Psalm 23...

Today I will not blog about one of my poems. Instead I will share with you a poem by the Great Poet. Yesterday we sang a version of Psalm 23 in church entitled: The King of Love my Shepherd Is. The first verse sings this, "the King of love my Shepherd is, whose goodness faileth never. I nothing lack if I am His and He is mine forever." Now the text in Scripture says, "The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want." We memorize and even sing these words often without really taking the time to ponder what they mean. "I nothing lack." or "I shall not want." We spend our lives complaining about what we lack or what we want. We often sit in church on Sunday and half listen to the preacher, maybe even thinking about what our church lacks that we want it to have. We go to work and complain about our hours, or our pay. We complain about our cars, our clothes, our homes and the list goes on. We are a discontent people. Yet the psalmist says, "I shall not want." We have been given a place in the Eternal Kingdom of God. We have been given the right, through the blood of the Son of God to be called His children. We have inherited the world through Christ and we complain about our homes or how hard our lives are. Now we do have trials and hardships. They are difficult and they are trying, yet this psalm also tells us, "He restores my soul." We do not need to complain, we have been given a Savior who hears our needs and takes care of us. He lived through and endured more trials than we ever will, and he never complained. This was very convicting to me yesterday and I thought I would share this with you all. Give thanks everyday and live in the light of "The King of love my Shepherd is." Read the whole Psalm and be comforted. Notice how the psalm ends. "and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
²     He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
³     He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
    for his name's sake.

⁴ Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
    I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
    your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

⁵ You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
     forever.