Enough for Today
A single line from an old psalm offers a way to measure a day that feels short on everything.
Psalm 23 opens with a claim most people would hesitate to make: "The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing" (Psalm 23:1). Not "I have everything I want." Not "nothing has gone wrong." Just: nothing is missing that needs to be there.
That is a different way of counting a day. Most days do not feel like enough. There is always another task, another bill, another person needing something. The psalm does not deny any of that. It simply names where the counting starts — with a shepherd, not with a ledger.
A shepherd's job is unglamorous and constant: water, rest, direction, protection from what the sheep cannot see coming. The psalm is not describing comfort without effort. It is describing care that does not run out partway through the day.
For a reader who is tired, the invitation is not to feel differently about today's list. It is to notice who is doing the counting, and to trust that the list is being kept by someone who has not lost track.
More in Bible study
When the Word Is Sung
A new website that sets scripture to song has drawn a million plays in a fortnight, and the practice it revives is older than any of us.
Be Still, and Know
A single line from the Psalms teaches us that rest is not the same as retreat.
Receiving the Whole of Scripture
A study on why the church plans to hear all of God's word, and gives thanks that it can be read at all.