Before Me Not Behind Me… Hello Hump Day readers—welcome to June 2023! Up here in northern New Mexico we are stuck in late Spring with heavy rain, hail and high winds. Yikes, the monsoons haven’t even started yet! Our reservoir is over legal status, although that isn’t bad because it is really huge and can take a lot of water but we need to send water downstream to help our agriculture and livestock folks; but here’s the catch, if we do we’ll send them to Texas and God knows where! We have a problem with water yet we need it, what a predicament! This is causing a lot of worry in regards to flooding which is now become dangerous at best.

We have a retired couple that come often to the park with their RV. They only live 25 miles but they love to be at the lake. The family visits, too-this year their first great grandson! Their sons have taken over his large farm. Right now they can’t get out for a day due to the floods. When our couple left they said “Cyndy, please pray for our sons and the farm. The flooding is hazardous. I am very worried and I usually don’t worry.” I told him our prayers would be there for them and then I slipped in a tip to he and his wife, “read Psalm 23, it is one that can calm your nerves and worries.” They gave a thumbs-up and thanked me.

We all worry and in today’s society worry seems to invade every life at every stage. Yet, worrying is one job you cannot farm out. Our worry is ours—but we can overcome it. And for me, that is why Psalm 23 is so encouraging. Yes, there are a lot of other Scriptures—in fact tons of them about worry and anxiety, but Psalm 23 has a way of giving your mind a picture that is calming if not the strength we need when worries arise.

Imagine King David moving from place to place and then hiding in a cave just to stay alive from King Saul’s threats of death. In his hiding he wrote many Psalms which have endeared, comforted and strengthened us to this day. That’s a long-time help from this Psalm since David wrote his Psalms approximately between 1010 and 930 BC!

When I read Psalm 23, I vividly see what God is doing for me: gives me all I need, calms me, takes me through valleys in his safety, and so much more. But three words always stand out to me: “He leads me.” In every part of this Psalm where do we see God? Before us, not behind us. He isn’t shouting to us from the back saying “come on, let’s get going” he is in the front bidding us to come. We can trust this bidding because God will not take us into harm but into his goodness. Imagine for a moment you are lost in a forest and starting to worry about how to get back to your vehicle, and then you see someone in front of you clearing the path, pushing the rocks out of the way and cutting the brush so you can find your way out. That is God—after all, isn’t he the Master Gardener—who better to put you on the right path?

We are often like the children of Israel, wandering in this world and wondering what comes next and worrying about how to handle it. Remember God’s promise—he would supply them with food every day and that manna sustained them. But he had a restriction, “only collect what you need for one day.” Why? Because God wants them and us to lose our worry and give our trust fully to him. Only then can we stop worrying about tomorrow because God has our back today, tomorrow and forevermore!

I think the Apostle Matthew most likely loved Psalm 23 as well. In fact, in his words in chapter 6:34, he sums up David’s Psalm saying: “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”

My prayers for our friends’ family and farm continue in my daily prayer book, along with so many others and my own prayers. I can worry for them or give their needs to God who answers prayer. My choice is to give it to God and I think we all should do that because we can’t change nature, we can’t change circumstances we are in, but God can and everything that God leads us to, in, or around is GOOD. Like David said in the last verse of Psalm 23, using the ESV, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” AMEN!