Latter-day Saint Bible study

A Come, Follow Me Study for August 17-23, 2026: Psalms 1-2; 8; 19-33; 40; 46

“For thou art with me.” – Psalm 23:4

Most of us first learned Psalm 23 as a psalm of comfort. We hear it at funerals, repeat it in hospital rooms, and reach for it when grief has stripped life down to its most difficult questions. That use is neither accidental nor misplaced. Yet Psalm 23 does more than assure us that God will remain near when we die. It poetically traces an entire journey: the Lord provides, restores, guides, accompanies, protects, welcomes, anoints, and finally brings the worshipper into His house.

That movement makes Psalm 23 especially meaningful for Latter-day Saints. Its imagery can be read as a temple-shaped journey from ordered life into mortal darkness and then upward into covenant fellowship and the presence of God. Read within the immediate sequence of Psalms 22-24, the pattern becomes even more striking: lament and suffering in Psalm 22, the Shepherd’s presence in Psalm 23, and ascent to the holy hill with the King of glory in Psalm 24. Nancy deClaissé-Walford’s intertextual study similarly argues that these three neighboring psalms form a powerful statement of trust when read together (deClaissé-Walford 139-52).

This interpretation requires one careful qualification. Psalm 23 is not demonstrably a word-for-word transcript of an ancient Israelite temple ceremony, and the full Latter-day Saint plan of salvation should not be projected backward into every Hebrew phrase as though the psalmist were writing a systematic doctrinal manual. Psalm 23 is commonly classified as a psalm of trust or confidence, while a pilgrimage setting that culminates at the temple remains a respected scholarly proposal rather than an uncontested conclusion (Smith 61-66; Tappy 255-80). The temple and plan-of-salvation reading offered here is therefore a disciplined canonical and theological synthesis: it begins with what the Hebrew poem says, follows the intertextual patterns the Psalter supplies, reads the psalm through Jesus Christ, and then asks how Restoration scripture enlarges its hope.

What Come, Follow Me Actually Assigns for August 17-23

The official 2026 reading is often abbreviated as “Psalms 1-46,” but the assigned passages are selections rather than every chapter in that range: Psalms 1-2; 8; 19-33; 40; and 46. The manual invites readers to notice the Psalms’ vivid images of the Savior, including the green pastures, still waters, rod, staff, and overflowing cup of Psalm 23. It then connects Psalm 24’s “hill of the Lord” with the temple and with preparation to enter the presence of God (Come, Follow Me).

The broader three-week schedule is also selective. August 24-30 covers Psalms 49-51; 61-66; 69-72; 77-78; and 85-86, while August 31-September 6 covers Psalms 102-103; 110; 116-119; 127-128; 135-139; and 146-150. Keeping the actual readings clear strengthens the study because it allows Psalm 23 to function as the focal text for this week without forcing an artificial structure onto every psalm from 1 through 46.