I Lack Nothing

Psalm 23:1. The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. Older translations say I shall not want, and both wordings carry the same weight. This is a sentence about sufficiency, and it is spoken by a man who, elsewhere in the Psalms, admits to wanting a great many things.

The key is the first half. David does not say he lacks nothing because his life is full. He says he lacks nothing because the LORD is his shepherd. The sufficiency lies in the relationship, not the inventory. A sheep with a good shepherd does not need to know where the next pasture is. It only needs to know whom it is following.

This Thursday you may be missing things. Money, health, company, certainty. The psalm does not pretend those absences are unreal. It relocates the question. Do you have a shepherd? If the answer is yes, then in the deepest sense the second half of the verse is already true, and the rest of the psalm explains why. Jesus said in John 10:11 that he is the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. That is the shepherd David meant.