The LORD is my shepherd,

I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside quiet waters.

He restores my soul;

He guides me in the paths of righteousness

For His name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I fear no evil, for You are with me;

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

You have anointed my head with oil;

My cup overflows.

Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,

And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

—Psalm 23

I can’t count how many times I’ve heard it said in church that if God said it more than once in Scripture, He really wants you to pay attention. As a teacher, I still think I would argue that if He said it at all, He probably really wants us to listen, but I understand what they’re going for—God doesn’t repeat everything, so pay even closer attention when He does. 

In preparation for today’s devotion, I looked back through my notes from church over the last two months, and I noticed something—the Psalms. They were never the sole focus of a message, but over and over I noted something the speaker said about the Psalms. The one that stood out the most was that the Psalms give us a clear window into the character of Christ, so that’s where we’re heading today.

If you’re like me, you’ve had this psalm memorized since you were a VBS kid at the local church. It’s so well-known that you can almost become deaf to the truth it’s teaching, but I noticed something when I read back through it—it really is a window into the character of Christ. Here’s what I found.

Christ is a provider. This is an idea most Christians are familiar with, but I feel like we’re familiar with it in the same way we’re familiar with this psalm. We’ve heard it so much we don’t feel the reality of its truth. We talk about God providing in church and we tell someone who is struggling financially that God will provide, but then we walk away and go have lunch at the local Mexican restaurant without thinking about it again.

But Christ being a provider is foundational to this psalm. He provides for physical needs, for spiritual needs, for emotional needs. The very first idea expressed in the psalm is that because Christ is our shepherd, we will have everything we need, and because of this, the psalmist can be confident and at peace.

Christ is a protector. Verses four and five definitely aren’t the fun ones, but they demonstrate something amazing about Jesus—He doesn’t leave when times get hard. In fact, when times get hard, He breaks out the rod (a club used to protect the sheep) and the staff (used to guide the sheep back to safety).

We all deeply crave the kind of friends who will stick with us to the end, who will be there no matter how difficult things get, and who will support us when we struggle rather than run away when things get hard. According to Psalm 23, Jesus Christ wants to be that kind of friend to us.

Christ is welcoming. Hospitality is referenced three times in this psalm. The first reference is probably the most obvious, coming when the psalmist says God prepared a table before him. To do this was to offer a guest not only sustenance but also rest and protection as it would have been shameful in that culture to allow a guest to be harmed.

Next, the psalmist says “You anointed my head with oil.” This phrase is often associated with blessing, but it can also be associated with hospitality because the dry, arid climate would often lead to dry, cracked skin, and one way a host might seek to care for his guests would be to offer them oil as a remedy.

Finally, we see hospitality, even intimacy, in the final verse of the psalm. There is debate over whether the final phrase should read “I will dwell in the house of the LORD” or “I will return to the house of the LORD,” but either way the picture is one of being welcomed into a close and enduring relationship with YHWH.

Here’s why this is important. It’s not uncommon for Christians to think of Christ as being Provider and Protector. But how often do we think of Him as welcoming? All three are characteristics wrapped up in who Christ is, but if we’re not careful, we can think of Him as an aloof provider and protector who manages things from a distance without care or attention, but that’s not the God we serve.

The God we serve doesn’t manage the world from afar but draws near in hopes of welcoming us into a relationship with Him, and for a people whose deepest emotional need is to be loved and feel like we belong, that is such good news!