Skip to content

Passage Research

Psalm 23 — Sermon Preparation

The LORD as shepherd — David walks through dark valleys and sits at a table before his enemies, lacking nothing under God's care. Below is a research summary for Psalm 23, drawn from openly licensed scholarly databases — original-language morphology, classic sermons from the church fathers through the Puritans, and ancient geography data.

6
verses
57 / 53
Hebrew words / lemmas
9
classic sermon excerpts
4
preachers & commentators

Psalm 23 in the Hebrew

Distinctive vocabulary of this chapter, based on original-language morphology.

HebrewTransliterationStrong'sCountGlosses
רְוָיָהrᵉvâyâhH73101satisfaction
נָהַלnâhalH50951sparkle, flow
מִשְׁעֵנָהmishʻênâhH49381support, sustenance
דָּשֵׁןdâshênH18781be fat, fatten
דֶּשֶׁאdesheʼH18771sprout, grass
נָאָהnâʼâhH49991home, pasture
מַעְגָּלmaʻgâlH45701track, rampart

How preachers through history handled this text

9 public-domain excerpts on Psalm 23, from the church fathers to the Puritans.

Spurgeon5Alexander MacLaren2Matthew Henry1John Wesley1

“Many of David's psalms are full of complaints, but this is full of comforts, and the expressions of delight in God's great goodness and dependence upon him. It is a psalm which has been sung by good Christians, and will be while the world stands, with a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction. I. The psalmist here claims relation to God, as his shepherd, ver. 1. II. He recounts his experience of the kind things God had done for him as his shepherd, ver. 2, 3, 5. III. Hence he infers that he should want no good (ver. …”

— Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 3 (Job to Song of Solomon), on Psalm 23:1–30 (Public Domain)

Need the complete sermon prep report on this passage?

Greek exegesis, historical background, current scholarship, sermon outlines, illustrations — a complete PDF report on Psalm 23, delivered within 24 hours.