Psalm 23 — the LORD is my shepherd

The full text

Psalm 23 in the BSB:

A Psalm of David.

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 the sake of His name. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

In the KJV (1769):

A Psalm of David.

1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 Yea, 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. 5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Two structural notes

The pronoun shift at verse 4. The first three verses speak of the LORD in the third person — “He makes me… He leads me… He restores my soul.” Beginning at verse 4, the address shifts to second person — “for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff.” The shift coincides with the entry into the “valley of the shadow of death.” When threat is named, the speaker moves from talking about God to talking to God. The shift is preserved in every major English translation but is rarely commented on in popular reading.

The two settings. The psalm has two distinct locations:

• Verses 1–4 — pastoral landscape (pastures, waters, paths, valley)
• Verses 5–6 — a banquet hall (table, oil, cup, the house of the LORD)

Some commentators read the psalm as moving from sheep imagery to host-and-guest imagery. Others read both as overlapping metaphors for divine provision. The text does not resolve the question; both images are simply present.

Word-level notes

Five Hebrew terms in the psalm repay attention:

tsalmaveth (צַלְמָוֶת) — “the shadow of death” / “deep darkness” (v. 4). The KJV’s “shadow of death” reflects an older parsing of the word as a compound of tsel (shadow) + maveth (death). HALOT s.v. tsalmaveth documents both this etymology and a competing reading that takes the word as an intensified form of tsel meaning “deepest darkness” without specific reference to death. Modern translations split — the BSB and KJV preserve “shadow of death”; the NRSV renders “the darkest valley.” Both are within the lexical range. The phrase has entered English as a fixed expression precisely because of its KJV form.

shevet (שֵׁבֶט) — “rod” (v. 4). The Hebrew word names a heavy wooden club or staff carried by a shepherd primarily as a weapon — to fend off predators. The same word is used elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible for a king’s sceptre (a symbol of governance). The “rod” of Psalm 23:4 is the shepherd’s defensive weapon.

mish’enah (מִשְׁעֶנֶת) — “staff” (v. 4). A different word, naming the longer staff used for support and for guiding sheep. The two words name distinct shepherding implements; the KJV’s “thy rod and thy staff” preserves the distinction.

ya’arokh shulchan (יַעֲרֹךְ שֻׁלְחָן) — “you prepare a table” (v. 5). The Hebrew verb arakh names the formal arranging of a meal — the deliberate setting out of food and dishes. The image is of hospitality offered with care, not of food simply being available.

dishshanta vashemen roshi (דִּשַּׁנְתָּ בַשֶּׁמֶן רֹאשִׁי) — “you anoint my head with oil” (v. 5). The Hebrew verb dashen (Piel stem) carries a sense of “make rich, make fat” — pour oil generously. The image is of abundance: oil poured liberally over the head of a guest at a banquet, as in Mediterranean hospitality of the period.

A note on attribution

The psalm’s superscription reads mizmor le-david (מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד) — “a psalm to/for/of David.” The Hebrew preposition le- permits multiple senses: “by David” (authored by him), “for David” (composed for him), “to David” (dedicated to him), or “in the manner of David” (in David’s style). Modern scholarship is divided on the relationship of the Davidic superscriptions to actual Davidic authorship; some psalms with these superscriptions are early, others appear to be later compositions associated with David’s name. The Psalter as a whole was edited and arranged into its present form in stages over a long period, with the final shape established sometime after the exile.

The text of the psalm does not depend on the question of authorship. Whoever composed it, the psalm has been read and prayed for more than two millennia.

Why the simplicity matters

Psalm 23 is six verses long. It uses ordinary words — shepherd, pastures, water, valley, table, oil, cup, house. Its theological vocabulary is minimal. Its grammatical structure is straightforward. This is part of why it has been the most learned-by-heart psalm in every English-speaking generation since the KJV — and why translations of it remain remarkably similar across very different translation philosophies. There is not much to disagree about at the verse level; the choices come down to whether to render tsalmaveth as “shadow of death” or “deep darkness,” and a few similar small calls.