Psalm 23

Lent 4 - Year A
Easter 4 - Years A, B, C
Proper 11 (16) - Year B
Proper 23 (28) - Year A

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When something gets so familiar that we skim over it because we know it, there is a need to turn it around. Have you tried reading this Psalm backwards?

Throughout the length of my days, I am forever in the presence of Creation.
Every step I take reveals goodness and kindness and mercy.
A Flood of Blessing is so overwhelming I am emboldened to feast with everyone,
     including enemies.
Comforting Strength guides and guards my encounters with evil,
     no matter how pervasively heavy it might seem.
Grace points to safe paths that lead to life renewed.
Sabbath Rest and Milk and Honey beyond wanting, are gifts.

My whole life long I shall dwell in the house of G*D;
all the days of my life lead to goodness and mercy.
My cup overflows; my head is anointed with oil;
     my enemies become feasting partners.
I am comforted by Rod and Staff, signs I am not alone;
     I fear no evil even though I walk through the darkest valley.
For G*D’s sake I am led in paths of righteousness.
G*D restores my soul with waters of rest and verdant pastures.
I shall not want for G*D is my shepherd.

Do note the plural on “paths of righteousness” and consider how many different ways lead there.

 

As found in Wrestling Year A: Connecting Sunday Readings with Lived Experience

 

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The function of a shepherd is important. Here is protection of wandering assets. Here is development of a herd and its health. Here is support for religious ceremonies and culinary delights.

 

Shepherds can also be metaphors and similes for care giving. Even to the point of great responsibility for souls.

 

Generally, however, the status of a shepherd is as if they were of no importance. They are overlooked, discounted, and dismissed. This is nearly an invisible vocation. In a city-based environment, it is not usually a vocation but a job of last resort, a step above begging.

 

It is a great comfort to be comforted. This is a psalm of comfort that could begin with a parent, a friend, a lover, piece of chocolate, scads of money or any number of other sources people have identified as a comfort to them.

 

As in so many other cases, this could be read in the plural as well as the singular.

 

We are to care for one another, none need be in want.
Resources are abundant and we willingly point one another to them.
In the midst of the direst of circumstances, we are encouraged and encourage.
All in all, we trust one another and find healthy ways to journey.
Even in the presence of bombs, we resist fear.
After all, you are with me and I am with you— what comfort!
And so we feast and invite everyone, including family black sheep.
We bless one another, deserved or not, for we have been blessed, deserved or not.
We abound in relationships which are a source of abundance.
This is tried and true, not fleeting.
We welcome justice wrapped in mercy and dive into its depth.
Together we build houses and transform them into homes.
This village sustains.

 

This focus on Neighb*r reveals G*D’s presence even as G*D teaches hospitality of Neighb*r.

 

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/04/psalm-23.html

 

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A recent translation of verse 6 begins, "Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life."

There is a sense in this of the activity of beauty. (Perhaps a bit of recognition that it chases because we are active in our resistance of being caught by anything, including beauty?)

Another way to image this is with simply the presence of beauty, not chasing or pursuing but ever present - the environment within which we live and move and have our being. Here is one version:

Beauty before me, I walk with.
Beauty behind me, I walk with.
Beauty above me, I walk with.
Beauty below me, I walk with.
Beauty all around me, I walk with.

I am drawn to the "walking with" language.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/october2002.html

 

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When something gets so familiar that we skim over it because we know it, there is a need to turn it around. Have you tried reading this Psalm backwards?

=======

Throughout the length of my days, I am forever in the presence of G*D.
Every step I take reveals goodness and kindness and mercy.
A flood of blessing is so overwhelming I am emboldened to feast with everyone, including enemies.
The comforting strength of G*D guides and guards my encounters with evil, no matter how pervasively heavy it might seem.
G*D's grace points to safe paths that leads to life renewed.
Sabbath rest and milk and honey beyond wanting are G*D's gift.

=======

My whole life long I shall dwell in the house of the Lord;
all the days of my life lead to goodness and mercy.
My cup overflows; my head is anointed with oil;
my enemies become feasting partners.
I am comforted by your rod and your staff, signs you are with me;
I fear no evil even though I walk through the darkest valley.
For G*D's sake I am led in paths of righteousness.
G*D restores my soul with waters of rest and verdant pastures.
I shall not want for G*D is my shepherd.

