A Good Thing to Remember!!!
A famous actor was an after-dinner speaker at a big function and when he stood up to speak, he invited his audience to choose a poem for him to recite.There was a long silence until a retired clergyman raised his hand and asked for Psalm 23. The actor was slightly taken back, but agreed to do so provided the clergyman would recite it after him, which the clergyman reluctantly agreed to do.
The actor recited Psalm 23 and received a standing ovation. When the clergyman recited the Psalm, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
The actor came over to the clergyman and said in front of all the guests. “Do you know the difference between his version and my version. I know the 23rd Psalm but he knows the Shepherd.”
Most everyone has heard of Psalm 23. It’s a poem with no peer and has been called the sweetest song ever sung. Abraham Lincoln read it to cure his blues, and President Bush proclaimed it publicly to calm fears after 9-11.
I’ve read these words out loud many times when meeting with families who just lost a loved one. I’ve read Psalm 23 to people in the home, at a hospital, and a Grave Side.
Since this psalm is so familiar, we’re in danger of missing the depth of its meaning. And, because it’s setting is in the world of sheep and shepherds, many of us city slickers can slide right past its richness. Did you know that the Bible refers to us as sheep nearly two hundred times?
There are two main characters in this psalm The Shepherd and his sheep.
God provides for us personally because of who He is. Look at the first phrase of verse 1: “The Lord.” This is the name “Yahweh” and was the name first revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:14: “I am who I am.” Ordinary Israelites considered this name too holy to be spoken by human lips. In fact, it was so revered that it was only pronounced once a year on the Day of Atonement, and then only by the high priest in the most holy place of the Temple.
In the Old Testament Yahweh occurs 6,519 times. This name is used more than any other name of God. Yahweh is the promised name of God. This name of God which (by Jewish tradition) is too holy to voice, is actually spelled “YHWH” without vowels. YHWH is referred to as the Tetragrammaton (which simply means “the four letters”).
If the name needed to be written, the scribes would take a bath before writing it and then destroy the pen afterward. While “Yahweh” is difficult to define, this name refers to the fact that God is who He is; He’s the one who causes everything else. He is unchanging, the one who inhabits eternity.
And yet, this is the name David chooses in the opening verse of Psalm 23. The great “I AM” is “my” shepherd. This is very similar in thought to Psalm 8 where we read, “O Lord [“Yahweh”], our Lord.”
He is other than us and yet He is ours.
He is powerful and He is personal.
He is majestic and He is mine.
He is a consuming fire and yet He is my sensitive shepherd.
I love the image of Yahweh as shepherd in Isaiah 40:11: “He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.”
Because the Lord is my shepherd, He cares for me personally and I shall not want!
And thats…A Good Thing to Remember!!!
