Scripture Verse

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. Psalm 23:1

Introduction

Words: From The Psal­ter (Pitts­burgh, Penn­syl­van­ia: Unit­ed Pres­by­ter­ian Board of Pub­li­ca­tion, 1912), num­ber 55.

Music: Ew­ing Al­ex­an­der Ew­ing, 1853 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Ew­ing (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Our cup over­flows. Lit­er­al­ly. Our part of the coun­try was des­per­ate­ly dry. Over the past two years, we had a rain de­fi­cit of over 60 cen­ti­meters. In Ju­ly and Au­gust 2003, we got al­most no mea­sur­a­ble pre­ci­pi­ta­tion.

Temperatures were ap­proach­ing 40°C. Far­mers were start­ing the ha­rvest ear­ly in hopes of sav­ing what they could from their sun blast­ed fields. Barge traf­fic was stop­ping due to low ri­ver levels.

Then we got down on our knees and prayed for rain. Not just for show­ers, but hard, soak­ing, gul­ly wash­ers. Buck­ets of rain. Oceans of rain. Then it be­gan.

One morn­ing af­ter get­ting up, I looked at our rain gauge and couldn’t see the float­ing or­ange in­di­ca­tor ring. It was in­vi­si­ble be­cause the gauge was ab­so­lute­ly full to the brim, over­flow­ing!

This had ne­ver hap­pened be­fore, as long as we had lived in our cur­rent home. We got over 15 cen­ti­me­ters in three days, and it was still rain­ing at this wri­ting on Au­gust 31, 2003. God is good!

Lyrics

The Lord my Shepherd holds me
Within His tender care,
And with His flock He folds me,
No want shall find me there.
In pastures green He feeds me,
With plenty I am blest;
By quiet streams He leads me,
And makes me safely rest.

Whatever ill betides me,
He will restore and bless;
For His name’s sake He guides me,
In paths of right­eous­ness.
Thy rod and staff shall cheer me
In death’s dark vale and shade,
For Thou wilt then be near me;
I shall not be afraid.

My food Thou dost appoint me,
Supplied before my foes;
With oil Thou dost anoint me,
My cup of bliss o’erflows.
Thy goodness, Lord, shall guide me,
Thy mercy cheer my way;
A home Thou wilt provide me
Within Thy house always.