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Psalm 23's trajectory-shaping skill
Cultivate it, and no valley can harm you
Nathan Harrison
October 23rd, 2021
We finish our walk through Psalm 23 today, and with a divine sleight of hand, a switch has taken place. Did you catch it?
When we began, this was a very visual journey. Every verse of the psalm has an object we can visualize in the present tense.
We see at present:
A shepherd, and our life as that of a sheep.
Green pastures, quiet waters, and right paths.
The darkest of valleys.
The shepherd's rod and staff.
A table prepared for us.
Oil for anointing, and an overflowing cup.
It's a fitting description of what the relationship with the shepherd looks like in our earthly experience. But there's a switch here in verse 6:
"Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
There's still an object - a house - we can visualize, but now we're dealing with future tense with the occurrence and reoccurrence of the word 'will.' Going forward, how will we recognize goodness and love without the visual objects so prominent in Psalm 23?
To answer this, we need to visit John 10.
Psalm 23 has given us the perspective of the sheep. Now we’ll get the shepherd's perspective in John 10. It informs how we know the goodness and love that will follow us all the days of our lives.
Move from the sheep’s view to the shepherd’s view
In John 10, Jesus warns us not to just follow any and every shepherd simply because they take on the appearance of one.
To do so would be disastrous. We need a good and loving shepherd, whose goodness and love follow us all the days of our lives. How will we know him? John 10 begins:
“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.”
As visual as Psalm 23 is, the shepherd says in John 10 that it’s his voice the sheep will need to know. Evidence in the form of what we see is wonderful and something to praise the Lord for when we spot it. But we can only follow if we know the good shepherd’s voice.
The surest sign of the voice of the shepherd is that his voice speaks the word of God. That word is one we can trust to be full of goodness and mercy.
Full of goodness and mercy
Psalm 23 gives us the implications of following the good shepherd. We’ve walked through them this week.
Lacking nothing, because in being his sheep we’re abundantly supplied.
Courage and comfort in the darkest of valleys, because he is with us.
And anointed and overflowing, because he has prepared a table and served us.
With that in mind, how could his goodness and mercy not follow us going forward?
As we wrap up our walk - if I could urge one takeaway for the future - it would be to continue to open the word of God, and in doing so to know his voice. Ask him to speak, and you'll encounter his mercy to answer, and his goodness that follows us all of our days.
How does that end? According to David, the sheep end up not in a field, or green pastures, quiet waters, or on a path. Not even in a valley, or at a table in the valley.
It culminates in the Lord opening the door to say to His children:
"Come on in...you get to dwell in my house. Forever."
Thank you for walking along with me this week through Psalm 23.
Going forward, I'd love to continue sharing His Word with you. If you'd like to continue receiving it, you don't need to do anything. 'A note from Nathan' will come once/week on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Nathan