By the Rev. Dr. Sandra Bochonok (Revsandyb@aol.com)

Our scripture texts include the most beloved Psalm in the world and the most famous blessing in the Bible. As you read them -- use your imaginations. Be a sheep or an observer on the hillside. Smell, see, feel, taste the scene, to experience the Psalm in a new way. Or else quietly repeat these lovely words again and again in a lectio divina experience for your personal meditations.

Scriptures

"O my Beloved, you are my shepherd, I shall not want; You bring me to green pastures for rest and lead me beside still waters renewing my spirit, You restore my soul. You lead me in the path of goodness to follow Love’s way. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow and of death, I am not afraid; for You are ever with me; your rod and your staff they guide me, they give me strength and comfort. You prepare a table before me in the presence of all my fears; you bless me with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the heart of the Beloved forever." Psalm 23. Psalms for Praying. An Invitation to Wholeness, by Nan C. Merrill. Continuum Press.

"The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me: thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil: my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever." Psalm 23 KJV

"The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." Numbers 6:24-26 KJV

Prayer

Dearest God, give us the ears to hear and the hearts to respond to you in fresh, new ways. Transform us through these beloved scriptures and this humble meditation. Bless our ongoing faith journey. Amen.

Introduction

Every life has a story and I would like to spend this evening sharing my ongoing love affair with the most beloved Psalm in the world, Psalm 23. Four or five years ago, when I was living here in our nation’s capital, in this very church (www.mccdc.com), I remember teaching a four-week class on praying the Psalms. I had planned to wrap up the study with Psalm 23. While reading the Psalm aloud, something holy happened in our class. One man began to cry. And he cried and cried for what seemed forever. Finally, through his tears, he asked, "Sandy, this is so beautiful. Why do we save this just for funerals? This is great stuff from God!"

Central truth

Psalm 23 is GREAT stuff from God and it’s not just for funerals. It is a great statement of faith that can be ours.

Psalm 23--better than winning the lottery

Reading Psalm 23 is better than winning the lottery and offers us the most beloved sacred words in world history. We need to hear this great stuff from God with fresh ears as twenty-first century people. Our perspective is different, for we live in a world of test-tube cloned sheep and computers.

Psalm 23 Background

A remarkable man named David wrote Psalm 23. He had shepherded sheep in his youth in the ancient Middle East. He was well acquainted with sheep and their characteristics, of his responsibilities for them that ranged from protecting them from predators and preventing the overgrazing and polluting of the land.

Most of us are probably unfamiliar with ancient, rural, middle-eastern realities. To better appreciate our Psalm, some background information is helpful. Sheep raising is ancient work that has been around for more than 6000 years. There is a great cultural difference between Western and Eastern shepherds. Eastern shepherds know their sheep by name.

In primitive times, sheep were raised mostly for milk and wool. The shepherds and their sheep enjoyed an intimate, tender and trusting relationship. Each shepherd knew their individual sheep. They knew who belonged and who strayed. They knew which sheep were bruised and sore and which sheep were about to birth their young.

People lived close to the earth and rhythms of the seasons. Ancient Palestine was a difficult place to find green pastures. Shepherds had to deliberately search for them. Green pasture was a result of tremendous labor, time and skill in land use. Green pastures are essential for success and sheep, for shepherds need grass for nursing mothers and lambs. There are "no substitutes for good grazing." The shepherds also knew where the water holes were and those waters needed to be still, deep, clear and pure.

Some sheep and human characteristics

In preparing this, I found a very helpful book written by Phillip Keller, a man who raised sheep during America’s great depression, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23. (Harper Paperbacks, 1970) Here is what I learned from him.

Sheep and human behavior is similar in many ways. Sheep need more care than other livestock. They require endless attention and meticulous care. "Mob instincts" or flock mentality is our unthinking common nature. Our fears, timidity, stubbornness and destructive habits parallel sheep that get in trouble.

Sheep without contentment fail to thrive. Sheep need food, water, basic safety, shade, and protection from enemies/diseases/parasites. A shepherd’s work is never done. From pre-dawn throughout the night, a good shepherd watches and sleeps with one eye and two ears open.

