Before this much–loved psalm can become ours, we must remember that it is first David’s, and then Jesus’s. That is, it is a psalm of our King before it becomes ours in him. Coming after the terrors of Psalm 22, Psalm 23 is especially striking. We have just sung with our King of the lonely horrors of God–forsakenness. And yet, through this darkest of valleys, our King trusts that the covenant God is His Shepherd.
There are many echoes of the Exodus, when the ‘Shepherd of Israel’ (Ps. 80:1) ensured that His people would ‘lack nothing’ (Deut. 2:7), brought them to a ‘holy pasture’ (Exod. 15:13, translated ‘holy dwelling’ in the NIV), to a land described as His ‘rest’ (e.g. Ps. 95:11, the same word as ‘quiet’ in ‘quiet waters’), and spread ‘a table’ for them in the wilderness (Ps. 78:19). The king who sings this psalm is the representative head of the people of God; he is the embodiment of redeemed Israel. He walks in intimate fellowship with the covenant God, his Shepherd, who guides him, as he guided Israel, ‘for his name’s sake’, that is, because his reputation as a faithful promise–making, covenant–keeping God depends on this.
Jesus knew this confidence, and shared with David the assurance that, even though He walked through ‘the darkest valley’ (the valley of the shadow of death), He need fear no evil, for His shepherd was with Him, His ‘rod’ to fend off attacks from wild beasts, His ‘staff’ or ‘crook’ to guide and lead Him in paths of righteousness.
The banquet of verse 5 is a victory meal (‘in the presenceof my enemies’) in which the enemies can only look on while the King is anointed with oil (before the meal) and given an overflowing cup of blessing. Verse 6 is the climax, repeating ‘the LORD’ as an inclusio with verse 1, and expressing a beautiful confidence that the goodness and love (covenant love, chesed) follow the King all His life, so that He will dwell in the presence of God in His house all His days.
The King who inherits these covenant assurances is ultimately Jesus Christ. He is the singer of Psalm 23. What comfort this psalm must have brought to Him in His earthly sufferings! And now it is ours as we are ‘in Christ’. Our King becomes, with God the Father, our Good Shepherd, leading us His sheep where He has gone before. With our King – and only with our King, never in isolated spirituality – we share this deep and beautiful assurance, that as we follow Him through the valley of the shadow of death, we too need fear no evil, and we too will dwell with Jesus in the Father’s house for ever.
This extract is from Teaching Psalms Vol. 2 by Christopher Ash. Volume 1 is also available here.