April 17, 2016 – Psalm 23
Psalm 23
Pursued by Goodness
4th Sunday of Easter – April 17, 2016
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
Psalm 23 is one of the most beloved of all passages of scripture.
Everything can be summed up in the very first line: the Lord is my Shepherd, I lack for nothing.
God provides me with everything I need.
It is often read at funerals even though it is not really about death.
I think it is read so often at funerals because it is very very comforting.
It is like your favourite comfort food: you reach for it at the end of a long day.
It reminds you about the beauties of the here and now even in the midst of
the usual darkness that accompanies everyday life.
Like bacon, it reminds you that all is not lost, that there is still goodness in the world.
That in the midst of difficulty, there is the possibility of goodness.
And so you keep going, pursued by goodness, and moving toward life.
Moving toward the optimistic conclusion of the Psalm,
where you are sheltered in God’s house your whole life long.
It’s as if the Psalm begins with lying down in beautiful, idyllic green pastures,
and ends by dwelling in the nicely appointed house of the Lord,
but in between, what is there?
There is a journey, there is movement.
As comforting as the Psalm is, there is a lot of movement in it.
There is God leading, not once, but twice in the first paragraph!
There is God the Shepherd leading you in right paths, or “paths of righteousness.”
It means God leads you into ways of living that sustain right relationships,
relationships with yourself, relationships with others, relationships with the earth,
relationships with God.
It means living in ways that are healing and wholesome, in ways that are equitable and just.
But the Psalm never lets you get all airy-fairy about it.
The Psalm never lets you think that if you live this way everything is going to be hunky-dory.
I think maybe that is one of the reasons that this Psalm is so beloved.
Because it acknowledges that the journey – even the paths of righteousness –
often go through some very dark valleys – the Psalm is realistic, right?
Parts of the journey are about you walking through dark valleys.
Well, we all know all about the dark valleys.
And whether those dark valleys are about work, or family, or relationships,
or concerns for justice, or illness, or hardship of any kind, we are all acquainted with
the dark valleys.
Every single person here knows that the paths of righteousness – which sounds so great –
involve slogging through some dark valleys.
But the promise of Good Shepherd Sunday is that you are not alone in that valley.
The good news of Good Shepherd Sunday is that you are not alone in that valley.
You’ll note that the Psalm says, comfortingly, that God prepares a table for you.
A table laden with good things, no doubt.
Everything you need! Sustenance! Good food! Friendship! Love! Bacon!
But that is not some pie in the sky table.
Rather, God sustains you right in the midst of your enemies, right in the midst of difficulty and
hardship, right in the darkest part of the dark valley.
The shepherd accompanies you there.
You are not alone.
The shepherd God, in Jesus, pursues you even into the darkest, death-filled valley,
and will not leave you.
The last bit of movement in the Psalm – “following” is weakly translated:
surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
Oh great! Like a little puppy dog! Goodness and mercy following me around!
Here boy! Bark!
But that is not at all what the Psalm is trying to convey.
Okay: I’ve tried to give you a better sense of what is going on here when
I’ve preached on this before and I’m going to try again!
Every other place in the Bible where this verb is mentioned it means “pursue.”
It means you’re not just following someone, it means you’re “pursuing” them.
And not in a good way: every other time this verb appears in the Old Testament,
it is about your enemies pursuing you and hounding you, like in Psalm 143:
For the enemy has pursued me, crushing my life to the ground,
making me sit in darkness like those long dead.
The enemy didn’t just follow the guy, the enemy pursued him!
Till he found him and crushed him!
Okay: contemporary analogy: The Wrath of Khan!
Everyone remember that?
When a very scary Ricardo Montalban rises to a fever pitch
as he speaks of his desire for revenge on Captain James T. Kirk?
He tasks me. He tasks me. And I shall have him. I’ll chase him round the moons of Nibia and round the Antares Maelstrom and round Perdition’s flames before I give him up!
That is scary! Now that is pursuit! Yeah! That’s what I’m talking about!
That is the kind of pursuit with which you and those you love are pursued with!
Only whereas Khan pursues Kirk to destroy him and put him to death,
God pursues you to give you life! With goodness and mercy!
To sustain you! And give you what you need!
And set a table before you in the midst of your enemies!
And accompany you in the dark valleys!
And restore you!
Khan’s pursuit is reckless, right?
It goes against better judgment, certainly against the better judgment of his own crew.
The thing is: so is God’s pursuit of you,
and indeed as is God’s pursuit of the well-being of this whole world.
It is a reckless pursuit!
Khan’s reckless pursuit of Kirk ends in his own death.
And so does God’s loving pursuit of you, which led Jesus through some pretty dark valleys,
even the valley of the shadow of death.
But the promise here, is that the dark valley is not the end of the journey.
The promise is that the light-filled courts of God’s house is.
The house of justice, and peace, and reconciliation, and healing: the house of shalom.
The house of restoration.
As when you are in any valley,
it’s hard to see outside it or beyond it when you are in its dark bottom.
And so the Psalm invites you to hope and live in the light of the resurrection beyond
the dark walls of the valley.
And it does that by reminding you of the beauties of the here and now even in the midst of
everyday life.
Of the table that God sets for you in the midst of your enemies, laden with bacon.
And friendship.
And laughter.
And companionship.
Sometimes it may not seem like a lot.
But like the bread and wine it is enough.
And holds the promise of more.
That our lives – like the biblical story as a whole, and like this beautiful Psalm –
begin in a garden of life – and will end in one.
And that in between we are pursued and hounded by a goodness and a mercy that
will never ever give up on us and on those we love and indeed on this whole world.
That goodness and mercy will pursue us, that goodness and mercy will hound us,
that goodness and mercy will never give up on us until finally, at last,
goodness and mercy will catch us – and all will be well, and all will be well,
and all manner of all things will be well. And we shall see it.
So come to the table set for you in the midst maybe of life’s dark valley,
and together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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