Psalm 23 "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I 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 goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.” Today's episode talks about this Psalm and how we can use it to help us get through our anxiety and worry. It also gives a few practical things you can do to help you with your worry and anxiety. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Still Waters (Psalm 23)
Psalm 23 "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I 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 goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.”
I've been hearing this song called Still Waters (Psalm 23) by Leanna Crawford on KLOVE Radio a lot these past few days. Before leaving for Prayer Group I saw that the leader was using the song Psalm 23, although it was a different version of it, as one of the songs for the meeting. Yesterday afternoon I got this deep feeling that that's what I was supposed to talk to you about it because there's a lot of anxiety and worry going around these days. And I just talked to someone who lost her husband and she said she's paranoid these days. She's worried about all the financial aspects of your husband dying. She's worried about her future, she is worried about a lot of things.
And I know she's not the only one. I know that we all have fear and worry over different kinds of things in our lives. I was really struck by the beginning part of the Still Waters song when it said, “Great Aunt Maurine said at a hundred and three, write scripture on your heart for when you need it.
And it also really struck me when she said, “Cause anxiety hates Psalm 23. So just say it to yourself 'til you believe it.” And I just thought, isn't God so good? Isn't it amazing how he gives us exactly what we need found right there in the scriptures? I have to be honest, I don't know a lot about the Psalms. I know Robert from our morning prayer group always asks people what their favorite Psalm is because he's memorized a bunch of them. And I think what a beautiful thing.
And also, I have no idea what my favorite Psalm is. And also, I didn't know that some of the Psalms have a specific purpose. I knew there were Psalms of praise and Psalms of lamentation. But I didn't know that there were Psalms that anxiety hated. And I didn't know that there were Psalms of protection like Psalm 91. And so I wanted to talk a little bit about Psalm 23 today, because I think it's one that we've heard often. And yet, I don't know if we really know how powerful it is. I know I didn't know how powerful it was. And honestly, I didn't even really understand what it meant.
I never found it super powerful when I would read it, or even when I would hear it. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.” I didn't know what that meant. And I don't know if I still know completely what it means. But what the Lord pointed out to me when I was listening to the song today was he leads me to still waters. Even in the storm, there's still waters. Even in the valleys, when you're at your lowest, he can lead you through that valley right next to still waters. To me, this verse is telling us that no matter what we're going through, if we let the Lord lead us, he'll lead us by still waters. He won't lead us into the eye of the storm.
He won't lead us by chaos and confusion. If our eyes are fixed on him, and if we follow his path through the storm, there will be still waters that we can follow. And don't we all need some still waters in the craziness of the storm? Also, what stuck out to me today was when it said, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
I think we all want for things. I've heard from people in my prayer group, and from my parents, as we get older, we want for less. But I think there are all things we want, even if those things are peace, health, safe passage, or maybe it is material things. Whatever it is, we all want for things.
And yet this is saying, the Lord is our shepherd, we shall not want. We can rely on him to give us all that we need, and all that we want. The Lord knows the desires of our hearts. He knows what it is we want. And he not only cares about the things that we need, but he cares about the things that we want too. He cares about the little requests, just as much as he cares about the big requests.
I know sometimes we don't want to feel greedy, and we don't want to ask God for the little things, because we love him, and we know that he's already given us so much. So why should we ask for more? And yet the Lord tells us in our prayer group, in the words of prophecy, over and over again, “I have so much more for you, but you're not asking.” So ask the Lord, we shall not want, he will give us what it is we need, he will give us what it is we want.
I feel like the Lord is saying there is no “too much.” Just ask. It can't hurt to ask. And that he wants to give us so much more. And we're not asking. And so I just want to invite you all to invite the Lord in, to ask for the big things, to ask for the little things. And to trust that when you ask, the Lord answers. Trust that the Lord will lead you to still waters. If you're especially worried about something right now, hand it over to the Lord and ask him to show you the still waters in the situation.
Because the Lord, everything that's written in the Bible is true. And so when it says the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, he leads me to still waters. That's not saying he led the Israelites to still waters, but you, well, you're on your own. He leads us all to still waters. So if you're struggling for still waters right now, if you're struggling to find the peace in the situation you're in, if you've been in this situation for a long time and you're thinking, there are no still waters. You can see to the horizon and there are no still waters. Then I just invite you to look beyond the horizon and to know that God isn't bound by the horizon. He could take a storm and calm it in a second to have still waters.
