In-Depth Bible Study Guide

Remedies of Hope: The Lord as Shepherd and the Cure for Worry

Primary Text: Psalm 23:1–6

---

1. Introduction & Overview

This sermon opens a multi-week series treating Psalm 23 as a divinely prescribed "book of remedy" for the deepest stresses of human life. The pastor's central argument is that the ancient shepherd metaphor is not merely poetic comfort but a theological diagnosis and cure: when we truly comprehend that the Lord is our shepherd, worry becomes not just unnecessary but theologically incoherent. The first installment focuses on worry — its nature, its damage, and three biblical remedies drawn from the psalm's opening declaration.

Primary Text: Psalm 23:1–6, with supporting texts from Isaiah 40:11, Philippians 4:6, 4:19, 1 Peter 5:7, Matthew 6:34, and John 10:14, 27.

Study Objectives: By the end of this guide, the serious student will be able to (1) understand the literary and theological structure of Psalm 23 within its ancient context; (2) engage the Hebrew vocabulary of shepherding with depth and precision; (3) trace the shepherd metaphor across the entire biblical canon; (4) articulate a theologically grounded response to anxiety rooted in the character of God; and (5) apply these truths to concrete patterns of prayer and trust.

Estimated Study Time: 2.5–3 hours

Why This Passage Demands Serious Study: Psalm 23 is among the most quoted and least studied passages in Scripture. Its very familiarity breeds shallow reading. Yet beneath its pastoral simplicity lies a sophisticated theological architecture — a personal creedal statement about God's sufficiency that the original author forged in real suffering. Serious engagement with its Hebrew vocabulary, its place in the Psalter, and its ancient Near Eastern background transforms this "comfort psalm" into a robust theology of divine provision.

How This Guide Builds on the Sermon: The pastor identified worry as the enemy of trust and prayer as its cure, grounding both in the opening declaration of Psalm 23. This guide deepens that foundation by examining the Hebrew text, exploring the cultural world of ancient shepherding, tracing the shepherd metaphor through Scripture, and engaging the theological weight of what it means to confess "The LORD is my shepherd."

---

2. Exegetical Analysis

Literary Structure and Genre

Psalm 23 is a psalm of trust or confidence psalm — a recognized sub-genre within the Psalter distinct from laments, hymns, or thanksgiving psalms. Unlike laments, which move from crisis toward trust, Psalms of trust begin from a position of confident rest and sustain that posture throughout. This is theologically significant: the psalm does not argue its way to peace; it declares peace as a starting point. The sermon correctly identified this as both "a rebuke and an assertation" — the text assumes a posture that challenges the worried heart.

The psalm divides structurally into three movements:

• Verses 1–3: God as shepherd — provision, rest, restoration, guidance (third-person description)
• Verse 4: The dark valley — intimate address shifts to second person ("thou art with me")
• Verses 5–6: God as host — abundance, anointing, and eternal dwelling

This shift from third person to second person in verse 4 is exegetically important. At the moment of deepest danger, the psalmist stops describing God and starts speaking to him. Academic distance collapses into personal address. The shepherd is not merely a theological category — he is a present companion.

Authorship and Setting

The superscription attributes the psalm to David (ledawid), and most scholars, while acknowledging the superscriptions' complex transmission history, see no compelling reason to reject Davidic authorship here. David's biographical background as an actual shepherd (1 Samuel 16:11; 17:34–36) gives this psalm unusual authenticity — he writes not as a theologian theorizing about sheep but as a former shepherd describing what he himself once provided for vulnerable animals, now recognizing that God provides the same for him.

Verse-by-Verse Analysis

Verse 1: "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want." The entire psalm flows from this single declaration. The Hebrew construction is a nominal sentence — no verb "is" appears; the statement is simply juxtaposed: YHWH ro'i ("The LORD, my shepherd"). This grammatical directness conveys certainty, not aspiration. The consequence — "I shall not want" — is not a prayer but a logical conclusion. If YHWH shepherds me, deficiency is impossible by definition.

Verses 2–3: The shepherd's active verbs are striking — yarbitseni (causes me to lie down), yenahaleni (leads me), yeshovev (restores/turns back). These are all Hiphil causative forms in Hebrew, meaning God is the active agent causing these states. Rest, refreshment, and restoration are not things the sheep achieves — they are things the shepherd produces.

