Introduction
Are you entering a new year trying to fix a few habits, health, money, productivity, while quietly avoiding the bigger question: who is actually shepherding your life? The central teaching of Psalm 23 is this: when the Lord is truly my Shepherd, He orders my whole life, giving contentment, rest, restoration, and righteous direction no resolution can produce on its own.
Psalm 23 is one of the most loved passages in Scripture, and it’s especially fitting as we say goodbye to one year and welcome another. The common “resolutions” people make don’t change much year to year, eat better, exercise more, get finances under control, learn a skill. They’re not wrong, but they’re never deep enough. Without the primary foundation in place, we end up in a cycle: strong start, gradual unravel, and the same goals next year. God offers something better than temporary self-improvement: He offers Himself as Shepherd.
Main Points
Are you entering a new year trying to fix a few habits, health, money, productivity, while quietly avoiding the bigger question: who is actually shepherding your life? The central teaching of Psalm 23 is this: when the Lord is truly my Shepherd, He orders my whole life, giving contentment, rest, restoration, and righteous direction no resolution can produce on its own.
Psalm 23 is one of the most loved passages in Scripture, and it’s especially fitting as we say goodbye to one year and welcome another. The common “resolutions” people make don’t change much year to year, eat better, exercise more, get finances under control, learn a skill. They’re not wrong, but they’re never deep enough. Without the primary foundation in place, we end up in a cycle: strong start, gradual unravel, and the same goals next year.
God offers something better than temporary self-improvement: He offers Himself as Shepherd.
The Primary Resolution: Who Leads Me?
“The LORD is my shepherd” (Psalm 23:1). Before I ask, What do I want to change? I need to ask, Who am I following?
This shepherd metaphor runs throughout Scripture because it captures God’s heart: He guides, protects, feeds, and tends. But to receive this as life’s foundation, I must acknowledge two humbling truths:
- God desires to shepherd me. He isn’t distant or indifferent. He chooses to relate to His people with personal care and leadership.
- I am a sheep who needs shepherding. Without His leadership, I will drift, either led astray by my own instincts or led by something else that can’t deliver God’s goodness.
So I’m not just adding “God stuff” to my goals. I’m settling the core issue: Is the Lord the One directing my life?
Contentment Replaces Constant Wanting
“I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1). When the Lord shepherds me, He doesn’t promise I’ll get everything I crave, He promises I won’t live ruled by craving.
Our culture trains us to want constantly. Even good seasons (like giving and receiving gifts) reveal how quickly “this will satisfy me” becomes “I want more.” Yet David describes a life under God’s care marked by a settled heart: contentment.
This connects with Paul’s testimony of learned contentment: whether full or hungry, having much or little, he learned the secret, strength in Christ (Philippians 4:11–13). As I look back at the past year, I can identify places where God’s shepherding produced peace. As I look forward, a beautiful resolution is this: Lord, teach me to be satisfied in You and to trust that You will not leave any true need unmet.
The Shepherd Teaches My Soul to Rest
“He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters” (Psalm 23:2). Notice how active the Shepherd is: He makes me lie down. Rest doesn’t just happen automatically for restless sheep, or for restless people.
We live in a strange “unresolved season” as a culture: always tired and never rested. Even when work pauses, we fill our minds with noise, scrolling, streaming, constant information, constant activity. But the Shepherd leads us into green pastures and still waters, places where the soul can finally exhale.
One of the most practical discipleship questions I can ask you is: Do you allow God to make you lie down? Not only physically, but spiritually, clearing space, quieting distractions, refusing the tyranny of constant input so your heart can actually be with Him.
What Keeps Us Restless Must Be Addressed
Real rest requires real shepherding. A shepherd knows what keeps a flock from lying down. Four obstacles help expose what often steals rest from our souls:
- Fear: danger, worry, and the sense that something is always about to go wrong.
- Friction: rivalry, unresolved conflict, relational tension, “butting heads” that robs peace.
- Flies: constant irritations and mental noise, endless chaos and misinformation that keep the mind buzzing.
- Hunger: an unfed soul that cannot settle because it lacks true nourishment.
If you want to walk into the new year with a rested soul, don’t only manage your schedule, bring these areas under the Shepherd’s care. Ask Him to deal with your fears, reconcile relationships where possible, purify what you’re consuming, and feed you with His Word.
