Showing posts with label Psalm 23. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Psalm 23. Show all posts

Thursday, April 20, 2023

There Is a Hand...


Psalm 139:23-24
Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

 Savior, Lead Me Lest I Stray

 

There is a Hand to which faith clings with confidence secure
A hand that fits us with armor that fits us for the fight
And helps us in thick of opposition to endure
As we trust His command and make His love our chief delight
As we rely on He who tries and tests our hearts and minds
To see if there be any wicked way that persists still
To mar His perfect peace because of pride that blindly binds
Us to the pattern of this world rather than to His will

There is a Hand that draws us to the comfort of His Word
He leads in paths of righteousness through valleys of despair
And fills us with fresh wonder for His mercies, undeterred
To we, often forgetful of His faithful, loving care
He guides and keeps, while calling sheep still wandering and lost
His arms always wide open to welcome prodigals back
To kiss His hands, scarred with reminders of redemption’s cost
Hands still outstretched to all who still reject love without lack

© Janet Martin

Psalm 34:8-14
Taste and see that the Lord is good;
blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
9Fear the Lord, you his holy people,
for those who fear him lack nothing.
10The lions may grow weak and hungry,
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
11Come, my children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
12Whoever of you loves life
and desires to see many good days,
13keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from telling lies.
14Turn from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.





 

Monday, November 21, 2022

My 'I Shall Not Want' Want-list


I want to see the beauty in each day that He has made...



Our world is completely winterized where only two weeks ago 
I took a long walk admiring the remnant foliage of fall...



And just like that, with the snow
thoughts of Christmas start to take center stage
where want and wish lists also begin to take shape...

While gifts are nice and delightful expressions of love,
as we grow older, we realize more and more
 that what satisfies our Want cannot be unwrapped from
pretty paper and ribbons.

The Lord is my Shepherd.
I shall not want...
Ps. 23:1

Without refreshment and renewal found in God's Word alone.
our want lists are apt to run a bit askew,
and discouragement would drain
our 'joy complete'

John 15:9-11
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. 
Now remain in my love. 
10If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love,
 just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 
11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you 
and that your joy may be complete.








To remember the empty tomb: Christ conquered death and hell


And when I die, I want to hear the sweetest words I know

© Janet Martin

Monday, October 31, 2022

Of Goodness and Mercy

 Surely Goodness, Surely Mercy -Shane and Shane



God’s Goodness: what delight this confidence bestows
His goodness does not shift like shadows through life’s highs and lows
But, steadfast and secure in spite of creature care
The full assurance of His goodness combats dark despair
Where we who trust in Him, and His goodness unfurled
Are part of His Goodness, to bring hope to a dying world
To cheer the suffering, to bear their burden too
To be a ready offering of His goodness run through

God’s mercy: what sweet joy and consolation bless
No foe or trouble can destroy mercy’s kind faithfulness
Sin’s pardon has been won. No other fete achieves
What mercy grants to everyone who repents and believes
Where we would deserve death and hell, grace sets us free
His mercy fills Final Breath’s knell with shouts of victory
For through death’s valley, He will walk with us, so near
To overthrow the enemy so that we need not fear

Goodness and mercy, oh, let endless praise begin
His goodness for our want and woe, His mercy for our sin
Wherever life may lead, whatever may befall
Goodness and mercy intercede to help us through it all
Where so unworthy we, heirs and joint heirs of Christ
Benefit from the agony that Jesus sacrificed
To draw all men to Him, the Perfect Prince of Peace
Where His goodness and mercy brim from founts that never cease

The glass through which we peer does not reveal the whole
A darkly, sorrow-scarred veneer enshrouds the deathless soul
Where what we see in part often vexes our gaze
Goodness and mercy’s works of art above our thoughts and ways
Because the cruciform of faith and hope and love
Must bear the testing storm its authenticity to prove
But, whatever betide, of grief and pain and strife
Goodness and mercy will preside all the days of our life

© Janet Martin

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not [a]want.
2 He makes me to lie down in [b]green pastures;
He leads me beside the [c]still waters.
3 He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will [d]dwell in the house of the Lord
[e]Forever.



Monday, October 18, 2021

Battle Cry...



Yea, though we walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, we will fear no evil.
Your rod and Your staff comfort us...
clinging to these verses this morning
from Psalm 23

Please, join us in praying for this situation!!


What next?!! I cried as this headline surfaced
and prayers weep and plead on their behalf!

What next we cry 
as sorrows try
and Trial wields its rod
What next for sheep
In the Shepherd's keep?
The goodness and mercy of God!

Prayer is the believer's battle cry!
If God is for us who can be against us?
Rom.8:31



Wars without and wars within
God, deliver us from sin...

The wars that wage within us can stage bitter battle zones
Where wars that wage without conflict where reasoning intones
Where, while we dally in the valley because hills look hard
Windows of opportunity expire, shut and barred

To trust the Lord with all our hearts and not logic of thought
Is to yield humbly, and to seek first the kingdom of God
In all our ways acknowledge Him, and turn the other cheek
For the spirit is willing but the flesh is oh, so weak

To fall is not to fail; it is to learn to grasp the Hand
That leads not to temptation but helps us securely stand
Our Father, who art in Heaven, You are truth and light
Through you the grace is given that will fit us for the fight

Your Word is a lamp to our feet, a light unto our path
And suffering is not a foretaste of Your righteous wrath
But is like a refining fire burning off the dross
To see if what remains is broken chains beneath the cross

© Janet Martin

Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
 he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul: 
he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
 I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
 thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: 
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.


Sunday, January 24, 2021

He Restoreth My Soul


Psalm 23:1-3
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: 
he leadeth me beside the still waters.
 He restoreth my soul: 
he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness 
for his name's sake.





Whether our pastures are green or white
The Shepherd of our souls is not hampered by the season!

He restores our souls 
But only as we pause 
And only as we meditate 
On His statutes and laws 

And only as we pray 
And only as we trust 
And reconcile our willful way 
To Mercy’s perfect must 

…and only as we drink 
Where we will never thirst 
And only as we rearrange 
Our loves and put God first 

And only by His grace 
Through faith, that makes us whole 
He leads us to the quiet place 
Where He restores our souls 

© Janet Martin

by Samuel Sebastian Wesley