The Lord Is My Shepherd
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Festival Processional Song from Psalm 23
The Lord as my shepherd - what more could I want!
Sweet and fresh is the pasture where I find peace and calm.
By waters limpid and restful, there my strength is restored.
You lead me on paths firm and sure, you live up to your name.
Even the shadows of darkness and death hold no fear for me.
You stand by with your crook in hand, in you I find protection.
You have set forth a banquet for me, how my enemies rage!
With precious oil you anoint my head, my cup past overflowing.
Surely goodness and mercy shall walk with me always, every day of my life.
And my home is the Lord's own house, for as long as I live.
A Reflection on John 10:1-18
It was the Feast of the Dedication when Jesus came up to the Temple to pray with his
disciples, awaiting the day when the LORD would return to restore the scattered tribes of
Israel.
And he said to them, "I am the gate of the sheepfold. All who have come before me are
like thieves and bandits, but the sheep took no notice of them.
"I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.
"I am the good shepherd, I know my own and my own know me..
"And there are other sheep I have that are not of this fold, and I must lead these too.
They too will listen to my voice, and there will be only one flock, one shepherd."
Composer's Reflection
The Coming Messianic Banquet
The winter-time Feast of the Dedication, may seem to be an unlikely starting point for understanding the Good Shepherd psalm. Hanukkah, this mid-winter solstice festival of lights, commemorates the rebuilding of the Temple, and the re-unification of all of the lost and scattered Tribes of Israel into one single shrine and sanctuary. One of the Jewish lectionary cycles of readings for this feast includes Genesis 46:28 - 47:31, (the Law) and Ezekiel 37:15-28 (the Prophets). Both of these readings predict the unification of the Tribes of Israel as symbolized in the reunion of Joseph and his family, and the appearance of Yahweh as Shepherd King to gather the scattered flock of Israel and to restore them in harmony and justice as a single nation, a single people, a light to the world. This would be the arrival of the Day of the Lord, the Messianic Era, when those who had remained faithful to the Lord would enjoy the fruits of the messianic banquet, from which would be excluded all who had rejected the Lord as Shepherd.
The entire chapter 10 of John's Gospel takes place during the Feast of the Dedication (10:22), the feast following Tabernacles. Scholars suggest that John's Community observed a Jewish lectionary, his Gospel originating as a Christian commentary on the cycle of readings appointed to be read on the various Sabbaths and Festivals of the Jewish Year. From the readings for the Dedication, John was able to point to Jesus, who had risen some sixty years earlier, and say: this is your Shepherd who is the good shepherd, long-awaited by Israel who will come to gather the scattered peoples together once more who even now is heralding in the Messianic Era.
As Shepherd, Jesus would re-unite the scattered nation and lead them to a new land of promise. The Palestinian shepherd was constantly seeking fresh pastures in the barren Judaean scrub-land. This entailed climbing up mountain sides, taking risks, looking for new sources of water in far away places, in remote valleys. Here was no comforting security, rather a long haul to a new pasture.
On the surface, Psalm 23 is about safety, security, gentleness and trust. The real meaning is about insecurity; the Shepherd as the risk-taker, the trail-blazer. The flock will always follow, taking the same risks. Those who remain faithful to the shepherd's call will enjoy the fruits of fertile pastures, but even these pastures in time wear thin. Only the Messianic Shepherd is able to guarantee an unending banquet at which all guests would enjoy unity and harmony in a land of ending joy.
A Processional Psalm for a Temple Feast
Our current text is post-Exilic. It describes the Lord as Shepherd (vv 1-4) and as Host of the Messianic Banquet (vv 5-6). Despite its images of peace and security, it is a liturgical psalm and not a pious text for reflective synagogue use. It's structure is cultic, processional. It is a ritual song for the processional rites of the Feast of the Dedication, reflecting the theology of that occasion. It was also associated with the Feast of Tabernacles, a week of festivity with prayers for fresh, life-giving waters, celebrating the new Jerusalem (as described in the Book of Revelation).
The first section is a call to worship. We gather because we have been called. We are reminded that the Lord, as Shepherd, called the sheep. Under the Lord's direction, we move as pilgrims and members of one flock towards the pastures of the courts of the Lord's house. The paths along which we are led are the ways of righteousness and justice, which we must follow if we wish to enter the Lord's house (see Psalms 14, 24, 95, 118).
Walking through the bitter valley, the pilgrims caught a first glimpse of Jerusalem, after weeks of tortuous trails through mountain and scrub land. Ahead lay Mt. Zion, the Rock of the Temple. They passed through this valley, also known as the bitter valley, the valley of sorrow, the valley of darkness and death. Balsam trees lined the way. Like weeping willows, they conveyed a sense of gloom and desolation (see Psalm 84). This, the final stage of the pilgrims' journey, led to the holy mountain, the heavenly courts of the Temple. Ahead lay fresh pasture, the true goal of all pilgrims.
The rod and the staff are symbolic. Ezekiel 37:15 is a prophetic commentary on Genesis 46, a reading assigned to the Feats of the Dedication. The Lord commanded Moses to take two sticks or staffs and write on them the names of the separated tribes of Israel. The Lord would make one stick out of the two, to unite Israel. The call to worship is a call to unity; the call to keep alive the memory of God's faithfulness is a call to honor covenant. This challenge is to restore justice to the world, the order undone by the Fall at Creation. The responsibility for this falls now on the shoulders of the sheep In the messianic age, the flock is builder of the new order of peace, harmony, and equality.
My home - the house of the Lord for ever. This liturgical formula is found throughout the psalter. Psalm 63 describes the distress of the pilgrim in exile, separated from the Lord's house. Psalm 84 is a love-song to the house of the Lord. Psalm 122 is a song of pure delight in standing in the Lord's house. In the house of the Lord, every attribute of the Messianic Era is to be found: a banquet set for the faithful, the oil for anointing the Lord's chosen, the blessing cup which would never run dry, endless days of happiness, goodness and kindness. In the Lord's house, all of the fruits of RUAH, God's creating power, and TORAH, God's restoring power, are enjoyed.
For the devout Jew, the ultimate reward for a life well-spent in faithfulness to the Lord's commands will be to enjoy the Lord's Day of Favor, the Lord's Sabbath, the Lord's own rest. Psalm 95 describes the fate awaiting all who were unfaithful to the Lord:
For forty years I grew weary with these people;
then I said: their hearts have gone astray,
these people no longer know my ways.
And so I swore to them in my anger:
not one of you shall ever find rest in my sight!
To be denied access to the Lord's rest is to be annihilated; it literally means to cease to exist.
Without God, there could be no life. The end vision of Psalm 23 is to spend eternity in the house of the Lord, enjoying God's favor and rest. Every Sabbath kept on earth will be but a pale imitation of the total joy and tranquility of that Great Sabbath of enjoying, endlessly, the Lord's own rest.