The Psalm 23 Heart, The Heart of Contentment

If you were to really know me, and know what words drive me like none other, it’s Psalm 23.

Yes, that may be the most memorized passage to pick a “life verse”( if that’s what we want to call it), but everything in my life brings me back here.

Here they are:

”The Lord is my shepherd; I have what I need.

He lets me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside quiet waters.

He renews my life; he leads me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me; your rod and your staff — they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD as long as I live.”

-Psalms 23:1-6 CSB1

Let me just say that almost every mini season within the last year has brought me here. Every single one of them. It’s brought me to the truth that the Lord’s goodness, kindness, and faithfulness have met me in all these little seasons. It has quite literally followed me every day of my life. So, on the days where I haven’t felt as though that was true, I keep a running list “Your goodness and unfailing love pursue me every day of my life”. I have it on multiple index cards in-view on my desk in my office. It’s on the back of my door, on my microwave, on my whiteboard calendar. Literally everywhere I look, I have made it my business to remind myself of this. Even though I don’t have to.

I don’t have to because even on days where I show up to work on days that I’m upset, or I’m just running on nothing (which is more often than not). I am met with a kind word from a colleague, a smile from a friend who feels like home, and/or a free coffee. How could I ever be so blind to not see my kind Father in that?

His love is good and faithful because that is purely who God is.

He’s compassionate, and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in love. It’s His name. (Exodus 34:5-6).2 

That is who He is. That is how he loves. 

Although lately, I have seen it more as a gaureteed protection the Lord’s goodness and provision, but now as a psalm of contentment. Maybe I see it that way now, because I have realized I haven’t been contempt? Or maybe it’s that I am saying these things over my life, and while things change, my life has seemed so “busy” ( even though I like to refrain from using that term, well because…, we’re all busy) that I haven’thad the awareness to take a step back to see it. Or even give praise to it. What we are given praise to is more than a free cup of coffee on a random Tuesday (which is nice), but it’s the generosity of the Lord’s heart in a desert of a land.

It’s peace in a prolonged feeling of anxiety.

It’s comfort over a broke or abandoned heart.

It’s joy in overwhelming mundane.

It’s more than overflowing generosity. Which if you take a step back and think about it. When David wrote this Israel was literally a desert graced with a few green pastures and little streams of still waters. It was not common. But in a less literal sense, I had never seen it as the prayer for my heart for when it hits the feeling of discontentment.

So let’s say I could rewrite Psalm 23, this is how it would most likely look:

The Lord is my contentment. I don’t need the other things. I don’t need a new pair of shoes, or a new mug, or even the most elaborate cup of coffee from Starbucks. I don’t even need my Master’s degree in hand right now, or even to be in a relationship. I have everything I need for this day. The daily manna.

In the midst of my drought in the desert, he is giving me free flowing waters. He’s not just giving me enough, He is giving me more. Abundantly more.

He is renewing my life, by renewing my mind. He is changing my viewpoint, and bringing me in new habits of the way He walks. He’s walking alongside me– molding, shaping, changing. My heart and my mind are His.

Even though (or in this case when) I am walking in the lies of discontentment, He’s beside me fighting those for me. With me. Shielding me with His peace. 

He sets and prepares a table for me. He feasts with me and my enemies. Passing me the good bread at the dinner table. Gives me the good wine. He then places a crown of glory over my head, and calls me, daughter.The greatest name I could ever have!

He gives me abundantly more than I could ever ask for, even when it’s no, it’s more than enough to make my heart pour over with joy.

His steadfast and faithful love chases after me every day of my life, and I get to thrive in his House of abundance every day!

In my everyday life, do I have a fully content heart? 

Honestly, the truth is probably not. Having a heart of peace and contentment isn’t exactly reflex for anyone I know today.  A million things demand our attention, or are persuading us to the new thing. The new thing doesn’t equal a content heart, or the peace that surpasses all knowledge. To have the peace of God, is to be fully attentive in God’s love for us.

One of my favorite authors and Pastor, John Mark Comer, says this:

“ To restate: love, joy, and peace are at the heart of all Jesus is trying to grow in the soil of your life. And all three are incompatible with hurry.”3

The heart of contentment is slow.

It moves through the neighborhood with intentional speed.

It’s soaked up in the presence of Jesus.

It’s quiet.

It says “I don’t care, I just want to be close to you”.

For me, and maybe you too, what this means for me right now, is to walk boldly in my calling is to be attentive and aware of the things that steal my contentment, my joy, my peace, or worst of all, anything that tries to pull me away from the truth that I am called by name and that I carry the name of the Father of Heaven with me everywhere I go.

And even when I am not content, I am met with the goodness and faithfulness in His warm embrace.

References

1 Holy Bible: Christian Standard Bible Version, 2017.Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, Psalms 23:1-6. https://bible.com/bible/1713/psa.23.1-6.CSB

2 Holy Bible: Christian Standard Bible Version, 2017.Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, Exodus 34:5-6. https://bible.com/bible/1713/exo.34.6.CSB

3 John Mark Comer, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. Colorado Springs: Waterbrook,2019.