Psalm 23
This past week I’ve been meditating on the beloved Psalm 23rd as it has come around again in the lectionary cycle.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…..
I didn’t really “get” the power and significance of this Psalm, until I spent a year as a hospital chaplain. This was the psalm that most people turned to, most of the time.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul.
These words, their rhythm, bring powerfully close the miracle of the Lord’s abiding presence with us, the Lord’s unceasing love, and persistent guidance. My present experience takes a drastic shift when I allow these words to remind me that moments of peace, gifts of insight, and all that I am continually sustained with physically, emotionally and spiritually comes from God.
He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
If you’ve met me, or have read my blog for a little while you know I suffer from the disease of perfectionism. While my faith tells me this is not what God wants or expects of me, something about my genetic makeup, my upbringing, the culture I live in, and my humanness continues to insist upon it. To remember that the Lord is leading me in the paths of righteousness, that I do not have to discover those paths on my own, but just keep walking, where I am, and that the Lord will guide me. It changes everything.
Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
For thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff comfort me.
A very good friend of mine, who didn’t always walk the easiest path, used to often say to me, “Even if I’m not OK, I’ll be OK.” She really got the truth of what it is to know and trust that the Lord walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death. We are always “OK.” No matter what. No matter what.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
I have been afflicted by this line. Some scholars say that this line speaks to how the Lord will bless us in sight of our enemies, in a sense to snub them, preparing a table for us to be fed at, while leaving them to watch. I prefer to imagine the Lord preparing a table for me and my enemies. And as I meet, and face, and stand honestly and with compassion in the face of those who I would see as enemies, whether these enemies be other people, or so often parts of myself, I believe the Lord does provide a table, where we can meet, and be offered real healing and bountiful nourishment.
Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
Surely it will.
April 14 2008 | Bible | No Comments »
