The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." It's one of the most familiar lines in the Bible, which is exactly why it's worth slowing down on. Look at what it actually claims: not that life will be easy, but that with this shepherd, nothing essential will be missing.
Think about what a shepherd actually does — not stand at a distance issuing instructions, but walk ahead, notice the terrain, find the water, make the sheep lie down when they're too anxious to rest on their own. "He makes me lie down" is almost tender in how specific it is. Sheep don't rest well unless something convinces them it's safe to.
Maybe you've been running on your own instincts for a long time, doing the work of finding your own green pastures. This verse describes something you don't have to manufacture — a kind of care that goes looking for you rather than waiting to be found.
If you've never let anyone shepherd you, it might be worth finding out what kind of shepherd Jesus claimed to be.
A short video on this is coming soon — for now, read on.