1. The Lord is my shepherd
I lack nothing . . . and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
The psalm has two main characters. But they are not EQUAL characters. The well-being of one – the Psalmist – depends on
the other – the LORD.
This is a Psalm the Queen – and her mother before her – loved. It figured in the Thanksgiving Service in St Paul’s immediately after her death, in St. Giles Cathedral Edinburgh and in her funeral at Westminster Abbey.
The familiarity of this Psalm masks a great surprise in it. Compare for a moment the (nearly as well known) Psalm 100 –
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
That makes perfect sense. We are familiar with the Shepherd and the flock of sheep (gathered in the fold or dispersed across the hills).
But Psalm 23 is not about a flock of sheep. The Psalmist writes from the perspective of just one sheep. 'My Shepherd'; 'leads me'; 'restores my soul' etc. An individual can know the shepherd’s love and care.
Although she was the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, the Queen often referenced her personal faith: And as surely as it was true for King David of old and Queen Elizabeth II it can be true for me and for you. Not a general God-Shepherd and an uncertainty about whether we are in or out of the flock. A personal grasp that The Lord is my Shepherd.
2. I shall not want
This cannot mean I will have no
problems because most of the rest of the Psalm is exactly about those
problems. There are four that are plain
to see:
a. Need for Refreshment
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3 he refreshes my soul.
The Queen served us in a phenomenal way for a historic duration. But she died at a place very dear to her and where she could relax from the hectic Constitutional life of London. Even in London she liked to listen daily to her bagpiper- a reminder of Balmoral! Part of the secret of her longevity of service is that she did not try to do it 24/7.
What is true for our bodies and minds is true for our souls. Many people, seeking inner refreshment, turn to a multitude of places and methods. Yet if we let Our Shepherd lead us this will be seal peace into our souls.
b. Choosing Right over Wrong.
He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.
Not only will life’s journey have the capacity to weary us, it also has many ways to go wrong. It also has paths that are RIGHT.
No Shepherd choreographs sheep! They can have choice – but they must he headed away from what is dangerous and bad for them. Whoever we are, we need to be led by Someone greater than ourselves. In the words of a great Scottish hymnwriter:
I would not if I might:
so shall I walk aright.
is thine, so let the way
that leads to it be thine,
else I must surely stray.
in things or great or small;
be thou my guide, my strength,
my wisdom, and my all.
c. Dark Times
Her late Majesty said, in the year of a major fire at Windsor and of the break up of three of her children's marriages -- “1992 is not a year
on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure. In the words of one of my
more sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be an ‘Annus Horribilis.’
I suspect that I am not alone in thinking it so.”
More recently she suffered the great loss of her husband on whom she greatly relied.
All of us know such seasons of life’s journey. The Shepherd is the same, but the environments we travel through are wildly different.
d. Enemies
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
In some of the Psalms the enemies loom very large. But in this psalm, with this trust, they are simply a background. Like the Pharisees in the Gospels; the soldiers guarding the tomb and – at Christ’s return one day the Kings of the Earth, they serve only to enhance the central figure – or in the case of Psalm 23 the meal.
The Shepherd reduces enemies to background.
3. I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
6 Surely
your goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
One of the last people that the Queen met at Balmoral, on her last Sunday, was the current Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. In his capacity, he had tea with the Queen and they talked about many things.
In the middle of this conversation, he said, the Queen suddenly talked about the Christian hope and the meaning of our Resurrection. They discussed a while, then moved to another subject. In the light of the last week he reflected on the fact that she began her last week anticipating life beyond death.
In Psalm 23 the Psalmist does the same. Faith is not an endless journey. It is a journey home.
The Queen took many journeys in her lifetime. She also had many homes, official and
private, that she lived in throughout the UK.
But she could only, this week, have one home that actually matters.
And that’s our story too. We all have different ‘home’ stories. Maybe we even have more than one home, we own a home, we don’t own a home, we lodge, we live in a shed (yes, someone connected to our church has done that!).
But actually in the end the issue is about whether we have this promise - I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever - I'm heading home.
Today hundreds of planes will land at London's Heathrow Airport. Coming from everywhere, hot or cold climates, rich or poor countries, long or short distances, small or large planes - all that then matters is that they land.
Our journeys are all different; but as for Her Majesty the Queen, so for us each and all, we need a Shepherd in life and a Home in death.
We need the Lord.
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