Spiritual Refreshment

Many are the passages to which we look when our way narrows and hope dims, perhaps none more than Psalm 23.  Like an ancient prayer stone, the 23rd Psalm has been worn smooth.  Over the years thousands of believers have worked their worries over this passage so when we recite it we can sense not only the contours of the psalm’s original words, but all the lives those words have touched.  We can hear not only the author’s ancient voice, can also feel the vibration of every voice that has lifted this sacred intercession.

As Christians, we associate Psalm 23 with times of passing.  It’s when death makes us pause and reflect, that we turn, most often, to this ancient prayer for restoration and refreshment.  Yet death is not the only thing that can knock us down.  Life can deplete our energy, our spirituality.   

Through hectic schedules, long hours, financial concerns, illness, and the like, life can wear us down.  As we head into the long dog days of summer and we add the heat and the pressure to complete our summer tasks to our already stressed lives, Psalm 23 speaks to our needs.  It expresses our spiritual desire to be restored, to be refreshed.

In the words of this age old prayer (which, in ancient times would have been sung  during worship), we hear both our ancestors who’ve gone on before us and the still small voice inside us,

“The Lord is (our) shepherd, (we) shall not want.  He maketh (us) lie down in green pastures: He leadeth (us) beside still waters.   He restoreth (our) souls. …” 

In this psalm, we can hear, no matter where we are in our faith journey or what we are experiencing at the present time, the Holy Spirit whispering to us.  Jesus is telling us that He is our Shepherd, He will be with us through everything that we are going through and everything that we are experiencing.  Life can be hard at times but we never walk alone. Jesus is with us, what a wonderful promise. 

I pray that as we continue through the hot summer months may we all heed the psalmist’s wise counsel, “to lie down beside still waters” and let Jesus refresh us, so that when fall comes upon us, and Augusts’ dog days give way to September’s new surge, we might face it...restored and refreshed.

In Christ’s peaceful stillness,
​Rev. Stephen W. Barch