An overview for Sunday school teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Psalm 23, for Sunday, August 10, 2025, with the title, “God’s Care.” A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRODUCTION:

Early in my pastorate at Beggs, Oklahoma I went to church one day and said to a group of our folks in the foyer: “Wow, that view from the hill is so amazing!” They said, “What view?” I said, “The view from the top of the hill, just past the parsonage. When you crest that hill, there is the most amazing view of the whole valley!” They shrugged like they didn’t know what I was talking about. The fact is, every one of those people had been on that hill probably thousands of times, and seen that view, but I guess they had seen it so often, they just took it for granted. 

??? What is something that is so familiar to us that we might be tempted to take it for granted???

(Scenery we get used to, like that one in Beggs. Our health — until we lose it!  Same thing with our material blessings. Or the freedoms we experience in America …

You/your group can share any number of things. Then make the transition: This morning we are going to look at a Scripture that many of us are so familiar with, that we often take it for granted — but we shouldn’t, because its message is so powerful and needed: Psalm 23!

(You might also consider using the Discussion Question for Point I as an alternate Introduction to the lesson. See below)

CONTEXT:

There is no in-depth historical note attached to the 23rd Psalm to give us any added context; it only carries the inscription: “A Psalm of David.” But that says plenty, doesn’t it? Because David was himself a shepherd! He knew first-hand about the situations he was writing about here. The 23rd Psalm is perhaps THE most personal, heart-felt, signifiant Psalm to David, which reveals the heart of the man God said was “a man after My own heart.” 

So that’s plenty about its context! It shows us the kind of attitude — the kind of trust — we will have in God, when our heart is after Him too.

My wife Cheryl & I were talking about Psalm 23 just a few weeks ago; about WHY has Psalm 23 become such a well-known Psalm — so much so that we might be tempted to slight or overlook it. We decided it is because it is such a beautiful, powerful, Psalm, with such an applicable message that virtually everyone needs. It has become so familiar for the very reason that it is so good. So let us not make the mistake of overlooking it, or taking it for granted, and make sure we don’t flippantly overlook the 23rd Psalm, but get everything that the Lord has for us from it!

OUTLINE:

I.  All About The Relationship (:1-6)

II. The Relationship With The Shepherd (:1-4)

III. The Relationship With The Host (:5-6)

TEXT:  Psalm 23:1-6

I. All About the Relationship (:1-6)

To open this first point you might start with this: ??? Discussion Question??? and post this old saying:

“It’s not what you know; but WHO you know.”

And ask:  “Can you share a time when you’ve seen that saying to be true in your life/the life of someone you know?”

(For example, after I had graduated from high school, I got a summer job, primarily because of a connection I had with someone. It was what I knew; it was WHO I knew, that got me that job!)

You/your group can share personal examples like that. Then make the point:

But in NO area of life is “Who you know” more important than in your spiritual life! We will each enter God’s presence in heaven, or be rejected from there, based on whether or not we really knew Him.

— Jesus said in Matthew 7:23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”

— He said in His glorious High Priestly prayer in John 17:3, “This is eternal life, that they my KNOW YOU, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

So eternal life isn’t just a “business transaction;” it is a relationship. It is all about knowing God.

Then make the point: one of the most powerful and significant things about Psalm 23 is its emphasis on the relationship that David has with God. From beginning to end, this Psalm is all about the relationship:

— it opens with the words “YHWH roi”: Yahweh is the One shepherding me.” Two significant things here:

1) The very first word of Psalm 23 is the word “YHWH,” or “Yahweh/Jehovah.” (Remember whenever you see “LORD” in all four capitals, it means it is YHWH in the Hebrew text.) This is God’s personal name that He gave Moses when he asked Him His name. As we’ve talked about before, it means “I AM THAT I AM.” This is His name, that those who knew Him were to use, like other nations used the name “Baal,” or “Asherah,” or “Molech” or “Ra” for their gods. David’s God was not any of those, but specifically THIS God, Yahweh, whom he knew by name.

2) Then he says this “Yahweh,” (as we will see in Point II) “is the One shepherding me.” Who is Yahweh shepherding? “ME”! Again, this is very personal to David. God is shepherding HIM. He knows Him; he is being shepherded by Him, in this personal relationship. 

It reminds me of the old hymn: “He leadeth me, O blessed thought …”

And it just goes on from there. One EXERCISE you might do here, is to print Psalm 23 on a page (or copy a page from a Bible that has Psalm 23 on it) and have your group CIRCLE or HIGHLIGHT every personal pronoun: “I,” “me,” “He,” “You,” “Your.” 

It’s all through the text, isn’t it?

— “HE makes ME lie down …”

— “HE leads ME …”

— “HE restores MY soul ..”

