There is, perhaps, no PSALM quoted more than the 23rd. I have rarely been to a funeral that to which it wasn’t referred. I have heard countless messages and lessons from it. Yet I always draw inspiration from it. 

I was maybe fourteen years old when it dawned on me that I would someday die. Suddenly, for no reason, in the middle of a M*A*S*H episode, my mortality became very vivid. I immediately spoke of it to my mother with great consternation. I was nearly as immediately cut off by my older brother, David, who looked at me with a frown. “Will you shut up,” he said. It wasn’t a question. 

I understood. No one wants to think about their death, especially during s rerun of M*A*S*H. 

I’ve considered it many times since… death. There is no avoiding it. I have grown so close to my Lord, Jesus Christ, that He had removed all fear and replaced it with a peculiar fondness of things above. I actually look forward to the day when I shall meet Him face-to-face with excitement and great anticipation. Will I be scared? Not any more. “For me to live is Christ. To die is gain.” I am content either way. I am ready, praise be to God, come what may. 

“Don’t be anxious,” says Christ. Anxious doesn’t exactly describe what many people feel when their world falls apart around them. For years economists have claimed that the U.S. is in a recovery, to the disbelief of the millions of people who have dropped out of the workforce. They are more than anxious. They are afraid. The words still apply: “Don’t be afraid…”

Therefore I tell you, don’t be anxious for your life: what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food, and the body more than clothing? See the birds of the sky, that they don’t sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you of much more value than they?

It is true. God has proved Himself over and over again in my life; He provides. Still, there is one thing I’ve learned, and it does not negate God’s promise…

Think about the birds. How many birds do you see in the morning? In your yard? In the park? On electric wires? How many just sit there looking to heaven with their mouths open, waiting for a worm to fall from the sky? None but the baby birds. No, they search the grounds for worms, seeds, and bugs. They peck at trees. They hop around. They perch high on a telephone pole, looking for prey.  They don’t fear, because they know God provides, but they also know it’s a partnership. God provides and they grasp hold of his provision. 

Fear not. God will provide, but you must be prepared to act when He does.