‘YHWH is my shepherd; I shall not want.'
The idea of a shepherd is of one who cares for and watches over his sheep. Kings liked to describe themselves as shepherds of their people when they were feeling sentimental and wanted to give a good impression. They wanted their people to love them and see them as a father figure (however unfatherlike they really were), and their people spoke of them as their shepherd when they wanted to flatter them, and receive some benefit from them. The spiritual leaders of Israel were regularly spoken of as shepherds, although sadly in many cases as failing shepherds. But here we have the Shepherd above all shepherds, the unfailing and compassionate One Whose power is infinite and Who would never fail His sheep. And once He is our Shepherd we can be confident at all times, for the provision of good pasture (compare Matthew 6:32), the protection from all evil, and the sustaining of our souls, then become His responsibility. The problem lies in our unwillingness to trust Him.
‘I shall not want.' This does not mean that He will provide for the fulfilment of all our desires. It means that He will ‘withhold no good thing from those who walk uprightly' (Psalms 84:11). We can compare how He was able to say to Israel when they had wandered in the wilderness, ‘'you have lacked nothing' (Deuteronomy 2:7). It is a reminder that He will make full provision for whatever He sees that we need. If therefore we find ourselves ‘wanting' we should recognise that it is not because He has failed, but because our Shepherd knows that it is good for us, and we should therefore be content (compare Psalms 34:10; Psalms 84:11).