Shall Not Want

In the hill country of Judah, the shepherd was usually a younger son or a hired man. His work was not peaceful in the way we use that word today. It was a job that needed a weapon, because there were wolves, jackals, the occasional lion, and thieves. On top of all that, he had a flock too foolish to run in the right direction.

Keep that picture in mind all the way through, because the psalm does. Verse 1 makes the claim: "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want." Every line after it reads like a real shepherd's list of jobs. "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures": that is finding good grazing. "He leadeth me beside the still waters": that is finding quiet water where a flock can drink safely. "He restoreth my soul": that is what a shepherd does for an animal that has wandered off and grown weak. "He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness," which pictures the right tracks, the ones that really go somewhere. Then come "thy rod and thy staff," one for fighting off attackers and one for hooking a sheep back from the edge.

Notice what the sheep never does in that list. It does not pick the field or find the water. It does not choose the route, and it does not argue about the rod. So "I shall not want" does not mean the sheep gets everything it can imagine. It means the sheep is never short of what the shepherd knows it needs, and the shepherd is the one who knows.

That truth cuts both ways. Being kept by a good shepherd is not the same as being asked your opinion, and a sheep that insisted on choosing its own pasture would only end up thinner. The safest place for you is close to this Shepherd, where every need He sees is already in His hands. The psalm ends by showing where His care leads: "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life."

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 46 is A Hearing Heart (1 Kings 3:9).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna