David says he will not lack because the stream from Eden does not fail.
In Zohar, Terumah 85, Psalm 23 becomes a map of heavenly nourishment. The green pastures are not only fields. They are places around supernal springs, where blessing flows from the stream that comes out of Eden.
The Shekhinah gives David the force to pray and praise. When she receives food from above, the angelic hosts tremble with holiness. They lift their wings so they will not gaze at her directly. Three battalions answer one another with "Holy," and the whole upper order moves around the measured flow of blessing.
The soul is also drawn into this movement. The "waters of rest" quicken David's soul and point toward the rest prepared for the righteous in the world to come. The watered garden of Isaiah (Isaiah 58:11) is not a metaphor only. It is the soul's promise of being fed by a source that never runs dry.
The Zohar turns a familiar psalm into a vision of dependence. Angels, souls, and prayers all wait for the Shekhinah to receive and distribute what comes from Eden's hidden spring.
As at the dividing of the Red Sea those who stood on the one side of the sea were drowned, and the others were saved, so in marriages also there is weeping for some and singing for others; He allows one man to die and gives his wife to another man, and at times a bad man gets a good wife. These happenings are great mysteries, but it all conforms to justice, and all that the Companions have said on this subject is quite true;
as is also that which they have stated concerning the difference between “before” (<i>liphne</i>, lit. the face of) and “from before” (<i>miliphne</i>). These matrimonial decisions are arranged by him who stands before the Holy One and ministers before Him. Therefore the aforementioned dictum does not run, “hard are unions to the Holy One”, but “before (to the face of) the Holy One”; i.e. to him who is appointed over the arrangement of marriages and over the supply of food, since the power is not his, he is merely the administrator and under authority.<sup class="footnote-marker">1</sup><i class="footnote">the last 14 lines of the Hebrew text do not appear in the translation.</i>
<sup class="footnote-marker">1</sup><i class="footnote">the first 8 lines of the Hebrew text do not appear in the translation</i>Now King David transmitted his prayer concerning nourishment to the realm above, since there the supply never ceases. Therefore he said: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”, which was as much as to say, “my supply of nourishment cannot fail, since it issues from that stream which comes out of Eden and which never ceases to flow”. Hence it is written, “a psalm of David”, because the Shekinah gave him the impetus to pray and to praise.
When that region receives nourishment from above, all those supernal beings who sanctify their Lord are thrilled and raise their wings when the Shekinah appears with that food, in order that they may not look upon Her.
There are three battalions of them. The first proclaim “Holy!” and then call to the second while they raise their wings; and the second proclaim “Holy” and call to the third while raising their wings; and at last they all raise their wings and cry together: “Holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isa. 6, 3). SO they are all joined to one another, and dovetail into one another, just as the boards of the Tabernacle were “bound to one another” (Ex. 26, 17).
The boards stood ever upright and did not bend, just as the angels, the “standing ones”, who, having no joints, never bend.
As the boards had two holders which united one board with the next, so is one angel joined to the other: each one takes his own and his neighbour’s wing, and so enfolded within each other they stand closely united.
Of the Torah the same is true: the students both teach and learn from one another in perfect reciprocity.
We read next: “He maketh me to lie down in pastures of tender green; he leadeth me beside the waters of rest; he quickeneth my soul”. “Pastures of tender green” are those which lie round the supernal springs, from whence all nourishment emanates. These pastures are also called “the pastures of Jacob” (Lam. 2, 2), and are called “green pastures” in contrast to those pastures which lie outside—”the pastures of the desert” (Joel 2, 22). It might be said: Is it not written, “Let the earth bring forth tender (green) grass” (Gen. 1, 11), showing that “green” is applied also to what is below? The fact is that this “green” of earth emanates from those “pastures” above, germinating and flourishing through the life-giving energy supplied them from above.
“He leadeth me beside the waters of rest.” These “waters of rest” are those which come forth from that region which proceeds from Eden. “He quickeneth my soul”, namely David’s soul, which he desired to bring into contact with the sphere of his own grade whence it emanated. In these “waters of rest” the righteous will find rest in the world to come, as it is written: “And the Lord shall give thee rest constantly… and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not” (Isa. 58, 11).
