A psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. Shepherd – Back to Paleo-Hebrew, the text David used to write this psalm. Now that we know mizmor David is memorial and emotional instruction, we can look at the next key word in the Masoretic text, roi (shepherd). The first thing we…
A psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. Psalm – We all know this most famous psalm. At least we thought we knew it. Here it is in re-translated Paleo-Hebrew. Of course, the 23rd psalm doesn’t start with “The Lord is . . .” It starts with mizmor David, “a…
“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Psalm 23:1 Not Want – This is the place to start. The words are “not want” (lo’ ekaw-sere). Isn’t that what we all hope for? To live in this world without want. No matter what else we believe, this seems to be the universal plea of…
“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Psalm 23:1 Want – But this isn’t quite right, is it? David is not speaking about my “wants”; he is speaking about what I lack. Even the NIV translation (“I shall not be in want”) still confuses the thought. What David says is this: the Shepherd…
“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Psalm 23:1 Not Want – I can think of no more appropriate place to begin a new year than with the words “not want” (lo’ ekaw-sere). Isn’t that what we all hope for? To live in this world without want. No matter what else we believe,…
“The Lord is my shepherd” Psalm 23:1 Shepherd – One of the most ancient words in the Bible is this Hebrew word, ro’eh. It is an extremely important word because it tells us something about the role of the leader that we absolutely must know. Since 2300 BC this word has described what a leader…
