Psalm 23 is one of the most familiar passages of Holy Scripture. You\u2019ve heard it in church when it came up in the lessons, sung it as a hymn, possibly read it for yourself when feeling stressed, and seen portions of it (or in its entirety) on plaques, posters, needlepoint, coffee mugs, t-shirts, or social media posts.<\/p>\n
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I\u2019ve preached a number of sermons on it, often noting that the first five words \u201cThe LORD is my shepherd\u201d sum up the entirety of the psalm\u2014the remaining five and a half verses serving as commentary on those first words.<\/p>\n
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Most of us are familiar to some degree with the promises set forth in the Psalm as it describes God\u2019s care of his people using the analogy of a shepherd caring for his flock. Then New Testament passages like today\u2019s gospel put a face, if you will to the shepherd who makes and fulfills those promises.<\/p>\n
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Jesus makes sure the sheep are not in want, providing everything necessary for salvation in this life and the next (i.e. not everything they may desire, but everything they need).<\/p>\n
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His care is complete, his provision and providence address every area of life and the psalm uses vivid images to convey that\u2014green pastures, still waters, right paths, a rod and staff to comfort and protect in the valley of the shadow of death, a table prepared in the presence of all that would threaten, anointing with oil and an overflowing cup all of which speak of God\u2019s blessing and presence in every and any circumstance.<\/p>\n
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Today\u2019s gospel reinforces the power of those promises as Jesus speaks of himself as the shepherd, the gatekeeper and the gate. Each image illustrates the closeness and intimacy between Jesus and his followers. Jesus knows each one of his \u201csheep\u201d he calls them by name, and they follow him because they know his voice and they trust him, because of his faithfulness to them.<\/p>\n
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That trust is well placed because as the gate, he protects all those who are his, putting himself between them and anything that would threaten their life and salvation.<\/p>\n
And the last verse of today\u2019s gospel describes what a shepherd does for his sheep\u2014he is with them so they may have life and have it abundantly.<\/p>\n
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I remember well a phrase my professors in Bible College and seminary would bring up when a discussion over a particular idea a biblical text started getting bogged down or off track. They\u2019d stop the class with a simple question \u201cwhat does it say in the text?\u201d\u2014redirecting our attention away from less than fruitful and often convoluted speculation to what Scripture said. Granted, this question didn\u2019t necessarily resolve the issue at hand, or immediately answer our questions, but it did refocus our attention to where it needed to be\u2014the Word of God, both in the sense of Jesus as the Word of God incarnate, and Holy Scripture as the Word of God.<\/p>\n
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So, as we prepare for another week of lockdown, social distancing, facetime and zoom meetings; government and media reports on covid-19 tests completed, confirmed cases, recovered cases and deaths, as well as various theories from experts and otherwise as to what all this will mean for our economy, health, culture, relationships etc. plus whatever else you have going on in life, peculiar to you and your situation, I want to ask you the question \u201cwhat does it say in the text?\u201d<\/p>\n
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What does the text of Psalm 23 have to say in the face of all this? As I mentioned earlier, we are all familiar with the psalm to varying degrees, but take a look at what the text actually says.<\/p>\n
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Psalm 23<\/p>\n
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The LORD is my shepherd;<\/p>\n
I shall not be in want.<\/p>\n
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He makes me lie down<\/p>\n
in green pastures<\/p>\n
and leads me beside still waters.<\/p>\n
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He revives my soul<\/p>\n
and guides me along right pathways<\/p>\n
for his name\u2019s sake.<\/p>\n
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Though I walk through the valley<\/p>\n
of the shadow of death,<\/p>\n
I shall fear no evil;<\/p>\n
for you are with me;<\/p>\n
your rod and your staff,<\/p>\n
they comfort me.<\/p>\n
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You spread a table before me<\/p>\n
in the presence of those who trouble me;<\/p>\n
you have anointed my head with oil,<\/p>\n
and my cup is running over.<\/p>\n
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Surely your goodness and mercy<\/p>\n
shall follow me all the day of my life,<\/p>\n
and I will dwell<\/p>\n
in the house of the LORD forever.<\/p>\n
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Let me leave you with three things from the text.<\/p>\n
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The first being, God, the shepherd, is the one who is active and dynamic. We, the sheep, really don\u2019t do much on our own\u2014it\u2019s all in response to what Jesus does for us first. Which means we are invited to rely primarily on Christ\u2019s work in and for us, and in light of what he has already done and is doing, then we bring our strengths, gifts and abilities to bear. So, for example, Jesus leads and prepares the way for us, walking with us\u2014we don\u2019t have to try and blaze our own trail through the unknown because he is going before and behind us, we just have to follow.<\/p>\n
Second, there are no loopholes or exceptions in the text. Every sentence is declarative of Christ\u2019s activity on our behalf. There is no, \u201cthe LORD is my shepherd, except if I find yourself in the midst of a pandemic\u201d or \u201cEven though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I\u2019ll fear no evil, unless it\u2019s a worldwide crisis\u201d Basically the only conditions in this text are ones we would put in place. The only way the LORD isn\u2019t our shepherd is if we refuse to follow. We may decide to abandon God and go our own way, but he won\u2019t abandon us. And should we turn from him he is closer than we know when by his grace we turn back.<\/p>\n
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Building on the first two observations, finally Psalm 23 speaks in uncompromising terms of God\u2019s faithfulness to us. As Jesus said in today\u2019s gospel, he came that we might have life and have it abundantly. That being his mission and goal, everything he does on our behalf is so we might have life in him\u2014eternal life that we experience now and forever. Nothing, not even death, can thwart his divine purpose and love.<\/p>\n
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What do you see in the text? What is God reminding you of or teaching you in these verses? Read through Psalm 23 every day this coming week, or since it\u2019s short, maybe a couple times a day and prayerfully ask Christ to show you what you particularly need to know from his Word, that your heart and mind would be kept from specters and speculations, grounded and guarded in his truth and grace.<\/p>\n
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Pr. Brad Everett<\/p>\n
Ascension Lutheran Church, Calgary<\/p>\n
e-mail: everettsts@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fourth Sunday of Easter – May 3,2020 | Sermon on Psalm 23; John 10:1-10 | by Pr. Brad Everett | Psalm 23 is one of the most familiar passages of Holy Scripture. You\u2019ve heard it in church when it came up in the lessons, sung it as a hymn, possibly read it for yourself when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1372,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,18,2,157,179,108,110,346,337,3,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-2634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-johannes","category-psalmen","category-at","category-beitragende","category-brad-everett","category-current","category-engl","category-kapitel-023-chapter-023","category-kapitel-10-chapter-10","category-nt","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2635,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2634\/revisions\/2635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2634"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=2634"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=2634"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=2634"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=2634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}