This exercise will show in a very concrete and powerful way, how in EVERY VERSE, every line of Psalm 23, it emphasizes the relationship that David has with the Lord. Psalm 23 is all about the relationship.

And so you might say to your group, that it is the same for US too: Christianity is not just about “going to church,” or doing all kinds of “religious deeds.” It is all about the relationship with God — like Jesus said, “THIS is eternal life, that they may KNOW YOU … and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” It’s all about knowing Him:

— our Bible reading isn’t just to gain “facts,” but to KNOW HIM better

— our prayers are just “religious things we say,” but expression of our relationship: He speaks to us in His word, we speak to Him in prayer. 

Let’s make sure that we don’t get bogged down in “religious works” and forget about the relationship. David shows us here that it’s all about the relationship with God.

And make sure that they know that the only way to have this personal relationship with God, is by repenting of your sin and putting your trust in Jesus as your Lord & Savior. THERE IS NO RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD WITHOUT THAT! Jesus said very clearly: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, except through Me.” (John 14:6)  But it’s all about the relationship; and one of the strengths of Psalm 23 is that it makes that very clear.

Having seen the emphasis on the relationship that Psalm 23 has, now let’s look at two specific aspects of our relationship with Him that it teaches:

II. The Relationship With the Shepherd (:1-4)

:1 “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters.

3 He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”

David begins with those famous words, “The LORD is my shepherd.” As we’ve seen, the first word is Yahweh, the personal name of God. And how does He relate to us? As a “shepherd.” 

In Hebrew this is actually a participle, which indicates ongoing action: He is “the One shepherding me.” Literally, YHWH is the One “pasturing, tending, grazing” me; I shall not be in want.”

It’s significant that of all the things God could have used to describe Himself to David, He used “shepherd.” (Not primarily “Judge,” or “King,” or “Master” — though those things are true — but “Shepherd.” It says a lot about the kind of relationship God wants to have with His people: not one of fear, but of loving care.

The Bible tells us in Psalm 100:3 “we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.” The shepherd  has a relationship with his sheep. Jesus said in John 10, “My sheep hear My voice, and they KNOW Me.” Again, it’s the description of a relationship. God doesn’t merely want to be our “cold-hearted Dictator” — He wants to be our Shepherd, whose voice we recognize and love. So this Psalm begins with this picture of the basic relationship between us and God. Those who see religion as “putting a coin in the offering to get what you want” or “checking off a list of religious deeds” or anything like that have MISSED what Christianity is all about.  It is about having a relationship with a God who is our Shepherd, through Jesus Christ.  

And then importantly, the reason he says he “will not want” (or perhaps better translated “need”) is not just because God will give him everything he need — although as we just saw from Philippians 4:19 He DOES promise to do that — “My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” — but also because if you truly know the Lord as your Shepherd, you don’t really NEED anything else! C.S. Lewis wrote in his sermon “The Weight of Glory”: 

“He who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only.” The point being, if we have Him, then we have all we need. (And if we don’t have something, He will give us what we need!) But it is God HIMSELF who is the prize. We will not lack anything when we have Him. He is really all we need.

Then with verse 2 he begins to describe some ASPECTS of this relationship he has with God. What does He do for him as his Shepherd? 

:2 “He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters.” This begins to describe how God gives us what we need, in specific ways: the “pastures” are food, and then the “watering place” is of course the drink. So He leads us to food and and drink — everything we need to live on. He will meet every need, like Philippians 4:19 says.

It should be instructive to us that in the New Testament, JESUS says that HE HIMSELF is these things for us: He says HE is the “bread of life”; HE will give us living water. So He will give us everything we need, as we follow Him. And notice it is not only our “physical” need, but also our spiritual need that He provides for us:

:3 “He restores my soul; He leads me in the path of righteousness for His name’s sake.”  The word “restores” there means a “putting back right” of our souls, whether it was a sin that we need to repent of, and get back to right standing with God, or if our souls are drained, and we need to “charge up our batteries” — GOD will “restore our souls” to what they need to be, as we come to Him as our Shepherd. OUR responsibility is to make sure we come to Him every day, and spend time with Him in His word & prayer, so that we can have our souls restored by Him.  

And I LOVE this picture here in :3 of “He leads me in the paths of righteousness.” In Hebrew this is literally “the wagon tracks” (or someone has translated it “ruts”) of righteousness.  That’s a picture that’s familiar to many of us — we’ve seen the old dirt country roads that had big ruts worn in them — and the picture of those “ruts” contains a great lesson too!  

