April 22, 2018 – Psalm 23
Psalm 23
Dark Valleys and Green Pastures
Fourth Sunday of Easter – April 22, 2018
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
Psalm 23 continues its climb up the charts of all time favourite scripture passages.
Even if you don’t know the Bible, chances are you know the 23rd Psalm.
Psalms are, simply, songs that the Israelites wrote over a long period of time before Jesus.
There are 150 of them in the Bible.
We sing one every week in our corporate worship just as the Israelites did long ago,
and just as our Jewish friends continue to do today.
The 23rd Psalm, though, has a special place for Christians.
In the Old Testament, God is often likened to a loving shepherd who cares for the flock
of Israel.
When Jesus says this morning “I am the Good Shepherd” John means to say that
Jesus is a full manifestation of God:
just as God is a shepherd to the people who cares for them,
so is Jesus a good shepherd who cares for the people,
even to the extent of laying down his life and giving it to them.
Because that is what a Good Shepherd does.
At the service following the Humboldt Broncos bus crash,
the young pastor who spoke could barely get any words out – and who could blame him.
One phrase, though, kept echoing through his mind: the valley of the shadow of death.
The valley of the shadow of death.
Something about that phrase seemed to summarize what he – and many – experiencing.
They felt as if they were in a deep, dark valley filled with death.
And the Psalm helped them give voice to that experience.
That is why the Psalms can continue to speak powerfully to us:
they arise out of the people’s experiences.
Sometimes those experiences are joyful, and sometimes they are not.
Sometimes the experiences give rise to feelings that are less than noble,
as when the Psalms give voice to a desire for revenge – and that is very troubling to us.
Utlimately, though, the Psalms give things over to God, and that is a wise thing to do.
If nothing else, the Psalms are honest about what it means to be human, and what it feels like.
And, as we hear today, sometimes it feels like you are in a deep dark valley of death.
Well, we all know what that feels like.
There isn’t a single person here this morning who doesn’t know what that feels like.
Depression, anger, injustice, job loss, the end of a relationship, abuse, addiction, loneliness.
The list of our dark valleys goes on and on and on.
We all know what it is like to walk through them.
It certainly resonates with us because it gives voice to something powerful –
the darkness sometimes involved in life.
But there is more at work in the Psalm: the Psalm also gives hope and comfort.
How does it do that?
Well, think about how it starts and ends.
It begins with God shepherding me into lush green grass and leading me beside still,
safe waters.
That’s pretty nice.
And it ends with returning to and dwelling in God’s house my whole life long.
That also sounds pretty nice.
The Psalm describes a journey in life from lush green pastures full of food and safety to
the ultimate destination of a lifelong dwelling with God.
But the Psalm acknowledges this is not an easy journey, not for anyone.
The journey inevitably takes a turn through dark valleys filled with enemies.
That is a universal experience.
But here’s the thing: The heart of Psalm 23, the great good news of Psalm 23,
the thing the whole Psalm revolves around – the thing all our journeys revolve around –
is this affirmation in the exact dead centre of the Psalm:
You are with me.
That is it: You, God, are with me.
You were with me leading me to green lush pastures and safe waters.
You are my ultimate destination and I’ll dwell with you always.
And in between, when I walk through those dark valleys which all of us walk through,
You are still with me.
In some mysterious way, you are with me, pursuing me with goodness and mercy.
As I have said many times – and will no doubt say again –
it is so important to know about that goodness and mercy pursuing us.
What it says is definitely not “Goodness and mercy shall follow me,”
as if goodness and mercy were a little puppy dog following your around.
No: what it says is Goodness and mercy shall pursue me – and the word here is the word
that is usually reserved for when your enemies pursue you.
Except here it is goodness and mercy that will pursue you!
And never give up on you!
Until finally goodness and mercy will catch you and never let you go and
you will dwell in God’s house of goodness and mercy your whole life long!
There is something else.
Usually the translation goes something like “Surely goodness and mercy will pursue me” or
“Certainly goodness and mercy will pursue me.”
But actually a much more accurate translation is “Only goodness and mercy will pursue me.”
Now that is a crazy thing to say.
Because it often feels like there are a lot of other things pursuing us, bad things, dark things.
But the Psalm is saying, maybe, that they all pale in comparison to the goodness and
mercy that is pursuing us.
Friends, I have often also said and will say again that there is an unfathomable love
at work in the universe, a mercy and a forgiveness and a love that is deeper and
bigger and wider than anything.
It was all focussed in the life of Jesus of Nazareth and
we are meant to dwell in it our whole lives long.
Maybe everything else does pale in comparison to it.
It often doesn’t feel like that though.
But I think part of the power of this Psalm is the affirmation that while the dark valleys
are real, and are deep and dark and suffocating and awful,
that is not the only real thing at work in our world or in your life.
There is goodness.
And there is mercy.
And there is friendship and community and love.
The Psalm affirms there is darkness in the middle of our journeys.
But there is also God’s presence right with us.
There is goodness and mercy pursuing us the whole time even if we can’t perceive it.
And that can change our perspective on what is going on in our lives and in the world.
That can give us hope – the dark valleys are not the end of our journey –
goodness and mercy and life safe with God is.
It is hard to see the goodness and mercy, though, when you are in the dark valley.
That’s what we have each other for.
Last week I was in a shop purchasing a piece of stereo equipment.
The fellow helping me – who owns the shop – is about 40 years old.
We had an amazing conversation.
He started to tell me that as he was turning 40 he was questioning his life and
the fact that he felt he had done absolutely nothing meaningful with it.
Now that is a dark valley to be in, right?
The dark valley of meaninglessness.
I’ve known him for a couple of years.
I’ve known him to do his work with integrity and kindness.
I’ve seen how he interacts with everyone who comes into his shop,
frequently giving them advice is the best for them,
often when he has nothing to gain from it, often sending them to other
businesses where he knows they can be helped.
He’s a person who spends lots of time with customers making sure they know
everything they need to about a product and training them in how to use it.
He runs, I think, a model retail business who serves his customers in the best way possible.
I told him all this – and how in my Lutheran way of thinking it doesn’t matter what your job is,
the important thing is that you serve people to the best of your ability,
are honest in your dealings, create good relationships and
contribute to the common good.
I’m not sure he was expecting this conversation when he got up that morning!
I think it helped him see the bigger picture outside the dark valley he was in –
like the Psalm does.
Then I told him that in my view there is a lot of beauty in the world –
almost unimaginable beauty.
His work and the way he does it helps give people access to that in the realm of music.
What an amazing thing, I said.
See he – in his turn – is helping people see there is more to their lives than the dark valleys.
There is beauty, there is goodness, and there is kindness in the way he interacts with people.
And that beauty and goodness are pursuing us and that beauty and goodness are
relentless and that beauty and goodness are bigger and greater than anything and
they frame our stories.
He emailed me later that evening and said how grateful he was for our conversation and
how much it meant to him.
Our beginning and our end is lush green pastures and life safe with God in an unending Beauty.
We all need to know this because it helps us see there is more to life than the dark valleys –
which are real but which are not our end and not what we were made for.
We need to help each other know that we are pursued by a goodness and mercy
focussed in Jesus and focussed now in our community that will never give up on us,
that pursue us into the dark valleys and give us light and companionship and
encouragement when we need it.
For God is with us – and God is pursuing us – and ultimately God will catch us with love.
So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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