=======

Do note the plural on paths of righteousness and consider how many different ways lead there.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/may2003.html

 

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To open our eyes to reality pushes us to a journey of trust.

Without being able to see a green pasture in the midst of a dark valley we don't find the restoration of "no fear" in evil's presence.

Without still water and a prepared table we don't travel far toward goodness and mercy for ourselves or anyone else.

Let's talk. Where is your green pasture located these days? Where are your still waters in the situation facing you?

On the wall in front of me I see a hammered and tarnished copper representation of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza [MISSING URL](different than this, but it gives an impression) to my left and Edward Hicks' The Peaceable Kingdom to my right. Between them a clock marking the moments I've been on this quest for peace.

What signs do you use for yourself?

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/march2005.html

 

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The New Interpreter's Study Bible notes: "Although often used in funeral services, this psalm is more about God-centered living than it is about death. Its unmistakable depiction of intimacy with God is effected by its basic image: God and a single sheep, not a flock; God the host and a single guest."

In a more humorous vein, it is intriguing to note that it is the leadership of YHWH that brings the sheep into a dark valley. It is not the wandering sin of the sheep, but the leadership of G*D that leads to such a pass.

Just as Sheol is not empty of G*D, so a dark valley is filled with G*D. And so the image of great abundance in the midst of seeming loss is available to us at any moment. We can remember joys of yesteryear, anticipate greater maturity of tomorrow, and revision current pain in their light.

This is not a psalm of quiet trust that all will be well, even again, ever anew, but an energy to actively engage current turmoil from a position of "safety" beyond safety. As such it is not about death, but life.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/april2005.html

 

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Starting with an experience that has become a faith statement, "The Lord is my shepherd," we move through a variety of additional ways to receive such an experience - lying down, leading beside, restoring, fearless, comforted, etc. - to an expectation ("shall") that this will continue or be present again when needed.

This would be clearer if we were to start with: "Having experienced a restoration that feels like the refreshment of green pastures and still waters after great want, I affirm G*D is like a shepherd to me."

As it is we get all caught up with the faith statement rather than the experience and find ourselves applying this before folks are ready to hear it. In such cases it is a guilt producer because they don't experience it this way or pie-in-the-sky theology removed from their real life. Either way, the words are mouthed, but not lived.

"Surely goodness and mercy follow me all the days of my life." So test them. Take a powder-milk biscuit and do what needs to be done because goodness and mercy are always present. Goodness and mercy are the background against which any foreground risk must be seen. With this perspective we go ahead.

- - -

in the darkest night of the soul
a resolution is finally reached
evil is not to be feared

evil is not feared
what a comfort
when hokies are gunned down

evil is not feared
we can see what gun-free feast
might be set before all

evil is not feared
anointing is still possible
to lead from pain to mercy

evil is not feared
goodness and mercy abide
rosy-fingered dawn approaches

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html

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So often this Psalm is used quietly, as if we were blindly searching around with our hands to find the boundaries of the space we are in. Sometimes the quiet is meditation and these days a first time someone may hear it is in a funeral service.

Sometimes it feels as if we are limping home on a wing, a prayer, and the 23rd Psalm.

This time around I have found it helpful to shout it at the top of my lungs as an affirmation or a challenge to the junk in the world that is too much with me, encroaching upon my time and space and hope.

Would you care to join me in loudly sharing this Psalm? I'll be listening and if you listen carefully you may yet hear echoes of my cry.

- - -

If, though, loud is not your thing, you may want to try this devotional.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html

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Partner to G*D, I separate want from need.
I take comfort in the midst of needs met and am deeply satisfied; restored even.
Together we make adjustments to our journey to Joy.
There have been doubts along the way, but also a willingness to proceed;
   for we are steadfastly together – strengthened.
Together we are hospitable to others, even enemies,
   and find assurance and peace.
Surely goodness and mercy are attainable today and tomorrow,
   as we walk together in this paradise creating new life from current life.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_archive.html

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How dark is dark? Darker than a soul's despair? Darker than midnight down in a cypress swamp? Darker than before light bursts on the scene?

