Psalm 23

 

Psalm 23 is the Amazing Grace of the Hebrew Hymnal.

Do you remember when/where/how you learned it?  Who taught the words to you?  Was it in Sunday School?  Or maybe you have just caught the psalm through osmosis over countless times of hearing it.  Lean in and listen anew/afresh/again to the words with some commentary by me.

“The Lord is my shepherd.”  The Lord is my guide…my GPS…my compass…my companion.

“I shall not want.”  What I have is enough.  This daily bread, these friends, this church, this house, this moment, all that is in this moment is enough, because God is enough.

“God leads us in green fields…by soothing baptismal waters…soothes our fears…makes us whole.”  You are enough.  You don’t need the latest fashion or to earn God’s love or to prove that you are the smartest person in the room.  You are enough, because God is enough, God crafts You day-by-day in God’s image.

“Even when the shadows creep and crawl, like monsters under your bed.  Even when the headlines scream the world is going to hell and there is nothing you can do.  Even when we struggle, God is there.  God is there in the midnight of your soul.  Perhaps not with a magic potion to drink or wand to wave to make everything perfect, but with a love that enfolds and holds you.”  Please God, meet every person reading these words by the pools of tears in our lives.

God feeds us physically and emotionally and spiritually.  God calls us to a table, where all are welcome and there is room to spare if you have the courage to pull up a chair rather than evaluate who is on the guest list.

God anoints us with a lavish love that drenches us and runs down our chins soaking our clothes and saturating our souls.

Wherever you are, God is.  God is a circle whose love stretches to the furthest unknown galaxy and is as close to where you are right now.

May these words be encountered and experienced in your life this day.  Amen.