Probably one the most famous psalms is the 23rd, coming from a man called by God “a man after His own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14). Has on its verses so many aspects of who God is and how He relates to us, that is incredible, this is the reason this psalm is so well known, preached, and mentioned. I wanted to talk about it as a journey that we will take together, as we discover more about God our Shepherd; let us look at every verse as a guideline to tell us where we are and where we are going. So, get your imagination ready, and let’s start the journey.
“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.” (Psalm 23:1); it seems like we have started our journey on a good note. We now know that the Lord is our shepherd, and who better to be shepherding us than the Lord Himself; we also notice that we are being equated to sheep, which, at this point, I don’t know exactly how we feel about it, I mean, they are nice animals in many ways, but not very smart ones (to say the least), I guess we shouldn’t worry too much about it, at the end is the Shepherd what matters, as long as we stick to Him we should be good. More good news in this first verse: we will not “lack anything” as another version of the Bible says, this is a defining moment on our journey; no matter what happens, we will have all we need. This is a very encouraging start for our peregrination through the Psalm. Let’s not get too comfortable; it’s time to pack and get ready to move on to the next stop of our journey.
“He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.” (Psalm 23:2). The good news keeps coming. Now we are just relaxing in green pastures, as sheep this sounds like a pretty great time for eating, but wait a second, the way it is said, now thinking it better, it looks like our Shepherd is “making us lie,” almost like we don’t want to lie down and He had to make us do it, I wonder why is this? Who doesn’t want to lie down for a good meal? Unless we were too busy and worried about the journey and we couldn’t stay still and allow God to be our Shepherd, It does sound early in the journey to stop; I guess we should trust that the Shepherd knows the times better than we do, so let’s just enjoy it. We also see on this step of the journey that He leads us beside quiet waters; this seems like a dream now; we have everything we need. Still, something intriguing: why do the waters need to be quiet? Are sheep afraid of loud waters? What do loud waters even mean? Let's leave that alone and enjoy these quiet waters; we can drink it, shower, and even see ourselves reflected on the surface from a different perspective. This second verse seems like a place we should stay. Why even try to move on? This might even be the destination, a comfort zone perse. Let’s not leave this comfort zone. This sounds like a place our Shepherd wants for us permanently, but if we got the wrong impression, let’s be ready to leave to the next verse if that is what the Shepherd wants.
“He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.” (Psalms 23:3). It seems like this place is as good as our last stop, another great place to be, apparently our shepherd is now offering us restoration for our soul, wait! Why does He think we need restoration in the first place? We have everything we need so far, everything that a sheep can dream about. We already have it; why do our souls need restoration? Are there some parts of our soul that can’t be healed by just “having the right things”? Is there a deeper need that we can’t see, but our shepherd can? Let’s allow Him to bring this so-called restoration if He thinks we need it. At this stop, we can also see how we are reminded that He guides us in the paths of righteousness; good to know that we are being guided well, but there was no need to reinforce this idea. We are already walking with him and trusting him. Maybe sheep have bad memories and need to be reminded that the shepherd is trustworthy, anyway, it’s good to know that we are being well-guided. Hopefully, we won’t forget that in the future if this journey gets wild. There is one last “detail” on this stop: the shepherd does all this “for His name’s sake.” It sounds like He is adding us to his family somehow; we matter to him like family, which is great news and confusing at the same time; we didn’t know sheep could be considered family to the shepherd; we better behave like family, it shouldn’t be that hard. It's time to move on to the next stop on our journey, and I can’t wait to see what is coming. It’s been a fantastic experience so far.
“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” (Psalms 23:4). Ok, are we Lost? how did we end up walking through this valley? It is so dark here we can barely see ourselves; we thought we were following the shepherd. Where did He go? This is so confusing; this darkness is building up a fear that is preventing us from hearing the shepherd’s voice. Where is the guidance He promised? We wouldn’t be able to see any guidance anyway. Where are the green pastures, and the quiet waters? How could we even appreciate those things anyway? There is so much fear among us; it’s so dark, things are not going well, and this journey isn’t what we thought it would be. Let’s see, and there is more on this step of the journey; we can feel the Shepherd’s presence, He is here, we are starting to see among the darkness that His staff is like a light for us, the fear is going away, and the more we realize He was always close to us, more we are comforted; even the darkness is not dark to Him, what a relive, we fell so comforted knowing that He is that close to us. Now we know that this place allowed us to acknowledge the closeness of our Shepherd; we would never have noticed it the same way when we were lying in green pastures or beside still waters. It's time to keep moving on; there’s no need even to pack anything; in fear and darkness, we never settle in properly anyway.
Psalm 23:4. You Comfort Me. VerseVisions Modern Christian Art. Copyright 2019 by Mark Lawrence. All Rights Reserved.
“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” (Psalm 23:5) We have arrived at a table; our shepherd really took seriously this idea of us being part of His family, sheep don’t need a table, but we will get used to it, as long as we don’t lose sight of the Shepherd again we should be Good. Well, now we are somehow confused; why are all these enemies sitting at the table with us, all those who have treated us badly and hated us? Our Shepherd is trying to make a point: Why can’t we be at the table with just our friends? It is way easier to love those who love us; it’s better to break bread with those we know will never betray us. What else do we have on this step of the journey? Maybe it will give us an idea of what to do. We were anointed by our Shepherd, and we know what that means we have seen it before; it’s for our healing; the Shepherd knows we need it, even when we don’t know, maybe our minds need to be healed for us to understand what to do in the presence of our enemies. There is more, “our cup is overflowing”, seems like a waste, but we know the Shepherd never wastes anything, what is He trying to tell us? I think we figured out what needs to be done; the Shepherd is inviting us to serve our enemies, He has healed us from our fear and our selfishness and now we can see why we are seated here with them, all this overflowing of the cup is for us to share. What an interesting step on the journey, serving our enemies at the table has healed us from something we didn’t even know we were suffering. We seem to be moving to the last step of this journey; let’s prepare to move and see what awaits us there.
“Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Psalm 23:6). So much goodness and love from our Shepherd, we thought we were chasing those things, now we can see that He was the one chasing and caring for us all this time, all we needed to do was respond to his presence. This is where the Shepherd always intended for us to be. The final good news on our journey: His house is where we are staying forever; this is like a dream; He never saw us like sheep; we were always His sons and daughters; now we see a little better; he wanted the house full of his family. Thank you, Shepherd; this is the biggest love and dedication we have ever experienced. It has been a transformational journey for sure, our hearts and minds are different, we are ready to start it all over tomorrow because we know, You are with us.