Some of these darknesses are post-event – a sin-sick soul. Darkness is pain and death.

Some of these darknesses are present – midnight is but a marker of time and a swamp is a marker of location. Darkness here does not carry an emotional overlay beyond this time, this space.

Some of these darknesses are prelude – a fertile flow of various circumstances undefined. Darkness here is ready for a creative spark.

The shift from one kind of darkness to light is different in each case. Sometimes we are able to shift from post-event to prelude to light without having to spend time simply cataloging circumstances. Sometimes we find ourselves shifting through all three forms of darkness, like an atom in Brownian motion, and not finding a light at the end of our undeterminable tunnel. Sometimes we don't even know there is darkness abounding as we float on our obliviousness. Sometimes we are in light and our context defines it away.

The significance of rod and staff, feasts, reconciliation, and abundance is different in each case. Our assurance of goodness and mercy being our milieu also varies according to the source, duration, and depth of our dark experience.

Blessings upon your particular darkness. Take Psalm 23 and call me before morning.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_04_01_archive.html

 

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Psalm 23 or Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23

Some of us find refuge in the past and idolize it. Our talk about the future is going back to a past that is always remembered to have been better than it was. A high value here is recapitulation. So we use today's materials and technologies to attempt to refashion yesteryear's experience. The truth, fortunate or not, is that home cannot be recaptured, it can only be extended.

Some of us find refuge in an idolized future and thus find comfort in an uncomfortable present. Our talk is about green pastures of plenty that will make everything alright. A high value here is innovation. So we envision the wonders of projected materials and technologies as though they would break the mold and have no downside. The truth, difficult or not, is that tomorrow is much more than a day away and will still have to deal with the likes of ourselves.

It is good to remember the past. We can build on its blessings; we can learn from its curses. It is good to anticipate a future. We can see where improvements need to be made and begin the grieving process leading to forgiveness.

Whether we are oriented toward past or future, it is possible for us to experience a present of steadfast love, of goodness and mercy, that will keep us grounded in real life, non-idolized life. We will be able to pull apart the strands of the past, without having to make up stories about creation. We will be able to weave together strands not before available into a new heaven and new earth, without fearing creedal blasphemy. This reorientation away from the idols of past and future will allow space for engaging our whole being in the realism of a feast for all.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/october2005.html

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Psalm 23
Acts 4:5-12
1 John 3:16-24
John 10:11-18

Definitions define. "I am the definer", to modify a phrase.

Is my life taken or given? I am the definer.
Are my actions loving or not? I am the definer.
Am I walking through a dark valley or a green pasture? I am the definer.
Is this healing from Jesus or spontaneous regeneration? I am the definer.

Are all definitions equal, dictionary-wise? Are all definitions up for grab, Humpty Dumpty-wise? Where does my definition end and yours begin? Can I define you out if you define me in?

What needs better defining in your life and in the life of the community of faith and of living that you participate in?

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/may2006.html

 

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Psalm 23
1 Samuel 16:1-13
Ephesians 5:8-14
John 9:1-41

Once you were in darkness - threatened by leader and community - then you came to understand "not wanting" and you proceeded as though it were light, as though there were no threat.

When we feel threatened we shut our eyes, physical and spiritual.

With our eyes closed we divide our experience from our theology. Saul is Saul is Saul and ever will be king (substitute the leader of your choice) so there is no sense in doing anything about it. Blind from birth is blind from birth is blind from birth (substitute the present personal limitation of your choice) and so there is no sense in practicing an alternative reality. Once darkness sets in, darkness is all there is.

These limitations and their overcoming are the stuff fairytales are made of. And there isn't much truer than fairytales.

- - -

sin, sin all around
and not a healing left
unfairness abounds
and blame is our motif

through the most unlikely one
the youngest the weakest
the ugliest the most foolish
the spit and the mud

sin becomes irrelevant
unfairness ceases to be a mantra
so what now that our understanding
of blame needs recalibrating

well well well
it is time for the depth
of experience-based belief
in muddy spit-based kinship

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html

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Psalm 23
Acts 4:5-12
1 John 3:16-24
John 10:11-18

A "good shepherd" has the power and responsibility to know when to lay down their life and when to pick it up.

