From Glory To Glory: The Story Of Christ In Psalms 15–24 (Part 14): Psalm 23 And The Shepherd During Death’s Shadow

by on April 11, 2026 | Comment

Good reasons undergird why we might want to have bodyguards in uncertain situations. Some circumstances could feel troubling if we were on our own. These same circumstances feel much safer if we happen to have along with us a huge guy carrying a huge gun for our protection. The right presence goes a long way to alleviate fears even in the worst situation.

Psalm 23 is about how the Lord’s presence is the comfort we need for security in any— even the most dangerous—situation. He is the one able to defend us no matter how dire the circumstances might become. In this respect, the main theme of Psalm 23 is the Lord’s provision for those who belong to him.1 The metaphor of God as our shepherd functions as a lens to show God’s way of providing for us throughout the whole psalm.2 The main point in Psalm 23 is that God fully cares for us even in our darkest times.

Some Grounding

It is important first to establish a framework for understanding Psalm 23 as it fits into the Psalter’s developing point, especially for Psalms 15–24, and how it applies to us in light of Christ. The reflection of Psalm 23 on God as our shepherd describes our relationship to God as well as reveals what kind of king Christ is.3

Countless people have found comfort in Psalm 23’s portrait of God’s care for us. We are meant to sense something of God’s tenderness toward us. John Calvin says, “As this [image of a shepherd] is a lowly and homely manner of speaking, He who does not disdain to stoop so low for our sake, must bear a singularly strong affection towards us. It is therefore wonderful, that when he invites us to himself with such gentleness and familiarity, we are not drawn or allured to him, that we may rest in safety and peace under his guardianship.”4

Psalm 23 is another contribution to the developing picture that Psalms 15–24 paint of the ministry of the incarnate Christ. These psalms tell Christ’s story first backward, then forward, beginning and ending with his ascension. Psalm 23 parallels Psalm 16 in tone as a statement of trust and satisfaction in God’s care.5 Inasmuch as Psalm 16 is about Christ’s resurrection, however, Psalm 23 also parallels Psalm 17 about which part of Christ’s life they describe, as both these psalms talk about the three days Christ spent in the grave. Psalms 19–21 are about Christ’s perfect life. Psalm 22 is about Christ’s crucifixion.

Psalm 23 gives perspective on Christ’s experience after his crucifixion and as he looked forward to his resurrection and ascension depicted in Psalm 24. As others have noted, “If Psalm 22 points to Good Friday, what does Psalm 23 point to if not Holy Saturday, when the body of Jesus lay in the grave?”6 The events of Psalm 22, where Christ died on the cross, continue into Psalm 23 as he traverses the valley of the shadow of death—literally, the grave. This narrative arc culminates in Psalm 24 as Christ ascends.7 He ascends from the grave in his resurrection all the way to heaven to enter God’s holy mountain.

In addition to being about Christ’s work for us in traversing the valley of the shadow of death, Psalm 23 is about how we relate to Christ, who is our shepherd. This psalm proclaims the Savior and instructs us how to have confidence in the Savior’s care for us during our own distress.8 As Saint Augustine says, Psalm 23 is the voice of the church speaking to Christ.9 It is even about Christ’s care for us in the church because, like many ancient theologians point out, it begins with the shepherd caring for his sheep through providing water and continues to a feast set amid our enemies, like in baptism and the Lord’s Supper.10 The ancient church may have even used this psalm in connection with services for the Lord’s Supper.11 How does Psalm 23 teach about Christ then?

His Grave

Calming scenes appear at the beginning and end of Psalm 23. The first scene is of the caring shepherd, verse 5 portrays a banquet that God hosts for the psalmist, and verse 6 welcomes the psalmist into God’s blessed presence in the temple.12 The center of Psalm 23, its main focus, is in verse 4: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”13 This focus shows how the safety described in the surrounding verses is because of God’s protection as we face danger and affliction, not because our circumstances are ideal.14

For David, the valley of the shadow of death was about a supremely dark moment. For Christ, this valley where death cast its shadow was death itself as he lay in the grave. As verse 3 says, “He restores my soul”; for David, “soul” is figurative for our whole person, like we might say, “Three thousand souls are on that ship.”15 For Christ, however, “soul” is about his experience as his human soul was separated from his human body during his three days in the grave. For Christ, “soul” is literal as he looks forward to his resurrection, as was the case in Psalm 16:10.16

