Today is the third week of our ecumenical midweek Lenten series in Greene. For 2022,, we are using the series “Shepherd Me, O God” from Luther Seminary’s Rolf Jacobson and Church Anew. Since I alternate weeks with Pastor Joan Thomas from the UMC-Presbyterian-Brethren Yoke of Greene, this is my second sermon in the series. (Read my Ash Wednesday sermon here.)
This week, the focus text is Psalm 23:4, and to go with that, I’ve chosen the texts Isaiah 43:1–7, Philippians 3:7-12, and James 1:1-4. There is a truth in the center of this beloved Psalm – God leans closest to us in the midst of our suffering. In doubt, fear, abandonment, depression, alienation, and despair, God is near.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Many of you were here on Ash Wednesday, when I talked about growing up with pets, and how one of my first responsibilities as a kid was to feed the dog. I talked about how important it is as a pet-owner or a farmer to take care of your animals first, because they depend on you, like how we as sheep depend on God to be our shepherd.
Well, I need to expand on that a little bit, because as I was working on this message, I remembered a time when I didn’t exactly live up to the role model of the good shepherd. I don’t know how old I was, but one year for my birthday I got Uncle Milton’s Ant Farm. Did any of you have this, or get it for your kids? This is a picture of the real Uncle Milton, Milton Levine. He died in 2011 at the age of 97.
The joy of an ant farm is that you can watch the ants work, and you can sort of poke at them to see what happens, how they react. I’m pretty sure the directions say to not disturb them, but really, how could anyone have this ant farm and not poke at them? At least, that’s what I tell myself.
Anyway, tonight we’re looking at verse 4 of the 23rd Psalm: “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.”
This verse is really the center of the Psalm, the heart of Psalm 23, and it’s about God’s promise to be with us all the time, especially in places of peril. I know for many of you, this version of Psalm 23 that we’re using is not the one you learned or maybe even memorized as a child. In the old King James version, this verse says “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” I actually really like that phrase “shadow of death” but it’s not quite an accurate translation.
I don’t speak or read Hebrew, but as I understand it from Dr. Rolf Jacobson’s work, the word in Hebrew is “salmoate.” It’s an unusual word, and the medieval translators weren’t quite sure what to do with it, so they broke it down. The first part “salm” sounds like the Hebrew word for “shadow” and the “oate” part sounds like death, so they went with valley of the shadow of death, sort of a compound word. However—and again, I am definitely not a Hebrew expert—I’m trusting people who do know Hebrew—the Hebrew language doesn’t have compound words. So since the King James version, with more research, we’ve learned the word “salmoate” means complete darkness. But it also implies the place of death, sort of the darkness inside a grave.
So in the Psalm, it means the place where if you go there, you might die. Even if you go there, even if you go to the most dangerous place imaginable, God is with you.
And sometimes it takes being in that sort of place, being in the darkest valley, in the shadow of death, to understand what God’s presence means. In the darkness, in the places of loneliness and abandonment and isolation and death, that’s where we notice God’s presence with us.
The center of Psalm 23 is God’s promise to be with us, to be our good shepherd walking alongside us through life, and our claim “You are with me.” We dare to claim God is with us not just in the green valleys and beside the pleasant still waters, but in the darkest valleys as well.
This is not a new idea that David came up with in this Psalm. In fact, the idea of God being present with us is kind of the heart of the Christian faith, right? Especially in times of trouble.
It’s in Isaiah 43, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.” That’s from a prophecy given through Isaiah to God’s people in exile, far from home, captured and taken away into Babylon. It’s a message for refugees. “Do not fear, for I am with you…I will gather your offspring, your sons and daughters from far away, from the ends of the earth, and I will bring you back home.” The situation is never hopeless, because God is near.
Over and over again, God promises to be with us. It’s the last thing Jesus says to his disciples before he ascends into heaven. In Matthew 28, he says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” I am with you always. That promise is for us today, not just for the disciples, but for the church throughout the centuries.
It’s not something abstract either. In Jesus Christ, God has entered into this world, coming to dwell with us. It’s the Christmas story: The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. In Matthew, the angel tells Joseph to name the child “Emmanuel” which literally means, “God with us.”
God comes to dwell with us, and then from the cross, we learn God promises to be with us in our suffering. Jesus came to suffer, to give his life for us. The cross proves that whatever suffering we might go through, whatever you might be going through even right now, God understands it. God can relate.
Sometimes it takes trials, sometimes it takes a journey through a dark valley to notice God is with you. It’s in the testing that we recognize God’s presence. James says “the testing of your faith produces endurance” and leads to maturity in faith. That’s a dangerous passage, because it can sound like God is a puppet master, like you’re an ant in the ant farm and God’s out there with a twig nudging you to see what happens. God’s not out there going, “Hmm, what would happen to their faith if I zap their dog or flood their house?”
No, if we’re going with the ant farm image, then God has come into the ant farm with us, to make a way for us to get out, to give us hope.
The endurance James speaks about does come through trials, because it’s the hard times, the times of passing through dangerous, dark valleys that serve to give us clarity on what’s important. Often it’s in looking back at what we’ve come through that we can discern God’s presence with us through the valley. As Paul says in Philippians, “I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” What’s important is the righteousness found in Christ.
When we come to the end of our ropes, when we’ve tried our very best to make it on our own and we’ve failed, then we understand the importance of God’s grace. Then we understand the value of the promise that God is with us, watching over us, leading us through the valleys and onto the other side.
In the midst of life’s trials, may you find comfort in the presence of your Good Shepherd leading you today and always.
Amen