Verse 4: "Valley of the shadow of death" (gê tsalmāvet) — see the Word Studies section for full treatment. The shift to "thou art with me" is the theological heart of the psalm: presence, not the absence of danger, is the ground of courage.

Verses 5–6: The metaphor shifts from shepherd to host. God prepares a table (shulḥān), anoints with oil, and fills the cup. The final promise — "goodness and mercy shall follow me" — uses the Hebrew rādaph (pursue, chase), typically used of enemies in the Psalms. Here, divine attributes chase the psalmist as relentlessly as enemies might.

---

3. Historical & Cultural Context

Shepherding in the Ancient Near East

The sermon rightly notes that Psalm 23 emerged from an agricultural world where shepherding was universally understood. In ancient Israel, shepherding was not a romantic occupation but a demanding, dangerous vocation. Shepherds were responsible for finding water and pasture in an arid landscape, protecting flocks from predators (lions, bears, wolves — cf. 1 Samuel 17:34–36), and knowing each animal individually. The shepherd's rod (sheveṭ) was a weighted club for fighting off predators; the staff (mish'eneth or mishanet) was a crook for guiding sheep and rescuing them from crevices.

The phenomenon the sermon describes — sheep that fall and cannot right themselves — is called being "cast." A sheep with heavy wool or a rounded belly can roll onto its back and be unable to stand, becoming vulnerable to predators and organ failure. The shepherd's task of finding and righting cast sheep was a regular duty. This biological reality gives extraordinary weight to the psalm's imagery: without the shepherd's active intervention, the sheep perishes from its own helplessness.

The Shepherd-King Motif in the Ancient Near East

The metaphor of deity as shepherd was common across the ancient Near East. Mesopotamian kings routinely used shepherd language in royal inscriptions — Hammurabi called himself "the shepherd of his people." Egyptian pharaohs carried the crook and flail as symbols of shepherding authority. In this context, Israel's appropriation of shepherd language for YHWH was both culturally intelligible and theologically radical: the true shepherd-king is not a human monarch but the covenant God himself.

Psalm 23 in the Psalter

Psalm 23 follows Psalm 22, which opens with the cry of dereliction ("My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?") and ends in praise. Psalm 23 can be read as the experiential answer to Psalm 22's anguish — the same God who seemed absent in abandonment is revealed as the intimate shepherd. This canonical placement is not accidental; it models the journey from lament to trust that Israel's worship was designed to facilitate.

Green Pastures and Still Waters

"Green pastures" (nĕʾôt desheʾ) in the Judean wilderness were not lush meadows but patches of fresh growth in an otherwise arid landscape — precious and rare, requiring the shepherd's knowledge to find. "Still waters" (mê mĕnuḥôt, literally "waters of rest/quietness") refers to calm water as opposed to fast-moving streams, which sheep, with their heavy wool, are reluctant or unable to safely cross. The shepherd's task was finding these specific, life-sustaining resources in a hostile environment.

---

4. Word Studies

"LORD" (Hebrew: יהוה, YHWH)

• Meaning: The personal covenant name of Israel's God, typically rendered LORD (in small caps) in English translations. It derives from the Hebrew verb hayah ("to be") and is often understood as "I AM WHO I AM" or "He Who Is."
• Etymology: Revealed definitively in Exodus 3:14–15 as God's eternal, self-existent name. It carries connotations of covenant faithfulness, not merely existence.
• Biblical Usage: Used approximately 6,800 times in the Hebrew Bible. Always the covenant name — the God who acts in history on behalf of his people (Exodus 6:2–8; Isaiah 42:8; Jeremiah 31:31–34).
• Theological Significance: The psalm does not begin with "God is my shepherd" (Elohim) but with YHWH — the covenant name. This is not generic deity but the specific God who redeemed Israel from Egypt and bound himself to his people. The claim "The LORD is my shepherd" is a covenant claim, not merely a spiritual sentiment.
• Translation Considerations: Most English translations follow the Jewish tradition of rendering YHWH as "LORD." Some modern versions (e.g., the Jerusalem Bible) use "Yahweh." The distinction matters: this is a personal name, not a title.

