It has been said that the key to Psalm 23 is in the first few words, “The Lord is my shepherd.” The promises of the psalm belong to those who have chosen to make God their shepherd. 

When the Lord is our shepherd, we know we are safe. He goes ahead of us to “lead us” to a place where he can “restore our souls.” He walks with us so that he can “comfort us” and guide us to stay on, or return to, his right path. He walks behind us so that his “goodness and mercy” will follow us “all the days of our lives.” 

Those who make the Lord their shepherd are never without his care and his love. One day, our shepherd will tell us our journey is finished and we have arrived at the kingdom of God. There, we will “dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” 

One of the best moments of every vacation happens when we arrive home and open our front door. As Dorothy said in The Wizard of Oz, “There’s no place like home.” Our earthly lives are “road trips” full of interesting and important things to see and do. Our earthly lives have one central purpose: we are on our way Home. 

Not everything on our journey will be “green pastures.” We sometimes walk through those valleys the psalm describes. Whatever our circumstances might be along the way, we know we are being cared for, guided, and kept safe. One day we will arrive Home, and we will be safely Home forever. God’s house is the promise for every person who chooses to make the Lord their “shepherd.” 

The Lord gives wisdom, knowledge, and understanding to those who will say, “The Lord is my shepherd. He is everything I want.”