Followers of a "good shepherd" don't always get the power of this ambiguity. Some will claim the shepherd can only pick up life and so everyone must give up their life in the light of the shepherd's life. This will keep them from an ability to lay down their life for others. Seemingly, they can see only a crook as a mighty scepter.

Other followers make exactly the other error, that the shepherd must at all times and in all places, lay down (even if this is an active action against violence, it is still a laying down).

What we are still seeking is wisdom on how these fit together in our lives and in our times.

One beginning spot understands that goodness and mercy are ever present. This gives direction to our picking up and laying down of life. At which point does one reveal the background of goodness and mercy through a contrasting action and at which point does the other polarity kick in to better reveal a field of goodness and mercy against which everything else makes better sense? It is here we always find ourselves. Do we zap a fig tree or allow a rich, young ruler to go further down a dark path?

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resurrectional power reveals
our basic bent in life
to narrow life down
one unique resurrection
to open life up
resurrection as commonplace

to see resurrection for Jesus
and claim it only for him
runs us afoul other sheep
claimed as part of all
runs us afoul of others who also
reduce resurrection to one

to see resurrection as ours
authorized and encouraged
by this resurrected Jesus
for the sake of lost sheep
ordains us transformers
of resurrection to resurrections

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html

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Psalm 23
Acts 4:5-12
1 John 3:16-24
John 10:11-18

What an openness to life! Teaching (being led forth), Fellowship, Feasting, and Communicating within and beyond - these are still key elements in a healthy community - whether of one faith or another.

These four qualities bind a community closely enough together that trust of their most prized possessions (even survival) to one another can take place. Without this vital communitarian impetus organic growth doesn't take place. Oh, there can be surface unity, but the lack of deep trust will eventually shine through and fracture will show.

In today's untrusting environment where winning and losing metaphors abound, what Teaching is most needed that would lead us toward trust? What Fellowship and Feasting? What Prayers? Note that teaching toward trust is different than teaching toward a particular doctrine.

There are undoubtedly many responses to these questions. Instead of waiting to come up with one grand theory of everything, you and I are encouraged to Teach, Fellowship, Feast, and Pray as best we can, leaving any later form of such to such a time.

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called to endurance
is a strange gift
to receive
in a world valuing
this quarter's bottom line
only in light of the next

endurance will best be seen
in light of the flighty
expedient choices of today
which reveal the long-term
values worth investing in
today for tomorrow's sake

to pile value high
pack it down and heap it higher
is still a long-term strategy
with a proven track record
sustainability trumps a Vegas hit
enduring and guarding life

so our ancestors found
again and again and again
forgetting this teaching imperils life
hoarding goods and celebrations
to the fewest possible number entitled
diminishes possibilities

so our descendents call out
again and again and again
to be included in the bounty of life
and so we endure today
with ancestral solidarity
received and passed on

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html

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Psalm 23 or Psalm 89:20-37
2 Samuel 7:1-14a or Jeremiah 23:1-6
Ephesians 2:11-22
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

"Come away beloved/disciples," has a different feel when said by Solomon than by Jesus.

Jesus was an active prophet, not a poetic one. Particularly in Mark do we have an agenda-driven presentation speeding on.

When Jesus invites us to a deserted place it is only deserted inasmuch as he is not currently there, not that it is a desolation. A part of his teaching is to be active where you are in such a manner that such activity can be sustained for we are always dealing with desert-ion.

Sometimes we enter desolate territory only to find it wasn't, isn't, wont be. Sometimes we find such desolation visiting our routine life. Whether visiting or being visited, opportunity for "making whole" is available.

Our choice is to view desolate places as our life's joy or an impingement upon our possibilities.

