flock is set aside for a moment. From here on, the one being guided is a person as well as a sheep.²

What does “the valley of the shadow of death” mean?

In Psalm 23:4, “the valley of the shadow of death” names a place of fear and threat.¹ Jeremiah 2:6 counts the Hebrew word behind “the shadow of death” among the horrors of the exodus.²

David Adamo lectures in Kogi State, Nigeria, and compares a road there to this valley. No one seems safe from kidnappers and armed robbers on the road from Anyigba to Okene.⁵

Halfway through verse 4, the grammar changes. Until then the speaker talks about God: he leads, he restores, he guides. In the valley, the speaker turns and talks to God instead. From there to the end of the psalm, “he” becomes “you”.⁵

The words at the turn are “for you are with me.” Beth Tanner reads them as presence rather than leadership. The shepherd is no longer out in front.¹ Phil Botha places the center of the whole psalm in that half-verse.²

What does “my cup runneth over” mean?

In Psalm 23:5, “My cup runs over” is a sign of surplus, of more than the speaker needs. With “You prepare a table before me,” the shepherd has become a host. The speaker is now a guest who is honored and served a meal.⁵

Pasture becomes a table and water becomes a cup, and the speaker who lacked nothing in verse 1 now has more than enough.² Beth Tanner argues that every image in the psalm, the host included, fits under one heading: Yahweh as king.¹

The table is set “in the presence of my enemies,” and the meal is a feast at which the speaker is anointed in front of opponents.³ In Psalm 78:19-20, the Israelites in the wilderness doubt that God can spread a table there. The speaker of Psalm 23 sits at one and does not doubt.²

In the Psalms’ prayers for help, it is enemies who pursue the speaker. In verse 6, “goodness and loving kindness” follow the speaker instead.⁵

The traditional Hebrew text ends the psalm with the verb “return,” and the ancient Greek translation ends it with “dwell.” The text on this page has the second: “I will dwell in Yahweh’s house forever.” Ndikho Mtshiselwa argues for “return.”³ Phil Botha suggests the poet meant the word to be heard both ways. The house is the temple, and the speaker arrives there as an honored guest.²

When was Psalm 23 written?

Psalm 23 was probably composed late in the Babylonian exile, the years of captivity in Babylonia, and recited after the exile was over.^3,5 Many scholars hold that date.^3,5 The first deportation to Babylon came in 597 BCE. Jerusalem’s final destruction and exile came in 587 BCE. Babylon fell to the Persians in 539 BCE. The exiles’ return began in 538 BCE.⁴

Ndikho Mtshiselwa’s case starts from the last verb of verse 6, which is “return” in the traditional Hebrew text. That verb shares a stem with the verb behind “He restores my soul” in verse 3, so a theme of returning runs through the psalm. The theme fits the last years of the exile, when the captives were about to go home to their land and to the temple. In Babylon the exiles were exploited, above all as a source of cheap labor.³

Not everyone agrees. Phil Botha dates the psalm after the exile, because it echoes texts composed after the exile.² David Adamo also records a view that places the psalm in Jerusalem before the exile.⁵

The psalm’s own heading reads “A Psalm by David.” Some interpreters have tied the psalm to David’s flight from Jerusalem when Absalom revolted, in 2 Samuel 15 to 19. The same study finds it hard to show clear links in wording or theme between the two texts. Louis Jonker and Susan Gillingham credit the psalm to the Levites, the temple’s singers. Both read its heading as a mark of the Levites. The same study also reports an argument that the Levites sang Psalm 23 in the Second Temple, the temple rebuilt after the exile.³