The 23rd Psalm for a Funeral

Psalm 23, in full

Two layouts of the same King James text, then the shortened version for a prayer card. The first sets each verse on its own line, which is how it usually appears inside a program. The second runs it as one block, for a narrow panel. The whole psalm is too long for the back of a prayer card, so the third keeps verses 1, 4 and 6.

Episcopal and Anglican services often use the older prayer-book psalter instead, translated by Miles Coverdale and carried into the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. It is also public domain, and it is worth reading once before you decide, because the differences are small and lovely.

Which version to print

Most families choose the version the person who died would have recognized, not the one a scholar would recommend. If she carried a King James Bible for sixty years, print the King James. If the church reads from the NIV every Sunday, use that and the congregation will follow along without noticing.

One practical point. If two people in the family want different versions, print one in the program and have the other read aloud at the service. Both get used, and the argument ends there.

Setting it in the program

Psalm 23 usually sits on the inside left panel, opposite the order of service, or on the back panel above the acknowledgement. It is a full panel of text. Do not try to fit it under a photograph.

If the panel is too small for all six verses, cut rather than shrink the type. Verse 1, verse 4 and the last line of verse 6 stand on their own and still sound complete. A psalm printed at 7 point so it fits is a psalm nobody in the third row can read.

For where each element belongs on the page, see the funeral program format guide. If you would rather answer a few questions and have the psalm set at the right size automatically, Reposa lays out the whole program, prayer cards included.

Reading it aloud

Someone reads Psalm 23 at nearly every funeral, and it is usually the minister, priest or celebrant. If a family member has asked to read it, let them. It is short, it is familiar, and a reader who has to stop for a moment is not a problem, because the room already knows the next line.

Practical notes for whoever is reading. Stand still. Say the words “Psalm 23” before you begin, so people know to follow along. Read at about half the speed that feels natural. Pause at the end of each verse. If your voice goes, stop, breathe, and start the sentence again; nobody times you, and nobody minds.

As a responsive reading

Some congregations read the psalm together, alternating between the leader and the people. Printing it this way in the program tells everyone what to do without an announcement.

At a graveside, the psalm is often read just before the committal, when everyone is already standing and the service is nearly over. It is short enough to be read in the wind, which is part of why it has been used there for centuries.

What the psalm is saying

You do not need this to use the psalm. But families are often asked at the reception why it was chosen, and it helps to have something to say.

The first three verses are about ordinary care. A shepherd finds grass, finds water, and brings back the animal that wandered off. Nothing dramatic happens. The psalm opens by describing being looked after on a normal day.

Verse 4 is where it turns. Up to that point the psalm talks about God, who leads and restores. At the valley it switches to speaking to him: thou art with me. The comfort offered is not that the valley is avoided. It is that the walking is not done alone. That change of address, right at the darkest line, is the reason this psalm has outlasted almost everything written since.

Verse 5 changes the picture again. The shepherd becomes a host, setting a table, pouring oil, filling the cup past the brim. In the world the psalm came out of, a host was bound to protect a guest at his table. The enemies are still in the room. The meal happens anyway.

The last verse is often read as a wish. The Hebrew is stronger than that: the word behind “follow” carries the sense of pursuit, something chasing after you all your days. Goodness and mercy are not trailing behind. They are coming after you.

Short lines from Psalm 23

For a program cover, a prayer card, a memorial bookmark or a headstone, where you have room for one line and not six.

• “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

  Psalm 23:1, KJV

  The most-used single line. Fits any cover.

• “He leadeth me beside the still waters.”

  Psalm 23:2, KJV

  Gentle, and does not name death at all.

• “He restoreth my soul.”

  Psalm 23:3, KJV

  Four words. Good under a photograph.

• “I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.”

  Psalm 23:4, KJV

  Often chosen for a veteran or a first responder.

• “My cup runneth over.”

  Psalm 23:5, KJV

  For a long life, or a celebration of life.

• “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”

  Psalm 23:6, KJV

  The longest of these. Fits a card back, not a cover.

More short passages, grouped by what they say, are on the Bible verses for funeral programs page, and the readings usually paired with this psalm are set out in scripture for a funeral program. For the back of a keepsake card specifically, see funeral prayer card verses.

The sung version

If someone at the service is going to sing this psalm rather than read it, they are almost certainly singing the Scottish Psalter version of 1650, usually to the tune Crimond. It is in the public domain, so you can print all five stanzas in the program.

The other hymn built on this psalm is “The King of Love My Shepherd Is” by Henry Williams Baker, written in 1868 and also public domain. It is more elaborate and suits a choir better than a congregation. Other hymns families choose, with first lines, are listed on the funeral hymns page.

In a Catholic funeral Mass

Psalm 23 is one of the psalms most often chosen as the responsorial psalm at a funeral Mass. It comes after the first reading and before the second, and it is normally sung rather than read: a cantor sings a one-line response drawn from the psalm, the congregation repeats it, and the response comes back between the verses.

Two things follow from that. First, if the psalm is being sung, print the response line in the program so people can join in, and leave the verses to the cantor. Second, the exact wording will come from the Lectionary rather than from a Bible on your shelf, so ask the parish music director for the text they will use before you print anything.

If your missal or an older prayer book numbers it Psalm 22, nothing is wrong. Catholic Bibles that follow the Greek and Latin numbering count it one behind the Hebrew. The full order of the Mass, section by section, is set out in the Catholic funeral Mass program guide.

Where else families use it

Beyond the service itself, the same six verses turn up in four other places, and it is worth deciding once rather than four times: the back of the prayer card handed out at the door, the last slide of the memorial slideshow, the folded card at each place setting at the repast, and the headstone, months later.

Pick one line for the small formats and the full psalm for the program. Using the whole thing everywhere makes it wallpaper, and by the third time nobody reads it.