{"id":18021,"date":"2024-07-23T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/?p=18021"},"modified":"2024-07-19T09:42:06","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T13:42:06","slug":"psalm-23-i-lack-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/psalm-23-i-lack-nothing\/","title":{"rendered":"Psalm 23 &#8211; &#8220;I lack nothing&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Question<\/h2><p class=\"has-ast-global-color-6-background-color has-background\"><em>Psalm 23:1 says, &#8220;The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.&#8221; Why do we sometimes lack?<\/em><\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Answer<\/h2><p>We must remember at least three things about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blueletterbible.org\/net\/psa\/23\/1\/s_501001\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Psalm 23<\/a>. First, this was during the Mosaic Law in Israel, so David trusted that God would fulfill his promise to provide whatever David needed as long as he obeyed the commandments. This is especially important because God does not have that covenant relationship or command-promise agreement with any government or nation today (including the modern state of Israel).<\/p><p>Second, this psalm is an illustration of David&#8217;s personal life. He was a shepherd, so he knew the work that a shepherd had to invest in making his sheep lie down in green pastures and have water, medicine (oil), protection, and other things. This wasn&#8217;t just a memory verse for David; it was his life, and he knew each detail intimately.<\/p><p>Third, David&#8217;s &#8220;needs&#8221; looked a lot different than ours. Yes, he needed money for food, shelter, etc., but our complex world costs so much more. Part of our growth is learning the difference between &#8220;needs&#8221; and &#8220;wants&#8221; and learning to trust that God knows and cares about our needs (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.blueletterbible.org\/net\/mat\/6\/31-32\/s_935031\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Matthew 6:31-32<\/a>).<\/p><p>We can certainly apply this psalm in a spiritual sense today as we follow Jesus and walk in the Spirit, but we must be careful not to think that &#8220;I lack nothing&#8221; means we will not go hungry or lose our jobs. That is not a promise to Christians. We know that God has given us everything necessary for a godly life (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.blueletterbible.org\/net\/2pe\/1\/3\/s_1157003\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">2 Peter 1:3<\/a>) and that we can learn to be content in any situation (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.blueletterbible.org\/net\/phl\/4\/11-13\/s_1107011\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Philippians 4:11-13<\/a>). But we also know that persecution and lack of physical things is an actual situation for many Christians, and we are not exempt (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.blueletterbible.org\/net\/2ti\/3\/12\/s_1128012\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">2 Timothy 3:12<\/a>), but Jesus promised us his peace even in those situations (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.blueletterbible.org\/net\/jhn\/16\/33\/s_1013033\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">John 16:33<\/a>).<\/p><p><\/p><div class=\"wp-block-group has-border-color has-ast-global-color-6-border-color is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-1 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"border-width:2px;padding-right:5px;padding-left:5px\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\"><p><em>&#8220;Theology in your inbox&#8221; is an email newsletter from Theology is for Everyone to answer questions submitted by readers and provide healthy biblical teaching. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/contact\/\" title=\"Contact me\">You can submit your questions through our contact form.<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question Psalm 23:1 says, &#8220;The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.&#8221; Why do we sometimes lack? Answer We must remember at least three things about Psalm 23. First, this was during the Mosaic Law in Israel, so David trusted that God would fulfill his promise to provide whatever David needed as long as he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[20,26,37,29,92],"class_list":["post-18021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theologyinyourinbox","tag-2peter","tag-2timothy","tag-john","tag-philippians","tag-psalms"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"gutentor_comment":0,"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"widget-thumbnail":false,"rpwe-thumbnail":false,"woocommerce_thumbnail":false,"woocommerce_single":false,"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Daniel Goepfrich","author_link":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/author\/dgoepfrich\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Question Psalm 23:1 says, &#8220;The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.&#8221; Why do we sometimes lack? Answer We must remember at least three things about Psalm 23. First, this was during the Mosaic Law in Israel, so David trusted that God would fulfill his promise to provide whatever David needed as long as he&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18021"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}