…until you have read Psalm 22.
Psalm 23 provides much encouragement and increases our sense of hope, knowing that God will take us through our difficulties. We look at our personal current situation and at how the world is turning against God in order to face and embrace evil. Thanks to the over-abundance of information and news, we may feel that times are worse now than ever before. It may be a challenge to fully embrace the promise of the psalmist. …until you read Psalm 22 for context.
Are you having a bad day? Do you get frustrated at the evil you encounter daily, sometimes even from friends and family members? Do you watch in shock as the persecution of Believers continues around the globe, sometimes at genocidal levels? Do you wonder if there are any green pastures remaining to lie down in?
“Like water my life drains away;
all my bones are disjointed.
My heart has become like wax,
it melts away within me.
As dry as a potsherd is my throat;
my tongue cleaves to my palate;
you lay me down in the dust of death.
Dogs surround me;
a pack of evildoers closes in on me.
They have pierced my hands and my feet
I can count all my bones.
…
Deliver my soul from the sword
my life from the grip of a dog.
Save me from the lion’s mouth,
my poor life from the horns of the wild bulls.”
Psalm 22: 15-18, 21-22
God never promised that life would be easy. Christ reminded us time and again that His believers would be persecuted. The days of the Garden are long since passed.
The reality of life described in the 22nd psalm reminds us that our lives now are not completely different than the lives of those then.
With the context of 22, we can better appreciate the message of 23 as a beautiful message of hope borne in love, God’s love for us.
“Indeed, goodness and mercy will pursue me
all the days of my life;
I will dwell in the house of the Lord
for endless days.”
Psalm 23: 6
We have been conditioned to believe what “society” tells us, i.e., that we are supposed to have easy, fear-free, trouble-free lives. That is ludicrous. Think of the labor, toil, courage, strength, perseverance, commitment and grit that the centuries of generations before us have endured and been strengthened by. Life is hard; life as a Believer is more so. It is far better to accept and deal with the realities of life while leaning on the love of our Father and his promises to do the best we can in the lives we have been blessed with.