Psalms 23

I love to read the holy scriptures. I prefer the King James translation of the bible with all the Thee’s and Thou’s for I find the verses are very beautiful written in this tense. One of my favorite scriptures is Psalms 23 in the Old Testement of the Bible.

Psalm 23 goes like this:

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.

I really like this verse. It is often used in movies when the characters are confronted with a life threatening event they often recite this. In my personal experience though I haven’t seen or heard anyone reciting it in dire times. At least I haven’t, though some people may I suppose. I use these verses for my own comfort though, and this is how I interpret them:

The Lord is my shepherd tells my that I am his lamb and that I will follow him where ever he leads me. I shall not want tells me that all my needs will be met by him. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures tells me that he will give me his best. He leadeth me beside the still waters expresses his desire for me to partake in his gospel plan. He restoreth my soul means to me that when I am faint of spirit he will help me grow strong again. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake explains how he will teach me the path I need to follow to become perfect as he is.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; reassures me that even in my darkest hour he will be with me protecting me from evil. For thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me refers to the commandments the Lord has for me and as I obey them I will find comfort and reassurance that as I keep his commandments he will keep the promises he made to me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies refers to the many blessings he has in store for me if I am faithful and true to the covenants I have made with him even when the opposition is surrounding me. Thou anointest my head with oil

tells of the blessing the Lord has placed upon my head to give me the strength needed to remain faithful. My cup runneth over expresses how great my gratitude is for all he has done and it further describes how great the blessings are that he has given me.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life is fairly self explanatory. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever tells of eternal life in the kingdom of God.

The interpretations are my own and I feel good about them. Understanding the verse in this manner helps me see that no matter how hard life might become that the Savior will remain there for me to help me make it thru the challenges. It also tells me that I have to do my part and follow his guide if I want to receive the blessings.

There was a very dark time in my life when I felt so discouraged and depressed that I truly was walking thru the valley of the shadow of death. It was by looking to Christ and taking hold of his teachings (rod/staff) that I was able to pull myself out of a dark depression and continue living.

I’m grateful for the teachings of Christ that I have been taught.


People also view

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *