God’s Pursuit!

Sermon Psalm 23 April 26, 2015 Easter 4 Shepherd Sunday

God’s Pursuit!

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

² He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

³ He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

⁴ 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.

⁵ Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Six verses.

                 That’s all there are.

                            The most famous six verses of the Bible in the King James Version.

Those who have never opened the Book or ever entered into the walls of the church know these six verses.

We heard these words recited at gravesides day after day. We know these words as they are shared at the bedside of those we love in hospitals and nursing homes. We know these words in dark shadows of the night as we whisper them to calm our fears.

Psalm 23 is a psalm we know for bad and sad times. Yet, it is more than that-it is also a psalm rich for life and for good times. In it we discover the very nature of God in a way might not have imagined before.

There is a radical nature of God exploding upon us at the very end in the last verse. And so that is where we’ll begin. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”

As I shared with the children, we have a God who we cannot shake. In the game of tag the end game is to catch the one we pursue. The end game is to keep chasing until we tag the intended target. Radaph or Radap in the Hebrew for follow is God’s active pursuit! God’s pursuit of us is active and unrelenting. God, like the hound of heaven, is nipping at our heels. God is chasing you and me all the days of our life!

And God’s pursuit is one of goodness and mercy.

Mercy in the Hebrew is written as Hesed. Here as we look at the letters-three letters-(to describe something about God that we lose in translation)-our English language cannot capture the fullness of this word about God.

God’s great and most amazing love, mercy, grace and kindness are all wrapped up in this one word Hesed. We aren’t being chased by judgment or a harsh God but by all that is good!

So, if we know from the beginning that God is in hot pursuit of us with goodness and hesed. God’s most fundamental nature is one of goodness and Hesed-mercy, grace, and love!!

It is then without a doubt that the psalmist could give God the most royal and kingly title of Shepherd. The Hebrew word for shepherd is ‘roi’ And so here in the very beginning this psalmist makes it clear who he is committed to and who he is loyal to-and how he is fully dependent on God. God is ours and we are God’s!

There are many names the Old Testament uses for God but in this psalm it is not Elohim or another name but the very name the Jews would not pronounce out of utter respect and awe God. The name for God used here is, the I AM, our Shepherd.

We have all learned about Shepherds and we know very well what they do and if don’t we know how to google it and find out. We heard in this morning’s reading from the gospel of John who Jesus is as the Good Shepherd and how he cares for his flock, his sheep, that he lays down his life for them.

A shepherd is responsible for a flock, to guide them and protect them. A shepherd does what it takes to keep the flock calm and keeps them from getting lost. They give their life to this occupation, they spend all day with them and if they have traveled too far to bring them home at night they will stay with them until morning. The prophet Ezekiel describes God as a loving shepherd. The prophet Isaiah also uses the shepherd to describe God’s protective care as well as God’s sacrificial love.

And isn’t that what we all need,

what we all want and

what we all hope for?

Just like children trust their parents to keep them from harm and we trust our doctors to keep us healthy and we trust our local and national leaders to keep us secure, we want to trust that our God can do the same and more.

But when bad and sad news comes close to home,

when it hits our family and our friends,

we need the promise of a psalm like this one to sustain us through these dark times.

The earthquake in Nepal,

a devastating church fire in Paris Tennessee,

a death of a child seeking a toilet in a country where homes do not have them,

a child who hurts herself because her pain within can’t find relief,

a child injured by people who are supposed to protect her,

the diagnosis of cancer,

the presence of illness and loss and pain

have done more than make the news,

they have been part of our personal family pain this week.

We need this psalm of promise to carry us through the unfairness of this world and to get us beyond the evil that seeks to prevail over us.

And that is one reason why the verse of darkness of the valley impacts us so strongly. The deep valley that has dark shadows and frightening circumstances perhaps even an abyss of threats where it seems there is no way out.

God speaks to us and affirms that even in the death shadow of the valley we do not need to fear because the I AM, t

he Good Shepherd carries a rod

that will ward off evil and knock

senseless the wild beasts who seek to attack us.

The people of Exodus remember Moses and his staff. They remember being guided through the wilderness without fail by God. The miracles of the past, the triumph over evil of the past, and the resurrection over death of the past, are the memories that strength our faith and restore our love.

Rabbi Harold Kushner tells of his son who was born with an incurable illness. He said looking back he wondered how he and his wife got through those times and he said that instead of this event shattering his faith it strengthened it. He said they used up all the resources within themselves and realized the only answer to the difficulties was to turn to God who restored their love and faith. He wrote the book “When bad things happen to good people” because of this experience. Just as God carried the people through the wilderness, God our Shepherd will bring us through our wilderness.

Jesus proclaimed that he is the Good Shepherd. He said he is the “I AM” the true shepherd that has come to gather his people and restore them to himself. As we look to God for our strength and renewal through this psalm we can also look to Christ and know that he has also been through the valley for our sake. He has come through on the other side. His death and resurrection assures us and gives us hope that he not only is there to greet us on the other side of the valley but he is with us every step of the way never letting us leave his side.

But we can’t stop here with the psalm because it is more than comfort in bad and sad times it is one that fills us with good things. So we can have a new way of using these words to refresh and fulfill us. We discover God as the one who provides us with food and drink and shelter, our most basic necessities.

We lack for nothing.

All is provided.

Our lives are fully dependent on God.

The imagery of green pastures and still waters are so strong to our senses that we can see and

feel and

even touch.

God brings us to places of healing and refreshment. The Hebrew word for lie down offers the image of being stretched out. Now those of you who do yoga, you understand this image. And those of you who have been part of one Debbie and Nina’s contemplative retreats, you get this idea of stretching out full before God.

It’s like lying on our backs, looking up at the fluffy clouds floating by in a bright blue sky while the green lush grass is beneath us filled with soft clover flowers cushioning us like a down comforter.

Some people I know who are much better at rest and quiet reflection than I am have shared with me how they have discovered the place where they can connect with God. They have a few places where they go and in those places God stretches them out and quiets their spirit.

One friend shares with me how her garden filled with flowers and working in the dirt is the way God enters as she kneels by the earth.

Another friend who goes fishing and he goes down to the river or creek he watches the water ebb and flow. He said it still his mind and refreshes him as well as a cool glass of sweet ice tea.

Another friend has an amazing workshop where he works and creates art with wood or canvas and in his workshop he finds the shelter of the Lord.

Yes, we are struck deeply by this psalm as it has become part of our own makeup, our very being ushered into the arms of a personal God. We’ve been drawn together as the flock of the Shepherd, the Church, the Body of Christ. God’s immeasurable abundant desire for us is set at the table. God brings our cups to overflowing.

God’s pursuit is unrelenting.

Goodness and mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for days without end. Amen.