Psalm 23 explains Christ’s experience during that period in terms of the Apostles’ Creed, which says, “He descended into hell.”17 We should not, however, assume too much about this phrase’s meaning; specifically, we should not think that this phrase means that Christ’s human soul went to a place of torment or to anywhere other than to be in his Father’s blessed presence. Westminster Larger Catechism 50 explains, “Christ’s humiliation after his death consisted in his being buried, and continuing in the state of the dead, and under the power of death till the third day; which hath been otherwise expressed in these words, ‘He descended into hell’.”18 We typically use the word “hell” specifically about the place where unbelievers experience torment forever. Older uses of “hell” were broader, including how we might say generally “the grave.” Within the grave, we know believers go to be in God’s blessed presence, while unbelievers go to a place of everlasting torment.19

Psalm 23 teaches us that Christ was with the Father even as his body lay in the grave. The Father is still with the Son, so that the Son continues to trust him as his own shepherd.20 Christ’s foremost enemy, as 1 Corinthians 15:25–26 explains, is death itself. The grave, then, is where he is foremost in the midst of his enemies. In verse 5, the verb for anointing with oil is specifically about anointing with perfumes.21 Accordingly, women were on the way to perfume Christ’s body in his tomb (Luke 24:1).

Yet, Christ still knew fellowship with the Father during this time. His cup overflows in his Father’s presence even as he waits for resurrection (Ps 23:5). As Psalm 24 describes Christ’s entry in God’s holy mountain to dwell in his blessed presence, Psalm 23 confirms that Christ knows he will ascend from the grave in his resurrection and, further, into heaven because he already experiences his Father’s goodness and dwells in his house while he rests in the grave (Ps 23:6). This portrait from Psalm 23 is how we should understand the Creed’s affirmation that Christ descended into hell.

Christ experienced the grave for us as part of bearing our curse for sin. The time that our souls are separate from our bodies is still part of sin’s consequences as we wait for our bodily resurrection at the last day. Still, Christ knew the Father’s blessed presence as he rested in his grave.

Our Guide

How does this psalm then apply to us? Because God sustained Christ in blessing even through his darkest moment, we know that God sustains us who belong to him in Christ through our hardest moments too.

As Sinclair Ferguson points out, verse 4 clarifies that idyllic pastureland is not the full backdrop for this psalm. Safety still comes in even death’s valley because God is our shepherd.22 Christ was safe, guaranteed resurrection even in death because God the Son always belongs inseparably to God the Father. Even as he went to the cross and into the grave, Christ says in John 16:32, “Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.”23 David was also safe through whatever circumstance prompted him to write this meditation. Now we, too, can know that God is our shepherd and rest comfortably even in hardest trials. Our comfort is not in our circumstances. Rather, our comfort is that God is our shepherd.

We started with an illustration about a big bodyguard with a big gun. For shepherds, their rod and staff were tools for correction and protection of the sheep.24 Our need for God as our shepherd to carry these tools—even metaphorically—shows that real reasons for fear may exist.25 God does not actually need to be armed. But his presence means that we have all the protection that we ever need to keep us safe.

He brings us not to rapid waters, which are the hardest for drinking and most dangerous, but to still waters.26 He steers us away from evil paths by keeping us in paths of righteousness. He protects us. He even sets a feast for us. Yet he does so not by keeping us away from all troubling situations but by keeping us safe and giving us blessed provision even in the midst of our enemies.

We have a great shepherd who cares for us. We need not think that safety is in avoiding every troubling situation. Rather, safety is in how God is with us, acting as our shepherd. True safety is not in where we are but in who is with us. With God as our guide to shepherd us, we are safe.

Our Guarantee

The reason we have confidence in God’s provision is because we have seen how Christ is our good shepherd. In John 10, Jesus explained that he is the shepherd of his sheep. As he trusted his Father to shepherd him back to glorified life, he has become the good shepherd to us.27 This good shepherd has proven fully how he provides for his sheep.

The depiction of Christ’s blessed experience of his Father’s presence, even as he spent three days in the grave, gives a snapshot of how this shepherd provides. Christ did not die for his own sin. He was the perfect shepherd who always did the Father’s will and walked fully, exactly, and without blemish in the paths of righteousness. His death was to pay for our sins.

