Jun 8

Helen Tyte

Psalm 23

I was thinking about which Bible verse was the most used, or remembered. You must have your own favourite? In Junior Church we often use memory verses to help us. I still remember the first verse I learned as a small child: ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only son…’ John 3:16.

At weddings people often choose to read 1 Corinthians 13: ‘Love is patient; love is kind.’

At funerals Psalm 23 is often chosen:

‘The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths
for his name’s sake.’

In his book, “I Shall Not Want,” Robert Ketchum wrote about a Sunday School teacher who asked her group of children if anyone could quote the entire 23rd Psalm. A four-and-a-half-year-old girl said that she could.
The teacher asked if she could really quote the entire psalm.
The little girl came to the front of the room, faced the class and said, “The Lord is my shepherd, that’s all I want.”

I think she nailed it!