Fourth Sunday of Easter
Notes
Transcript
Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.
How different are these self-promotional words from the opening lines of Psalm 23?
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In our meritocracy we are told that we can manifest our own success, that we can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and be as successful as we want to be.
This is a fine thought, and it is good to have ambition, until we end up in a year like this where a very slim group of people really profit and everyone else ends up either wading in the milieu or taking a few backwards steps despite our very best efforts.
King David wrote Psalm 23. He is the King - He answered to no one and was completely capable of deciding the Places he would go. Yet, he recognizes his own need for a shepherd. His need for guidance, protection, comfort and hope.
We don’t know when David wrote this Psalm but what we do know is that throughout his life different people betrayed him and tried to take his life- people including is predecessor and his supposed Successor in his son. David had good reason to sleep with one eye open.
No wonder he recognized that the only rest he recieved was from his good shepherd.
He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
This idea of rest- not having to sleep with one eye open is tied intimately to the idea of restoration of verse 3.
He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
David knew that even if someone were to take his life, he would be restored one day. A world without restoration is a world without justice. One cannot expect justice to be fully accomplished without all wrongs being made right. This is the key to Justice.
The word for restore here is the hebrew word ‘shoov’ - it means a lot of things in a variety of contexts but it always has a connotation of turning or RE-turning.
Minnesota AG Keith Ellison reacted to the trial of Police officer Derek Chauvin by saying ,
"I would not call today's verdict justice, however, because justice implies true restoration.”
This is a critical understanding for hope. To trust in the Lord is to know that we will one day return to a world without violence and a time before suffering or hurt.
What kind of peace would you have if you knew every injustice you suffered would one day be undone?
This gives comforting confidence to our lives as we face different challenges including death.
This last week has been a weird week for about 1k reasons. Not least of which our 2 y/o seems to be going through a sleep thing. We have one of those video monitors that allow us to watch him and on occasion, talk to him. Speaking to him does seem to calm him at moments but- when he’s out of bed and blubbering with tears and snot running down his face, what does he need? Not just a promise but a person.
We’ve talked about this in other settings but Ps 23 makes it clear that in the bible heaven is just as much a person as it is a place.
David talks reassures heart by knowing His shepherd - “I fear no evil for You are with me”.
I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,
Each of us, each of our kiddos, and everyone in the world is longing for a deep, vulnerable, secure, knowledge of self and other. These last weeks I have been working with our 4 year old Paul reminding him that he is loved by Jesus.
Jesus doesn’t love us because we’re good. Jesus loves us because He is good.
This doesn’t mean everything we do is bad. But what it does mean that our security and identity are not contingent upon our obedience. You are wholly loved because God chose you.
We don’t fully experience this love and abiding until we follow His voice.
This voice calls us into ventures of which we cannot see the ending, paths yet untrodden.
It calls us to dine in the presence of our enemies. To make peace by breaking bread
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
This verse is fascinating because like a table, it has two sides to it.
It could mean that there is a bit of peace made. You are eating at a table with those who were formerly enemies and have become acceptable dinner partners.
Surprisingly- it also offers the possibility of what many would think of as justice. That one may eat at a table, a well prepared table but their enemies must only watch in envy and not partake.
This second option gives way to the last verse of the Psalm.
Imagine you’ve just finished such a meal. On our Honeymoon Natalie and I had one fine meal at McCormick and Schmicks in downtown Portland. We had great corner seats where all the passer by’s had to look in at the impeccably crisp white linen table cloth and the different glasses full of libations. The meal barely fit on the table!
Imagine that same meal but sitting just on the other side of the window is a group of leather clad bikers - staring at you. giving you that ‘nod’
As you prepare to leave the restaurant - if that group is on the left side of the exit - which way do you exit? RIGHT! You make a bee line for home.
You expect to be pursued.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Psalm 23 turns this imagery of fear into a story of redemption. It’d be like if those bikers thought you were in a rough neighborhood and wanted to make sure you got home safely.
These last 2 verses of the Psalm are appropriately titled by theologian Derek Kidner as - the friend.
Psalms 1–72: An Introduction and Commentary The Friend (23:5, 6)
In the Old Testament world, to eat and drink at someone’s table created a bond of mutual loyalty, and could be the culminating token of a covenant. It was so in Exodus 24:8–12, when the elders of Israel ‘beheld God‚ and ate and drank’; it was so again at the Last Supper‚ when Jesus announced ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood’ (1 Cor. 11:25).
So to be God’s guest is to be more than an acquaintance, invited for a day. It is to live with him.
Church Psalm 23 is a reminder that in Jesus, God has come to make His home with you. He is the teacher that shows us the way, He is the King that brought you into His Kingdom, and He is the Shepherd that has laid down His life for you - His friend - His friendly sheep. Amen.