Recently we have hosted a few weddings and funerals at Bethany. If you happened to be walking through this building you may have heard someone read Psalm 23. At weddings the most popular scripture story is 1 Corinthians 13 and at funerals it is John 14. But coming a close second for both rituals is Psalm 23. I think people love this reading because it brings an element of constant and abiding peace, that even in the midst of darkness and crisis there are “still waters”.
The psalm begins with a faithful and hopeful claim, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Scholars often note the Hebrew verb haser is translated as “want,” and is the same verb found in Deuteronomy 2:7, “Surely the Lord your God has blessed you in all your undertakings; he knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing”. God took care of the people then as they wandered through the desert. To be sure, life wasn’t always easy -- but it was life. Those forty years might have seen a lot of grumbling and complaining, but they also saw manna free from heaven. God cared for the wandering people -- and they lacked nothing. The benefits of the relationship are clear: have faith in the God who shepherds you through the wilderness.
Psalm 23 is a “song of trust,” as are Psalms 4, 11, 27, 16, 62, and 131. Songs of trust have two things in common: a perceived crisis of some kind and trust that the crisis or disaster shall pass and all will be well. In fact, as scholars often note, in these songs of trust it is the very crisis that instigates the psalmist to cry out in trust -- and not, as one might expect, in despondency or dejection. Yet what crisis was Psalm 23 addressing? And was that crisis one that centered on death, as is so often the case when the psalm is invoked today? Psalm 23 is quiet on the crisis that led to its composition. Rather it functions to remind its audience of the relationship between God and God’s people -- and, perhaps most importantly, the psalm reminds readers about the beauties of living life in the here and now even amid the usual darkness that accompanies day-to-day life.
I want to bring some attention to that word, want, because it reminds us of our covenantal relationship with our Creator, our sustainer and our Savior. When we “want” the deepest places in our soul crave food, beauty, life, peace and belonging. This abiding presence fills us. Now that presence can feel very far away, there can be a longing for it that goes unfulfilled. And when we are empty we tend to fill ourselves with other things, some not always very nourishing or peaceful.
One of the reasons a shepherd is offered as a metaphor for Jesus has to do with the relationship between a caring shepherd and a wandering flock. A good shepherd does many things for the sheep. Jesus said concerning the shepherd of his day: The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. (John 10:3) The shepherd always leads the flock, often going before them. (John 10:4). This does not mean that the shepherd is always in front of his sheep. Although s/he may be usually in that position when traveling, s/he often walks by their side, and sometimes follows behind, especially if the flock is headed for the fold in the evening. From the rear s/he can gather any stragglers, and protect such from a sly attack from a wild animal. If the flock is a large one, the shepherd will be in front, and a heifer will follow behind. The skill of the shepherd, and personal relationship to them is clearly seen when s/he guides his sheep along narrow paths. (Ps 23:3).
It is very important that sheep should not be allowed to stray away from the flock, because when by themselves they are utterly helpless. Being responsible for anything that happens to one of his flock, the shepherd will spend hours if necessary in traversing the wilderness or mountain side, in search of a sheep that has strayed away and is lost. After weary hours of hunting for it, it will usually be found in some waterless hollow in the wilderness, or in some desolate mountain ravine. The exhausted creature will be borne home on the shoulders of the sturdy shepherd. And what happens then is best described by the Parable of Jesus: “for I have found my sheep which was lost” (Luke 15:6).
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life… One aspect of being followed by goodness and mercy is God’s grace. Grace is unconditional love and it comes to us not because we deserve it or we have succeeded in some way but because God, our Creator, the Creator of others, gives us love that “follows us all the days of our life”. Shepherds leave the 99 for the one who is lost because love follows us wherever we go. There is no sense that failure forfeits love, God’s grace.
Former United Church Moderator Peter Short remembers an encounter with a man whose life seemed to personify what grace is really all about. One time I was called to the hospital to see a man who had come close to death. As we talked he told me that he had failed at pretty well everything he had ever set out to do. Failed at school. Failed to hold a job. Failed at marriage. Failed at parenting. Failed at sobriety. He told me how, a few nights earlier, he had drunk what he thought was a can of soup. But it wasn’t soup in the can, it was silver paint. That’s how he had ended up in the hospital. They pumped his stomach and he survived, but not by much, and not because he had much to look forward to.
Then he fell silent. It was as if in the silence his failures had entered the room and surrounded his hospital bed, a mob of sneering little creatures. He looked up. He seemed to notice that I was there. He asked, “What church are you from Reverend?” I said, “I’m from the United Church.” Then he said, as if speaking from some other place, “I was baptized in the United Church.” Once he was carried into a church, carried into a sacred place because in some way he was sacred too. And loved by the mother who carried him. Loved as much as life itself.
A good shepherd keeps looking, restores our soul by anointing us with healing oil and carries us on her shoulders to the house where we shall live forever. That shepherd is Jesus, that love is grace-filled and relentless and those still waters can restore our bruised souls. We are all “loved as much as life itself.” Amen.