- - -

a deserted place
is never so
when it is sought

desolation has a life
and rhythm of its own
not to be presumed upon

transforming strange aliens
into intimate family friends
hostility to peace

out of such journey
comes healing aplenty
for every unbidden dark valley

a desired desolate place
teems with expectation
and vast need

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html

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Psalm 23 or Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23
Exodus 32:1-14 or Isaiah 25:1-9
Philippians 4:1-9
Matthew 22:1-14

Moses is delayed on the mountain: Worry. Take things into your own hands and build an alternative worship experience. Dance around a golden calf, which is what hoarded resources are good for.

Wedding guests have refused their invitations and killed the messengers: Recompense. Take things into your own hands and kill the killers. Invite any left to the wedding. A seemingly generous act finds the violence of recompense still active when someone doesn't live up to a dress code. With a finer and finer sieve are folks caught, until none will be able to stand. Many are called, but few are chosen. Few are chosen, and even these will eventually be speechless.

It is difficult to let our gentleness be shown in a wilderness setting or an example of heavenly blessing. We refuse to take the time to remember goodness and mercy all the days of our life.

- - -

glory is exchanged for grass
every day
that which is before us
is never as delightful
as that which is not
grass is greener elsewhere

grass is exchanged for grass
grass for grace
promises of G*D with us
in Moses' return
in a heavenly banquet
fall on empty ears

we hallucinate grass
until gold becomes an oasis
busy-ness an edge for advancement
getting hungrier and hungrier
settling for empty calories
unsettling the ox within us each

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html

 

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This Psalm is so universal that it can't be pinned down to a particular time and place of origin. Among other things, it is an Exodus celebration of relief from oppression. So great is the surprise of liberation that it can only be seen in terms of some grand plan, some leader of who did for us what we could not do, would not risk for ourselves.

Once this great shepherd appeared, we sheep had it good and what else could be expected from us than we would project this to continue on for many long years. Of course that would mean staying sheep instead of growing into autonomous and interdependent humans.

Hail Intervenor!
I move from nothing to everything.
In place of never-ending work, there is an extended vacation;
The sweat of our brow has become the nectar of the gods;
We move from head-bowed despair to hope-striding;
Each step in a trackless desert draws nearer to an oasis.
Honor Intervenor!
Though deep dark nightmares of the past come in their season
Their harm has been defanged -
I awake cuddled in Holy Intervenor arms,
Left and right arms comfort.
We get up for warm milk in the face of fears for the future;
Cocoa powder abounds
Hot chocolate for the soul is powerfully abundant.
I have been pursued by evil and now by goodness and love
Filling my days, shaping my days,
Transforming humble tents into temples
For many, many years.

Whatever your slavery or death, an exodus is always surprising. Surprising as Jesus playing an ambiguous game different than those who want specifics; surprising as Tabitha getting up from her bier. Surprising as your experience of exodus, no matter how mundane it might be.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/04/psalm-23.html

 

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This psalm is usually intoned, schmaltzed, cadenced, slowed. There are easily recognizable connections with water and sheep to parallel the water used to wash muddy spit off and to honor the scut job of shepherding, given to the least powerful.

It is in considering these other passages that raises the possibility of other reading styles. Would being blind from birth and now seeing turn into a dirge-like unison reading? Trying to figure out what all this new visual data means would be similar to the uncomprehending stare of a new-born. A querulous waver in one's voice might well be appropriate. Yes, these verses are statements, but huge stories lie behind each one. It is appropriate to wonder not only at this present moment, but be a bit confused about interpreting the past and anticipating the future.

Presuming sighted privilege we might want to try reading this while skipping. "I can see, I can see" rhythms with periodic bursts of laughter, might be another presentation.

Were you Samuel, you might start off with Eliab's stature and triumphantly blast this psalm. As Samuel went through each of presented sons, with less and less assurance, would he just hold onto the psalm with a hope against hope as each rejected prospect comes and goes. What happens to this psalm when it is repeated five or six times in a discouraging situation? When shepherd David comes along where does this psalm go? for surely it does not simply circle back to its triumphant beginning.

Blessings on finding an appropriate tone for your own life as well as that of a congregation, nation, world.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/03/psalm-23.html

 

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I have recently finished a new book about Jimmy Creech's journey from pastor to minister with gay and lesbian people and eventual defrocking by the United Methodist Church. It is extremely well written. So much so that it brought back those days with a touch of post traumatic stress disorder and a review of what Rev. Amy DeLong is going through with her coming church trial [go to LoveOnTrial.org]. I could only read it in small bits.

