David and the Shepherd's Song

The verse anchor

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

Psalm 23:1 · King James Bible

The story

Long before David was king, David was the youngest son of a man named Jesse, and he spent his days out on the hills near Bethlehem watching his father's sheep.

It was quiet work. The sheep would nibble the grass. The wind would move the olive trees. And David, sitting on a rock with his little harp across his knees, would sing to God.

He watched over his sheep the way a good shepherd does. He led them to green pastures. He led them beside quiet, still water. When one wandered, he brought it back with his rod, gently. When they were tired, he made them lie down and rest.

And one day, sitting on that hillside, David wrote a song. It was not a big fancy song. It was a small honest song from a boy who had learned about God from watching how good shepherds care for their sheep.

'The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.' That was how it began.

David grew up. He fought a giant. He became a king. But of all the mighty things he ever did, the song he wrote as a boy — Psalm 23 — is the one Christian families have loved the most for three thousand years. Because David had learned, on a quiet hill, that God is a shepherd. And that little shepherd's song still sings in Christian houses tonight.

Memory verse

Say it three times before bed. In seven days you will know it forever.

A prayer