Psalm 23 - A broken want-er

 




God, in probably the most popular psalm in all of the Psalter, I have a hard time getting past the three words in the first line, “I lack nothing” (NIV) (or “I shall not want” - ESV). I stumble over these words because there is plenty that I want. I want the newest gadgets. I want the smell of a new car. I want everyone to admire me. I want a conflict-free marriage. I want conflict-free parenting. I want no traffic. I want to be the first in line everywhere I go. I want scholarships for my kids. I want no one to get in the way of my plans. I want respect. I want ease, comfort, and pain-free life. I want perfect health and to simply die in my sleep in old age.

God, I have no idea what it feels like to live a life lacking nothing. I can feel like I live in poverty because my want-er is broken. My desires are desperately misdirected. It’s not that David turned off desire; it’s that his desires were rightly directed. When he wrote this psalm, his want-er was working properly.

God, I think of the somewhat famous CS Lewis quote where he says, “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

And, I would add, we are far too easily disappointed. Israel knew this disappointment as they faced hunger and thirst in the wilderness. Yet, In Deuteronomy 2:7, this same word is used when it says, “These forty years the LORD your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.” Yet, in their disappointment, they turned their desires back to Egypt. They grumbled. And they created gods that would meet their desires. Even though they lacked nothing, their want-er was broken.

God, fix my want-er. Help me not to desire less but to desire more of the right thing - to know more of you, to desire your presence, to desire your loving kindness.

Let my cup overflow with the abundance of these in my life.

Amen.

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