Lead on Good Shepherd

As a kid growing up in a Christian family I was always familiar with the 23rd Psalm, although for some while my young mind was confused about who “Shirley Goodness” was, or why she’d want to follow me all the days of my life.

I had a bit of a gift as a youngster for mishearing things, also spending time pondering what a “foggle” was after first hearing the song Bright Eyes – it wasn’t until I was in my 20s that I realised Art Garfunkle actually sang “there’s a fog along the horizon!”

Leaving aside my childhood confusion, we return to the 23rd Psalm which we started thinking about in the June edition of en. Last time we looked at the first three verses in which the psalmist guides us through the who, where, and why (the Shepherd/green pastures/for his name’s sake); today we move into the second half of the Psalm and a subtle shift of grammatical emphasis.

In the first three verses David refers to God as “The LORD” or “he”, but verse 4 sees a change of tack. No longer is he just observing the part God plays in his life, now he’s directly addressing the LORD as “you”.

“The sun shines on the righteous” has become an English proverb, although it’s actually a distortion of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5 in which Jesus goes on to say that getting a suntan or a soaking both equally apply to the godly and ungodly, and it perhaps comes as a surprise to the reader of Psalm 23 that being led along paths of righteousness by the Good Shepherd not only fails to give us immunity from the “darkest valley” but will often take us right to the depths of the valley floor.

As Christians we’re often inconsistent in our understanding of divine providence. When we land the new job we wanted, complete the house purchase, or experience God’s healing, we’re quick to recognise God’s hand at work; but the sheep in Psalm 23 don’t end up in the darkest valley because the shepherd forgot to bring a torch and got lost, but because he led them there. God is sovereign not only over good but also over evil. While he’s not the architect of evil he’s still fully, not partially, sovereign, even when, this side of eternity, we can’t fully understand what He’s up to. When life gets tough we often, understandably, ask the question “Where’s God in all of this?” The answer is always the same: He’s there in it with us. Leading us. And not only with us and leading us, but comforting us with His “rod and staff ”.

Back in the day, before satnavs or Google Maps were a thing, it wasn’t uncommon when driving somewhere new to find yourself on a road that came to a dead end. The 23rd Psalm isn’t like that. It doesn’t minimise the importance of the journey (it’s an open question as to whether the prepared table and anointed head refer to the final destination or to pleasures dispensed by the shepherd while on the trek) but it doesn’t buy in to the contemporary myth that the journey is more important than the destination.

This is no aimless wandering around in circles and, while the journey has an end, it turns out, paradoxically, that the end is itself a beginning without end. David’s certainty here that one day he’ll “dwell in the house of the LORD forever” stands in opposition to the claim some make that Old Testament saints knew nothing of a promised afterlife. The green pastures, still waters, and the valley itself, all lead somewhere. Somewhere glorious and beyond our wildest imaginings. C.S. Lewis’s “first day of the holidays.” A place without sickness, sadness or pain. As the hymnwriter Vernon Higham put it: “Our God is the end of the journey, His pleasant and glorious domain.” And with the end in view, our hearts cry out “Lead on, Good Shepherd.”