The Lord is my sheperd; I shall not want...

We all know the psalm. It's almost a cliche nowadays. Psalm 23 was the first  psalm I memorized, and I can almost say it in my sleep now.
But a few weeks ago, I was really feeling discouraged and depressed, and even quoting scripture wasn't helping. I tried reciting Psalm 23, but I found that the words seemed empty and dull, and it just felt like vain repetition. But in the midst of this discouragement and fear, I had a thought; and I think it was a God thought, because it put new meaning into the words of this first verse, and brought peace where there hadn't been any. I suddenly got the idea to look up the words 'shepherd' and 'want' and do a word study. I found something very interesting...

The word Sheperd is 7462 in the Strong's Concordance, and the entry says this:
A prime root; to tend a flock, i.e. pasture it; intransitively- to graze (literally of figuratively); generally- to rule; by extension- to associate with (as a friend):— break, companion, keep company with, devour, eat up, evil entreat, feed, use as a friend, make friendship with, herdman, keep [sheep] (-er), pastor, + shearing house, sheperd, wander, waste.

I'm not sure about the things like 'evil entreat' and 'eat up', because those are most certainly negative ideas. I think this word is one of those strange ones that can be either negative or positive depending on the context. Anyway, the main (positive) idea I get from this is: Pastor, shepherd, or companion.
Okay, now on to 'want':
2637: A prime root; to lack; by implication to fail, want, lessen:— be abated, bereave, decrease, (cause to) fail, (have) lack make lower, want.

Now that could mean, certainly, simply 'to be in want of something', but if you think about it in the context of the Lord being our companion, then the lack would be specific to companionship.
And that would render a reading of Psalm 23, verse 1, that would go something like this:

The Lord is my companion, I shall never be alone.

And how awesome is that! This realization totally floored me. It took the verse out of the impersonal, generalized, "The Lord is my provider, I will never lack anything" to a personal, specific promise of His love and companionship.
And not only that, but when you pair that scripture with John 15:15, where Jesus says: "Henceforth I call you not serants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." you get something even better.
We don't just have a ruler who is always with us; that might not seem very pleasant.

We have a best friend who will never leave us; and no matter where we are, he is there, too.

And that is a promise that can endure us through any trial or persecution.

The books I read, sometimes...my goodness!

The latest acquisition for the family library is a book entitled: "Eats, Shoots and Leaves", and, despite the ridiculous title, it's really good! It's all about punctuation and how to use it, with a large section on how terrible the mis-use of punctuation is these days. The blurb on the back reads:
A panda walks into a cafe. He orders an a sandwich, eats it then, draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.
"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
"I'm a panda," he says at the door, "Look it up."
The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.
"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Now I think that's hilarous for some reason.
The author has a dry British sense of humor that is hysterically funny sometimes, and I found it very interesting; but remember that I also found a book about architecture and structures and the principles of building things equally fascinating, so maybe it's not for everybody.

But, anyway...
I've got to think of some really thought-provoking topic to write about, one of these days...

You know you're a cat lover when...

You brush your teeth in the kitchen because your cat is taking up the bathroom sink!

Everything has to begin somewhere...

All right, I guess this is the beginning of my blog.
I don't really have a firm point for this blog, it's just a place to post musings, funny stuff, deep thoughts, and other things for my friends to read. If anyone I don't know stumbles across this blog, which I doubt will happen very often, welcome! Take a look around, click some links, and then you can be on your merry way again without having wasted too much time here. ;-)
I hope the things I post are edifying, interesting, sometimes funny, sometimes thought-provoking, and everything else that a good blog should be.
I admit that the title might seem a little out of place, and especially the knight on the header, but I think it fits in a roundabout way. Even though I probably will never set out on a quest to rescue a fair maiden, or joust in tournament for the hand of a princess, oftentimes the toughest battles - and the ones requiring the most courage - are the spiritual ones. And I certainly will be fighting those my entire life! Courage to do the hard things,  and faith to start on things that are impossible to finish without God, is something that all men must have. I feel convicted to be courageous, safe in the knowledge that God is my strength.
But anyway...
So, the epic of Gilgamesh...sorry, of My Blog, has begun!
~Pe†er