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“The LORD is My Shepherd”
“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want” Psalm 23:1. When I was a kid and heard this psalm, I wondered why anyone would not want the LORD. This language, I think, is a holdover from older translations though. Perhaps today we might say, “I shall not be in want.” Someone older might think this song is only for funerals. These six verses are certainly often heard at funerals and can give the comfort that people are seek-ing it during those times. But it is giving help to those who are struggling to live. It was my job as the oldest kid to take food scraps out to the edge of a dark woods to our compost pile, and after dinner in NYS for most of the year it was dark. Having memorized this psalm, I would recite it as I slunk across our backyard, scanning the shadows for creatures. My faith grew as I trusted that God would give me everything that I would need. More than provision, however, was His protection and His presence. Now, our trailer in a clearing was far from the valley of the shadow of death, but even as a young child I learned that nothing would happen to me that God wouldn’t allow and that God was good. Moreover, God taught me through this psalm that He held my future.