Psalm 23
Lent 4A
Fondren Presbyterian Church
March 26, 2017
The Reverend Dr. Robert Wm Lowry When I was seminary intern the pastor and associate pastor were out of town at the same time one week and I got the call that a member of our church had died quite suddenly. She was a young woman and her family was in shock and asked that I come over to be with them and begin preparations for the funeral.
I changed out of my grad school attire in to my good grey
preacher suit and armed with my at that point unused Book of Worship set out to
make my first pastoral call on the family of a deceased member. Now in seminary they prepare you to plan an
actual funeral service, but they leave out the part about what you should say
when you get to the door. When I reached
the family’s home, I rang the doorbell not knowing what I would say when the
door opened. A few seconds later, the
door opened and the husband of this young woman stood there in front of me, his
eyes swollen and red, looking to me to be his pastor, and I froze. I did not know what to say. Then, without thinking I began to recite the
23rd Psalm faster than it has ever been said before.
When I finished my breathless recitation of those ancient
words, I returned to my frozen and mute posture. A few seconds that seemed like an eternity
transpired until the silence was broken by the laughter of the husband standing
in the door. He put his hand on my shoulder and said, “I
needed that. Get in here.”
It is often said that familiarity breeds contempt, but I
would wager to say that with a text like this it is more a matter of
familiarity breeding numbness. We hear
the words so often and in such a familiar context that we relegate them in our
minds. We allow the circumstances of the
world to dictate when we dust them off and bring them out.
Ash Wednesday- Remember that you are dust
Easter- Early that morning, the women went to the tomb.
Weddings- Love is patient, love is kind
Funerals- The Lord is my Shepherd
In the scriptural Rolodex of our minds, we have particular
words pinned to particular occasions and, in point of fact, that is ok. It is probably a good idea to have some go to
places in God’s word. The trouble comes
when we relegate those holy words to only those worldly moments.
Perhaps that is why the compilers of the Revised Common
Lectionary chose to put this Psalm on this day.
What invitation might this give us to hearing and knowing these familiar
words anew.
John Goldingay suggests that the first line of this psalm,
rather than principally being a statement on about YHWH, is instead a claim the
writer is making about himself; “My shepherd is YHWH.”[i] Read not as a description of YHWH but of the
confidence and faith the writer has in YHWH, the Psalm becomes about more than
the occasion. Notice the writer does not
say, “My shepherd is YHWH when…” It is
instead a bold and unqualified statement of who and what YHWH is in the life of
the writer.
The opening verses of the Psalm paint the kind of bucolic
picture of the pastoral life of shepherds most in our contemporary culture
imagine. Let’s face it, the closest most
of us will ever come to a shepherd is a fourth grader in dad’s bathrobe
standing nervously on his mark during the Christmas play! These opening words of the Psalm give us a
picture of shepherding life that is peaceful, verdant, and safe, thanks to
YHWH.
The text moves into more sinister language as the
description moves from the idyllic rolling meadows to the valley overshadowed
by death. Here it is the fierce comfort
drawn from knowing that the shepherd will use his rod and his staff to keep
danger and fear at bay. It is notable
that in this valley, the shadow of the LORD does not merely overshadow the
shadow of death. The shepherd is WITH
the writer. There is a sense of the very
real nearness of God.
Finally the Psalm concludes by returning to the image of
YHWH’s provision although now the scene includes the writer’s enemies. Even when they seek to do him harm and
surround him like in battle, the writer knows that YHWH is present. Rather than being pursued by his enemies, it
will be YHWH’s goodness and mercy that will follow him and YHWH’s temple and
presence where he will make his home.
Rather than words that find purchase only in moments of
death or need, this Psalm offers and outline of living a life in the nurturing
presence of God. In these words, the
writer claims YHWH and declares that his life will be led as one of the
sheepfold of God.
That is the first order power in these words; to enter into
our living with words of confident care.
Even when the world is at its most profoundly sinister, my shepherd is
the LORD.
In the German town of Dachau during WW2 there was a Nazi
death camp. It is a museum to the
Holocaust now and in that museum is a picture.
It is a photograph of a mother and her daughter being marched to the gas
chamber at Auschwitz. There is nothing
the mother can do to stop it, nothing she can do to prevent what will come when
they come to the end of their short walk to the building ahead, so she does the
only thing she can, the only act of love available to her; she puts her hand
over her daughter’s eyes so she cannot see what is coming.[ii]
There is no way to know what that mother said to her
daughter in that moment, but I chose to believe that she echoed the beautiful
words of comfort we hear today, “my shepherd is the LORD.” That though they walked through the deepest
valley death has ever known, and stood face to face with an enemy so great as
to stupefy the imagination, these powerful words of comfort and proclamation
spoke through time and, in a mother’s had shielding the eyes of her child,
declared to the world, this is not the end.
I wonder if I would have the courage of that mother. I wonder if, faced with the kind of darkness
that loomed that day, I would have the presence of mind to make even the
smallest gesture of faith to cover the eyes of a child. I say I wonder if I would because like so
many in our culture, I find myself being pulled in different directions by
different shepherds.
We live in a time when there is a pervading sense that
meaning has lost its meaning, that truth has become more difficult to hold on
to than a soapy three year old who refuses to stay in the tub.
We live lives suspended between the restlessness of our
hearts that long for the God of our ancestors and the anxieties of a world that
declares such things to be foolish remnants of a time gone by.
We have become seduced by the complexity of our contemporary
world and the layers of geo-political, military, economic, and religious
tensions of our age.
We have become, in short, what Walker Percy called being
“lost in the cosmos.”
We need the courage of that mother facing unspeakable horror
and we need the courage of the psalmist who, unwilling to stand by and
passively be claimed by YHWH, speaks out and claims YHWH’s claiming. In an uncertain world, we need something to
hold on to, an anchor in the tumult, a port in the storm.
We need our Good Shepherd.
The psalmist knew that need.
He knew it and he knew that in YHWH he had it so he boldly claimed his
claiming.
My shepherd is the LORD.
In green pastures, my shepherd is the LORD.
Beside still waters, my shepherd is the LORD.
In the valley of the shadow of death, my shepherd is the
LORD.
In the presence of my enemies, my shepherd is the LORD.
When the world is too much to bear, my shepherd is the LORD.
When the storm is raging all around me, my shepherd is the
LORD.
Whether my cup is empty or full, my shepherd is the LORD.
Whatever else may seek to claim my life, or tempt me to
change allegiance in this life, or seduce me to a more glamorous life, or
promise me an easier life, my shepherd is now and always be the LORD.
He is my courage.
He is my strength.
He is my hope and my salvation.
My shepherd is the LORD.
In death AND in life- all of life – every day of life, my
shepherd is the LORD.
Let us pray.
Gracious Christ, we
are in your care. Watch over us with the
fierce loyalty and devotion of our Good Shepherd. May we know in this and in every day the
hope, love, and promise that comes to us from you, our shepherd. Amen.
[i]
This insight is owed to Alastair Roberts’ April 20, 2015 essay on Psalm 23
titled “The Politics of the King’s Shepherd” published on www.politicaltheology.com
[ii] This observation, in slightly different
form, was made by Tom Long in a sermon preached at the Festival of Homiletics
in Washington D.C. May 2004.
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