I cannot recall when I was introduced to this psalm from a picture-book bible, but it was and still is one of my favorites. Granted, it took a few years to learn the meaning behind the short song -something to do with untangling the misinterpretted meaning of something from the first verse.

The images painted of the green pastures and still waters were comforting for me, even when I had paired them with pictures from my then all-time-favorite book: The House that Jack Built. It’s Suzanne’s illustrations in the Whitman book that came to mind:  the blue sky the color of my streams and pastures that Jack and company run through a portion of the pastures in the poem.

Getting back to that first verse: Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

Somehow, “I shall not want” took on the meaning of “I don’t want” or “I can’t want” or “I’m not supposed to want.” Even now it is hard to say how or why that second half of the first verse was internalized that way. However, after years of Sunday school instruction, both as student and teacher, and more years of study, that first verse is seen as clearly as it should be: not to be in want of anything.

Upon looking back at the years so far and aware of the present now, this is most certainly true.