Take Back Your Mornings With God
Sheep often feed early, even at sunrise. That’s a picture worth learning from. If a sheep rises early to be filled, how much more should we seek the Shepherd early to be satisfied?
A simple, profound practice for the coming year is this: start your day with the Shepherd and His Word. Not as a checkbox, but as nourishment. Many of us try to “push through” spiritual hunger all day long, then wonder why we’re anxious, scattered, or thin-skinned. Green pastures and still waters are found where the Shepherd leads, so I learn to meet Him intentionally.
If you want a concrete resolution that touches everything else, begin here: I will give God my first attention, not my leftovers.
Rest Leads to Restoration and Righteous Direction
“He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” (Psalm 23:3). God’s rest is not merely a break from life; it’s restoration for life.
Like sleep restores the body, the Shepherd restores the soul. The outward person is wearing down, but God renews the inward person day by day (a truth echoed across the New Testament). And restoration isn’t only “refreshment”, it can also mean coming back after failure.
Many believe David wrote Psalm 23 in later years, after profound repentance and restoration (Psalm 51). That matters: this is not the song of a man who never fell; it’s the confidence of a man who learned that God restores.
And He restores with purpose: He doesn’t just bring you back to neutral, He leads you into “paths of righteousness,” back into His will, in a way that displays the honor of His name.
The Good Shepherd Restores With Joy
Psalm 23 points us forward to Jesus, who explicitly calls Himself the Good Shepherd. To see this restoration in action, I want you to read Psalm 23 alongside Luke 15.
In Luke 15, Jesus is criticized for eating with sinners and tax collectors. In response, He tells stories of restoration, beginning with a shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to find the one lost sheep. And when he finds it, he doesn’t punish it or shame it; he lifts it onto his shoulders, brings it home, and calls others to rejoice (Luke 15:3–7). Jesus says there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.
So if you need restoration with God, don’t imagine Him reluctant, arms crossed, waiting to scold you. The Shepherd goes after the wandering sheep, carries it home, and celebrates the return. That is the heart you are coming to as you begin this new year.
Conclusion
Psalm 23 invites me to stop building my life on temporary resolve and start building it on the Shepherd Himself. When the Lord is my Shepherd, contentment replaces frantic wanting. Rest replaces constant exhaustion. Restoration replaces shame and spiritual distance. And righteousness replaces wandering.
So here’s the discipleship step I want you to take into the new year: settle the primary resolution, yield your life to the Shepherd’s leadership daily. Then the other parts of life can finally fall into order in their proper place.
Father, You are our Shepherd. We confess that we often live guided by our own impulses, our fears, our cravings, and the noise around us. Teach us humility to admit we need Your leadership.
Lord Jesus, lead us into green pastures and beside still waters. Quiet our hearts, free us from fear, and bring peace where there has been friction. Protect our minds from the “flies” of constant distraction and confusion, and feed us with Your Word until our souls are satisfied.
Restore those who feel far from You. Thank You that You restore with mercy and joy, and that heaven rejoices when a sinner repents. Lead us in paths of righteousness for Your name’s sake.
As we enter this new year, help us live as people who can truly say, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” In Jesus’ name, amen.
Conclusion
Psalm 23 invites me to stop building my life on temporary resolve and start building it on the Shepherd Himself. When the Lord is my Shepherd, contentment replaces frantic wanting. Rest replaces constant exhaustion. Restoration replaces shame and spiritual distance. And righteousness replaces wandering.
So here’s the discipleship step I want you to take into the new year: settle the primary resolution, yield your life to the Shepherd’s leadership daily. Then the other parts of life can finally fall into order in their proper place.
Closing Prayer
Father, You are our Shepherd. We confess that we often live guided by our own impulses, our fears, our cravings, and the noise around us. Teach us humility to admit we need Your leadership.
Lord Jesus, lead us into green pastures and beside still waters. Quiet our hearts, free us from fear, and bring peace where there has been friction. Protect our minds from the “flies” of constant distraction and confusion, and feed us with Your Word until our souls are satisfied.
Restore those who feel far from You. Thank You that You restore with mercy and joy, and that heaven rejoices when a sinner repents. Lead us in paths of righteousness for Your name’s sake.
As we enter this new year, help us live as people who can truly say, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” In Jesus’ name, amen.