Sheep refuse to lie down unless they are free from tension, fear, aggravation and hunger. Only the shepherd can provide this for them. Sheep are easily panicked. They will stampede in fear if a stray rabbit disturbs them. When one runs, dozens follow. They have little means of self-defense. They can only run away from perceived danger.

Sheep can also be arrogant and cunning and domineering. They "butt" weaker sheep to gain prestige, better grazing and will drive weaker sheep away. This is documented in Ezekiel 34: 15-16, 20-22. Sheep experience rivalry, tension, and competition for status and self-assertion. They have conflict and jealousy within the flock. Some will fight to be "top sheep."

Sheep get into trouble when they stray from the protection of the shepherd and the flock. They are vulnerable to predators and death when they seek comfortable places to rest, when they have too much wool and need shearing to maintain their balance and agility. They also get in trouble when they become fat, flabby and weak by overeating foods too rich for them. Sheep are notorious creatures of habits that love to follow ruts. They pollute their own ground and overgraze their pastures.

David’s story and spiritual profile

The Good Book has many stories about shepherds and their sheep, which bring us deep insights about both God and people. King David, the author of this and many other Psalms was known as a man with God’s heart. Before becoming king, he was initially a humble shepherd boy who once killed a bear that attacked his flock. He was also completely non-homophobic. As a young man he deeply loved his friend, Jonathan with a love that surpassed the love of any woman. There is vigorous debate about their sexual orientations, but there is also a blessed sacred ambiguity inviting readers of all orientations into their story. Many years later, as king, David committed adultery with a woman named Bathsheba and sired an illegitimate child who died shortly after birth. According to his religious tradition, adulterers were to be stoned to death, so he had her husband, an innocent man, killed to protect his own skin. Afterwards God sent the prophet Nathan to tell David a sheep story to teach a lesson in repentance. Psalm 51 is the result of that spiritual conversation. Psalm 23 and Psalm 51 offer us a great confession of faith with a great confession of personal sin. Both Psalms bring us into God’s heartbeat.

The Bible has many sheepish spiritual insights

The Bible is full of many sheepish stories and metaphors that can be found in Ezekiel and throughout the Psalms. God is presented as the Strong yet Tender Shepherd holding the wee lambs while caring for the injured sheep (Ezekiel 33). Angels came to shepherds on the night shift in the famous Christmas story found in Luke 2. In the New Testament, Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd (John 10). And the heart of the gospel is found in the three back to back search and rescue parables found in Luke chapter 15, describing the shepherd and the one lost sheep, a desperate woman in search for her lost coin, and in the prodigal child returning home.

Ancient shepherds marked their sheep with distinctive earmarks, to distinguish their sheep when mingling in larger flocks with other shepherds. And our distinctive mark is Christ’s spirit within us. Jesus reminds us that we are lambs living among wolves and need to live wisely as snakes and innocent as doves. He saw people throughout the gospels with compassion as sheep without a shepherd. He is the tender Searcher who will not rest until everyone comes home to God.

Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd of our souls. "I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold, I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd" (John 10:16). In the New Testament books of 1 Peter and Hebrews, Jesus is presented again and again as the Great Shepherd of our souls.

Modern books, such as Hinds Feet in High Places, by Hannah Hurrand, use the shepherd allegory with a person named Many Fears, as she strives to follow the Shepherd.

A little boy in DC

I am a city woman and am not personally acquainted with sheep. But I am personally acquainted with the Shepherd. And I understand the terror and vulnerability of being lost. Perhaps some of us have felt a bit vulnerable or fearful in our faith journey.

While living in Washington DC years ago, I once saw an unforgettable example of such fear through the eyes of a small child. While in a large crowd one night in the city during a Christmas event, a little boy, approximately three or four years old, became separated from his family. It quickly became obvious that he was terrified of being lost and equally terrified of strangers. When strangers attempted to befriend him, he would back away and try and hide in the crowd. Soon a police officer arrived on the scene and the little fellow visibly relaxed and placed his small hand in the officer’s large one. Together, they began walking hand-in-hand in search for his parents and disappeared into the crowd.

