This is a psalm which has been sung by true Christians with a great deal of joy and assurance and which will be sung as long as this world exists.
1. The psalmist here claims to know God as his shepherd (v.1). 2. He recalls his experience of the good things God had done for him as his shepherd (vv.2-3,5). 3. He reasons from this that he would lack no good thing (v.1), that he need not fear any evil (v.4), that God will never leave or forsake him with his mercy; and so he decides never to leave God by leaving the path of duty (v.6). As in the previous psalm he described Christ dying for his sheep, so here he describes Christians as receiving the benefits of all the care and tenderness of God, our good and great shepherd.
The Good Shepherd, v.1
From God’s being his shepherd he reasons that he will not lack anything good for him (v.1). There was a time when David himself was a shepherd. He was taken from tending the sheep (78.70-71), and so he knew from his experience the cares and tender feelings that a good shepherd has toward his flock. He remembered how much they needed a shepherd; he had once risked his life to rescue a lamb. He therefore uses this illustration to show God’s care for his people. It is also to this our Saviour seems to refer when he says, ‘I am the shepherd of the sheep; the good shepherd’ (John 10.11). See also Isaiah 40.11. He gathers them into his fold, and provides for them. We must know the shepherd’s voice and follow him. When David considers that God is his shepherd, he can boldly say, ‘I shall not want’ (v. 1). More is implied than is expressed, not only, ‘I shall not want’ (v.1), but also, ‘I will be supplied with whatever I need, and if I do not have everything I want, then I may conclude it is either not right for me or not good for me, or that I will have it in due time’.
