Hello! Thank you for joining me for this eight-week study of the 23rd Psalm.

This is the first study in my new series called “God, Who?” focusing on names of God found in His Word. By studying these names, I’m looking forward to seeing how God has revealed Himself over time to certain people and what that reflects about His unchanging character.

I’m starting with Psalm 23 because it has special meaning for me: I heard Psalm 23:4 spoken over me the day I was turned away from suicide and put my faith in Jesus. But I was so biblically illiterate, I had no idea my life had been supernaturally protected. All I knew for sure was that something prevented me from picking up the loaded gun, and my soul immediately praised and thanked God. Moreover, from that point on, life was different. 

Let’s Study Psalm 23! 

This week, I’ll begin by praying and surveying Psalm 23. If you want to study on your own with me, here’s what I recommend you have ready:

1. A copy of Psalm 23.
   I like to refer often to the text I’m studying and sometimes make notes on it, so I copy the passage from blueletterbible.org, paste it into a word processing program like Google Docs or MS Word, change the formatting to suit my preferences, and print it out. If you want to use the ESV translation, here’s a pdf of my Scripture study sheet.
2. A study journal.
   We’ll spend the next seven weeks immersed in and learning about Psalm 23. And the work we’ll do each week builds on what came before, so plan to record at least some highlights from your work over the coming weeks. I’m old-school and like the pen-and-paper method for journaling my studies, but it’s okay if that doesn’t work for you. If you don’t have time to write out or type your notes, consider dictating them into a notes app or recording audio files instead.

Or, you may decide to just read the entries posted here, and that’s great, too. You’ll get familiar with the process and see how the Spirit speaks to my situation. Either way, I appreciate you checking in with me, even if you can’t dig into Psalm 23 yourself this time.

Dig-In Challenges

So, here’s how I’ll be studying this week:

1. PRAY: I’ll be creating a prayer with which I’ll start each of my weekly study sessions. If you’ve studied with me before, you know I usually just adapt a previous prayer. Though I’ve pretty much memorized my prayer, I still write it in my study journal as a reminder to pray each time I start studying.
2. SURVEY: Then I’ll read Psalm 23, noting anything that makes me say, “huh?” (as in, “I wonder what that means?”) or “wow” (as in, “that is so awesome!”). I’ll record these and later ask the Spirit to direct me to the one I should dig into right now.

If you’d like more information about these steps, check out this printable summary of the process I’ll be using here. Or, you can always reach out to me with your questions through my contact page or at [email protected].

I’m looking forward to sharing what I discover in this process with you, and I hope you’ll keep checking in with me each week!

GO TO WEEK 2 >