The King of Love My Shepherd Is

The King of love my shepherd is,

Whose goodness faileth never;

I nothing lack while I am His

And He is mine forever. 

            Last weekend I had to be in bed for three days to heal a red spot on my hip. Now, I don't take chances when a pressure sore starts to develop on my body; I get off of it right away so it has time to heal.  A sore like that is also a signal to me that my old seat cushion has had it, and it's time to order a new one.  And so, after I got back up in my chair on Monday morning, I did just that.

            But while I was in bed over the weekend, I comforted myself with the words to Psalm 23.  Especially that familiar verse, "He makes me to lie down in green pastures.  He restores my soul."  Did you hear that?  Cause I sure needed to hear it.  God makes me to lie down.  Sometimes He will literally force me to get out of my wheelchair and spend a weekend in bed, and He often does it through a red spot on my hip.  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures... or in my case, He maketh me to lie down in my bedroom.  But then again that's not such a bad thing.  Ken filled the goldfinch feeder outside the bay window and all weekend long my companions were the little finches that fluttered right beyond the window.  Looking out onto my backyard, it was almost a green pasture, it was. 

            And why does God force bed rest on me sometimes?  I think He does so that my soul gets restored.  Yes, the weekend turned out to be a kind of prayer retreat --a time to intercede, pray, sing hymns to keep my thoughts from becoming depressed or discouraged.  I listened to a couple of DVDs by John Piper and RC Sproul and kept my spirits up with Ken reading out of the Bible to me every night. 

            Truly, the King of Love my Shepherd is.  God wasn't being mean in allowing that pressure sore.  He wasn't being mean, forcing me to bed for a couple of days.  Never once has God been mean to me - nor to you.  And if you're tempted to think He is, then would you please flip to the 23^rd Psalm and learn afresh how good the King of love your Shepherd is.

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