The 23rd Psalm – Part 1

A text: Psalm 23 A Psalm of David.
[1] The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want;
[2] he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters;
[3] he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
[4] Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
[5] Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies; thou anointest my head with oil, my cup overflows.
[6] Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD    for ever.

A reflection:

A brief psalm of David, but how it has touched human hearts for 3000 years. Think of that!

Many things fascinate us about this psalm, not least of all its imagery. Whether you think of it as a picture of pastoral beauty and calm set in northern Europe or America, an image of greens and blues, or a picture of shepherding in the middle east with rich green shoots among the rocks and available water in the near-desert, it is a picture of the shepherd caring for a flock as best he or she can.

What is tugging at me today is the change in person in verses 4 and 5. We go from a 3^rd person picture of a shepherd caring for a flock (“he does these things”) to the very personal gratitude of one sheep to the shepherd (“you do these things for me”). David uses the words you/thou/thy in those two verses. They are about dark times for the writer – deathly experiences and being in the presence of enemies. Yet David sort of leans into God’s earshot after those pastoral verses and says, “I mean, Lord, you are unfailingly with me. And you enrich my life even when enemies have closed in. You give me an overabundance of blessing when they are surrounding me!” And then David leans back out and draws his conclusion:

If the Lord is my shepherd, nurturing and protecting me, and if the Lord comes with me through the death-filled valleys and blesses me in the presence of my enemies, then…“surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life!  AND I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

I picture David proclaiming the first three verses out loud in the temple to all the people. Then somehow he speaks the next two verses in personal grateful prayer to the Lord for the care the Lord has brought into his own life in particular. And at the end he makes the claim of eternal life with God, once again publicly – out loud.  Life with such a shepherd brings us joy in the end.

A prayer:

Dear Lord, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for taking on the hard work of shepherding us and being so generous to us. Help us to notice all you do and live in gratitude to you and in similar service to others. Amen.