Psalm 23
Getting Alone With God, the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, the Good Shepherd
The great gift of community has been, for a time, taken away from us now in one of its forms. There’s no church on Sundays. We don’t get to see our friends. Or, hear the choir sing, and see their radiant faces lit up with intensity and joy. We don’t get to listen to someone pray in earnest for the whole world and for people in need name by name. Church is such a gift. But in this time of absence—again in one form—we might ask if we know how to turn regularly to the Living God as the chief form of pastoral care, the chief fount of consolation and hope, and how many of our people routinely do.
Church community is irreplaceable. But it is not a replacement for our Maker and Redeemer. The Psalms have been indispensable for countless Christians in just this matter. They teach us how to be with God. They have been the source of deep renewal, again and again down through church history. So, when some asked me about what counsel I would give our community as a whole my first thought was “I’ll remind us all how indispensable the Psalms are!”
How interesting that we come upon the Psalms 23 this week in the lectionary, the most famous Psalm, as we cope with the health pandemic that has come upon us. It's the Psalm scheduled for the coming week, the Fourth Week of Lent, so my pastoral and priestly counsel (which people have asked for) is this for the coming week: Make Psalm 23 a part of our lives not as a religious heirloom or even as the product of poetic genius (which it is!, a product of poetic gift). Make it more integral than that. Make it part of our waking, and breathing, and sleeping and resting.
You may ask, Part of waking? How so? Well, memorize the Psalm as best you can and if you don't have a mantra to start your mornings, make it one! Use the Psalm, or even a small part of it to lead you into the day. Better first thing in the morning to say to the Good Shepherd, 'You will guide me by right pathways' today than to say 'I don't want to face the world' or 'My body aches all over.' Great to remind ourselves of 'goodness and mercy' promised 'all the days of our lives' including this one!
Part of breathing? What do you mean? I mean if we pay attention to our thought life, and monitor how we act, we know that anxiety can creep in, even despair. Fears, too. We can become brittle, touchy, over-sensitive, perturbed by others too easily. Our wants can become all-consuming. Having mantras from the Psalms can keep us from going off course and get us back on track when we do. It puts thankfulness back in our hearts and praise on our lips.
Part of sleeping and resting? Explain, please. What the Bible teaches us from first to last is that we are to rest in God, to be confident of God's enveloping presence. Almost each verse of the Psalm has some promise to trust, some confidence to deliver. Not fearing evil. Being looked after by God. Being renewed in spirit.
I won't say more because information is not the point here. I am hoping and praying that you will go and start marking up this Psalm in your Bible, or start journaling about it. That you will test it out. And find it as a way to turn to the good, good shepherd.
Here it is:
Psalm 23
1 The Lord is my shepherd; *
I shall not be in want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures *
and leads me beside still waters.
3 He revives my soul *
and guides me along right pathways for his Name's sake.
4 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I shall fear no evil; *
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
5 You spread a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me; *
you have anointed my head with oil,
and my cup is running over.
6 Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, *
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.