The Lord Is My Shepherd: The Healing Wisdom of the Twenty-Third Psalm

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." So begins the psalm that, for millennia, has been a source of comfort in grief and of courage in fear. Now Harold Kushner discovers what it has to teach us about living our day-to-day lives. Each chapter discusses one line of the psalm in the context of both the time when it was written and the present day, and illuminates the life lessons contained within it. For example, Kushner shows us that the phrase "My cup runneth over" is a declaration of our gratitude for what life has given us and a rejection of the envy we may feel for what others have. And he draws on the ideas and thoughts of various spiritual figures - from G. K. Chesterton to Martin Buber to Paul Tillich - to further expand our understanding of this great psalm and help us benefit from its everyday spiritual wisdom.

Harold S. Kushner is Rabbi Laureate of Temple Israel in Natick, Massachusetts.