I Shall Not Want in Pleasant Times (Psalm 23:2-3)

Having deduced that he would not have any want or lack in his spiritual experiences because he had the Lord as his Shepherd, David proceeded to give examples of where he would not be without the various benefits that the Lord could provide. In verses 2 and 3, he gives mainly positive examples and then he follows them with some negative examples in the next set of verses. He mentions three positive examples: lying down and walking beside still waters, restoration of soul, and going in the paths of righteousness.

There are three general details that we can mention about David’s three positive examples. The first detail is that the Shepherd, and not any of the sheep, is in charge: he is the one who is actively taking the initiative in each of the three illustrations, whether causing the sheep to lie down in green pastures, or leading it by still waters, or by taking it along the paths of righteousness. The second detail is that the three examples seem to be a sequence. First, the sheep is taken to green pastures and still waters; second, at them, the sheep experiences soul restoration; and third, the Shepherd then leads the sheep along the paths of righteousness.

The psalmist is not suggesting that the sequence happens only once. Rather, it is repetitive, taking place frequently in the sheep’s spiritual life. It is possible that David is detailing the daily life of a sheep in his illustration. In the morning, the sheep is taken by the shepherd to the green pastures; at noon he is taken to the still waters to rest; then in the afternoon, he is led along paths by the Shepherd to the fold. When things are going straightforwardly in divine providence for a believer in Jesus he or she is in one of those stages.

Green pastures and still waters

Obviously, the green pastures and the still waters are illustrative of spiritual provision, and they could illustrate a variety of places. But some knowledge of how life was at the time when David wrote the psalm can help us to make applications for us who may only see a shepherd occasionally.

The first point concerns the greenness of the pastures in a very hot and dry country. How would they be so green? The greenness of the pastures in Israel was dependent either on rain or on dew coming down from above. The second point notes the plurality of pastures – usually a sheep will only be in one pasture at a time, so maybe David has in mind the sheep going through several pastures sequentially or maybe, since it is God that he is describing, his people can go through them simultaneously.

The third point is that in the psalm, as far as the sheep are concerned, the need to look for nice pieces of grass to eat is over. Instead, it is time for the sheep to lie down and chew its cud, which the Shepherd makes it do. The fourth detail concerns the still waters, which probably refers to pools of water located at the edge of the pasture rather than to a river, pools where the sheep could drink safely and not be in danger of drowning as they would be close to a river in full flow.

The fifth detail is that the sheep did not need to worry about the daily provision; if it did, it would not make the slightest difference because it had no idea when it set out at the start of the day as to where the shepherd would take it. We can make three applications from those five details.

First, in order for there to be green pastures, there has to be prior activity from above, from God. Even as literal pastures need rain or dew, we need the activity of the Holy Spirit to provide for us places of spiritual rest. He has provided them, and we can see them illustrated in the plurality of spiritual pastures. They would include the Bible, prayer, fellowship, church services and other such things. Sometimes we may be engaged in only one of them, but often they occur together.

Second, it looks to me as if the sheep lying down in green pastures is an illustration of meditation. Even as the sheep chews over what it is already absorbed, so it is good for us to have a quiet place to think over spiritual realities that have come our way. Maybe in reading the Bible or in fellowship or in church, we have noticed something and the time comes for us to reflect on it. Psalm 1 tells us that meditation is literally speaking to ourselves about spiritual realities. We could imagine a believer engaged in meditation on what is said in verse 1 of Psalm 23. The Lord – who is he? He is my Shepherd – what does that indicate for where I am right now?  

Third, it is important to remind ourselves that it is pointless to worry about things that we cannot change or bring about. We know that Jesus said it is wrong to be concerned about losing our hair or changing our height. No doubt, there are major things in life that concern us and cause us to focus on them, but they are different from the many matters we worry about concerning which we can do nothing. But we never need to worry about our spiritual provision because that is the responsibility of the Shepherd. Daily he will take us to where he meets our need.

Restoration of soul

The soul is our inner life. It is the part of our personal make-up from which energy for life comes. It is like the battery in a car. If the battery of a car is flat, it will go nowhere. If the soul is flat, the believer will go nowhere. Why would a sheep need restoration from the Shepherd?

One cause would be the roughness of the journey. As the sheep walked along, there would be holes in the ground into which it might step and cause it to limp as well as thorns here and there piercing it and causing pain. Another cause could be physical weakness or illness that depleted its energy. A third cause could even be other sheep – it is surprising how often sheep engage in headbutting. A fourth cause could be the unpopularity of the sheep because most people would not want them coming into their villages and making a mess. A fifth cause could be the tendency of the sheep to wander or walk at a distance from the Shepherd and then it would have to rush back or be chased back to the flock.

