“The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” Psalm 23
This morning I was considering Psalm 23, and had assumed it was a time when David was running for his life from King Saul. I pictured David crouching in a cave, keeping his ears peeled for soldiers with weapons. Fearfully he made his way to the opening of the cave, only briefly scanning the landscape and scurrying back to his hiding place. Boy, did my imagination carry me to the wrong place. When I experience a passage so familiar many times I check the commentaries to make it come to life again. It goes from flat ink to a landscape of imagination and intrigue. This particular chapter was written by a man who looked in the mirror and saw the wrinkles of life’s battles. It was penned by old hands, with a reflective heart. It was breathed onto the pages by a spiritually mature man who was looking over the landscape of his younger life. He was considering all the times that God comforted him, and provided for him. He was reminiscing about the ways and the where’s of God’s guidance and goodness. He was acknowledging that God allowed his enemies to pursue him, but they never overtook him. He then beautifully returns to the present time as an old man, having complete confidence in God’s continuing love and grace. He ends with his sights set on eternity.
What if we were invited to submit a new chapter of the Bible? Would we paint a beautiful picture like King David painted of humility, gratitude, acknowledgement of tough times, recognition of God’s mercy and grace, and hope for the future? Or would our entry into the Bible be another book of lamentations, a book where we kept score of every wrong done to us? Would it be a book that highlighted our hurts and our unanswered prayers instead of the tender grace that God gave to pull us through challenges? I’m grateful that God gave us books of lament and books of praise. It shows us how deceitful our hearts can be when dealing with our suffering. But even in the middle of the grumblings of Lamentations, the hand reaffirms what the heart deeply knows. ‘Lamentations invites us to meet God in the midst of our suffering and teaches us the language of prayer…It gives voice to our pain, reorients our focus to the faithfulness of God, and affirms that He alone has been our portion…While Lamentations is about pain, it is not a book without hope.’ She Reads Truth Bible Commentary, p. 1331.
So, as we look back over our lives, writing our own stories, we cannot forget to include the beautiful redemptive story that God has been writing in each of our lives amidst the pain and joys of life.
“Yet this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish, for his mercies never end. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness!” Lamentations 3:21-23.
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