---

"Shepherd" (Hebrew: רֹעֶה, rōʿeh)

• Meaning: One who tends, feeds, and leads a flock. The root rāʿāh means "to pasture, tend, graze."
• Etymology: Related to the Aramaic and Arabic cognates for feeding and tending. The rōʿeh was responsible for the flock's total welfare — food, water, safety, health.
• Biblical Usage: Used of literal shepherds (Genesis 46:32), of leaders as shepherds of Israel (Ezekiel 34:2–10), of God as shepherd (Isaiah 40:11; Jeremiah 31:10), and ultimately of the Messiah (Ezekiel 34:23; John 10:11).
• Theological Significance: When David writes YHWH rōʿî ("The LORD is my shepherd"), he is making a staggering claim — the Creator of the universe personally tends him as a shepherd tends a single sheep. The sermon rightly emphasized the four functions: provision, protection, guidance, and correction. All four are embedded in the semantic range of rōʿeh.

---

"Restores" (Hebrew: יְשׁוֹבֵב, yĕshōvēv)

• Meaning: The Polel form of shûv — to turn back, return, restore. It carries the sense of bringing something back to its original condition or proper state.
• Etymology: Shûv is one of the most theologically loaded verbs in the Hebrew Bible, used for repentance (turning back to God), restoration (returning from exile), and renewal.
• Biblical Usage: Used of God restoring Israel (Psalm 80:3, 7, 19), of repentance and return (Joel 2:12–13), and of the soul's renewal (Lamentations 1:11).
• Theological Significance: "He restores my soul" (nafshî yĕshōvēv) — the word nafshî (my soul/life/self) combined with yĕshōvēv suggests the shepherd brings the entire person back from depletion, disorientation, or spiritual wandering. This is not merely emotional comfort; it is a comprehensive renewal of the inner person. The sermon's connection to stress and depletion finds its deepest answer here.

---

"Shadow of Death" (Hebrew: צַלְמָוֶת, tsalmāvet)

• Meaning: Traditionally rendered "shadow of death," though some modern scholars parse it as tsal (shadow) + māvet (death). Others suggest it is a single noun meaning "deep darkness" or "gloom."
• Etymology: The Septuagint (Greek OT) renders it skia thanatou ("shadow of death"), which is the reading Jesus echoes in Luke 1:79. The Hebrew may be a compound or a superlative form meaning "the darkest darkness."
• Biblical Usage: Job 3:5; 10:21–22; 38:17; Jeremiah 2:6; Amos 5:8. Always associated with extreme danger, death's domain, or impenetrable darkness.
• Theological Significance: The valley is not avoided — it is walked through. The psalm does not promise the absence of dark valleys but the presence of the shepherd within them. This is the theological answer to the sermon's point about worry: the remedy is not a life without dark valleys but a shepherd who accompanies us through them.

---

"Cast" / "Casting" (Greek: ἐπιρίπτω, epirriptō)

• Meaning: To throw upon, to hurl onto. Used in 1 Peter 5:7 ("casting all your care upon him").
• Etymology: From epi (upon) + rhiptō (to throw, hurl). The compound intensifies the action — not a gentle placing but a decisive throwing off.
• Biblical Usage: Luke 19:35 (throwing garments on the colt); 1 Peter 5:7 (throwing anxiety onto God).
• Theological Significance: The sermon's observation that this word means "to unload, to drop" is exegetically sound. The Greek epirriptō is an aorist participle in 1 Peter 5:7, suggesting a decisive, completed action — not an ongoing negotiation with anxiety but a definitive transfer of the burden. The sermon's fishing analogy (casting out and reeling back in) captures precisely what the Greek commands against.

---

5. Cross-References & Biblical Theology

Parallel Passages and Thematic Development

Isaiah 40:11 — "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom." This passage, quoted by the pastor, expands the shepherd image to include the tenderness of carrying the weakest members of the flock. The sermon rightly cited this as evidence of God's promised shepherding care.

Ezekiel 34:1–16 — God's devastating indictment of Israel's false shepherds (leaders), followed by his promise to shepherd Israel himself. This passage is the OT's most extended treatment of divine shepherding and forms the direct background for Jesus's "Good Shepherd" discourse in John 10.

