This week’s psalm is the 23rd, the most beloved and recognized by most Christians. I’d say “well-known,” but recognizing something isn’t quite the same as knowing it. We recognize it, but, as 21st-century city folk, much of what it says we don’t really know.
It starts with “The Lord,” or in most English Bibles, “The LORD.” The tiny, all-capital version means something different from “lord.” The Hebrew word adonai means master, lord, or ruler, and is translated in English Bibles as “lord.” The Israelites also used it orally, as a sign of reverence, instead of saying the name God told Moses: YHWH. We see it written sometimes as Yahweh, or Jehovah, but our English Bibles have traditionally translated it as “LORD” in small capital letters. Just as the Hebrews would say Adonai in both occurrences, our English Bibles applied the Adonai equivalent of “lord/LORD” for both. So, every time we see the word LORD, we should think Yahweh. It makes us feel closer to God personally when we read his name instead of his job title.
Yahweh is more recognizable (as is YHWH in the original texts) and conveys the personal relationship of God with his people. “God” is a job description, not his name. Same with Lord. YHWH, or I am who I am, is the personal name he told Moses to tell the Israelites.
This personal relationship was so important in Israel’s formation that “YHWH” appears 6,826 times compared to “Adonai” 773 times.
Psalm 23 says “Yahweh is my shepherd.” The lowest and most labor-intensive job in ancient Near East culture. Shepherds have to be with their sheep night and day, every day, outside in all kinds of weather, ensuring they went where they were led, ate in the pastures, didn’t stray or get attacked by predators. Caring for them is an endless duty. Families that needed a shepherd gave the task to the youngest son (as we see with Samuel finding David in 1 Sam 16:11). David refers to his God by name in describing that Yahweh humbles himself to care for humanity in the same way a shepherd provides continuous, total care for his sheep.
Yahweh makes us lie down in green pastures, but sheep don’t lie down easily. Phillip Keller is a pastor who was also a shepherd for eight years. In his book, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, he says,
“It is almost impossible for them to be made to lie down unless four requirements are met. Owing to their timidity they refuse to lie down unless they are free of all fear. Because of the social behavior within a flock sheep will not lie down unless they are free from friction with others of their kind. If tormented by flies or parasites, sheep will not lie down. Only when free of these pests can they relax. Lastly, sheep will not lie down as long as they feel in need of finding food. They must be free from hunger.”
That’s us, isn’t it?
We’re able to relax only when we realize that the fears, friction, flies, and famine in our lives are comforted through our creator. The great shepherd, who provides everything for his sheep, provides for us in the same manner.
He guides us back to where we should be when we wander off. He leads us to peaceful times under his protection. Not earthly peace necessarily, but a permanent spiritual one that surpasses any obstacles we face. I’ve known soldiers in war zones who had a more peaceful spirit than many Christians have in the comfort of their own homes.
Yahweh is our great provider. All things come through him. There really is no such thing as a “self-made man.” Certain behaviors tend to yield certain results, but our God is sovereign, and all outcomes happen through him.
There is also a heavenly aspect of this psalm. In the last line, we read, “and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Some translations say “… I will live …”, but the original Hebrew word shoob means “to turn back, to return.”
There is a repentance aspect of that final line by David that we miss in our Western culture. Often, we read this psalm and feel like this shepherd idea is a pretty good deal for us, so we’re willing to let God provide all these things and we’ll accept them. We don’t see the need for turning away from our own desires, returning to him — repenting — that is so clear in the original text. In our version, God owes us this because he is the shepherd; in the Hebrew, we recognize that action is required on our part in order to be part of his flock. We must turn back.
As Isaiah mentions in 53:6, All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way.
Perhaps the most important point for us to remember is that there is only one shepherd. Jesus reminds us of that in this week’s Gospel passage from John:
“I am the good shepherd, and I know my own, and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep which are not from this fold. I must bring these also, and they will hear my voice, and they will become one flock—one shepherd. — John 10:14–16
This means that Jesus is Yahweh. There isn’t an Old Testament God and a different New Testament God. We believe in a triune God (Holy Trinity). Jesus says he and the Father are one. So, it shouldn’t be shocking that the pre-incarnate Jesus existed in Old Testament times. John tells us that all things were created through him. We sometimes act as though Jesus began at Christmas. He was, is, and always will be. And all our hopes are fulfilled in him. He is the Good Shepherd.
Too often clergy get an inflated view of our own importance and start to think of ourselves as shepherds. We are not. There is only one shepherd, and he’s not us. On our best day, clergy are just a bunch of border collies (or English sheepdogs, if we’re Anglican). If we would accept that, there would be a lot less denominational friction. He guides us in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake, not ours.
And then the scene shifts in Verse 5, in which Yahweh is now a host welcoming us to his banquet. He has prepared a table for us. Only the very wealthy, such as kings, would have tables large enough to seat people for a banquet (as only they would have rooms in a house large enough to hold such a table).
He welcomes us as honored guests by anointing us with oil, as was the custom in the Middle East during biblical times. Jesus criticized Simon the Pharisee for not doing so for Jesus, or having his feet washed, when supposedly “honoring” him as a dinner guest at his house:
You did not anoint my head with olive oil, but she anointed my feet with perfumed oil. — Luke 7:46
Despite the popular but apocryphal explanation of shepherds anointing the heads of sheep to keep flies away and treat illness, the context of the psalm makes that interpretation ridiculous, even if the so-called “anointing” of sheep is true. Sheep are not seated at tables in the presence of their enemies. Their cups do not run over because they have no fingers with which to hold one. As with many explanations that are popular on Facebook, this one is nonsense. Yet, I have no doubt that those memes will continue to thrive on social media, nonetheless.
The final point we should take with us when we read Psalm 23 regards the word often translated as follow, although pursue is a more accurate rendering. It appears throughout the Old Testament describing Pharaoh pursuing Moses and the Israelites through the Red Sea, King Saul pursuing David to kill him, King David pursuing the Philistines and others during war, and many other instances. Follow, while not wrong, doesn’t carry the same intensity as pursue, which is the image we are expected to have of our good shepherd who welcomes us to his table as honored guests: that he would have goodness and his steadfast love/mercy not just follow us but pursue us throughout our lives.
Let’s all return to his house.
Blessings,
Fr. Austin