A passage of beauty from the King James Bible

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. / He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters. / He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. / Yea, though I  walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. / Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. / Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

An earlier post that I wrote on this blog spoke about my difficulty with God in the abstract, the infinite. In perhaps complete contrast, Psalm 23 describes a worshipper's relationship with God in terms that elide infinity into a shepherd's crook. The psalmist does not particularly care that a shepherd tends and rears a whole host of sheep at a time; the attention and guidance of God is experienced by the psalmist as directed to him or her alone.

Old English inspiration

I have just stumbled across (through my older sister's blog) the Old English poem conventionally named "The Wanderer". Such a bleak poem full of sorrow. But I love the prescription at the end, which I paraphrase as follows:

"I must never speak the grief of my breast too quickly, unless I already know the remedy."

Because that is a man's role - to hold tightly his concerns to himself, and speak only when solutions have been found.