I Have All I Need

Spiritual director, author and podcaster Emily Freeman describes Psalm 23 as ‘a frame to hold us, a fixed point to return to, a kindness to care for us and a gathering place to come back to’.  In part one of this series, Jules Badger gives us her lived experience with this psalm and why Psalm 23 has not only comforted believers for centuries but continues to offer comfort today.

In recent months, I have been learning to recite Psalm 23 by heart. Why? I wanted these words to be the first on my lips in the morning and the last thoughts in my head after lights out. Some mornings I recite it as a declaration of faith and trust, while other days it takes the shape of a prayer of deep need.

Of course, there have also been plenty of everyday moments when worry and angst have threatened to take hold, and I’ve been able to pause, take a deep breath and slowly call Psalm 23 to mind as a way of leaning into God’s presence. This has become a spiritual practice that grounds me in God’s love and faithfulness—reminding me of what we’ve been through together and the promise of his continued presence in the future.

The Lord is my shepherd,
I have all that I need…

However, for many years I didn’t understand what all the fuss was about! Psalm 23 was something that other people found comforting. It was the psalm of choice to read at funerals or when visiting the elderly—they loved Psalm 23! Often it was the King James Version (KJV) people were most familiar with, ‘The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want’. For many years those words baffled me. What did ‘I shall not want’ actually mean?

And then it happened. A season in my life where everything was stripped away, and I faced the shocking insufficiency of all my carefully curated plans and accumulated resources. And so, at the end of myself, I found the Shepherd. Or rather, the Shepherd found me. I soon realised that I wanted nothing and no one, only Jesus. And that’s when both the penny and the mic dropped!

While the New International Version (NIV) says, ‘The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing’, the New Living Translation (NLT) uses the phrase, ‘I have all that I need’. The Good News Bible (GNB), best for kids, new Christians and people for who English is not their first language, says, ‘I have everything I need’.  So, ‘I shall not want’, or ‘I lack nothing’, when flipped into the positive affirms that everything I need is not only provided by Jesus but, more importantly, found in him. That was over a decade ago now. The intensity of the Shepherd’s life-saving rescue has settled into an intimate relationship of deepening love and ongoing transformation.

He makes me…

I’ve since learned that sheep don’t lie down until their needs are met—hunger satiated and thirst slaked. And they don’t sleep unless they feel safe. In Psalm 23, the shepherd leads them to nourishing grass and safe water and provides a protective presence while they rest.

Max Lucado explains in his little book Safe in the Shepherd’s Arms that sheep of course have no sharp claws, horns or fangs. They are utterly defenseless against predators. Sheep are quite literally mobile meat and wool on spindly little legs. Their wide girth is not designed for outrunning anything! They are totally reliant on the shepherd for protection.

There was a time when the call to rest—to lie down in green pastures—was easy for me to brush off. But not anymore. I know what happens when I don’t listen to that call, and I know that the human body keeps score. When we refuse to rest, we become unwell. The NIV and the KJV translate this verse as ‘He maketh me lie down in green pastures’, which resonates. There was a time when my body, soul and spirit collapsed. It was like I’d arrived in the A&E department by ambulance, rather than choosing to go to the doctor
for a routine check-up.

Both the NLT and the GNB translate this verse as ‘He lets me rest in fields of green grass’. I love the sense of invitation being offered to take up a spiritual rhythm of rest for body, mind and soul.

Like sheep who have been fed and watered and sleep because they know the shepherd is watching over them, we come to Jesus and find the rest we need—our souls and our strength restored by his presence. Intimacy with God changes us. It has changed me. Like a sheep being gently guided by the shepherd along safe paths, the shift from wanting and insisting on my own way to desiring what Jesus now calls me to feels less like stepping off the edge of a cliff hoping he will catch me, and more like knowing I can run into his arms and he will never turn me away. Trust grows from intimacy.

He leads me…

While all the modern translations say, ‘He guides me along the right paths, bringing honour to his name’, the KJV says, ‘He leadeth me’. There’s certainly something gentle and appealing about a shepherd who guides, and yet a shepherd who leads the way forward infers not only knowledge of the path ahead, but a firmer purpose in choosing it. This is not about the blind obedience of sheep, but a beautiful picture of complete trust in the Shepherd who provides, protects and knows what’s ahead. He’s been this way before, and so he leads us.

Emily Freeman suggests that the first half of Psalm 23 is very much about the action of God.

‘We don’t typically think of Psalm 23 as an action psalm. A comfort, a promise, a presence, yes. But a psalm of action isn’t perhaps our first impression. Here, though, with these first three verses all together, a movement begins to take shape: God makes, God leads, God restores, God leads again.’