Psalm Meditation 814
Third Sunday After Epiphany
January 24, 2016

Psalm 23
1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters;
3 he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.
4 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.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
6 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.
(NRSV)

It is a humbling thing to admit to the need of a shepherd. A shepherd leads without consulting the sheep as to route, destination or duration of stay. A shepherd has limits past which the sheep are not to go. A shepherd offers protection to the sheep, especially those that stay within sight, hearing and some long, quick steps that get the shepherd between the sheep and danger.

We have a desire to have some say in where we are going, how we get there and how long we stay. When we accept God’s claim on us as our shepherd we have to give up some of that control over our itinerary. It is part of the human condition to push past the limits, to see what happens and to see what is out there. Some of our limits are flexible, changing as we mature in a variety of ways while others are not. We want to be protected from our own foolishness as well as from the others who intend to harm us. The ways God protects us are beyond our understanding.

When we join the psalmist in accepting God’s claim on us as shepherd, we make some choices and decisions. We decide to follow, even when it is not the way we would have chosen, especially when it is not the easy, popular or the ‘we’ve always done it like this’ way. We decide to follow, acknowledging that some of the limits we accept change from time to time. Good and bad, acceptable and unacceptable, moral and immoral have been known to switch poles as our understanding of both God and the world change. We decide to follow knowing that God may or may not intervene for us in any given situation, knowing that it has everything to do with God, not us. We decide to follow for the perks because we are human and tend toward selfishness. We decide to follow because God calls us to follow and we respond to the love in God’s voice.

January 18, 2016
LCM