Tag Archives: Psalm 23

Our Heart Song – Belonging

06 Tuesday Jan 2015

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Psalm 23 is a personal Heart Song to the One who has loved us from the very beginning. Are you able to sing it?

As we continue our series about our Heart Song, consider the last two verses: You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honour me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.

As you listen to the Good Shepherd’s voice, you will begin to trust him more and more, and you will discover to him and him alone – you are enough; only with him can you sing:  “I have all that I need.” When we go through the valley of dark shadows our fear makes us focus on the danger, the problems, the threats. The Good Shepherd tells us to focus on him – remember that he is with us, remember who he is, remember his care and protection. The more we trust him and follow him, we too will be able to say: “I will not be afraid.”

As the song concludes, the metaphor shifts from Yahweh is my shepherd and I am his sheep to Yahweh is my host and I am his guest. Although it seems like a completely different song, it is emphasizing the two key points from before – with Yahweh I lack nothing and with Yahweh I don’t need to be afraid.

The song ends by proclaiming, “Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.” Think about that for a moment – God will pursue you with his love until your very last breath.

Consider about all the times you tried to hide from God. Something you said or did left you so ashamed that you were sure you had ruined your divine relationship; it had disqualified you from heaven. Maybe it’s happening right now and you keeping up appearances, your smile is forced, inside you’re broken; feeling forsaken. Listen to Our Heart Song. God has not forsaken you; he has not called off his pursuit; he’s seeking for you even right now and he will not stop until your very last breath.

Kind of overwhelming, isn’t it? Let me add one more part.

There is some Hebrew word play going on in the last part of the verse with the word “live.” It also means “return.”  What the song is saying is, if you go away; if you are away right now and feeling like you have lost your way, his abundant hospitality will be the same when you come back.

In this world, we are often on the outside. It might be your gender, your age, the colour of your skin, your language, your social status, your education or abilities… Many things make us feel like we are outside; abandoned, rejected.

The Good Shepherd’s abundant hospitality, care and protection, and pursuit of our hearts tells us that even when this world leaves us outside, in Him we find belonging.

Our Heart Song – No Fear

30 Tuesday Dec 2014

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Psalm 23 is a personal Heart Song to the One who has loved us from the very beginning. Are you able to sing it?

As we continue our series about our Heart Song, consider the lines: Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.

Look at how the writer changes from “The Lord is my shepherd” to “YOU are with me.” It just became even more personal, closer and more intimate. Why?

In the dark valleys of our lives it often seems like God has gone missing. We lose a loved one, we get bad news from the doctor, we are laid off or we get a call from the police concerning one of our children. For many, the dark shadowy valleys are even greater, even darker. And if we were to zoom out and see this planet from the angel’s perspective, we would realize that Earth is the “the shadowiest of all shadowy valleys.”

And yet, from our hearts we can sing that we don’t need to be afraid for the Divine shepherd is with us. He is our Emmanuel. He is with us by his presence, he is with us by his compassion and understanding, he is with us by his determination to defeat the things that keep us from him. Into our fear God comes with the message:

Do not be afraid of me.
Do not be afraid of what I am asking of you.
Do not be afraid of going where I am leading you.

To the extant that we trust him; believe who he is and what he says, we too can sing our Heart Song.

Will you believe today?

Our Heart Song – Enough

23 Tuesday Dec 2014

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We live in a never enough culture. Every day we hear the whisper: we’re not good enough, smart enough, successful enough, beautiful enough, loveable enough… Never enough is a shadowy, slow, pressure that squeezes us; it creates unease, sometimes it drives us to do things that leave us even more desperate to be enough.

Listen to The Heart Song:
The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me.
Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.
You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.
Psalm 23, New Living Translation

In chapter 10 of the Good News recorded by John, Jesus connects the dots between the Divine Shepherd in The Heart Song and himself. He says he is the Good Shepherd and describes himself and what he does using the same themes as Psalm 23. He even says that he and the Father, are one. Interesting but what’s the big idea? Add in Colossians 1:15-22. Here is a short overview:

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation…
He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.
For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself.
This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

The game changer, the truth that sets you free from never enough thinking and sets your whole being at ease, is this powerful message from your Good Shepherd:

You are enough to God.

Our Heart Song – Intro

16 Tuesday Dec 2014

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If you were to do a quick survey on what is the most popular Psalm, the one that comes up near the top is Psalm 23. Why? It’s not the first or last or in the middle. It has a strange metaphor shift half way through. What’s the deal with this Psalm?

I submit to you that the reason why it’s so popular is because it’s personalized – instead of talking about God, it’s talking with God. We can personalize scripture as we sense God speaking to us but that requires some creative thought. Psalm 23 is already written for us to sing from our hearts to the God who has loved us from the very beginning.

Unfortunately, Psalm 23 has been analyzed in so many sermons and has become so familiar that I think we’ve forgotten the song; at least it has lost it’s power. And yet, the world hasn’t forgotten it’s song – it’s constantly singing it loud and clear into our hearts and we are reaping the results.

Over the next few weeks, I invite you to consider three life-changing parts of Psalm 23 that I hope will help it become Your Heart Song. For now, would you take a moment and just meditate upon the words of the song…

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need.
2 He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams.
3 He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.
4 Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me.
Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.
5 You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.
You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings.
6 Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.
Psalm 23, A psalm of David.
New Living Translation