He doesn't have to find different waters that are still. He can still the storm just as Jesus did when he was in that boat. Someone said at prayer group today that the Lord was telling her that somebody had an anxious heart or an anxious spirit and He wanted them to hand it over to Him.
And so I encourage you, if that's you, if you are anxious about something, if you're worried about something, if you're worried about money, if you're worried about family issues if you're worried about family members who are sick, I invite you to hand that over to the Lord. I invite you to read Psalm 23 over and over again, or to listen to the song on repeat until you have it flowing through your mind and until it brings you peace. Because I believe what the songwriter said when she said, “Anxiety hates Psalm 23.”
I don't think it was just a rhyme. I think it was the truth. Anytime we can have scripture to rely on it’s a good thing. Anytime anxiety comes up and we can stop our thought pattern in our tracks and recite a Psalm, recite a song that reminds us that God is stronger than that thought, then I know that we'll see our anxiety lessen each time we do this.
I know when we invite God in, he comes in. He doesn't saunter in. He doesn't meander in. When we call on the Lord, he comes running. He sends his angels flying at the speed of light to be by our side. And the more we can learn his scripture, the more we can memorize it and recall it at a moment's notice. Man, that makes the devil worried. When we have a firm grasp on scripture, the devil knows he can't trick us. The devil knows he can't use that scripture against us like he tried to do with Jesus.
Another thing the song says is to say it to yourself until you believe it. And I think that can be one thing we often overlook. We read these scriptures and we might believe them on a surface level, but do we believe them in the depths of our hearts? Do we truly believe them? And do we believe them to be true for us? Sometimes it's easy to believe that something can be true for someone else, and yet we struggle to believe that it's true for us.
We believe that God forgives other people’s sins, but we hold on to ours. We believe that God loves all of his children, but we don't believe he loves us or we struggle to believe he loves us. So when I'm saying learn these scripture verses, I don't mean read them once, and kind of know what they say.
I mean, live in the scripture verses. Pick a verse or two and say it, memorize it, believe it, believe it to be true with your whole being, and then move on to a different scripture verse. I don't think we have to have the whole Bible memorized, but if you're struggling in an area like love, anxiety, worry, whatever it is you're struggling with, find scripture verses that address that area and read them. If one touches your heart, if one stands out to you, if you read a scripture verse and it gives you strength, write it down, memorize it, and then when you're feeling those feelings, recall that scripture verse. This is why I love Christian music so much, because I just feel it in my soul.
I'm not really one that feels the Holy Spirit in a physical way often. A lot of people will say, oh, I could feel the Holy Spirit so strong in this room right now. I can’t. I usually don't feel that. I don't feel what they're saying. But when I listen to Christian music, I feel it with my whole soul, and it speaks right to my heart.
If there are songs that speak to what you're going through, I say the same thing that I said about scripture. Listen to it on repeat over and over again. Memorize it so that when you're in a tough spot, you can recall it. These songs remind us how much Jesus loves us, how much God's there for us. Oftentimes they have scripture verses built right into the song, like Psalm 23, Still Waters. This is why I love the music so much.
If you're struggling right now, I invite you to listen to some Christian music. I invite you to Google some scripture verses that have to do with whatever it is you're going through.
I guarantee you if you put in scripture verses for, anxiety, worry, financial issues, marital trouble, parenting, whatever it is, scripture verses will come up. And I invite you to read them, to go over them, and to find ones that speak to you, that strengthen and encourage you. And I invite you to recall these when you are struggling.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we love you. We thank you for always being there for us. We thank you for being our shepherd and leading us to green pastures. We thank you for all the time you have led us to still waters throughout our lives. You are the best Lord and we love you tons!!
Thank you all for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Remember if you have not signed up for the retreat yet, you are running out of time. I have to give the retreat house my numbers on Oct. 4th, that is in just two weeks. If you know someone who may want to join this retreat, please invite them. People are more likely to come if they have a personal invite from a friend. I look forward to seeing you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day and may the grace and favor of our Lord Jesus Christ be upon you.
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in April 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Why do you stand at the open tomb? You know, I have risen, and I am there among you.”