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Psalms

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Psalm 23

1 A psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd,⁠ I lack nothing.⁠ 2 He takes me to lush pastures, he leads me to refreshing water.⁠ 3 He restores my strength. He leads me down the right paths for the sake of his reputation. 4 Even when I must walk through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me; your rod and your staff reassure me. 5 You prepare a feast before me in plain sight of my enemies. You refresh my head with oil;⁠ my cup is completely full. 6 Surely your goodness and faithfulness will pursue me all my days, and I will live in the Lord’s house for the rest of my life.

Texts in conversation

Compare Genesis 49:24 and Psalm 23:1

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Jacob names God as the Shepherd of Israel in his blessing on Joseph, using the word as a direct title. Psalm 23 reshapes the grammar of this title and develops it, making the shepherd theme personal, now caring for a single sheep.

Passages

Genesis 49:24

Hebrew Bible
22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough near a spring whose branches climb over the wall. 23 The archers will attack him, they will shoot at him and oppose him. 24 But his bow will remain steady, and his hands will be skillful; because of the hands of the Powerful One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, 25 because of the God of your father, who will help you, because of the Sovereign God, who will bless you with blessings from the sky above, blessings from the deep that lies below, and blessings of the breasts and womb. 26 The blessings of your father are greater than the blessings of the eternal mountains or the desirable things of the age-old hills. They will be on the head of Joseph and on the brow of the prince of his brothers.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

Psalm 23:1

Hebrew Bible
1 A psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. 2 He takes me to lush pastures, he leads me to refreshing water. 3 He restores my strength. He leads me down the right paths for the sake of his reputation.
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

References

“... The Lord is called “shepherd”; the metaphor, at this point, draws upon one of the oldest epithets of God in the Hebrew tradition (cf. Gen 49:24), an epithet which has parallels in Near Eastern religions (e.g. it is used of Shamash: ANET, 387). The poet takes the ancient epithet of God as a starting point, but then develops its metaphorical content by drawing out its inherent implications with respect to God’s care for his people. In moving from the epithet to the metaphor, the psalmist is doing nothing distinctive, for the metaphor is employed in various psalms (e.g. 80:2; 77:21; 95:7). The distinctiveness in the opening words of this psalm lies in the use of the pronoun, my shepherd; the shepherd theme, traditionally interpreted communally of the “flock” (or nation), is here given its most personal interpretation in the entire biblical tradition. (Even if the use of “I/my” was intended, or later interpreted, in a communal sense, the implications of a personal association with the shepherd remain.) ...”
Peter C. Craigie, Word Biblical Commentary: Psalms 1-50 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), 206.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Genesis 49:24 and Psalm 23:1

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