Psalm 23 (KJV)
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
The Servant Shepherd
Our familiarity with Psalm 23 can keep us from seeing the masterful progressions contained within these six lines. I’ll point to just a few that we discussed in the class.
The psalm begins with words about God. “The Lord is my shepherd. He makes me leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.” But in the valley of the shadow of death things turn. We move from words about God to talking to God. “I will fear no evil for you are with me. Your rod and staff comfort me. You prepare a table before me.” We meet the Good Shepherd in the valley of death.
But on the other side of the valley we find, to our surprise, that the Good Shepherd is preparing a table before us in the presence of our enemies. First, why is a sheep being allowed to eat at the table? And second, why is it that God is the waiter and we are the guests? Why is God serving us? Isn’t that backwards? Isn’t the point of our lives to serve God?
We aren’t the first to be shocked by this truth. Jesus’ own disciples couldn’t believe it which is why Jesus told them, “The son of man did not come to be served, but to serve.” Chris Green puts the point like this:
“We do not know even how to begin to take it seriously. How can it be that he serves us? But what if it were true? What if we’re trying to serve a God who wants to serve us?”
God is unlike anything we can compare him to, but he is more dissimilar to some things than he is to others. God is more dissimilar to a king than he is to a shepherd. A king exists at the top of the ladder of society. He has servants that do his bidding. Our God is lowly enough to wash feet.
But the psalm keeps moving. The Good Shepherd isn’t just serving you, he is anointing your head with oil. The word “Christ” or “Messiah” simply means the “Anointed One.” Only Jesus is the anointed one—he alone is the Christ—but here he is making you to be like him. But that still isn’t worded quite right. He isn’t merely making you like him so that you can imitate his example. He is making you to be him, to be his own body. He is bringing you into himself—he is the head and his people are his body.
If the head is anointed with oil, the body will be anointed, too. This is what Psalm 133 testifies to. The oil is poured upon the head of the priest, but it doesn’t remain on the head. It runs down upon his beard and to the collar of his garments—to his body!
Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down upon the beard,upon the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes!
Ps. 133:1—3
Oil is a sign of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is poured out on the Head at his baptism so that he can baptize us, his body, in the Spirit at Pentecost. He is bringing us all the way into his life. He is sharing everything with us.
From Sheep to Shepherds
Now comes the most astounding line of the psalm: “And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
When the psalm began you were a sheep in the Shepherd’s pasture. He led you around to still waters and walked with you through the valley of the shadow of death. But on the other side of the valley of death something shifted. You are not a sheep in the pasture anymore, you are a guest at the Shepherd’s table, eating his food! And after dinner you have been invited to dwell in the house with the Shepherd. Not for a sheep sleepover, but forever.
What in the world is a sheep doing dwelling in the house of the Shepherd? Sheep don’t live in the shepherd’s house. We began the psalm as sheep, but the psalm ends with us being equals with the shepherd living in his house. In other words, by the end of the psalm you are not a sheep anymore. The work of God in your life is to make you into a shepherd in the way that he is a shepherd. Or as Jesus tells his disciples: “I no longer call you servants. I call you friends.”
How is this made possible?
Remember what John the Baptist said when he saw Jesus approaching him? “Behold the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” The shepherd is a sheep. Or as John would later write in Revelation 7:17“For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
The Good Shepherd is a Shepherd by becoming a Lamb. Or to put it in terms St. Athanasius might approve of: The Shepherd became a sheep in order to make sheep into Shepherds.
And now we see why the psalmist says that goodness and mercy shall follow him all the day of his life. The psalmist isn’t merely talking about what God will do for you, but rather what God is doing through you for the sake of others.
Goodness and mercy shall follow you like the train of a bride’s wedding dress follows her wherever she goes. It is the trail she leaves anywhere she goes in the room. Now that you’ve been made a shepherd with the Shepherd, wherever you go goodness and mercy will be the result for the people you come in contact with.
This is the overflowing cup you are given: the eternal life of God. Those who believe in the Good Shepherd will have rivers of living water flowing up out of their bellies (John 7:38).
Your life is meant to become the overflow for your neighbor’s life. Because you are not meant to remain a sheep. You are meant to be a Shepherd with the Shepherd and as the Shepherd.