It is not too difficult to make applications about those causes. Life today is very difficult for God’s people as they are strangers in a strange land. Their values, based on God’s law, are not found in society. The gospel that they love is dismissed as nonsense. Their interests in the progress of God’s kingdom is regarded as nostalgia for a past that has been outgrown by an advancing society. The world is a spiritually dry place and provides no refreshments for God’s people. Instead, it causes dryness of soul if they spend too much time in it.

Sometimes believers, even when they are participating in good things, have something wrong in their hearts, as we can see in many of the psalms and in other parts of the Bible where believers lament their sinfulness. They can backslide in heart even while the mind is intrigued by a biblical statement. When that happens, they dry up inside. The diminishing of brotherly love is a frequent cause of disturbance in a believer’s heart.

I am often surprised when Christians say to me that they are surprised at the degree of departure from the Christian faith that is happening at all levels of society. We should not be surprised at the unpopularity of the Bible and what we believe. Jesus said that it would happen, and indeed he said it was dangerous to be approved off by the world. Still their constant attacks on the gospel and other biblical truths is wearing and we need refreshment in our souls very frequently.

The good thing is that the Shepherd knows how to refresh us. A literal shepherd may have to force a sheep to lie down, and often Jesus comes to us and says, ‘Lie down, think about what you know, warm your soul on the provisions of heaven, sense my presence, take note of my care.’ Is that not the way God does it? In one way or another, he says, ‘Fear not, I am with you.’ That is what Jesus told his apostles when he informed them that he would be with them all the days that they would serve him. And he will restore his people through the means of grace, whether by his Word, by communion with him in prayer, by fellowship with one another, and by attending church services for edification and intercession.

Leading in paths of righteousness

Paths of righteousness are the ways in which we obey God’s commandments. Obviously, there could be many different ways in which such habits of living can be expressed. We should observe that the verse does not say that the Shepherd leads his sheep to paths of righteousness, but that he leads them in paths of righteousness. The paths of righteousness seem to be right beside the place of spiritual rest as far as the onset of the next stage of the journey is concerned. Spiritual recuperation finds believers ready to obey and follow the Shepherd.

Sadly, it is possible for a sheep to go along an unrighteous path, but when that happens the Shepherd is not leading that sheep. Disobedience implies that one has not been resting in the way that Jesus requires, focused on him and his grace.

As we think about this picture of the Christian life, what ideas may come to mind? First, there is strength available, as Paul says when he writes, ‘I can do all things through him who strengthens me.’ Everything in the Christian life requires divine strength, and we cannot do anything through other forms of strength.

Second, there is guidance or information for finding the paths of righteousness, and while we cannot follow Christ literally in a physical sense, we now follow him through what he says in the Scriptures (which is an obvious reason for knowing them well). Whenever we take up the Bible, we should pray, ‘Teach me, O Lord, the perfect way of your precepts.’

A third feature would be sensitivity to the presence of Christ. He is there leading his sheep, but the sheep does not need a pair of binoculars to see his presence. Faith has wonderful eyesight and is aware of the presence of Christ. Is that not why his people just talk to him whenever they can?

Fourth, there are paths that are obviously unrighteous and we would not expect Jesus to take us there. But as John Bunyan points out in his Pilgrim’s Progress, sometimes we can come to a place on our journey where there are two parallel roads that look very similar. In his story he tells us that Christian and his companion decided to try the other one for a while and that they did not notice that the new path was slanting gradually away from the true one, and before they knew it they were in Doubting Castle.

Fifth, the proof that we want to stay in the paths of righteousness always depends on the next step that we will take. A believer may be walking fine, and it is good to look back and see how God has led us. But it is the next step that matters. I once heard a sermon on sanctification in which the preacher said that the Christian life is like climbing a mountain and a believer ascends by two steps up and one step down, which means that he actually gets there eventually, but not as quick as he might have thought.

Why does the Shepherd lead his people in the paths of righteousness? David reminds us that the Lord does so for his own name’s sake. This means that the Lord is concerned about the conclusions that could be made about him, and in the context it will be his level of care. After all, Jesus has announced that he is the good Shepherd, and that is one of the incentives that he gives to sinners to come and trust in him for salvation. Because he has his own glory in mind, all that he will provide for his flock will be perfect even although each of his people is imperfect.

God does everything for his own glory. He expects his people to live for his honour and he provides them with all that they need to do so. Grace comes constantly to them as they walk in the paths that he has laid out for them. There are many references in the Bible to the paths God has mapped out for them in this life, and the paths are like himself. They are called the highway of holiness, it is the narrow way, it is the paths of righteousness.