Welcome to the Feminine Podcast. This is Nancy Wilson. Thanks for joining me today.

Today I'm going to read you a prayer slash poem written by George Matheson, who was a Scottish

minister. He lived from 1842 to 1906, and here is a relevant fact. He was blind from the age

of 17. He struggled with poor eyesight before that until it just was all together gone.

And so he was known as the blind preacher, and many people who heard him preach actually

had no idea he was blind because he memorized his sermons, and he would look down and so it

just looked like he was reading from notes. And he also wrote many hymns. So this prayer

or poem is based on Psalm 23. And it's about trusting when you don't see the deliverance.

In other words, it's about faith knowing that the author is blind really makes a difference

in how we read it. So here it is. I'm going to read it to you. Restore my soul, oh God, there

are green pastures around me for which my eye has no lens. There are quiet waters beside

me, for which my ear has no cord. Restore my soul. The path on which I go is already

the path of your righteousness. Open my eyes that I may behold its windows. The place I

call dreadful is even now the house of the Lord. The heavens shall cease to hide when you

have restored my soul. May I be content to know that your goodness and mercy shall follow

me without waiting to see them in advance of me. Amen. All right, the thing that strikes

me about this prayer is how he is teaching us and preaching to himself as well, no doubt

that our experience is not our guide. We have to read our lives by faith and not by

sight. And of course, in his case, it has a double meaning because he has no eyes to

see with, but spiritually speaking, he has to walk by faith and not by sight as well.

And this is, you know, it is a great exercise when you're reading the Psalms to pray them and

apply them to your own life, of course. And that's what Matheson is doing in this prayer. So

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