Yes, I highly recommend it to you: Adam's Gift: A Memoir of a Pastor's Calling to Defy the Church's Persecution of Lesbians and Gays.

This is all prelude to this brief moment from the book that brings additional light to the iconic 23rd Psalm:

“Good morning, Jimmy, this is Bill Finlator. How are you?” Bill was calling from Raleigh early on Wednesday morning, March 11. Chris and I were in Omaha, packed and about to leave for Kearney [site of Jimmy's first trial]. The pretrial meeting was to begin at noon. Chris had answered the phone, chatted briefly with Bill, and then handed the phone to me. My mind was on the trial, and I was anxious. Bill’s familiar and cheerful voice relaxed me immediately.

“I’m okay,” I replied. “Nervous, but also calm in a strange way.”

Bill asked, “Did Mahan ever tell you his story about what he said when he was asked if had a particular Bible verse that comforted him during the controversy at Pullen?”

“No, I don’t think so,” I replied.

“Well, Mahan says he thought for a moment, then answered, ‘Well, yes, the twenty-third psalm. You know, the Lord is my shepherd, so . . . what the hell!’” Bill chuckled, and I laughed with him.

It was a welcome gift of humor and wisdom on the eve of an ominious three-day ordeal. Bill’s story helped to put my part in the trial into perspective. I knew that the trial, and the bigotry within The United Methodist Church and our society that had led to it, were much bigger and more important than I was. Whatever might happen to me was much less important than what the church decided. I wasn't really the one on trial. The United Methodist Church was.

“Don’t worry about a thing,” Bill said. “You’ve done the right thing, no matter how all this turns out.”

May you move this psalm back into a real comfort to you and not just fine old words.

Finish the sentence for yourself:

The Lord is my shepherd, so . . . ________________________.

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NRSV typesets it as

"The LORD is my shepherd" which is the convention for naming that which cannot/should not be named (YHWH, vowelized into Yahweh). This knowledge changes things. Some questions are begged/reflections triggered as a result of this knowledge:

1. As soon as we make it Lord instead of LORD (or YHWH or G*D - signifiers for something for which we petty mortals have little referent of but a smidge of what is signified) we're in trouble.

Whose Lord? My Lord? Yours?

How would you feel about "My Lord is Your shepherd" or "Your Lord is My shepherd?"

Is Lord God like Lord Beckett or Lord Voldemort or Lord Scooter Walker or Lord Only Knows? Lord Jesus CEO? Lord Medicare? Lord Pension? Lord Universal Health Care? Lord Self-reliance? Lord Protest? Lord Union? Lord Unionbuster? Lord Debt? Lord Default? Lord Law? Lord Grace? Lord Letter? Lord Spirit?

And I am decidedly NOT arguing for a radical relativity here, a sense that everyone is right from their side, entitled to their own perspective even when that entitlement is coupled with a significant power differential (sheep vis a vis shepherd/predator).


2. Are we like sheep? Really? If so, we live among wolves and the wolves seem to be able to thin the flock at will. In fact, the shepherds are fleecing the sheep. But wait... isn't that their job? Who needs a fleecing shepherd? Better to pull the wool over the predators' eyes. Baaaahhhhhhh.


3. So a conclusion: there is no comfort in a Lord by any name. "The Lord is my shepherd, so what?" Or maybe even "I have a shepherd? Get me outta here."


4. The un-named/un-nameable LORD/YHWH/G*D/Universe is everything we DON'T know, don't understand, it's the barely glimpsed recognition that we have minuscule referent for but a smidge of what is signified... now there might be something worthy of awe and comfort.


5. So another conclusion, or psalm 23 re-worded: 

"The sum-total of my ignorance,
the stunning mass of my unknowing,
the mind-blowing realization that I don't know what I do not know,
I don't have a clue what I don't know because it isoutside my knowing,
that unknowing points to a realm
of incredible possibility and understanding yet to be.
All that is there in that unknown and unknowable,
that unfathomed and unfathomable realm,
that might just make a good shepherd... so...
if that's the case,
how could I possibly want for more?
There is enough in that realm of unknown
to overflow my cup a thousand thousand years unceasing."


