The LORD, the Psalmist’s Shepherd.
A Psalm of David.
1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. 3 He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever .
So here is the reality of The Nineteen days. We never know when we are living them out. The Guidry’s are not really unique in this experience. I would guess that everyone of you has walked through their own Nineteen Days, innocent of the storm that was just over the horizon. The fact is that this was not my first journey through the Nineteen Days, but it is my first journey through them where I truly understood David’s heart as he penned this Psalm. How we walk out the Nineteen Days is a function of this Psalm. Sentence by sentence it is a guide written by a man who walked through his own Nineteen Days many times over.
The nature of biblical Hebrew poetry is repetitive. This form can serve three functions. It creates a literary elegance that is aesthetically pleasing. It emphasizes the thought the poet is trying to convey. It also allows the poet to clarify the thought being conveyed, particularly when the first iteration is a metaphor. In the first two verses David offers one of the most universally recognized biblical metaphors. In verse three he opens his heart and repeats the metaphor in the plain words of his experience. “He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His names sake.” There is a temptation to equate the green pastures and the quiet waters with the circumstances of our lives. This can be the trap of the Nineteen Days. We can begin to believe that the restoration of our souls and the righteousness of our lives are tied up in how things are going. This is especially easy when thing are going great. We read “He makes me lie down in green pastures.” and we say wow the green pastures are the thing. As long as I am in green pastures I am going to be ok. In fact I am going to do everything I can to stay in green pastures. The hook is that when we do this we stop following God. The green pastures are not about our life circumstances, they are about God. He restores my soul. The path along the quiet waters, the path of righteousness is not about us and where we are, it is about who is our guide. In fact David goes on to talk about circumstances. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me” When I first read through this with the Nineteen days in mind, I thought, “Here it is, day 20, been there done that.” But as I began to pray about it God gently told me, day 20 is no different. Why is the rod and the staff so comforting? The symbolize authority and power, support. Is it that God will thunder in to the valley and beat back all the darkness? Perhaps The Shepherd, the Jewish superhero from the comics David read as a boy would; with lightning bolts firing from the rod and the staff crashing down with the power of an earthquake. This does not fit the metaphor. What did the good shepherd use his rod and his staff to do? We only need to step back to the beginning of David’s beautiful poetry, “He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. 3 He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.” Sorry no thunderous rescue. The reality is that our circumstances do not change the behavior of our God. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me….they make me lie down in green pastures, they lead me beside still waters. Take comfort whether in the nineteen days, the years that precede them or the days that follow, God is God, He is our great shepherd. If you follow the direction of his rod and his staff you will find yourself in green pastures, besides still waters. Your soul will be restored no matter how battered it is and you will find yourself on the path of Righteousness, not by any effort of you own but by direction of the only one who can lead you home.
Fan Into Flame Ministries 