Sermon: Walking in the Shadows – Fourth Sunday in Lent (Psalm 23)

Sometimes it can be difficult to approach a well-known Bible verse for interpretation and analyses, to figure out what it’s trying to say to us. Now this can be true of any and all scripture. After all, the writings that make up the Bible were written long ago, and come to us now after centuries of scholarship and translation. Plus, we are likely to read into the text through our own lens of context and understanding. This is especially true, I think, of popular texts like Psalm 23. This is probably the most well-known psalm overall, and it is very popular at funerals. In fact, I think at every funeral I have presided, and probably most that I have attended in my life, this Psalm has been read. That’s the context I come to this with.

I find it is especially popular with family members who are not sure what scripture their deceased loved one might have liked read at their funeral. Some people have planned their funeral services years in advance, working out details like what scripture they would like to have read during the service, what hymns, who will speak, but not everyone does. Not everyone can prepare like that, especially if the death happened unexpectedly. So, it is left to family and friends to plan the details of the service. When I visit with a family to talk about a loved one that has passed, I will always be sure to ask if there is a particular scripture verse that was meaningful to them. The family doesn’t always know the answer, and when they feel like they have to choose one, usually the first scripture they come up with is Psalm 23. “The Lord is my Shepherd/ I shall not want/ He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.” These are perhaps some of the most famous and often recited words in the Bible. And they have come to be very much associated with death and funerals.

I don’t know if it is the same for you, but for me, when I hear the words from Psalm 23 my mind first goes to the afterlife. In particular, I think it is verse 2 that draws me there: He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. To me, that sound like what heaven must be like. When this life is over and the hand of God guides me to what comes next, it wouldn’t surprise me if it was just a peaceful, wide open, green pasture with a stream running through the middle of it. With water moving so slowly it almost seemed to be still, but at the same time you could hear the sound of it. Faint enough not to be disturbing, but loud and steady enough to be heard and to be relaxing. If you told me that is what heaven was, I would believe you. So, I have often associated this Psalm with that transition from this world and on to the next.

There are also the words in verse 4. In your bulletin, and in the New Revised Standard Version and other common, modern interpretations, that verse reads “Even though I walk through the darkest valley.” However, the more famous translation comes from the King James bible. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” A little grimmer than “darkest valley.” Those words are probably another reason that this text has become associated with death, and passing from this life to the next.

But, however comforting I might find some of those words and images, it is unfair to put this psalm in a box like that. It is an incomplete understanding of these words. This wonderful passage that is probably more often seen on funeral home pamphlets than anywhere else, with the exception of the Bible, has just as much to say to us about a life well lived as it does about a peaceful death. It paints a picture of the life of faith, and about how God the Shepherd cares for us and leads us into the next life. It also has something to say to us about the life we are living now. First, though, let us take a look back to get some context from when this psalm was originally written. Because what it means for us now, isn’t necessarily what it meant for those who originally heard this psalm.

The Psalmist, in other words the author of the Psalm, is believed to be writing about the Israeli people’s exile in the land of Babylon and their hope to return to their homeland. The beginning of the psalm can be interpreted as giving thanks to God for being with the people as they journeyed through the dark valley of exile in Babylon. However, the second part of the psalm moves from an image of God as a shepherd, leading the flock through a dark and difficult time, and moves to imagery of a banquet, everyone gathering together for a feast. Interpreters of this psalm view this as a hope for a time when the people will return to Jerusalem and worship together in their temple again. God who has led them, shepherded them, to this place will now host them and care for them and bless them upon their arrival at the temple.

In our Christian tradition, this journey from exile in Babylon and return to community in the Temple came to be a psalm about the journey through life, led by God the Shepherd, and moving to be with God our Host in the afterlife. Also, we often refer to Jesus as a shepherd leading a flock, The Good Shepherd, and created a lot of imagery to depict him in this way. This is another reason it is probably popular at Christian memorial services. It makes sense that a song written by a people in exile would reflect the journey of faith in this way. It is a journey that looks forward with hope, even in difficult times. It looks forward with a hope for what is to come. Whether we are looking forward to a time when we can return home to the temple, or when we can be welcomed into heaven, we look forward to being welcomed by God with open and loving arms.

This is another reason this psalm is such a popular scripture for funerals. Funerals, I believe, are primarily for the living. They are an opportunity for people to gather together in remembrance of a loved one. A time for family and friends to come together and share memories, but also to comfort one another, to share in the love they had for this person and the grief they all share at the loss of that person. A funeral should serve these purposes, and also reflect who the deceased was in life and how people felt about them and want to remember them. These things are important.

