Psalm 23
"I shall not want"
I did not have to get very far in this passage before I stopped. This Psalm is used so often in funerals that when I think of this Psalm my mind goes to the verse "of the valley of the shadow of death". I skip right past "I shall not want".
I want many things. I want God's blessing on my family. I want things at the church to go well. I want to make good decisions and follow God's leading. I don't think there is anything wrong with those wants. The problem with wanting is with my stuff or more precisely, the stuff that I want. It's not like I sit down and write out a list of particular items that I want. It's that I see an advertisement and suddenly want the product. Or that I have a item like a cell phone that works perfectly well but I want a "newer or better" one. It is a tremendous challenge for me to not want. You might even say it is a temptation that I need to confess.
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I don't think I had ever read this Psalm, I, too, just knew it from funerals and have every since associated it with death. There is so much more to the passage!
ReplyDeleteOften, my wants get confused with my needs. For some they are one in the same- starving children in Africa want food AND they need it. This is not the case for me. All of my needs have been provided. I have been focusing on separating these wants and needs lately. A few weeks ago, Ken mentioned giving up shopping for lent. While I've done just that-a shopping fast for 40 days. I'm not buying anything except for gas and food. My mom had mentioned before all of this that we needed to take a focus off of shopping-it seemed that a lot revolved around that. "I need new clothes"-"I need new running shoes"-"I need"-"I need"-"I need." My focus needed to change. I think about things more now. When I have a want, I ask myself if I really need it-will I survive without it? Often the answer is yes. I am blessed to have had all of my needs provided for, I should be thanking God for this rather than trying to find short-lived satisfaction in other things.
I'm like Ken and Jenni and have always skipped over the "I shall not want" part. The ironic thing is that as I read this and began typing, in the back of my mind I was thinking, "I really need a new keyboard (cordless) for this computer!(I think that's called hypocrosy!) This doesn't work quite right." From Ken's recent comments about how much is enough, I began thinking more about my shopping habit. I decided that I do have enough, and that it's time to focus on more what I can give than what I can get. I praise God for opening our hearts to His word and will.
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