ruminating on Psalm 23

ruminate: to chew again or over and over.
                to meditate on; ponder.
Late Thursday night/early Friday morning I chewed on Psalm 23. 
After 4+ hours here are some of my thoughts.
sorry about the "off" spacing and font stuff, blogger was having issues, and at 3:10 AM I am "done"

Psalm 23 ESV

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 paths of righteousness for His name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil, for You are with me;

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

You anoint my head with oil; 

my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,

and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want."
The Lord is my shepherd. I am His sheep. He is a good shepherd, One who willingly laid down His life so I might live. He provides all that I need. Not all that I want, because He loves me too much to give me everything I ask for.  
John 10:1-18

He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He provides a safe place for me to find rest. 
"Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Matthew 11:28

He leads me beside still waters.
He satisfies my thirst.
John 4

He restores my soul.
He alone satisfies my deepest longings. He makes it well with my soul.
"Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works tot he children of man! For He satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul He fills with good things." Psalm 107:8-9

He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. 
He delights in leading me, in teaching me to be who He created me to be.
"Make me to know Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; for You I wait all the day long.
Remember Your mercy, O Lord, and Your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to Your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of Your goodness, O Lord! Good and upright is the Lord; therefore He instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble His way. All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep His covenant and His testimonies." Psalm 25:4-10

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; 
It is guaranteed that there will be valleys we must walk through in this life whether we want to or not. And death is something we will all face. That can be disheartening and scary to consider. When I realized that shadows are simply distortions of reality, the power of shadows in my life was greatly diminished. When Jesus was raised from the grave, the power of death was vanquished. Hallelujah, what a Savior we have. Read 1 Corinthians 15. 
Here is a snippet:

50-58 "I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."
(By the way, if we are looking at the source of light, we will not see shadows. In John 8:12 Jesus says He is the Light of the world.)

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
God knows what to do. He disciplines me because He loves me too much to allow me to run wild. He also rescues me. I may end up with scars from the trouble I get myself into, but He will come when I call out for Him.
"It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."  Hebrews 12:7-11

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
God always provides. Always.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." Matthew 6:25-34

You anoint my head with oil;

In the Old testament, Priests, Prophets and Kings were anointed with oil to be set apart for service to God. Good shepherds used oil to treat the wounds of their sheep and to help minimize pesky flies that wanted to make their home in the sheep's nose. David, who authored these words was both a good shepherd and a King of Israel. So when he chose these words, "You anoint my head with oil", I imagine he was thinking about how important and life changing that "anointing with oil" is. We already know from John 10 that we are sheep and Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Read on: 

"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." 1 Peter 2:9-10

my cup overflows.

I do not have a vessel large enough to contain all that good that God blesses my life with.

" Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." James 1:17

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved.  In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Him we have obtained an inheritance,... sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory." Ephesians 1:3-14

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,

Every day I am a recipient of God's goodness and mercy.

" Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." James 1:17

"The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." Psalm 145:8

and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

One day I am going to die. When I draw my last breath here, I will draw my first breath there, with God, in the place He is preparing for me. In the place He is preparing for any and all who follow Him. 

In John 14 Jesus said to His disciples: 

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going. Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:1-6