A series on Psalm 23 - well known but misunderstood? (Part 1)
Introduction and Lesson One
During my childhood, I learnt to sing one version of Psalm 23, Crimond. Since then some other versions have come along. Stuart Townend’s Celtic version is quite popular - an there’s always the Vicar of Dibley’s theme tune to avoid!
Whatever our preferences, anyone of my age is likely to be able to recite Psalm 23 and the Lord’s Prayer, if nothing else, from all the scripture read to us in school assemblies.
For the past five years or so, I have often been drawn back to Psalm 23. The rather dreamy, pastoral feel I had associated with Ps 23 has been somewhat uprooted and a fuller more dynamic version put in its place.
My first point.
The Psalm can be read ‘linearly’ or ‘eternally’. If eternally, each verse is like a musical instrument in an orchestra. Then, the whole Psalm becomes more like listening to the orchestra with one or two instruments at any one time taking the lead. If studying Ps 23 linearly, verse by verse, Ps 23 can be thought of as a life ‘assault course’, we will not emerge the same as when we started.
My second point.
Modern versions, like the NIV, or The Message, or NLT are excellent, but treat yourself, revel in the beautiful King James Version language. There’s something about the rhythm and phrasing that takes you far beyond the normal legitimate concerns we may have to ensure the accuracy of translation and higher, into the realm of poetry and song. After all, the Psalms are lyrics to 150 songs, many sung by the shepherd boy David in the often hostile environment of the Judean hills:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
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.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
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.
My third point.
Once we have grasped the Psalm linearly we can enjoy the whole orchestra or band playing a never-ending extemporary version, each verse emphasised at different times, speaking to us in new ways.
The Linear Version
Introduction
When Jesus, often called the Son of David, picked up the cup after supper he said: ‘This cup is the New Covenant* in My blood which is shed for you’.
• New Covenant can be translated New Testament; Old/New Covenant is equivalent to the phrases Old/New Testament
He was referring to the prophetic scriptures in Ezekiel and Jeremiah written many hundreds of years earlier and now fulfilled as Christ was taken to the cross and bled and died or us.
‘Behold the days are coming in which I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah…this is the covenant: I will put My law in their minds and write it one their hearts…no more shall every man teach his neighbour saying, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know Me…’ Jer 31 v 31 – 34
‘I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you… I will remove the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit in you and cause you to walk in my statutes’ Ez 36 v 26,27 (also Ez 11v19)
To summarise, the Christian life is not one of trying to keep a set of external Laws inscribed, like the Ten Commandments, on tablets of stone, or to treat the bible as life-manual full of instructions, like an old Hayes car manual.
Open heart surgery.
The Jeremiah and Ezekiael prophecies indicate that God will do what we can never do for ourselves. He opens us up and works internally not externally. First our old hearts – which to God are like stones incapable of the life He wants us to know – are removed and a new heart, this time of flesh, full of life, is transplanted. This new operating system is an intimate joining of a new spirit with His Holy Spirit. That’s the conduit of eternal life to us. The Spirit then working from within writes the laws of God on our new hearts, therefore enabling us to live like Jesus.
This re-programming is a revolution. Religion is a human attempt to mimic God. It’s not a bad aim, we all have that urge within us, warped maybe by the distortions that being cut off from God brings through sin, but we reach out to God, often when we are desperate enough to admit ‘I can’t do this!’
In response to our cry, God sets up His tent in each of us and lives His life in our form.
The Lord is my shepherd.
Immediately we see Ps 23 is not primarily about us. David was out on the hills making sure he kept his father’s flock together, but why? They are being herded towards death. All of them. When John the Baptist called out ‘Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world’ it was a clear indication that Jesus’ death as the Passover Lamb of God, was to be of profound importance to the whole world. Now, as Christ’s disciples, we are to be like Him.
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death Philip 3 v 10
Any notion that the Christian life is all about God blessing us as if the whole of creation revolves around us is false. We are caught up in His purposes.
The ‘old you’, the ‘you’ with the heart of stone has been removed. The Christian life is not about gradually changing stone into flesh. No, the stony heart is surgically removed, and a new heart is transplanted in its place; it is a new spirit/Holy Spirit operation. It’s deep. It cuts that deep. The Christian life is run by the Spirit of Christ from within, joined to our spirit. We die to any controlling influence from our old life, just like the disciples who ‘left their nets’. What that means for each of us is highly individual.
‘I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives within me. The life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me’ Gal 2v20
We shall see, as the Psalm progresses the amazing economy of God that when we stop trying to make it about us, we get the blessing anyway!
I shall not want
Of course not! In any and every situation in which we are placed, the Shepherd has everything covered. Sheep often have to wander across rocky terrain temporarily with no food, but the Shepherd is always taking us on to the next spot of grass. Remember the purpose is not to have thin, unhealthy, injured, and lame sheep, we are to be presented in good nick. As good a nick as Jesus Himself. But there will be tough times when there’s no grass on which to graze.
He makes me down to lie
This is of supreme importance in the Christian life. Each believer has the life of God within. But we still retain the possibility of living from our misconception of personal responsibility; our thoughts, our feelings, or our decisions to do this or that. We are still foolish sheep who wander off. The bible is quite endearing in its various depictions of us as ‘silly sheep’. We can, if we want, still try and live according to our old ways of thinking and ignore the voice of God from within.
This is described in the New Testament as ‘fleshly’ or ‘carnal’ living, a spiritually immature stage we must put behind us as soon as possible. Let me try and illustrate this.
You might be in the habit of organising family holidays before you come to Christ. Before the open-heart surgery has been completed. You have developed a well-worn and successful routine. You decided ages ago to work through the vowels: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark and next year should be E, maybe Egypt. But when you look at the brochures in January you feel uneasy inside. You don’t know why. You look at Egypt and all its history. You imagine riding a camel and visiting the Sphinx and so on. But another thought has arrived. ‘Ask the family about the vowels method’. Inside you respond: ‘But it’s worked so well over the years, Lord’. The Christian life is about hearing a new voice. It’s about losing every argument with Jesus. It’s about dying to our old ways. It doesn’t have to be about anything religious, it concerns the whole of life. It’s developing a more intuitive, sensitive ear to the Spirit.
Is He or is He not Lord? Is He or is He not your shepherd? If so, get prepared to be shepherded!
To ‘lie down’ is to give up rushing around when all God wants is for you to stop. It’s like Mary and Martha. Martha was rushing around trying to meet everyone’s needs. Mary her sister had ignored everyone’s needs for a while and chose to sit at Jesus’ feet.
‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her’
I feel sure Jesus spoke gently and kindly to Martha. It was something she had to learn. There’s a time for housework, for work of all kinds in fact, including ‘Christian’ work. It’s not that the work is wrong in itself, it’s just that we need to respond when God is speaking to us on the inside. Nothing else is as important. That’s the time to stop and down tools.
The Christian life is not, primarily about doing it’s about listening. Paul in Romans is not lying when he wrote ‘For as many as are led by the Spirit of God; these are the sons of God’.