He is my Shepherd and Light

Yesterday, I was having a rough day at work. We weren't very busy, so my sales weren't very high and I got hit with some pretty big returns, so my net sales were pretty dismal. At one point I figured that I would probably spend about as much on gas getting to and from work as I had made that day. It was frustrating, kinda confusing, and I could feel my heart getting frustrated and agitated. Instead of wallowing in anger and self pity, I decided to get proactive and focus my mind on the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord. He's the only one who can pay all my bills and provide for all my needs anyway, so why try to handle all that pressure myself in an unhealthy way?

I began meditating on Psalm 23, the Lord as my shepherd, and it helped my heart immensely! I didn't even really get beyond the second verse, I just kept repeating the same lines over and over (but here is the whole thing.)

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters. ..."

I hadn't even thought this far into the psalm earlier, but for the first time in my mind I saw a connection between the good shepherd who can lead me through the valley of the shadow, and the light that the darkness cannot overcome. I don't really have a whole lot more to say about about this, but it seems so obvious, I don't know why I never saw it before. How else could He lead me through the valley of the shadow of death unless He was light, and if His light I find life, even when I'm surrounded by death.

After work I went to a friends house for a hang out which turned into a time of worshiping the Lord with music and singing. Since I had been spending a good amount of time meditating on Psalm 23 earlier, it continued into my time of sitting during the worship and "mixed" in my mind with another passage I've been thinking a lot about recently for a commissioned painting I'm working on, John 1:4-5

"In Him was life,and the life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

So I see the paraphrasing kinda like this:

' The Lord is my guardian, I will not lack anything.
He makes me rest, because I couldn't earn it anyway.
He makes me lie down in abundant provision.
And He brings it to me gently so that I can take all I need.
Even when I don't know where we're going, He knows the way.
He knows where to take me, because He knows all of my needs, all of my wants.
Even when I can't see the provision coming, everything looks bleak,
I can look to Him and I see Him.
I see Him. He sees me. I know His voice. He knows my heart.
It's in looking at Him that I can find what it means to be alive.
Nothing else that I was or was not seeing before and beat what I see in Him.
Of whom should I be afraid?"