The Celebration Series continues... part 3 of ...
Celebrating 5 years living with Myasthenia Gravis, I want to share my 23rd Psalm.
Celebrating 5 years living with Myasthenia Gravis, I want to share my 23rd Psalm.
Post #2 left us in the middle of verse 4. Reminder - I am intentionally breaking up the verses we so often read in sing-song fashion, and removing the punctuation, because I want to feel how each part of a verse stands on its own...or paired differently with the next verse.
For YOU are with me - Ok. Stop. This just hit me. It is here, in verse 4 that the Psalm begins to sing/speak TO the subject of celebration. Verses 1-3 are those that sing about the calm...the warm up. Now the music picks up pace and we're singing LOUD. I'm picturing me singing the song “Drops of Jupiter" by the band Train (love!), where there is an awesome momentum building switch in the music (yeah, I don't know musical vocab), after the chorus has been sung through a few times. I really enjoy belting those lines out and the waiving my fist in the air at the just the right time. We're rocking out, because YOU are with Me!
...I will fear no evil as we walk
this particular path of righteousness which happens to lead through this scary valley of
darkness, because I know YOU are with me, protecting me through course correction
and by clubbing the enemy with that awesome tree root!
I will fear no evil - this feels a lot like verse 1, in that my read of this shouts
the fact as a declaration. "I am not afraid!"...even though I
am really tired and dealing with stuff I really just don't want to deal with.
In fact, I say this to myself through the day when I'm just having that slight
moment of panic that may or may not be justified. Its the same one you
get the pit in your stomach when you kiss your love good bye for the day
because you have the fear it could be the last; when you get that unexpected
call from the family member you haven't spoken to in a while; when you
get an odd piece of mail from the bank that looks a little too real; when you
forget to lock the car which has your personal belongings, and the 'remote
clicker' just wont reach the distance. ...but you press that button anyway...
That slight pit in the stomach which feels silly, but is real none the
less. "I will fear no evil" and I'm watched over, so whatever
happens, I can deal with it.
For YOU are with me - Ok. Stop. This just hit me. It is here, in verse 4 that the Psalm begins to sing/speak TO the subject of celebration. Verses 1-3 are those that sing about the calm...the warm up. Now the music picks up pace and we're singing LOUD. I'm picturing me singing the song “Drops of Jupiter" by the band Train (love!), where there is an awesome momentum building switch in the music (yeah, I don't know musical vocab), after the chorus has been sung through a few times. I really enjoy belting those lines out and the waiving my fist in the air at the just the right time. We're rocking out, because YOU are with Me!
Your rod and your staff comfort
me - Truly, I did a
little study work on this part of the verse, because it called to me.
A shepherd carries a rod and staff while tending to the flock. The staff is the taller, stronger multipurpose stick we imagine when we traditionally talk of those who herd sheep. One source said this is made from a sapling tree and is formed specifically for the shepherd. The staff is used to support the shepherd, while he walks or as he stands observant. The hook formed on the end of the staff, is necessary to help retrieve a sheep who may have found its way into a tight spot and needs assistance wriggling out. The hook is also used to gently lay across the side of the sheep from a distance, to help nudge the lil rascal back to the path, rather than the sheep finding the thicket. Course corrections.
Now, the rod on the other hand, is a smaller stick that may be hip high, 2-4 feet. It was sometimes worn on the hip and used as a tool to defend or also as walking support. I imagine a club type tool, maybe something out of Harry Potter, in that it’s an older piece of stick that is knotted with a dried up root ball on the end. In any case, the rod would be hurled at predators to defend, or sometimes thrown towards the thicket, the sheep were walking towards. Why? To startle them back to the herd. Stranger Danger!
A shepherd carries a rod and staff while tending to the flock. The staff is the taller, stronger multipurpose stick we imagine when we traditionally talk of those who herd sheep. One source said this is made from a sapling tree and is formed specifically for the shepherd. The staff is used to support the shepherd, while he walks or as he stands observant. The hook formed on the end of the staff, is necessary to help retrieve a sheep who may have found its way into a tight spot and needs assistance wriggling out. The hook is also used to gently lay across the side of the sheep from a distance, to help nudge the lil rascal back to the path, rather than the sheep finding the thicket. Course corrections.
Now, the rod on the other hand, is a smaller stick that may be hip high, 2-4 feet. It was sometimes worn on the hip and used as a tool to defend or also as walking support. I imagine a club type tool, maybe something out of Harry Potter, in that it’s an older piece of stick that is knotted with a dried up root ball on the end. In any case, the rod would be hurled at predators to defend, or sometimes thrown towards the thicket, the sheep were walking towards. Why? To startle them back to the herd. Stranger Danger!
