The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want... what?

The question was: "re. "The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want...." Psalm 23. Why shall we not want him? What does that mean?"

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You asked about Psalm 23: 1, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." At first glance, I can definitely see why you would think it was telling you that you should not want the Lord. But that's actually not what it is saying. If you look at different translations for this verse (I like biblehub.com for this), it helps to clear up some of the confusion. Let's look at some of the different translations.

"I shall not want." (King James Bible), "I shall not lack" (King James 2000 Bible), "I lack nothing" (New International Version), "I have all that I need" (New Living Translation), "I am never in need" (GOD's WORD Translation). Do you see the theme there? The Psalmist isn't telling us that we shouldn't want God. On the contrary! We SHOULD want God! We should want God more than anything else! What the Psalmist is saying is that when we follow after God, when we allow Him to be the leader of our lives, He will give us everything we need.

Some other verses that are along this same theme include: Philippians 4:19, Revelation 7:17, and Psalm 34:9-10. Psalm 37:4 is also a great one, although it is often misunderstood. What it really means is that when what we desire most is God, He will give us the desires of our heart (Himself!). Two of my personal favorites however are Jeremiah 29:11 and Romans 8:28. Romans 8:28 says "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."