In other words, he laid down his life for sheep. He died so that we lambs, blemished by our constant sins and transgressions, would be made clean. The anointing of perfumes provided for Christ in the grave becomes a celebratory anointing to us as we are cleansed and received in the heavenly court because Christ has endured the curse of God’s justice against our sin in our stead.28 In Christ, we are anointed with the perfume of his righteousness to have the fragrance of Christ, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2:14–15: “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.”

Since Christ has paid for our sin, all the blessings of God’s presence have come to us. He provides food for us in the pasture of his Word as he makes preaching a balm to our souls. He brings us into these pastures through the still water that marks our entry into the church. He has walked the path of righteousness perfectly to pave the way into God’s holy mountain for us. With his righteousness credited to us and with our sins forgiven in his death, he walks us along that path toward a grand reception in God’s presence. We will not perfectly walk in righteousness, but Christ still leads us along those paths so that we glorify his name.

He corrects and protects us as we walk each day with him by the power of his Spirit through the means of grace. He sets a banquet for his kingdom even amid this age as he welcomes us to his table with the Supper that Christ left to us. In all these things, we know that we will always know goodness and mercy. As those who trust in Christ, we know that we get to ascend God’s holy mountain to dwell in his blessed presence. Christ has gone before us as our guarantee that God cares for his sheep and has opened his house to receive us.

Notes

  1. Bruce K. Waltke and James M. Houston with Erika Moore, The Psalms as Christian Worship: A Historical Introduction (Eerdmans, 2010), 437; and Allen P. Ross, A Commentary on the Psalms, 3 vols. (Kregel Academic, 2011–16), 1:571–72.
  2. Bruce K. Waltke and Fred G. Zaspel, How to Read and Understand the Psalms (Crossway, 2023), 157.
  3. O. Palmer Robertson, The Flow of the Psalms (P&R, 2015), 70–71.
  4. John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries, 22 vols. (Baker, 2009), 4.2:392.
  5. John Goldingay, Psalms, 3 vols., Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms (Baker Academic, 2006–8), 1:345; Carissa Quinn, The Arrival of the King: The Shape and Story of Psalms 15–24, Studies in Scripture and Biblical Theology (Lexham Academic, 2023), 77–79, 171; Waltke, Houston, and Moore, Psalms as Christian Worship, 435; and Ross, Psalms, 1:556–57.
  6. Matthew Barrett, Ronni Kurtz, Samuel G. Parkison, and Joseph Lanier, Proclaiming the Triune God: The Doctrine of the Trinity in the Life of the Church (B&H Academic, 2024), 12.
  7. Barrett, Kurtz, Parkison, and Lanier, Proclaiming the Triune God, 12–13.
  8. Quinn, Arrival of the King, 82.
  9. Saint Augustine, Expositions of the Psalms, trans. Maria Boulding OSB (New City Press, 2000), 1:244.
  10. Waltke, Houston, and Moore, Psalms as Christian Worship, 416–17, 421.
  11. Waltke, Houston, and Moore, Psalms as Christian Worship, 417.
  12. Waltke and Zaspel, How to Read and Understand the Psalms, 157.
  13. Quinn, Arrival of the King, 171.
  14. Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries, 4.2:394.
  15. Waltke and Zaspel, How to Read and Understand the Psalms, 157–58.
  16. Barrett, Kurtz, Parkison, and Lanier, Proclaiming the Triune God, 12.
  17. Chad Van Dixhoorn, ed., Creeds, Confessions, and Catechisms: A Reader’s Edition (Crossway, 2022), 13.
  18. Van Dixhoorn, Creeds, Confessions, and Catechisms, 350 (emphasis added).
  19. For more extensive explanation of this clause in the Apostles’ Creed, see my article “The Cradle Of Christian Truth: Apostles’ Creed (Part 10)—He Descended Into Hell,” Heidelblog, April 25, 2025.
  20. James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms, 2 vols., Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Lexham Academic, 2021), 1:298.
  21. Christopher Ash, The Psalms: A Christ-Centered Commentary, 4 vols. (Crossway, 2024), 2:273.
  22. Sinclair Ferguson, Deserted by God? (Baker, 1993), 37, as cited in Waltke and Zaspel, How to Read and Understand the Psalms, 159.
  23. Ash, Psalms, 2:271.
  24. Hamilton, Psalms, 1:297.
  25. Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries, 4.2:395.
  26. Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries, 4.2:393.
  27. Hamilton, Psalms, 1:298.
  28. Ash, Psalms, 2:273.

© Harrison Perkins. All Rights Reserved.

You can find this whole series here.

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