Hello friends.
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood monk in docks.
Welcome.
To another installment in our series on the Psalms of Refuge.
And today's psalm is one that's so well known.
I hope that today you see it just a little bit differently.
Psalm 23.
As we prepare,
Just take a moment to become still.
Allow yourself to arrive fully in this present moment.
Bringing all your attention to the space you're in.
Notice the rhythm of your breathing.
Feel the surface beneath you.
Your chest rising and falling as you breathe.
Just be.
Be here now.
And as you continue to breathe,
Just become aware of God's presence.
God has already been here accompanying you long before you became aware of it.
The God who meets you in this moment exactly as you are.
And take a nice slow deep breath.
And rest.
Psalm 23 is probably one of the most beloved passages of all scripture.
Many people.
Know the words.
They've been spoken in churches and homes,
At bedsides and gravesides,
In moments of sorrow and moments of joy.
And I think it's because the psalm is so familiar,
It can be easy to miss how deep it goes.
Because it's not just a psalm about comfort,
As we often take it,
It's actually a psalm about trust,
About what happens.
When we stop trying to lead ourselves,
Being our own shepherd,
And allow ourselves to be led.
So let's listen to Psalm 23.
Let the words wash over you,
But listen.
Deeply.
Maybe perhaps more deeply than you've ever listened to this psalm before,
And see what words,
Phrases or images come to your attention.
Psalm 23.
The Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley.
I fear no evil,
For you are with me.
Your rod and your staff.
They comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil,
My cup overflows.
Surely,
Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.
Now as you listened,
Maybe there was one phrase that stood out.
One image that's lingered or maybe.
.
.
You experience the beauty of the psalm.
As a whole.
Or just whatever arose.
Allow it to remain gently with you.
Now the psalm begins with a very simple declaration,
The Lord is my shepherd.
And this is a very unfamiliar image,
To be honest,
Because we don't have shepherds in most of the places where most of us would live.
At least not shepherds as they would have been at the time the psalmist wrote.
And so if we're honest,
We are actually quite unfamiliar with this image.
Not only that,
But our modern world.
Values,
Independence and self-sufficiency and control.
We're encouraged to chart our own course,
To manage our lives,
To create our future.
You've heard all the catch cries.
Yet this line of the psalm tells us of another possibility,
That deeper peace may not come by making our own way,
But from allowing.
Ourselves to follow someone who's making a way for us.
A shepherd guides and accompanies.
And watchers over.
A good shepherd.
You can't live from a position of power.
That's not how sheep work.
The Shepherd works from a position of care and attentiveness and presence.
So the psalm invites us to imagine.
A God who's not far away and absent,
But intimately involved in the journey.
A God who walks alongside us.
So take a slow breath and ask yourself.
.
.
Where in my life am I trying to carry more than I was meant to carry?
What am I trying to manage or control?
That I might be invited to place into God's hands.
One of the most beautiful movements in the psalm is the description of rest.
Green pastures,
Still waters.
A restored soul.
I don't think these images that the Psalmist chose are accidental because they speak very deeply to the longing of the human heart.
What the psalmist is describing here isn't just relaxing.
And peacefulness,
But restoration.
Healing.
Wholeness.
Returning to ourselves.
Many people today are walking through life just exhausted,
Physically,
Emotionally,
Mentally,
Spiritually.
Psalm 23 reminds us that rest isn't a reward that comes when you get everything done.
It's a part of how God cares for us.
The shepherd doesn't wait until the sheep have accomplished or gone far enough before leading them to water.
The shepherd just leads them to water.
And so imagine for a moment you're there beside those still waters.
Not a demand,
Not an expectation,
Not a performance,
Nothing to prove,
Just resting in the presence of God.
In that grass.
Beside those waters.
And then there's a shift in the psalm when we start to walk through some darker terrain,
Valleys and uncertainty,
Places where fear naturally arises.
And it's important because once again,
As we've seen in some other psalms,
There's no promise here of life without difficulty,
If you've ever been told that.
It's just not true.
Not even the scriptures talk to us about a life without difficulty.
The shepherd doesn't lead around the valley.
The path goes through.
But the emphasis changes.
The focus is no longer on the valley.
But on the companionship.
The assurance of the psalm is that even when life gets hard,
When?
Things are rocky and dark.
That we don't walk through those seasons alone.
And maybe there's a valley in your life right now,
A challenge,
A grief,
An uncertainty,
A season of waiting.
Just acknowledge it and imagine that God is walking beside you.
In it.
And that in that walking,
There's no prodding you along to rush you through or judging you or demanding anything from you.
Just that God is there.
Helping you walk through.
With someone with you.
Then as the psalm continues,
The psalmist changes the imagery again.
There's a table prepared,
An abundance.
Welcome hospitality.
The sum moves from scarcity to generosity,
From anxiety to trust,
From fear to hope.
To belonging.
It's an image that suggests a God who delights not just in helping us survive,
But in helping us to fully live.
A God whose desire is fullness of life.
I wonder how often do we live,
Though there's never enough,
Never enough time or energy or security or love?
Psalm 23 invites us into another way of seeing,
A way that's rooted in trust.
Rather than scarcity.
And then near the end of the psalm,
There's one.
.
.
Final surprise.
The psalmist speaks of goodness and mercy.
Following the psalmist all the days of their life.
And to be honest,
It's an image that's almost humorous,
As though goodness and mercy are chasing after us,
As though God's love isn't something that we have to pursue,
But something that's already pursuing us,
Already finding us,
Already accompanying us.
How many people do you know who talk about the spiritual life as a search for God but Psalm 23?
Is suggesting something even deeper,
That perhaps God has been searching for us all along,
That goodness and mercy have been following us more closely.
Than we've realized.
So for the next few moments,
Just rest in that thought.
And perhaps as you breathe in,
Just say,
I am guided.
And as you breathe out,
I am hell.
Breathing in.
I am guided.
Breathing out.
I am Hell.
Allow those words to settle deeply as you receive them.
Breathing in,
I am guided.
Breathing out.
I am held.
And as we prepare to finish,
Just hear once more the heart of the song.
A spiritual life isn't about striving to become someone else.
It's about learning to trust the shepherd,
Learning to follow,
Learning to rest.
Learning to believe we are already being led.
By love.
Less pride.
Loving God,
You are the shepherd of our souls.
When we become anxious,
Teach us to trust.
When we become weary,
Lead us beside still waters.
When we walk through difficult valleys,
Help us remember that we do not walk alone.
Restore what is tired within us,
Heal what is wounded within us.
Guide us into the deeper peace of your presence.
May we learn to rest in your care.
May we learn to trust your leading.
May we learn to discover that goodness and mercy have been with us all along.
And may grace,
Peace and love be with us and remain with us.
Beside the still waters,
In the valleys.
And at that table.
Amen.
Thanks so much for being with us for this prayer and reflection today.
May you move through your day now with a quieter heart,
Remembering that you do not walk alone.
Of the shepherd.
Is with you.
Go in peace,
Until next time.
Bye for now.
