{"id":31,"date":"2008-03-07T21:23:22","date_gmt":"2008-03-08T05:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kmwoley.com\/blog\/?p=31"},"modified":"2008-03-07T21:26:45","modified_gmt":"2008-03-08T05:26:45","slug":"psalm-veintitres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kmwoley.com\/blog\/psalm-veintitres\/","title":{"rendered":"psalm veintitr\u00e9s"},"content":{"rendered":"

Numerio 23<\/a> happens to be my great-grandfather’s favorite psalm.\u00a0 He and his wife would read it together every night before they went to bed.\u00a0 Pa has been a regular church-goer for as long as I have known him, which happens to\u00a0be\u00a0about\u00a028% of his life.\u00a0\u00a0I\u00a0suppose\u00a0I’ve always thought of him as the\u00a0patriarchal leader\u00a0of what scant faith our extended family displays.\u00a0 But I’d never really given a lot of thought to his faith until this week.<\/p>\n

To be honest, I’ve never quite known where most of my extended family (roughly 30 of us)\u00a0stands with respect to Christianity.\u00a0 Led by Pa, with hands joined and mouths drooling over whatever deliciousness was spread out on grandma’s\u00a0counter tops,\u00a0it had become tradition\u00a0to recite the words to the lord’s prayer<\/a>\u00a0prior gorging ourselves.\u00a0 Some would recite the words whole-heartedly, and some of us would mumble through not quite sure when to be thankful for temptation and where ask to be delivered from his kingdom.\u00a0 I always found this odd, given that religion isn’t a subject that I remember ever having more than one or two surface level conversations about with anyone besides my sis, mother & father.\u00a0 Maybe we’ve always just assumed that everyone believes something similar, and that’s good enough… even though it\u00a0does not at all reflect reality.\u00a0 I think it might have been just one of those things we did because Pa wanted us to, and that’s as good enough reason as any.<\/p>\n

Since I have jettisoned my faith in Christ, the recitation of a prayer that means nothing to me has made me fairly uncomfortable, but I would mumble through out of respect and love for my Pa.\u00a0 But there was no faith behind it, which makes me feel like a liar.\u00a0 Going forward the lord’s prayer will forever remind me of him, and make me thankful for the time that I had with him.<\/p>\n

We don’t know how much time he has left, but we know that his hours are short.\u00a0 And it’s comforting to believe that he had the confidence that “goodness and love” did follow him all the days of his life.\u00a0 If he will be dwelling in the house of the lord or not, I cannot say.\u00a0\u00a0What I do know is that Pa\u00a0will always dwell in the hearts of those of us who love him and are loved by him.<\/p>\n

Psalm 23<\/h4>\n
A psalm of David.<\/h5>\n

\u00a01<\/span> The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.<\/p>\n

\u00a02<\/span> He makes me lie down in green pastures,
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 he leads me beside quiet waters,<\/p>\n

\u00a03<\/span> he restores my soul.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He guides me in paths of righteousness
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 for his name’s sake.<\/p>\n

\u00a04<\/span> Even though I walk
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 through the valley of the shadow of death,
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I will fear no evil,
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 for you are with me;
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 your rod and your staff,
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 they comfort me.<\/p>\n

\u00a05<\/span> You prepare a table before me
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 in the presence of my enemies.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You anoint my head with oil;
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 my cup overflows.<\/p>\n

\u00a06<\/span> Surely goodness and love will follow me
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 all the days of my life,
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 forever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Numerio 23 happens to be my great-grandfather’s favorite psalm.\u00a0 He and his wife would read it together every night before they went to bed.\u00a0 Pa has been a regular church-goer for as long as I have known him, which happens to\u00a0be\u00a0about\u00a028% of his life.\u00a0\u00a0I\u00a0suppose\u00a0I’ve always thought of him as the\u00a0patriarchal leader\u00a0of what scant faith our … Continue reading psalm veintitr\u00e9s<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[18,17],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","tag-faith","tag-hearts-and-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmwoley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmwoley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmwoley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmwoley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmwoley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kmwoley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmwoley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmwoley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmwoley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}