In a culture that prizes independence and self-sufficiency, anxiety is still at an all-time high. We have more wealth, more safety, and more opportunity than any generation before us, and yet peace remains elusive. Psalm 23 offers a compelling answer to why. David, a king with real power and real problems, opens this beloved psalm not with a list of complaints but with a declaration of who God is. The Lord is his shepherd, not just a shepherd in a general sense, but his. That personal, covenantal relationship is the foundation of everything that follows. God provides what is needed, calls His people to rest even when they resist it, and walks with them through the valleys they cannot avoid.