Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Psalm 23

Psalm 23
In twenty plus years of ministry I can’t remember a funeral that did not include the congregation speaking the 23rd psalm in the 1611 version approved by King James. It’s the only passage of scripture I prefer in the King James Version because there is something about the Lord “maketh me, leadeth me, restoreth me, yea though I walk… thou preparest for me…” that makes the ancient language a present comfort in times of sorrow. It may be generational and in the future any version of the psalm will do (as a good number of young people who seem to have no dog in this hunt have told me) but I can’t help but think there are some times that the present life and loss calls for ancient poetry because the reality of death does not change from one generation to another even as the hope of the words penned by David evoke the eternal – “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever”.


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