Jeremiah
5:20-31
Psalms
23, 27, 75, 76
Romans
3:19-31
John
7:1-13
Psalm 23
Of
all my readings for this date, I tried to avoid Psalm 23, as it is one of the
most memorized and well-known psalms. I
thought I should focus on one of the others, that would perhaps speak out to
people as not so memorable (or forgotten) verses, but God kept drawing me back
to the 23rd Psalm.
As
children, many of us learned this from the King James version, starting with, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not
want." My Living Bible, given
to me by a dear friend from EYC many years ago, says, "Because the Lord is my Shepherd, I have everything I need!" Both are so true, and the last five words
"I have everything I need" are some that all of us in today's society
need to remember more often. In this day
of virtually weekly improved phones, cameras, TV's, and all types of other
consumer products, it's easy to get hyped up to want the latest, greatest, just
as all the "Joneses" in our lives seem to have. Most of our kids see the well-written and
acted ads on TV, find out a friend at school has the same item, and suddenly they
can't live without it (or so they claim).
Each
time I start to feel down about some minor inconvenience, or think I have had a
bad day, I turn the corner to see someone in much worse shape, who would be
thrilled to step into my shoes, troubles and all. As a child, I thought the verse about the
"valley of the shadow of death" was literally about being close to
death of the human body. Now I realize
it's referring to those times in our lives when we feel we are at the lowest
point, and don't know how we will recover and move forward. "You
are close beside me, guarding, guiding all the way." If we can take deep breaths, remember God's
constant presence, and continue to pray, we will make it through and be fine.
"Your goodness and unfailing kindness shall be
with me all my life ..."
Psalm 23,
verse 6
In
His Name,
Anne Vachon