May 7, 2017 – Psalm 23
Psalm 23
You Are With Me
4th Sunday of Easter – May 7, 2017
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
Why is this Psalm – Psalm 23 – so important to us?
I don’t really know.
I know that I frequently read it at funerals, where I say it is probably the most well-known and
beloved passage in all of scripture.
I know that I recite it in homes and at hospital beds when I’m visiting.
I know that it is one of the few passages that is read in every single year of the lectionary cycle,
sometimes more than once.
Does it get at something important, even essential, about God?
And about our relationship to God? And God’s relationship to us?
And our relationship to each other?
I don’t know – but let’s find out.
The first word of the Psalm is God’s name in Hebrew: Yahweh, although we never say it
out of respect for the sacredness of the name to our Jewish brothers and sisters.
So instead we say, “Lord” or “the Lord.”
The Psalm begins with a simple – but all encompassing –
statement of complete and utter trust in God:
Yahweh shepherds me. I lack nothing.
God provides everything needed in life. Absolutely everything.
The word lack is the same word used in the story of when the Israelites were in the desert,
and it says they lacked nothing, that God provided everything they needed: manna.
This is probably telling us that God’s idea of what we need is likely different from ours.
Moreover: you don’t lack anything: you are making this day special by just being you.
Just as you are, you are enough – just the way God made you.
He makes me rest in lush grass and leads me beside still waters.
For the sheep, the lush grass and the still, non-dangerous water is the food God provides –
it is good food for them and it is plentiful.
They lack nothing.
For me, though, the really interesting part of this is the first part.
Maybe it’s just because I’ve been run off my feet lately, but I stopped when I read that
the Shepherd-God “makes me rest” or “makes me lie down.”
God wants us to have life, the fullest possible life, and for that life we need rest.
We can stop all the hyper activity.
Yes: God wants us to be active and busy and living lives that contribute to the life of others,
but God also wants us to rest in the divine, to rest our bodies, to stop long enough to
enjoy the lush grass and
the delicious, cool, refreshing waters that are safe to drink.
I did a funeral for a woman a few weeks ago who just enjoyed all the things she did.
She took her time eating, even to the point of cutting her peas and savouring every bite.
She enjoyed the goodness of the creator God, who creates such delicious things to eat.
It restored her.
And so we come to the next line:
He restores my soul.
The word soul is a tricky word: for the Hebrews, it did not mean some airy-fairy part of you that
lives on after death.
It meant your whole entire being, your life-force, your strength or even, simply, your life.
And so some have translated this, He gives me back my life.
Have you ever felt in need of that? Of getting your life back?
Some people come to worship just for that: to be restored.
To get their life back. To restore their purpose and focus in life.
To be caught up in a life and a purpose that is bigger than them – that is energizing.
And then God leads me in paths of justice for his name’s sake.
It turns out God restores us and strengthens us for justice.
The word is often translated righteousness, but it is really the Hebrew word for justice,
for equitable sharing, for right – God leads me down the path of doing right for
the sake of God’s reputation, or God’s glory.
When you do the right thing, people will see God at work in you.
Yes: though I walk through the deepest darkest valley I will fear no evil.
This word for darkness is the strongest word for darkness in all of Hebrew,
the kind of darkness in the bottom of a mine,
where you can’t see your hand in front of you.
Yet, you need fear no harm in those parts of your life you feel are darkest and
most devoid of light.
Why?
Because you, God, are with me –
protecting me with your rod and guiding me with your staff.
I lack nothing when you are with me.
And this is the heart of the poem – that affirmation that God is with us.
It is the Christmas affirmation, that God in Christ is Immanuel, God with us.
And it is the Easter affirmation, that God raised Christ from death in order to be with us always.
You are with me.
When I visit people in the hospital, many of them affirm that church members have visited them.
One person told me that such visits made it much easier to believe in God and to know that
God was with them in the midst of their darkness.
When God created the world, we affirm,
God was creating safe spaces within which life could flourish.
And this, we also affirm, is what the first humans were created to do,
who were made in the exact image of God: to create safe spaces for one another.
In the midst of one another’s darkness, to create a safe space in which companionship is known.
And even, in the midst of enemies, to create a safe space for sustenance and restoring.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
In the midst of enemies, God creates a safe space for fellowship and for communion.
The baptismal life is not one that is free from hardship, and stress, and difficulty, and pain.
But it is one that promises that in the midst of those things, God is with us.
It is one that promises that in the midst of those things God means us well.
It is one that promises that in the midst of those things God promises a better day,
one that is foreshadowed in the feast in the midst of trouble.
One that promises strength and hope in the midst of stress and difficulty.
And this is not just some little bit of trail mix hurriedly prepared and shared:
this is a meal fit for an honoured guest, for only an honoured guest’s head would be
anointed with oil!
You anoint my head with oil and my cup overflows.
In the midst of trouble, you’ll be treated like royalty by God!
And you won’t be given a little sip or thimble full of wine: you’ll be given an abundance!
You’ll be given an overflowing cup of wine!
In both Greek and Latin, when this was translated they gave a picture of how much wine
you’d be given by translating it “enough to make me drunk”!
Hahahahaha! Here you are, in the midst of difficulty, and you are lacking nothing.
Having a good time! Almost mocking the precarious situation your enemies have put you in!
Almost thumbing your nose at the enemies and at the darkness as if to say,
I am not truly worried: God with is me and I lack nothing and a better day will come.
A better day will come because
Certainly goodness and love will pursue me all the day of my life.
Goodnesss and love, the steadfast, unshakeable, faithful love God has for us will pursue us.
Follow just does not capture what is going on here.
This word, pursue, is what enemies generally do to you in the Old Testament,
they relentlessly pursue you to take your life.
But here the writer chooses this word to communicate to us that God’s love pursues us
just as relentlessly, just as tirelessly, in order to give us life, to give us healing,
to give us peace, to give us hope.
We are being pursued, hounded, chased down by a love that will never ever give up on us
every single day!
Not just some days. Not just good days. Not just the days when we can feel it.
But every single day our whole lives long until, finally, finally,
one day, goodness and love will catch us – and never let us go.
Maybe we should stop running.
Maybe we should take a cue from the sheep, who are not so dumb after all.
Maybe we should take our rest and be still, and let goodness and mercy catch up to us.
And let love’s abundance restore us.
For where love is, God is, and that is where God’s house is.
And there is where we are invited to live the rest of our days.
And I shall dwell in the house of Yahweh to the end of my days.
The writer likely does not have the afterlife in mind here, but life with God in this life.
A life in which we are invited to let God be our protecting, guiding shepherd,
as well as our generous host in the midst of all the trouble we experience in life.
A life in communion with the other sheep of God’s pasture.
A life in which we know God is with us because they are with us.
A life in which they know God is with them because we are with them.
Yahweh shepherds me. I lack nothing.
He makes me rest in lush grass and leads me beside still waters.
He gives me back my life.
He leads me in paths of justice for his name’s sake.
Yes: though I walk through the deepest darkest valley I will fear no evil.
Because you are with me; your rod and your staff comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil and my cup overflows.
Certainly goodness and love will pursue me all the days of my life.
And I shall dwell in the house of Yahweh to the end of my days.
God is with us. God is pursuing us. This day and every day.
God is making us rest. God is giving good food to eat and drink.
God is protecting us and God is guiding us. And God is pursuing us with love.
Day in and day out. God is with us.
So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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