Psalm 23

I caught the end of a sermon on the radio the other day and he was wrapping up a teaching on Psalm 23. Of course most Christians know and have memorized this verse.

Psalm 23

¹The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

²He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

³He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

⁴Yea, 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 they comfort me.

⁵Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

⁶Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

He was only speaking on the first 3 verses at the time I was listening, but it stood out to me very much. He was talking about how we always want this or that. Not necessarily material things, but we wish we had this in life or we want certain things to not have taken place in our lives. The he read the first verse:

Psalm 23:1-- The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not WANT.

I know in my life, maybe not always out loud, I wish for things to be different. I have a hard time just being satisfied with my Lord and the place he has me in right now. I tend to look towards the future and what may be instead of living and being blessed in the place and time I am currently placed.

The pastor then went on to verse:

Psalm 23:2-3 -- HE maketh me to lie down in green pastures: HE leadeth me beside the still waters.

HE restoreth my soul: HE leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

I feel I need to be more diligent about letting my heart/soul wander. As we know from "Jeremiah 17:9--The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? " I think in our own selves it is hard at times to know if our soul is being selfish or if we are really choosing the things God would have us do or desire. I think that is where verses 2-3 come in. We need to allow God to lead us in all ways. He will always bring us to a place of rest. He will and does restore our soul. He will always lead us down the right path. We can never trust our hearts in and of itself to do that. When we choose that way we always end up taking a selfish route and end up tired and worn down because we try to get where "WE" want to go in our "OWN" way. This will always leave us exhausted and never resting in peace.