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The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name\u2019s sake. (Psalm 23:1-3)

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This Psalm holds forth promises that many a Christian has held onto in life and in death.\xa0 We picture it as our art does: the good shepherd gazing on as we, his sheep lie in lush, abundant rolling hills of green with a cool brook babbling by in the foreground.\xa0

But that image, while lovely, is found no where in the land that King David walked.\xa0 The land of Bethlehem and the hill country of Judea that David roamed is rocky and harsh.\xa0 Only a step removed from the desert wasteland of the open wilderness.\xa0 And yet, good shepherds graze their flocks there to this day.

The thing is: our lives are not lived out in rolling fields of green with abundant waters and straight paths.\xa0 The soil of this world is hard, as it is in the middle east.\xa0 And we feel it.\xa0 School, work, shopping, and friendship all transacted online in this world locked down.\xa0 More and more of our community of friends and loved ones are coming into contact with this virus, and many more are facing really hard journeys with their health. \xa0I\u2019m thinking particularly of James, Kelly, and Al, but there are others too.

For many of us, it does not feel right now that the pastures are green or that the waters are quiet or that the paths are right.\xa0

But this Psalm is not about the pastures, the waters, or the paths: it\u2019s about the shepherd.\xa0 The shepherd who knows how to guide his sheep to just enough stubs of grass for each day, to help them find just enough pools of water in the sheer-cliff valleys, and to help them walk just the meandering paths to get there.\xa0

The pastures are green, the waters quiet, and the paths right not because of the situation of our wilderness living, but because of the God who shepherds us through the wilderness.\xa0 He is the one who refreshes our souls.\xa0 Today I pray: come, Lord Jesus, to do just that. Refresh our souls.

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