Finding Wisdom in the PsalmsSample

Dwelling in the House of the Lord Forever

The twenty-third Psalm poetically praises God as our loving Shepherd. I memorized it as a child, and whenever I recite it, I feel a childlike comfort.

But this psalm became my forever favorite the day I recited it at my mother’s bedside. She was in the hospital in the final stages of cancer and on strong pain medication. I’d been praying for her and decided to quietly speak the words of Psalm 23 out loud in the King James Version as I’d learned it.

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul…”

It brought tears to my eyes when I heard my mother’s voice joining in. Ever so softly, she recited, “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.” She wasn’t awake, but the words of the psalm were hidden in her heart. Like me, she had memorized them as a child.

When she said, “Yea, 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,” she was walking through that valley. A few weeks later, my mother met her Shepherd face-to-face. Surely goodness and mercy had followed her all the days of her life, and she is now dwelling in the house of the Lord forever.

If you’ve never memorized the twenty-third Psalm—I encourage you to do so. There’s something indescribable about the comfort it brings.

Reflect

What practical things can we learn about our relationship with the Lord when we see Him as our Shepherd?