John 10:11–18 — "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." Jesus explicitly claims the shepherd identity of Psalm 23 and Ezekiel 34 for himself. The sermon's three marks of sheep from John 10:14, 27 (knowing, hearing, following) are the New Covenant fulfillment of Psalm 23's opening claim.

Philippians 4:6–7 — "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication... let your requests be made known to God." The pastor cited this as the NT parallel to Psalm 23's "I shall not want." The Greek mēden merimnate ("be anxious for nothing") is a present imperative — stop the ongoing practice of worry.

Philippians 4:19 — "My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." The pastor's distinction between need and greed finds strong support here: chreia (need) is the Greek word used — genuine requirement, not desire.

1 Peter 5:6–7 — "Humble yourselves... casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you." The connection between humility and releasing anxiety is significant: worry is often a form of pride — the belief that I must manage what only God can handle.

Matthew 6:25–34 — Jesus's extended teaching on anxiety, concluding with "Take no thought for tomorrow." The pastor cited verse 34. Jesus's logic parallels Psalm 23: if the Father clothes the grass and feeds the birds, how much more will he provide for his image-bearers?

Psalm 22:1–31 — The preceding psalm of dereliction, making Psalm 23 its canonical counterpart. Psalm 22 ends in praise; Psalm 23 begins in confidence. Together they model the journey from abandonment to trust.

Psalm 100:3 — "We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture." Israel's corporate identity as God's flock grounds the individual claim of Psalm 23.

Hebrews 13:20–21 — "The God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep..." The resurrection is the ultimate act of the Good Shepherd — the one who lay down his life has taken it up again, guaranteeing the flock's eternal safety.

Revelation 7:17 — "The Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water." Psalm 23's imagery reaches its eschatological fulfillment: the Lamb-Shepherd leads the redeemed to eternal still waters.

---

6. Interpretive Considerations

"I Shall Not Want" — Prosperity or Sufficiency?

The opening declaration has been misappropriated in prosperity theology to suggest that the believer will never experience material lack. The Hebrew lōʾ eḥsār means "I shall not lack" — specifically, I will not be deficient in what I genuinely need. The sermon's distinction between need and greed is exegetically sound and guards against this misreading. Derek Kidner, in his Tyndale Old Testament Commentary on Psalms, notes that the psalm's promise is sufficiency, not abundance of every desire — a sufficiency defined by the shepherd's wisdom, not the sheep's appetite.

"Valley of the Shadow of Death" — Literal or Metaphorical?

Some commentators (notably Marvin Tate in the Word Biblical Commentary) argue tsalmāvet is best rendered "deep darkness" rather than "shadow of death," suggesting the primary reference is to dangerous terrain rather than mortality specifically. Others (including the Septuagint translators and most of the Christian tradition) retain the death connection. Both readings are defensible. The theological point is unaffected by either rendering: the shepherd's presence, not the absence of danger, is the ground of courage.

Is Psalm 23 Only for Believers?

The sermon makes a significant theological point: God is not everyone's shepherd — only those who have accepted him as Lord can claim this psalm as their own. This is consistent with the psalm's covenantal framework (YHWH is the covenant God) and with Jesus's teaching in John 10 (his sheep know him, hear him, and follow him). This does not mean the psalm cannot be read evangelistically — it can function as an invitation to enter the flock. But the sermon is right that the psalm's promises are covenant promises, not universal guarantees to all humanity regardless of relationship.

Common Misapplication

Psalm 23 is frequently used as a generic comfort passage without engaging its demands. The psalm implies a sheep that follows the shepherd — not one that wanders and still expects provision. The sermon addresses this by emphasizing that God's shepherding is conditioned on letting him be shepherd. This is not works-based theology but relational theology: the benefits of the shepherd-sheep relationship require being in the relationship.

---

7. Theological Implications

The Doctrine of Divine Providence

Psalm 23 is one of Scripture's most concentrated expressions of providence — the doctrine that God actively sustains, guides, and provides for his creation, particularly his covenant people. The Reformed tradition (following Calvin's Institutes I.16–17) emphasizes that providence is not passive permission but active governance. The Hiphil causative verbs of Psalm 23 (he causes me to lie down, he leads me) support this active understanding.

