I don't know if it's because I have been posting on words/language these past few days or what, but today as I was blow drying my hair the first line of Psalm 23 came to mind . (There is a connection here, just keep reading.)
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
I can remember when I first came across that psalm, I was absolutely perplexed as to why I would not want the Lord. I was a fairly new believer and knew I had a lot to learn, but this just didn't make sense to me. I really remained perplexed for quite awhile over that verse until someone pointed out its true meaning.
Yes, for all you English majors out there (of which I am not but one of our lovely Groovies is) you spotted my error right away. I was reading that line as one long sentence, ignoring the semi-colon that separated the front half from the back half. I wasn't pausing between the words shepherd and I, so I was giving it a whole different meaning than the author intended.
In fact, if I had know His character better, I would have read that sentence correctly the very first time without even worrying about punctuation. I would have know that God is faithfully vigilant in watching over me. I would have known that He knows me so intimately that He is keenly aware of my very needs. I would have known that He knows what's best for me even if I don't. I would have known that He is fully capable of filling my needs, particularly in ways that I can't.
Now I know.
1 comment:
this English major missed your hyphen and thought I was coming to a post about irritable bowl syndrome.
Three cheers for punctuation!
Three cheers for our Good Shepherd!
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