Psalm 23 and Me

     One of the many references in this week's Bible study was Psalm 23. Though it is very familiar, and a great work of poetry as it is, this time I found myself making it personal to my own life and testimony. Another attack of poetry through my Revelation study. I was brought up in a works based religion, though that is true of all religions except Biblical Christianity, mine was Mormonism. But then I got exposed to God's word at a youth group Bible study. Though I did not know at the time that it was the Spirit's enabling, when the Bible conflicted with what I had been taught in my church, I was inclined to believe the Bible. Then my friend Donna died when we were both 15, and I needed to know for certain if what I was learning was true. Death no longer touched only old people, it had taken Donna, it could come for me. But the Good Shepherd does not go home without his lost sheep, so in spite of the odds, and my own reluctance, He made me His own. This poem is my testimony of salvation against the backdrop of Psalm 23.

Psalm 23 and Me

 

Even in the years before you found me

(and I was not looking for you, 

I wanted to be my own shepherd)

even in those lost lamb times,

you provided all that I needed--

food, drink, rest and safety.

It wasn't until you found me

that I even knew I needed

refreshment for my soul,

guidance to the right path,

a cause and a name

worth living for--Yours.

 

But when I lost a friend my age

to the valley of death,

 suddenly I was afraid.

I needed to know what

was on the other end of that path,

I knew I could not face it alone.

 

When you chose me as your lamb,

you not only comforted me,

you made my soul beautiful.

It did not matter what the other kids

thought of me because your love

filled me, poured over me.

From that time on

your goodness and love 

have been with me wherever I go.

And will be with me 

for the rest of my life,

until I come to live with you--

forever.

2/2/25