A parallel comes to mind from Lao Tzu, also in the Wisdom Tradition:

The way that can be spoken of
Is not the constant way;
The name that can be named
Is not the constant name.
The nameless was the beginning of heaven and earth;
The named was the mother of the myriad creatures.
Hence always rid yourself of desires in order to observe its secrets;
But always allow yourself to have desires in order to observe its manifestations.
These two are the same
But diverge in name as they issue forth.
Being the same they are called mysteries,
Mystery upon mystery --
The gateway of the manifold secrets.

Tom

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/05/psalm-23.html

 

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Abound

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/05/abound.html

 

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What do good friends do for one another?

One thing is that they care for their friend when their friend can’t seem to care for themselves. They comfort, with strength, not just dismiss the severity of the matter to the person concerned. All too often we deny another’s experience, but a good friend continues to affirm, to lead, to feed, and to bless by facing the felt reality of their friend.

This sort of goodness and mercy, of beauty and love, is incalculable for it continues connections and allows us to live together through dark days as well as bright.

At General Conference we constantly run into folks who are out for themselves first, last, and only. Here is a report from Dan Dick’s United Methodeviations blog on activities that shows the presence of an anti-Psalm 23 friendship: 

This church is God’s and we are merely privileged to take part in it. Yet, we so readily claim “my” church as though we have an entitled and proprietary right to it (and others do not). I eavesdropped on a conversation where a woman was energetically explaining to her companion that a group (I don’t know who specifically she was referring to) was “out to destroy the church.” She went on to claim that “they” won’t listen to anyone and “we” have to make sure “they” don’t get their way… I am pretty sure this is not the best attitude with which to enter General Conference. Just a thought.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/04/easter-4-year-b-psalm-23-what-do-good.html

 

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The New Community Bible notes this Psalm “glides easily from the metaphor of the shepherd to the metaphor of the host”.

We, too, find ourselves in the everyday world with all its ups and downs. Since we are patterning people we are able to see a thread of life running through everything, even death. We sense a shepherd, some cosmic assurance that all manner of states of being shall be well and weller again. We are hosted.

Sometimes we consider the end of this Psalm to be some heaven we achieve. Here, though, our sense of being hosted shifts and we find ourselves hosting. To dwell in some metaphoric house of G*D is not a resting place for us but is to bring us to a place of responsibility for said house and to be a good host. Note that hosting does not begin at the door, but with an engagement of people before that so they can see our care for them and all. This is a generic invitation that turns specific over time. “Come, let us reason together, let us live in peace together.”

What is usually seen as a Psalm of comfort in a time of distress is also a call to being a H*st. Imagine living in a world where we host one another.

It will help if you look up the word “host” and follow its derivation. It seems the root is “enemy” and later becomes “host of guests/visitors/strangers/foreigner/enemies” and a root for “hospital”. If “host” can move from a horde of enemies to caring for them, imagine this Psalm recording a journey of your life from estranged to caring.

Isn’t that a Lenten journey worth the travel. Let us be a host to creation and one another (friend or enemy) and we will find we have also hosted G*D.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/03/psalm-23.html

 

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I am willing to be led out
from my thieving fear
for getting things
is never over

wants want more
and more and more
until want wants more than more
and we lie exhausted

even in a green pasture
we are too tired to eat or drink
and so we rest and fast
until we want no more

now restored
all those wants are seen
as a darker than dark valley
able to be faced and answered

this new vision
is a great comfort
upon which I can rest
rod and staff

from grabbing what I want
I notice an overflowing table
with forks and spoons and knives
to dine gracefully slow

there is time for thanks
there is time for greeting
there is time for leading
there is time for time

my heart’s cup overflows
goodness and mercy for all
in each house
may it be

and how did this happen again
slow abundance
generous hearts
who knew

these shepherd my greed
guard my wanting
through each night
into this day

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/05/psalm-23.html