If there is one psalm worth memorizing, this is it. The phrase, “the valley of the shadow of death” speaks to our worst fears and most immobilizing emotions—sorrow, despair and depression. But it also comforts us with

reminders of God’s goodness, His continuing presence, His protection and provision. Psalm 23 is among the most treasured and most repeated because it has guided the hearts of thousands of people over thousands of years. “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want.” That’s the song you want stuck in your head.

Work is good, and as they say, all good things must come to an end. However an end of work can feel like an end of significant life if we don’t understand that while we retire from some things, we retire to others. Scripture offers a clear vision of our later years as a season of bearing much fruit, sharing a lifetime of skills and wisdom for the sake of God’s kingdom and ultimately receiving the reward of resting in Christ.

A distinctly Christian theology of work requires us to recover a theology of rest, play and re-creation. God gives explicit commands regarding

the practice and purpose of Sabbath rest that includes not only us but God’s creation. Sabbath-keeping is an overt act of trust that reminds us, and the world, that we are more than what we produce; we are people

created in the image of our Creator.

The capacity and compulsion to work makes us vulnerable to the temptation to over- or undervalue others and ourselves, to be prideful, greedy and unjust, to place too much hope in ourselves and what we produce, to find our identity in what we do instead of who and whose we are. Work is a good thing, but work can supplant other priorities and become an idol if we don’t humbly align ourselves with God’s purposes for work in our world.

We are God’s handiwork, created to do good works. While many consider work to be a four-letter word and a necessary evil, work is both an expression of God’s image in us and His gift to us.

In the beginning, God worked. God worked out of sheer joy and delight, and He deemed the whole fruit of His efforts to be “very good” and worthy of His ongoing care and engagement. While many consider work a four-letter word and a necessary evil, something we must do to pay bills and get on to the more desirable parts of life, the Genesis account of creation demonstrates that our work is both an expression of God’s image in us and His providential provision for the world. Our work can be good for us and good for others.