I Want for Nought

My plan, this Sunday (March 19, 2022), is to preach on Psalm 23. Sometimes a new translation can help me see an old, familiar scripture in a fresh light. Frederick Buechner put a rough translation in the mouth of a monk named Elric in his novel Godric:

“God keeps me as a shepherd keeps his flock. I want for nought,” he said. “I bleat with hunger, and he pastures me in meadows green. I’m thirsty, and he leads me forth to water cool and deep and still. He hoists me to my feet when I am weak. Down goodly ways he guides me with his crook, for he himself is good. Yea, even when I lose my way in shadows dark as death, I will not fear, for he is ever close at hand with rod and staff to succor me.” [1]


[1] Frederick Buechner, Godric: a Novel (HarperSanFrancisco, 1980), 114