The Pastoral Nature of God

The shepherd metaphor reveals something essential about God's character: he is not a distant sovereign indifferent to the welfare of individuals but a hands-on caretaker who knows each sheep by name (cf. John 10:3). This challenges both a cold deism (God who winds up the universe and steps back) and an impersonal pantheism (divine force without personal care). YHWH is the shepherd who searches for the one lost sheep (Luke 15:4–6).

Christological Fulfillment

The sermon's reference to John 10 points to the psalm's Christological depth. Jesus does not merely describe himself as a shepherd — he claims the specific identity of the divine shepherd of Ezekiel 34 and Psalm 23. The Good Shepherd who lays down his life (John 10:11) is the ultimate answer to every worry: if God did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32). The cross is the ultimate proof that "I shall not want."

Anthropology and the Fall

The sermon's observation that stress is "part of the fall" is theologically significant. Human beings were created for shalom — wholeness, peace, flourishing in God's presence. Anxiety is not native to human nature as God designed it; it is a symptom of the broken relationship between Creator and creature. Psalm 23 is therefore not merely a stress-management tool but a restoration narrative — the shepherd restoring the sheep to the shalom for which it was made.

---

8. Practical Application

The sermon's three remedies for worry — believing God will take care of you, praying about everything, and focusing on one day at a time — are not merely practical tips but theologically grounded responses to the nature of God as revealed in Psalm 23. Deeper study enriches each:

Believing God will care for you is grounded in YHWH's covenant character. The name itself — "He Who Is" — means God's faithfulness is not contingent on circumstances. Practically, this means building a theology of remembrance: keeping a record of God's provision (a prayer journal, a list of answered prayers) so that in times of anxiety you have concrete evidence of his faithfulness, not just abstract doctrine.

Praying about everything is the practical outworking of epirriptō — the decisive, aorist-tense throwing of your burden onto God. The sermon's observation that prayer is "casting out and leaving it" rather than casting and reeling back in is exegetically precise. Practically, this means developing a discipline of specific prayer — naming the worry explicitly before God rather than vague appeals for peace. The more specific the prayer, the more recognizable the answer.

Focusing on one day at a time reflects the psalm's pastoral imagery: the shepherd does not take the sheep to the entire year's pasture at once but leads them to today's green patch. Practically, this means identifying the present anxiety (not the projected future catastrophe) and bringing that specific concern to God in prayer.

The pastor's personal example of praying himself to sleep — turning worry time into prayer time — is a concrete, reproducible practice rooted in 1 Peter 5:7 and Philippians 4:6. Consider adopting a similar "worry-to-prayer" conversion practice: when a worry surfaces, treat it as a prayer prompt rather than a problem to solve.

---

9. Discussion Questions

Observational

1. Read Psalm 23 slowly in two or three different translations (ESV, NIV, and the KJV used in the sermon). What differences do you notice in the language? Which phrases strike you as most significant, and why?

2. Identify every active verb in Psalm 23 where God is the subject (he makes, he leads, he restores, etc.). What picture of God emerges from this list of actions? What does it tell you that the sheep is almost entirely passive in these verses?

3. Where does the psalm shift from speaking about God (third person) to speaking to God (second person)? What triggers this shift, and what does that tell you about how the psalmist relates to God in moments of danger?

Interpretive

4. The sermon describes "I shall not want" as both "a rebuke and an assertation." In what sense is this opening declaration a challenge or rebuke to the worrying heart? What assumptions about God must be in place for this statement to be true in someone's experience?

5. The pastor drew a sharp distinction between "need" and "greed," arguing that God promises to meet our needs but not our wants. How does the Hebrew word lōʾ eḥsār ("I shall not lack") support or complicate this distinction? Where does the line between need and want become difficult to draw, and how should a believer navigate that ambiguity?

6. The sermon argues that God is not everyone's shepherd — only those who have accepted him as Lord can claim Psalm 23's promises. How does this covenantal reading of the psalm compare to the way you have typically heard it used (e.g., at funerals for people of unknown faith)? Is the pastor's interpretation too restrictive, or is it faithful to the text?

