"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want."

 

Psalm 23

 

    One of the things we used to play in the car with the kids on long trips was I am going on a trip.  The first person had to come up with something that started with the letter A.  I am going on a trip and I am going to take Aspirin.  And the second person would say I am going on a trip and I am going to take Aspirin and a bowling ball.  We have played that with the Confirmation Class and they had to pick out things that had to do with the Bible.  I am going on a trip and I am going to take an angel.  I am going on a trip and I am going to take an angel and Barnabas.  I am going on a trip and I am going to take an Angel, a Barnabas and the commandments.  If we were to play that today and got down to the letter P I think the perfect item to take would be Psalm 23.  In fact, don't leave home without it.  You may travel without your American Express card but don't travel without the 23rd Psalm.

 

       While the words of the Psalm are always with us, on the tip of our tongue, we very seldom read it unless there is some kind of trouble, often times an illness or a death.  And then it is probably read more than any other scripture.  It is called a Psalm of David.  Some suggest that the full story of Psalm 23 is told in II Samuel 15-19.  David's son Absalom rebels and proclaims himself king.  David is forced to leave Jerusalem.  While in exile David is at the fords of the Jordan, awaiting word.  God supplies his needs through Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth who was the grandson of Saul and son of Jonathan.  He came with a couple of donkeys bearing two hundred loaves of bread, one hundred bunches of raisins, one hundred bunches of summer fruit and a skin of wine.  David may have been thinking about that when he wrote, "I shall not want."    

 

       Once David had received the food than a man named Shimei curses David and throws stones at him.  Finally, they arrive at the Jordan, lying down in green pastures and refreshing themselves in the still waters. 

 

       At that point David's son, Absalom, makes plans to pursue his father.  But God leads David in the right paths which can also be translated paths of deliverance.  When David walks through the valley of death, a place where enemies can hide behind the rocks, he is unafraid because God has promised: "I will be with you."  God's rod and staff protect him.

 

       David crosses the border in Ammonite territory.  The enemy continues to pursue and David comes to a place called Mahanaim, and again God spreads a table before David.  Shobi and Barzillai brought beds, basins and earthen vessels, wheat, barley, meal, parched grain, beans and lentils, honey and curds and sheep and cheese from the herd, for David and the people with him to eat; for they said, "The people are hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness."  This was the table spread before David in the presence of his enemies.

 

       Since David was the honored guest, his head would be anointed with oil.  David's cup overflows.  Throughout this crisis the Lord was the shepherd of David and the people traveling with him.  God gave them rest, refreshed their spirits, and led them on the right paths.  Even in dark and dangerous territory David did not fear evil.  He knew the Lord was there to protect him.  David's cup, which was probably a symbol of all the goodness he received-overflowed.  At the end of the psalm he was confident that this would continue for the rest of his life.

 

      Psalm 23 was written by someone who had been through the depths, he was running for his life from his own son, and when the experience was over he came out of it on the side of faith.  It is not just a psalm for people on their deathbeds.  It could have been written by parents who survived difficult children, or soldiers returning home from war, or anyone who has received unexpected hospitality.  Psalm 23 is for people who are recovering from a serious illness, the person who is out of a job, the person who has lost a loved one through death. 

 

      Whatever desert experience we might be going through, we have a Good Shepherd.

 

       Walter Brueggemann wrote in he Threat of Life Lent is a time to quit running, to let ourselves be caught and embraced in love, like that of sheep with a safe pasture, like a traveler with rich and unexpected food.  Our life is not willed by God to be an endless anxiety.  It is, rather, meant to be an embrace.

 

       The Gospel reading for today is from John, the story of the man born blind.  Lent is about noticing out blindness and seeing differently.  We are being called to see beyond our anxiety, our greed, our fear, our control.  We are being called to see ourselves as the sheep of the good shepherd, as the traveler in God's good valley, as the citizen at home in God's good house.  When we truly see we become free and joyous, generous and grateful. 

 

       Desire one thing, the presence of the Good Shepherd.  Whenever we go on a trip, the writer if Psalm 23 assures us that the Good Shepherd is with us.