We cannot see God. He makes himself known through life experience, the Bible and worship. Of all Bible texts the 23rd Psalm used today is most used in worship both Christian and Jewish. Its alleged author is David the shepherd boy who became King of Israel a thousand years before Christ.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters;
This Psalm or poem compares the shepherd’s love for their sheep to God’s for us as guide and protector through life’s troubles. The last section of the poem switches from the image of God as shepherd to that of God as host, in his house at a banquet. What I like about the poem is how it touches on the journey of life starting with that peaceful image of green pastures and still waters. That peace links to a sense of lifelong guidance with fresh start after fresh start:
He restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.
The mention of God’s name is a reminder of how when you get to know someone first of all you get to know their name. Though God was real to David the shepherd poet it was Christ, actually his descendant, who made the poem come true putting a name and even a face on God, Jesus the Good Shepherd. As we look to his Cross the next verse of the poem lights up for us.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff - they comfort me
On our life’s journey nothing can bring us right down when Christ is guide and protector. God expects nothing of us he’s not been through before. The darkness of his sufferings are told us so we see God, who raised Christ from death, as not aloof but as one who sympathises with our pains. As good shepherd God knows his sheep through and through. The poem continues.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Looking back on the journey of life the poet recalls being provided for despite having to bear with trouble and the troublesome. Life is hospitable, made so by God and by friendship. There is balm - oil - to heal our hurts. ‘My cup overflows’. With the eye of faith the poet counts the surprises, the blessings of life.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.
What a poem and what a climax! David saw goodness and mercy surrounding him to his last breath. Christ’s resurrection takes us further than that last breath as it opens up God’s unending life to all who will seize upon it in faith. And ‘the house of the Lord’? That is beyond David’s Temple in Jerusalem or any church building - it is an intimate, unbroken fellowship with God’s never ending family beyond this world.
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