WHEN IT’S GOOD TO BE IN A RUT

We often think of “being in a rut” as being a bad thing — and it can be, for sure. But David counts it a blessing here to be led by the Lord in “the ruts of righteousness.” There are some good “ruts” to be in. Many people today always want to be “original” and “creative”, and “the same old thing” is often looked down upon with disdain.  But David reminds us that righteousness can be found in “the well-worn wagon tracks” of following the Lord.  If you think about it: ruts often exist for a reason: because that was actually the best way to go!  

DISCUSSION QUESTION:

??? “What are some ‘good ruts’ that we could be in?”

(Some answers might include:

— it’s good to be in the “rut” of sound and orthodox doctrine. Not long ago I read about a younger pastor in Texas who said he was taking a “new look” at how to interpret the Bible’s commandments against homosexuality. He said he now believes that they could be interpreted to mean that you could bless same-sex marriages as holy. One of our seminary professors commented on that and said you’ve got to understand, this “new” interpretation goes against 2000 years of Christian history! Any “new” interpretation we come up with after 2000 years, you can be pretty sure is WRONG! We need to stay in the well-worn “ruts” of right doctrine! 

There’s a number of “good ruts” to be in: 

— it’s good to be in a “rut” of going to church

— it’s good to be in a “rut” of getting into prayer and God’s word daily

— it’s good to be in a “rut” of tithing and giving

— it’s good to be in the “rut” of having a family day or a date night with your spouse.

You/your group can think of many. Emphasize: it’s GOOD to be in these “ruts of righteousness”!  We need to be careful today, because sometimes the drive for “innovation,” “newness,” and “originality” in Christianity actually leads us away from righteousness. That doesn’t mean that we should never be creative, but we also need to realize that often, “ruts” are there for a reason — because that was the best path! It’s often best to stay in the old wagon tracks — especially “the wagon tracks of righteousness” that David said God leads us in.

THERE IS A TURNING POINT HERE IN :4

In :1-3 David said “HE” is my Shepherd; “HE” makes me lie down”, “HE” leads me, etc.   But then in :4-5 the language changes and it is now “YOU”: “YOU” are with me; “YOUR” rod & staff comfort me, etc. So now Psalm 23 becomes even more personal than it was when it started!

Verse 4 says, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.”  There’s some amazing truths here:

— The word “YEA though I walk” is a Hebrew word that is usually translated “also.” And I think it could be translated that way here too: look at it in context: he has just spoken in :3 of how God leads him in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake — and now there’s this contrast: “ALSO, though I walk in the valley of gloom/death’s shadow …” i.e., following Jesus as our Shepherd won’t always be “green meadows” and “quiet water resting places”; sometimes we come into times when we walk in death’s shadow — but the comfort this offers is that God is with us there “ALSO”!  

And the second part of :4 says that in those valleys, “I will fear no evil, for YOU are WITH ME.  Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” Those words, “YOU are with me”, are so significant:

— First, the word “YOU” is emphatic in Hebrew; the pronoun “atah” emphasizes: “YOU” — that if we know that God is with us, we can face anything — even death’s shadow.  

The most important thing in all the world is to know that the presence of God is with us. Because there’s nothing we can’t face if He is with us.  

Moses knew this. That’s why in Exodus 33:15, after God told Moses to take the people to the Promised Land by himself but that He would not go with them, Moses said, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.” He knew that the ONE thing they could not do without was the presence of God.

— Who cared if there was an overflowing Jordan river to cross, if God was with them — He’d just split it!

— What did it matter if there were giants in the land — if God was with them, He’d slay them!

— So what if there were cities with walls so thick you could drive chariots on top of them — if God was with them, He could make them all just tumble down!

Moses knew that the most important thing; the only thing that really matters, is that God was with them.

In the Book of Daniel they threw Hananiah, Mishael & Azariah into the fiery furnace, and they saw a 4th man with them, like a Son of God. Those 3 men could go through ANYTHING: even a fiery furnace, if the Lord was with them. 

That’s why our constant prayer for our churches should be that GOD WILL BE WITH US in a powerful way. It doesn’t matter who the preacher is, or what songs we sing, or how the program is organized, or whatever projects we try to do — the most important thing is that GOD IS WITH US. If HE is with us, then none of that matters; He can bless and use anything. And if He is NOT with us — then likewise it doesn’t matter what we do; because nothing is going to work if His presence is not here. So the thing we need to pray more than anything else is for God to be with us; for HIM to shine His blessing on us like Psalm 67 says.

And the same thing is true for us as individuals. We can face anything life throws at us, if we know that God is with us. That’s why it’s so significant that in Matthew 1 Jesus is called “Immanuel” — “God with us.” If you know Jesus as your Savior, then God really IS “with you”; He is IN you through His Holy Spirit; He is with you to the end of the age; He will never leave you or forsake you. And just like David says here, there is NOTHING you can’t face — not even “the valley of the shadow of death” — when you know that HE is “with me.”  

