The readings
Psalm 23
The Lord is my
shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down
in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths for his name's sake.
Even though I walk
through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and
your staff— they comfort me
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the
Lord my whole life long.
John 10:1-4
“Very truly, I tell
you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by
another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the
shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep
hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by
name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes
ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice
The message
Today is our third week with the Psalms. We hear some of the most familiar verses in
scripture. Psalm 23 is one of the few
bible passages I know by heart (I am from that generation where memorizing
things has lost a lot of its appeal, I mean I can look up anything on my phone in
a few seconds. I can find any passage in my bible app almost instantly). Over my 9 or so years as a pastor, I have
shared the 23rd psalm with many people at the end of their lives and
at almost all of the funerals services I have planned and participated in. I have a good sense of what it can mean for
people at the end of their lives and for loved ones in times of mourning. God’s promise that I shall dwell in the house
of the Lord forever can bring a reminder to people that since Christ is arisen,
we will arise. God’s promise to be with those who are in the valley of the
shadow of death, which can be the angry, complicated and anxious space created
by the loss of a loved, one can bring great comfort to those who mourn.
Psalm 23, with its great familiarity and comfort, does fit
into its own group of Psalms. Over the past few weeks we have looked at a few
categories of psalms including hymns of praise where the songwriter give thanks
and praise to God, especially as creator and redeemer. We also looked at
Laments or prayers for help, where the song writer calls on the name of God,
gives voice to a complaint, seeks help from God and proclaims trust in God’s
promises. Psalm 23 fits into another
category called psalms of trust. Similar
to prayers for help, pslams of trust are turned to for help during times of
crisis (like being in the valley of the shadow of death). Psalms for help and psalms of trust really
contain the same content, the big difference is that while psalms for help are
focused on the struggle, the crisis or the situation that causes fear and
anxiety, psalms of trust focus on reassuring people and celebrating that God
will help.
It can also be difficult to get the depth of this psalm when
you do not know much about an actual sheep or the actual life and work of a
shepherd. Jen and I have a good sized
collection of plush sheep, we have made several visits to petting zoos and saw
a lot in Ireland (they really are everywhere) but I can’t say I have any idea
what goes into caring for a sheep. The
plush kind only need an occasional dusting. Someone I know lived in and served churches in Montana for several years. She talked about her first sermon there in Montana about the
Good Shepherd, which was not a great experience. Afterwards a group of people
in the church who worked as actual modern day shepherds went up to her, politely
asked “do you know anything about sheep”. She was invited to visit their
sheep, their work and see what they do. That day, they taught her sheep grow to depend
on the shepherd. It’s not just a matter of guarding them from other people or
thieves, in many ways a shepherd is needed to care for the sheep, to make sure
they survive. The metaphor of God as
shepherd teaches about God’s complete and total care for us.
Many of us know that psalm 23 expresses trust in God with
this metaphor about the shepherd being trusted by their sheep. There is a whole other, different half of
psalm 23. The Lord is also the host of a royal banquet. At verse 5, we learn
the Lord will “anoint my head with oil
and ensure my cup overflows”.
Things were very different back then when this song was
composed but you did not prepare great feasts for your sheep, anoint or refresh
them with oil on their heads or do your best to ensure the flock’s cups of
sheep brand wine were always full. No, at verse 5, the psalm changes, it is no
longer about God as shepherd, it is now about God as the host of a royal
banquet. Of course, most of us know the same amount about Ancient Near East royal
banquets as we do about caring for sheep. The information we have about these events is
limited and they have changed from time to time and culture to culture. What is
known and shared over time is that these royal banquets were not just big
parties. They were events where a king
with sufficient resources took care of your every need, these were events where
everything else stopped, sacred so that no one messed with them.
As we go through the Psalms, we continue to meet after
church, to review the psalm of the day and rewrite them for today. This work is an invitation for us to quit
trying to figure out what happened at a royal banquet when psalm 23 was composed
and start to wonder what one would look like today, what the world would look
like with God as our host. Ultimately,
we are waiting for Jesus promised return when God’s saving work will be
completed, these things, or greater things we cannot imagine, will happen and
all will be restored. We cannot do this so we wait for God to come as host. As
we wait, we work and we try to show people a glimpse of what is to come. My idea of a royal banquet is silly,
impossible, wishful thinking, easily criticized would be an place where everyone had food and
good work, access to healthcare, where there was peace, an absence of violence
and the things that lead to violence, where people were not separated, where we
all saw each other as Children of God
We are asked to pursue these things like victory in a war. This
section of my sermon is based on notes
from the net bible (I do not know nearly enough Hebrew to do this). It has to
do with the last verse, the trust that Goodness and mercy will follow me my
whole life. In Hebrew, the use of radaf,
“pursue, chase” with tov vakhesed,
“goodness and faithfulness” is weird. This is the only place in the entire OT where
either of these nouns appears as the subject of this verb radaf (pursue). This
verb is often used to describe the hostile actions of enemies. The word “pursue” is used way outside of its
normal context in a way that creates a unique image of God “chasing down” the
one whom he loves. As God loves us, we
are asked to love each other.
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