Sheep do not choose their shepherd; the shepherd chooses the sheep; and the Good Shepherd has chosen us to sing. So what does it mean to sing this shepherd song, “The Lord is my shepherd?”

These lyrics sing in our souls. They sing of loved ones laid to rest. They sing of ordeals endured. They sing the song of our lives, the good and the bad, and the way we found to live, because “The Lord is my shepherd.”

What does it mean to sing this shepherd song? It means everything – life, and health, and peace, so we’re going to sing. We’re going to sing for we shall not want. We’re going to sing “for you are with me.” We’re going to sing, and we’re going to keep on singing this glorious shepherd song. Hallelujah! “The Lord is my shepherd,” your shepherd, our shepherd. Brothers and sisters, lambs of the flock, praise the Lord and sing this shepherd song!

I SHALL NOT WANT

“I shall not want?” What a scandalous concept! Our way of life is built on “wanting.” Advertisers inspire us to want. Merchants promise to satisfy our wants; and Lord knows - we want. Union organizer Samuel Gompers spoke for so many of us when he said, “We do want more, and when it becomes more, we shall still want more. And we shall never cease to demand more until we have received the results of our labor.” Yet we never quite get enough of the results of our labor, so we still want more.

This isn’t new. Gompers died in 1924. The Psalmist’s words, “I shall not want,” give us a sense of how ancient it is to want. And various spiritual thinkers throughout the centuries have wrestled with how profoundly human it is to want. Mick Jagger was far from the first to complain, “I can’t get no satisfaction.”

So what do we want? We have hot and cold running water, a steady food supply, a roof over our heads, and a measure of security in our streets that many in the world cannot imagine. Yet life satisfaction surveys keep finding that we are far less satisfied than folks who have so much less.

What do we want? Leonardo Boff, a South American theologian wrote an incredible little book on the 23rd Psalm, and he invites us to “consider the little poem that Saint Teresa of Avila wrote on her bookmark:

Let nothing disturb you,

Nothing frighten you,

Everything passes,

God does not change.

Patience achieves all.

One who has God

Will not want.

God alone suffices.

God – the essential Being, the originating Source of all being – is the only object adequate to our desire. Until we acknowledge that, we will be restless and unhappy. Other objects of desire, regardless of how significant they seem at any given time, do not have the power to still our restless hearts. If we place all our trust in them, we ultimately will be defrauded, not because they are false objects of desire, but because they do not have the mark of the true Infinite. The infinite void that threatens to devour us can only be filled by the infinite God. In this we can trust because, indeed, “God alone suffices.”

Our way of life is built on “wanting,” so what if we changed what we wanted? What if we looked beneath our desires (whatever they may be) and recognized them for what they are: The longing of our hearts for God who alone suffices?

Would we stop shopping ourselves into the poor house? Would we stop drinking and drugging ourselves into oblivion? Would we stop working ourselves into an early grave? Could we relax? Could we rest? Could we experience the incredible tranquility this shepherd song promises Psalm 23:1 (NRSV) The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

WFOR YOU ARE WITH ME

Sheep shouldn’t go it alone. We have a nose for trouble. We wander off and the next thing you know, we’re in the wrong place at the wrong time. We didn’t mean to; we didn’t want to; but here we are. How can we find our way back to the right path?

It’s like the challenge faced by Charles Lindbergh on his solo flight across the Atlantic. Magnetic north is not the same as true north, and the difference can put a navigator dangerously off course. For Lindbergh, the difference could mean running out of fuel and crashing in the Atlantic. Lindbergh solved this by checking his location every 100 miles and adjusting his direction to stay on course.

So how can we check the course of our lives and make adjustments so we don’t crash?

“At the center of this psalm is the statement “for you are with me.” The number of words leading up to the expression in the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) is twenty-six, not counting “A Psalm of David,” which was the work of later editors. If one counts back from the end of the psalm toward this expression, the number of words is also twenty-six. The words “for you are with me” appear precisely in the middle of the psalm. Was the writer of the psalm using this centering technique to emphasize these words, which are at the heart of what the psalm has to say? (The number twenty-six is itself of interest because the numerical value of the Hebrew letters in the word YHWH [Yahweh, the name for God] is 10+5+6+5=26.”

God’s presence is at the center, the core of this shepherd song. All that it promises – rest in green pastures, refreshment from still waters, guidance that leads us down the right path even through the valley of the shadow of death – all of it depends upon God’s presence being the center of our lives.

We want those promises. We want them so we turn to the 23rd Psalm in times of trial for comfort and hope, and it is there. Our Shepherd supplies our need. God goodness and mercy are far, far greater than our faithfulness. Thank God for that!

We want those promises; we want that peace but where is God in our lives? Is God at the center, the core of who we are, what we do, and why we do it, or would we rather go our own way, chart our own course, blaze our own trail – until we lambs find ourselves where the grass isn’t green, the water runs fast and deep, it’s getting dark and the walls are closing in?

Leonardo Boff writes, “Spiritual masters of all ages confirm that if human beings do not care for and cultivate this space for God, they feel empty, alone, and to some extent lost. Yet when they open to God, they feel accompanied, as though they were walking in the palm of God’s hand.

Only then does one experience a dimension of peace that no one can threaten or take away. Indeed, with God, “they shall not want.” When one has God, one has peace and serenity and can joyfully face death as a passage to the great encounter with him.

From God we gain strength to live in justice and to care for the Earth, society, and the whole of the human mystery in body, mind and spirit. Then we rest in God like sheep resting in green pastures” for you are with me.

Sheep do not choose their shepherd; the shepherd chooses the sheep; and the Good Shepherd has chosen us. He’s chosen us to sing the song. Sing for God alone suffices and we shall not want. Sing and celebrate the presence of God at the center of our lives “for you are with me.” Sing, and keep on singing this glorious shepherd song. Hallelujah! “The Lord is my shepherd,” your shepherd, our shepherd. Brothers and sisters, lambs of the flock, praise the Lord and sing this shepherd song! Amen!

http://216.93.167.235/quotes/samuel_gompers/

Leonardo Boff, The Lord Is My Shepherd. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2006. 61-62.

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. 1989. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

James Limburg, Psalms. Westminster Bible Companion. Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 2000. 74.

Boff, 70.