Theological

7. The sermon connects worry to the Fall, arguing that stress was never part of God's original design for humanity. How does this theological claim shape the way you understand anxiety — as a moral failure, a consequence of living in a broken world, or something else? What does Psalm 23 offer as a response to anxiety that secular stress-management cannot?

8. If the Good Shepherd of Psalm 23 is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ (John 10; Hebrews 13:20), what does the cross add to the psalm's promises? How does knowing that the shepherd laid down his life for the sheep deepen the meaning of "I shall not want"?

Applicational

9. The sermon identified three remedies for worry: believing God will care for you, praying about everything, and focusing on one day at a time. Which of these three is most difficult for you personally, and why? What specific change in your daily habits would most directly address your most common form of worry?

10. The pastor described his practice of praying himself to sleep — converting worry time into prayer time. What are the specific times or triggers in your life when worry is most intense? How might you design a concrete practice of "worry-to-prayer conversion" for those moments?

11. The sermon's fishing analogy — casting your care onto God and then reeling it back — captures a common failure in prayer. What makes it so difficult to leave a burden with God after praying about it? What theological truth about God's character would most help you release rather than retrieve your worries?

Investigative

12. The sermon references Ezekiel 34 implicitly through the shepherd theme. Read Ezekiel 34:1–16 and compare God's indictment of Israel's false shepherds with his promise to shepherd Israel himself. How does this passage deepen your understanding of what YHWH is claiming in Psalm 23:1? What does it mean for God to be shepherd in a context where human leaders have failed their flocks?

---

10. Recommended Resources

Commentaries on Psalms

Accessible:

• Derek Kidner, Psalms 1–72 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, IVP) — Widely regarded as the best accessible scholarly commentary on the Psalms for motivated lay readers. Kidner writes with precision and warmth, making Hebrew insights available without requiring language training. Excellent on Psalm 23.

• Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction (IVP) — While focused on the Psalms of Ascent, Peterson's approach to the Psalms as formative Scripture (rather than merely inspirational poetry) provides invaluable interpretive framework for reading all the Psalms, including Psalm 23.

Intermediate:

• Willem VanGemeren, Psalms (Expositor's Bible Commentary, Zondervan) — Thorough exegetical and theological treatment accessible to serious lay readers. Strong on Hebrew vocabulary and biblical theology connections.

• James Luther Mays, Psalms (Interpretation Commentary, Westminster John Knox) — Theologically rich and pastorally oriented. Mays is particularly strong on the theological implications of the Psalter's structure and the covenant framework of individual psalms.

Advanced:

• Peter Craigie, Psalms 1–50 (Word Biblical Commentary, Zondervan) — Technical commentary engaging the Hebrew text, ancient Near Eastern parallels, and textual criticism. For readers comfortable with theological terminology and some Hebrew.

Biblical Theology and Background

Accessible:

• Craig Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament (IVP) — Excellent resource for understanding the cultural and historical background of specific passages, including shepherding practices in the ancient Near East.

Intermediate:

• Timothy Keller, The Songs of Jesus: A Year of Daily Devotions in the Psalms (Viking) — While devotional in format, Keller brings substantial Reformed theological depth to the Psalms. His treatment of Psalm 23 connects the shepherd imagery directly to the Gospel.

On Anxiety, Prayer, and Trust

Accessible:

• Edward Welch, Running Scared: Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest (New Growth Press) — A biblically grounded, psychologically informed treatment of anxiety that aligns closely with the sermon's theological framework. Welch draws extensively on Psalms and the Shepherd metaphor.

Online Resources

• Bible Hub (biblehub.com) — Provides interlinear Hebrew text, multiple translations, and access to classic commentaries (including Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalm 23) free of charge. Excellent starting point for word studies.

• The Bible Project (bibleproject.com) — Their video series on the Psalms provides accessible, visually rich introduction to the Psalter's structure and theology. Their treatment of the shepherd theme across Scripture is particularly relevant to this study.

---

This study guide is designed to be used across multiple sessions. Consider working through Sections 2–4 in one sitting, Sections 5–7 in a second, and Sections 8–9 in a group discussion setting. The goal is not merely to know more about Psalm 23 but to trust more deeply the Shepherd it reveals.