PASTOR'S PEN

LOOKING AT PSALM 23

Phillip H. Barnhart, Doctor of Ministry

(July 7, 1937 - April 19, 2011)

Of the 150 psalms in the Book of Psalms, 75 are attributed to the pen of David-73 ascribed in the psalms themselves and 2 more designated Davidic in the New Testament books of Acts and Hebrews, respectively. That makes 75 in all.

Of the 75 psalms composed by David, the most popular by far is Psalm 23, a mainstay at occasions such as this. Bible teachers debate whether David wrote this early or late in life. I think it was late in life because this is not the writing of a young man. It is the composition of one who'd been through the rough and raw of life. We know about that, don't we?

Near the end of his seventy years, David sat down to reflect on his life-long relationship with God. Wanting to be clear about that relationship, he chose the image of a shepherd from the time he tended the family sheep as a young man. God had taken care of him as he had taken care of the sheep.

The Lord is my shepherd.  It is the Lord who is David's shepherd, in charge of David's life. The Lord is  the shepherd, not wants to be but is. The Lord is my shepherd. It's personal, the shepherd is mine. Not his shepherd or her shepherd or their shepherd but my shepherd.

I shall not want. The shepherd who is the Lord takes such good care of me I want for nothing. Teaching this to a group of children one time I asked various ones to recite the psalm. One little girl said, "The Lord is my shepherd, that's all I want." God is our provisional shepherd. He provides what we need. I shall not want.

He maketh me lie down in green pastures. I understand from those who know more about sheep than I do that they are not very smart. They don't know what is good for them and have to be made to lie down in green pastures. Notice the pastures are green. Green is not easy to come by in that part of the world. The shepherd works hard to find green pastures for the sheep.

He leadeth me beside still waters. Again from those who know sheep I understand they don't like turbulent waters. They prefer placid pools, quiet streams. The shepherd knows what the sheep need.

He restoreth my soul. The shepherd takes good care of the sheep so they will be renewed and restored. The shepherd wants the sheep to have strength for another day.

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. There are two kinds of righteousness in the Bible. There is our right relationship with God and our right relationship with each other. Vertical and horizontal relationships, the latter coming from the former. Please note the shepherd leads the sheep not in some general and undefined way but in clearly designated paths. As the shepherd leads the sheep, God leads us purposely. And God does it for his name's sake. In the Bible, name means more that what someone is called. It refers to all one is, to character. The shepherd's character depends on how he cares for the sheep. God's name is on the line in the way God cares for us.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I fear no evil; for thou art with me. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho Jesus talks about in the Good Samaritan parable is probably the region David has in mind here. Sharon and I walked its nearly twenty miles descending three thousand feet in sea level along precipitously dangerous trails. In both the times of David and Jesus it was  notorious for robbers who hid behind large boulders and accosted travelers. Some called it "the bloody way." Please notice it is the shadow of death and not death itself David talks about. Rabbi Kushner helped me understand this when he wrote in his book on the twenty-third psalm it is the thought of dying referenced here. The shadow of death that covers all of us. But we need not fear any evil resulting from such a shadow because the presence of God is a concrete reality. Thou art with me. But to qualify for rod and staff we must go through the valley of the shadow of death. Not around or over or in but through.

Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. The rod was a club maybe a couple feet long embedded with stones and animal bones used to ward off enemies of the sheep. The staff was that thing you've seen in church Christmas pageants carried by young boys tripping over their daddies' bathrobes. The shepherd put the crook of the staff around the sheep when in its ignorance it wandered from the flock and brought it back. The rod protected the sheep from wild animals and the staff protected the sheep from itself. God provides us protection from what threatens us both externally and internally.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Some Bible teachers think the metaphor switches here from shepherd to host but perhaps not. The floor of the wilderness in which the shepherd sought pasture for his sheep contained poisonous plants of many varieties.  These plants intermingled with the green pastures so the shepherd took a little machete like knife he carried and cut out what would poison the sheep. A table was prepared in the presence of enemies. Note the personal aspect of this promise. My enemies, the ones that threaten me.

Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. During the course of a day the sheep picked up briars and burrs. The shepherd took that same little knife and plucked those annoyances out at the end of the day. Then the shepherd poured a soothing ointment from a little vial he carried in his pouch and gently rubbed it in the coat of a sheep. Thou anointest my head with oil. And notice the generosity of the shepherd's provision. My cup runneth over. Nothing conservative about the grace of God.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. When I was a boy and heard this part of the psalm I had a fair idea what goodness and mercy are but not a clue about what surely is. Surely and goodness and mercy.  Much later I had a friend whose name was Shirley. She married a man named Robert Shirley and became Shirley Shirley.

 I used to walk into the Christian bookstore she ran and say, "Shirley Shirley, goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life." Please don't miss the follow in this statement. God's goodness and mercy follow us, are after us. And not for a part of our lives, but all the days of my life. Every one of them.

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. It's all about getting home. It's all about being with God eternally. House of the Lord means presence of the Lord. Robert Frost said "home is where when you go there they have to take you in." David spoke with great confidence when he wrote this. I will dwell. Not might or should or want to but will.  No doubt about it. We dwell in the house of the Lord forever.