Daily Double: Psalm SeriesНамуна

WHY PSALM 23?

Psalm 23 is one of the most well-known and loved psalms in the Bible. It reveals God's loving and caring nature for every person with two powerful roles that were common in Israelite culture: a shepherd and a host. Shepherds worked all day and night to make sure sheep were protected, safe, and able to find food and water. Hosts provided an experience for their guests that made them feel valued, loved, and at peace.

This psalm compares these important roles to God's character. God provides a safe place. God is always near and ready to protect. And God will one day provide a great feast in heaven.

VITAL VERSE

Verse 1 - The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need.

The rest of Psalm 23 shows all the ways that we have all we need in the Lord.

SUB SKILL: REFLECTION QUESTIONS

Have you ever written a question? We ask questions to other people all the time – so why not ourselves? (... just did it twice)

Reading the Bible once always brings a surface level understanding – but asking ourselves good questions helps us to get deeper and way more useful answers from the Word.

SOLO GO: CREATE REFLECTION QUESTIONS VERSE BY VERSE

Write out the entire psalm on one half of a page and leave the other half blank. Read through each verse slowly. Practice meditating on a few keywords and write down your thoughts. Finally, create some reflection questions next to the verses on the blank half of the page and answer them prayerfully.

For example,

Verse 3 He renews my strength, He guides me along right paths, Bringing honour to his name

How does God give strength? What are some decisions I need to make? How will God be praised by the paths He is about to show me?

PRAYING THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD: WHO GOD IS

Every time we read about God in the Bible – we learn more about who he is. We can take the things we learn and pray about them or we can remind ourselves of the attributes we already know to be true from our testimony, experiences, and Biblical knowledge.

Praying attributes may feel a bit weird if we’re not used to giving people compliments or find encouraging others hard. But pointing out the good in people is a beautiful life skill – and praising God for who he is can be a wonderful way to get closer to God.

When you do this, you may also be reminded from God about the things He loves and admires about your life too!