AND DON’T MISS THIS:  these words “You are with me” are the very CENTER of Psalm 23. If you count the words of Psalm 23 in Hebrew, you find that “You are with me” is the exact center of Psalm 23 — there are exactly 26 Hebrew words before that phrase, and exactly 26 Hebrew words after it — which makes “You are with me” the exact center of the Psalm. This was very significant to the Jews. By putting this phrase exactly in the middle, it’s saying: THIS IS THE HEART OF THIS PSALM: THIS is the most important thing here; THIS is what it is all about: that “You are with me.” It’s so important. That’s what we need more than anything — both as individuals and as churches — in any situation, to know that “He is with us”! And that is what Psalm 23 assures us of! 

Then the end of :4 speaks of how “Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”  In Hebrew, it’s Your “rod, staff, club” and Your Shepherd’s “staff”.  The first refers to a weapon of protection, and the second to a support, for comfort. So God is there to protect and comfort us when we need it too.

III. The Relationship With the Host (:5-6)

:5 “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.

6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

(NASB)

As we see here, in the last two verses, the relationship picture changes from “Shepherd,” to “Host”:

:5 “You prepare a table before me, in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; my cup overflows.”  

Here David pictures God as a HOST, receiving us into His home, and preparing a meal for us. In Hebrew, “TABLE before me” is literally “a skin or leather mat spread on the ground” like they would have in the Eastern world, to recline and feast on. And he does this, he says, right in “the presence of my enemies.” (Again, with the Lord with him, he’s not afraid. Honestly, I myself don’t usually eat very well when I feel a lot of pressure, like when I’m surrounded by enemies! But David says he can, because God is with Him! This is yet another amazing picture of the comfort and confidence it gives, when God is with us!) 

“You anoint my head with oil” is another symbol of the hospitality of the host. This is NOT the Hebrew word for the anointing of a king, that’s a different word, “mashach.” This anointing is a deed of hospitality. One scholar (Ross) wrote: ”It was the duty and delight of the gracious host to give the guest scented, perfumed oil to freshen up (especially after being in the sun and sand; modern skin lotions may be similarly refreshing.”

As a cross-reference to this custom, remember how in Luke 7:46 Jesus told Simon the Pharisee who had invited Him into his home: “You didn’t anoint my head with oil.” This shows us that it was a custom in those days to do that for guests. And the picture here is that God DOES do this for US — He  does graciously receives us into His home, and He cares for us as special guests who are precious to Him, and whom He is glad to have in His presence.

Then :6 closes with those famous words: “Surely goodness & mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” This last verse is a favorite for many, and for good reason: In Hebrew it is “tob” (literally “good”) and “chesed” (we’ve studied this word before; it’s that almost untranslatable word for God’s undeserved mercy, goodness and grace).

And he says this good and grace will “follow” us — but the Hebrew word here, “radaph,” is much stronger than that. It doesn’t merely just mean “follow,” but to “pursue, to chase” — it’s often used in the Old Testament for running after someone to “persecute” them! 

— In Gen. 14:15 in the battle of the kings, it says Abram “defeated them, and PURSUED them as far as Hobah …”. 

— Deut. 11:4 Pharaoh “PURSUED” Israel in the Exodus

— David knew what it was like to be “pursued”! Saul “pursued” him in the wilderness, seeking to track him down and kill him. 

But here David says, there is something else, something greater that is pursuing me:  God’s “Good” and God’s “Chesed” are pursuing me, chasing me and hunting me down! It is an amazing promise of how relentlessly God’s blessings will come to us!

(I love the new song, “The Goodness of God,” that many of our churches have been singing in worship. It has the line in it: “Your goodness is running after, running after me!” That’s is exactly the picture here; and it’s amazing: God’s goodness and grace are chasing after us – and they won’t let us escape until they have found us! It really IS an amazing promise!

CONCLUSION:

Then he closes the Psalm in :6 saying: “and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever” – literally, “I will sit/remain/dwell in the house of YHWH forever..”. That’s the ultimate happy ending. Some people think that the the ultimate is to win the World Series. Some people think the ultimate is to have a million dollars in the bank; or be elected President of the United States, or something like that. But none of those things is really the ultimate experience. When all the winners and riches and fame are forgotten and gone, the Lord’s sheep will be experiencing the ultimate: living forever in the eternal home and in the Presence of the Lord! That is what God made us for, and that is the ultimate blessing that He gives us as His people, His sheep. Again in this final verse, we see that it’s all about the relationship: I’m going to dwell in the house of YHWH, My Shepherd, whom I know by name, forever.  No wonder Psalm 23 is so many people’s favorite! It’s one of the best passages in all the word of God, that describes the sweet blessings of our personal relationship with “Yahweh, the One Shepherding ME”!

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