“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 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 staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. “


I have always had issues with The 23rd Psalm. I hate to admit it, but it has always slightly annoyed me. I never understood why people used to quote it as comforting and reassuring, when it always left me feel slightly uneasy.

However, I have recently stumbled across what I think might be the problem I have with the 23rd Psalm. You see in the 23rd Psalm the majority of the action verbs are attributed to the Lord and not to me. The LORD- is, makes, leads, restores, leads, with, comfort, prepare, anoints. It is the Lords who works and the Lord who is the one who is making things happen. The only verbs attributed to me are “shall not want, walk, dwell.” None of these verbs are things that take much effort on my part.

You see the problem I have with this Psalm is that it tells me that I am dependent upon God and what God will do. There is little I can do to make things happen in this Psalm. I am dependent upon God for comfort, for goodness, for mercy, and for the still waters. I cannot produce these on my own. The problem with this Psalm is that it highlights how little that I am capable of. It shows me how utterly dependent I am upon God for everything. It reminds me that in spite of all of my intellect, experience, friends, or family, that at the end of the day I am have to rely on God alone to provide and protect. That for someone who tries so hard to be independent and self-reliant, I am actually quite dependent.
This psalm makes me uneasy because it forces me to admit I can’t do this on my own. I can’t be my own supply. I can’t provide for myself. This psalm makes me uneasy because it reminds me that we were created to be dependent on a higher power. That we are like sheep, dependent upon a Shepherd who loves and leads; and that this psalm annoys me because of how amazingly reassuring it is to be told that I don’t have to be independent, self-reliant, or self-sustaining. This Psalm allows me to admit that despite all my ok-ness, that I still need someone to lead, provide, and comfort. And that is how its suppose to be.