However, a funeral service must serve another function as well. As much as it is a time for people to come together in remembrance of their passed loved one, it also a time for the community to grapple with death and mortality. To make meaning of the reality that our days on this planet, this plane of existence, are numbered. So, in those times people want to hear a psalm that speaks a hopeful word. A psalm that reassures us that God is with us and cares for us in this life but is also going to welcome us to the next life. We want these things for the person who has died, but somewhere in us we also want to know these things for ourselves. That even though life is difficult, and death is inevitable, God is with us and prepares a table for us, and we can dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of our life.

So, this psalm can speak to us and the lives we are living. We don’t have to be at a funeral to contemplate the lessons this scripture holds for us about a life well lived. The first step is to recognize and accept the Lord as our shepherd. This means to put our trust in the one who made us and loves and walks with us as our guide, our companion, and our protector. When we place our trust in God, we can more easily walk through life with an outlook of gratitude for what God has done for us. We can allow ourselves the peace of mind to take the time for rest, to care for ourselves. God has provided us with a world of abundance, we must only allow ourselves the time to enjoy and appreciate and be blessed by it. It is a world where we can find green pastures and still waters where we can find peace and rest. The world is full of beautiful creation in which we can find joy and fulfillment. God the shepherd is always leading us in this direction if we would only take a moment by those still waters to stop and listen and trust in the Lord.

To put our trust in God the shepherd also means trusting that God will lead us to make good choices. That is to say, choices based on the best of what we believe God is calling us to do and be in the world, including the way God calls us to treat others and care for creation. In other words, God will lead us down right paths in God’s name. If we are living a psalm 23 type of life we will respond to the needs of the world guided by God the shepherd. As Christians, we will go into the world approaching the interactions we have with the mind and the soul of a shepherd. To care for those in need, to look out for those who are lost, to walk with people down the path that leads us to the abundance of creation that God provides for us and the sense of fulfillment of our needs that God desires for us. To green pastures and still waters. And to trust that God will not misguide us.

To put our trust in God as we live a psalm-23-type-life also means to trust in God the Shepherd who protects us from the evil we fear. This is important because to live our lives from a place of fear is always counterproductive. Even if we believe that evil is indeed all around us to live a life based on those fears, and focused on avoiding or defeating those fears, will in the end, limit us. Instead of taking advantage of the beauty and abundance of God’s creation, we back ourselves into a corner. Leading with fear leads us to experience a very narrow corner of God’s world. Fear of losing one thing, usually leads to the loss of other parts of ourselves that we sacrifice in order to hold on to something else. So, we must be reminded that to accept God the Shepherd is to put trust in God as a protector, because a shepherd will always look out for the well being of his flock. This is how we find comfort in the rod and the staff, and this is how we can free ourselves to live a life in which we experience and find joy in the great blessings God provides.

Perhaps it is no accident then that the imagery in this Psalm so clearly brings to mind a vision of what heaven might be like. It is no accident that heaven would look so much like what a peaceful Earth would look like. No accident that it consists of what God has provided and made available to us here and now. Water, green, space, food to eat, people to enjoy the meal with, and stillness. A lot of what has been touched on in this sermon has been about trusting God, and how that can lead us to live good and fulfilling lives. Trust in God the Shepherd can get us through the darkest valleys in our life and bring us out the other side. I think we can feel confident in putting that trust in God not simply because we have a belief in what awaits us on the other side of this life, but because of all the sacred, beautiful, heavenly, abundant things and experiences we have been given in this life, on this world, on this plane of existence. We can trust in God because all this goodness exits for us now, even among the darkness of this world, and the shadow of death. It is because God the Shepherd walks with us through that valley that we can have trust that there will come a day when we will encounter God the banquet host, who will welcome us to a new life free of fear and evil, where we all share in the abundance of the Lord. And this is a new life that we can celebrate at our funerals, and at our birthday parties, every Sunday when we gather here, and any day in between.

So, I suppose when the day comes for my family and friends to gather and remember my life after I have passed on, I wouldn’t mind if they chose to read Psalm 23. It would be nice to be remembered as someone whose trust in the Lord led them to live a life that modeled the best traits of God the Shepherd, someone who cared for people and creation, searched for the lost, and protected the weak. To be remembered as someone whose life was not dictated by fear, but by trust and acceptance. Someone who enjoyed the beauty and abundance of God’s world. Someone who in the end was invited with open arms to that great banquet. When I think of it like that, why wouldn’t I want this read at a funeral. It tells us of a life lived in relationship with God. That is the path where the shepherd leads all of us.

Amen.