Psalm 23 (NRSV)
Read Psalm 23 on biblegateway.com
Verse 1The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
Verse 2He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters;
Verse 3he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name's sake.
Verse 4Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff- they comfort me.
Verse 5You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Verse 6Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.
Devotion
Before being wheeled into a risky surgical procedure, my friend Ginny asked her husband (a pastor) to say Psalm 23. A few days later I asked “why the 23rd Psalm? It is so common and well-known?” (Ginny was a master of the extraordinary—gourmet food, fine music and intellectual conversation). “When I’m staring at death, I want the familiar and the basic,” she replied.
Hundreds of years before Jesus, David captured the heart of the gospel in the simplest of images. Our Lord gives us life. It is generously given, sustained, protected and secured. And as the images seem to suggest, it is life beyond what we can see or know this side of the grave.
Prayer
O Lord of Life, whether walking in life’s shadows or reclining in its bounty, you are with us. Our hearts find their rest in You. Thank you.