Today, I am reading and commenting on  Psalms 23-31.

Every year when I come to this group of psalms I debate about what to write.  Today’s psalms do such a great job of expressing their thoughts that anything I can write feels like it does not do them justice.  Any way, I decided to capture a few thoughts which struck me as I read through all of them and see if I can make a coherent whole out of them.

First, as I read through Psalm 23 I have two images side by side.  In one image I see a pleasant meadow with a gentle stream running through it.  In the other image I see a shadowy forested valley with a tumultuous flooding stream rising up over the path and wolves (or something worse) howling in the shadows.  In both images I see a vague comforting shape.  In the latter image that shape is facing out into the shadows, challenging anything which might desire to come forth and face Him, while the howls go silent.  I emerge from the shadows back into the pleasant meadow where a table is set up for a picnic in the gentle shade of a tree.  We transition out of these images to realize that there was never any threat because everything and everyone belongs to God, and no one and nothing can overpower Him to take from Him what He desires to hold.  I belong to the Lord, as do those who may wish me harm.  They can only act as He allows.  Which brings us to the psalmist’s prayer that God show him His ways and teach him His paths.  Let us join the psalmist in that prayer so that we do not move off of His path into the dangerous “forest” which surrounds us.  If we allow ourselves to follow the temptation to join with the deceitful and associate with hypocrites, we will find ourselves off of the path to which the Lord is guiding us.  When we leave that path, we move out of His light and into danger.  Yet the psalmist reminds us that if we stay in the light of the Lord, we need fear no one, the wicked are frightened by God’s light and do their best to stay out of it.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.