Meditate | Scripture Surprise

Meditate is a monthly column in which insights gained from meditating on the Word are shared. We welcome your insights, too, in the form of comments or even your own article. Contact us if you'd like to write a submission for this column. -Editor

The following may be obvious to many of you, but I just heard an old favorite in a new way. It's the 23rd Psalm. It all began with that first verse, “The Lord is my shepherd—I shall not want.” I always took this as just the first of several stand-alone sayings throughout the psalm, but as such I’ve never got much meaning from it. More recently I’ve lingered over the word “want,” understanding it as a somewhat old-fashioned way of saying “lack”; as in, “The Lord is my shepherd, [and therefore I won’t lack anything].” Taken by itself, this has really helped me. But it gets better.

Today it hit me: instead of taking this Psalm as a list of proverbs, maybe there’s a relationship between the opening statement and the list that follows. Notice how each phrase contains some gift that demonstrates how all our needs will be met by our Shepherd—a list that shows why we won’t “want” or lack anything:

The Lord is my shepherd: [and because of this] I shall not [lack anything].
[WHY?]
[BECAUSE:]

• He makes me to lie down in green pastures
• He leads me beside the still waters
• He restores my soul
• He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake
• Yea (“Indeed”—the evidence is building) though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me
• Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me
• Thou prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies
• Thou anointest my head with oil
• My cup runs over
• Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life
• And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

NOW I get why "I shall not want": the Lord couldn't be more comprehensive in supplying my needs. My need for spiritual food, for example. As Arcana Coelestia puts it, "'pasture' in the internal sense is that which sustains the spiritual life, and especially is it the truth of memory-knowledge, for the soul of man desires this as the body desires food. This truth nourishes, and therefore 'to feed' denotes to be instructed" (6078). (An implication of this passage is that "I shall not want" doesn't mean I shouldn't want, in the sense of yearning for; spiritual hunger is essential for any reception of truth and its goodness.)

And finally, a beautiful summary of this psalm's spiritual meaning, from Prophets and Psalms 273:

Psalm 23 Concerning the Lord
[verses 1-3] He teaches and leads to the truths and goods of heaven and the church;
[verse 4-5] hence there will be no fear of the hells, for He guards, and imparts good and truth in abundance
[verse 6] in heaven with the Lord to eternity.

Judah Synnestvedt