The Lord Is My Shepherd

Psalm 23 is the most recited text in the Western world — read at deathbeds, funerals, in trenches. Six verses. The speaker is a sheep. 'The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.' He leads beside still waters, through the valley of the shadow of death, and sets a table before enemies. Then: 'You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.' The intimacy is extreme — God as personal shepherd, host, companion in darkness. The psalm does not explain suffering. It simply insists that someone is present in it. 'Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.'