What Does Psalm 23:1 Mean in the King James?
A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew word behind “want” speaks of lack, so the line centers on what the shepherd sustains.
THE MEANING
Your life is held in attentive care, and your needs are not outside the shepherd’s concern. The verse names a present sufficiency that does not depend on every desire being met.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
I must meet every need by myself; no one is tending my life.
THE ROOT
אֶחְסָר
eḥsar
GROWS FROM
חסר
ḥ-s-r
To lack, be deficient, or be diminished.
The Hebrew word names lack, giving “I shall not want” the sense of not being left in deficiency. This centers the verse on the sufficiency found in the shepherd’s care.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāsēr: Lacking, deficient
חָסֵר
This adjective makes the root’s basic sense visible: what is missing or insufficient.
maḥsōr: Lack, shortage, need
מַחְסוֹר
This noun shows how the same root names the condition the verse says does not define the speaker.
רֹעִי
roʿi
GROWS FROM
רעה
r-ʿ-h
To tend, pasture, or shepherd.
“shepherd” in this verse is roʿi. This root holds shepherding and pasturing together: the word points to ongoing care, not only a title. The verse places the speaker within that tending, where lack does not have the final word.
ALSO GROWS
raʿah: To pasture or tend
רָעָה
The verb reveals the active care carried by the shepherd image.
roʿeh: Shepherd, one who tends
רֹעֶה
This form names the one who continually provides that care.
THE PATTERN
God’s care is presented as the ground on which human need is met and lack does not have the final word.
The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.THE THREAD
The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.The “want” in Psalm 23:1 and “lack” here share the Hebrew root חסר (ḥ-s-r), meaning to lack or be deficient. That repeated root lets the shepherd’s care be heard as an answer to lack.
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