Soon a frantic mother came in search of her lost child. She urgently and repeatedly called out his name and asked complete strangers if they had seen her little boy. "Yes," said one woman, "He went with a policeman," and she pointed in the general direction. Suddenly the police officer reappeared. The little boy saw his mother and stopped sobbing. He threw himself into her arms and she held him tightly in obvious relief. Even today, I have tears in my eyes with the memory of those two clinging to each other. The lost child was found. There was great joy in the formerly worried crowd, for many had been concerned over the little child.

And so it is in heaven, as the Tender Searcher, the Shepherd, finds each of us in divine love. There is exuberant joy in heaven when the one is found. One is the most important number in God’s vocabulary. God cares that much for us. The Searcher’s heartbeat is one of loving compassion.

This is the gospel message of Jesus in its most basic simplicity. In my home study, I have a pencil sketch of Jesus. He is lovingly holding a lamb in his arms. The lamb has a look of trust and contentment. The nail marks are clearly visible on the hands of the good Shepherd. We are invited into those loving arms.

One of my favorite places to pray in this city is the chapel of the Good Shepherd in the Washington National Cathedral. A stone statue of the Shepherd is holding a wee lamb. Many pilgrims have placed their hands on his hands as they simply prayed and rested in his presence. Through this image, we are invited to place our hands in the hands of the Shepherd.

Blessing cup

But there is something else in Psalm 23 that is often overlooked. It is our blessing, and each listener is cordially invited to sit at God’s table in the presence of all our fears. God is our gracious host, eager to bless us with oil through an overflowing blessing cup while in the midst of our enemies.

From the beginning of time, the ancients understood blessing empowered while cursing was destructive. Blessing helps us live into our fullest human potential. We search for blessing and when denied it, look for it often in the wrong places. Blessing is so important, that history is full of stories of people who lied and cheated to steal a blessing. Once spoken in the name of God, it is with us forever and can never be removed.

The Judeo-Christian Bible opens and closes with blessing, and contains hundreds of them. Some are famous blessings such as our earlier scripture reading from the book of Numbers: "The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace."

Others are more obscure and easy to miss, like the popular prayer of Jabez, now available in a book that has rapidly become a best seller, written by Dr. Bruce Wilkinson (www.prayerofjabez.com). Jabez, a man who lived thousands of years ago in obscurity, had the courage to ask God to bless him. "Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil." And God blessed him gladly.

And God wishes to bless us too beyond our deepest hopes and yearnings, if we would only ask. I invite you to choose a blessing legacy as part of your faith journey and spiritual pilgrimage. Blessing others and ourselves is as close as our lips, as near as our fingertips. Blessing helps us live stronger lives of faith. Blessing helps us defeat our number one spiritual enemy of self-rejection. Blessing helps us live as God’s beloved. Blessing can transform us. Blessings equip us for the journey, encourage us when life is difficult, empower us for living, and energize us when we are exhausted.

Once blessed, always blessed. But we can always be blessed again and again. Mae West said, "Too much of a good thing is always wonderful!" Blessings are always wonderful, for they strengthen our faith and bring hope and love to our journey.

Summary

Psalm 23 is a great confession of faith in the Shepherd of our souls. In this Psalm, we find a tender and intimate holy name for the Sacred. We are given nourishing words and spiritual abundance for strengthening moments in good times and bad. We are brought into rest, quiet and stillness. Our spirits are renewed and our souls are restored through simply breathing with the Shepherd. No productive or frantic activity is required on our part. We are called to simply be, simply breathe, simply rest and relax in loving, holy Presence and enjoy being together, like dear friends who need no spoken words.

This great statement of faith reminds us of God’s path of goodness and encourages us to let love guide our lives. These beloved words help us journey with courage through the valley of shadows and of death, but without the fear.

In today’s unsettling and scary world, this comforts and equips us for whatever lies ahead. It is a reminder that through it all, God is enough. God is with us. God is closer than our breathing, nearer than our hands and feet. We can trust the Shepherd’s staff to be our pilgrim’s walking stick for our journey through life, for guidance and comfort and strength and discernment.