Psalms 23:1
Psalms 23:11The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
is read devotionally in JW publications as David's expression of personal trust in Jehovah. The Watchtower acknowledges the personal language but interprets the shepherd-and-sheep relationship as fitting within the organisational framework: Jehovah shepherds his people through the appointed channel of the Governing Body and the elder body, with Christ as the chief shepherd presiding invisibly.
David's confession is direct and personal: "Jehovah is MY Shepherd" — first-person possessive, no organisational intermediary. Pair with (Jesus: "I am the fine shepherd, and I know my sheep and my sheep know me") and (Christ as the "chief shepherd"). The Watchtower's mediating layer — Governing Body, branch committees, circuit overseers, elder bodies — has no parallel in either David's psalm or Jesus's self-description. The shepherd-sheep relationship is direct: the believer knows Christ, and Christ knows the believer. Pair also with (every believer can "approach the throne of grace with confidence") and ("come to me, all you who are toiling and loaded down"). The doorway to the shepherd is open; no organisation needs to mediate.