Psalm 23
Revelation 7:9-17
“You Are With Me”
Preached Sunday, May 8, 2022
Since basically the Sunday I got here and probably long before our altar Bible has been opened to the 23rd Psalm. I’ve tried changing what the Bible is open to before but with a Bible this big..it doesn’t work so well. If I wanted to do a Genesis text or even one of the Epistles let alone Revelation - well, we’d be lopsided. The Psalms are right in the middle and I’ve just thought, you know, the 23rd Psalm is a good one to just keep it open to. It’s never not appropriate to have before us. The 23rd Psalm is arguably one of the two most well-known Scriptures, up there with John 3:16.
For me, it’s definitely one of the most comforting Scriptures. I have read it countless times at death beds and funerals. To the point where I’ve joked that you know it’s serious when the minister comes to visit you and she pulls out her Bible and starts reading from the 23rd Psalm. Like, if your soul ain’t right with God at that point, it’s time to pull it together. And one day, when my minister comes to my bedside and starts reading the 23rd Psalm, well, I’ll know they think it’s the end for me. The King’s James Version famously translates the one line as “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…” And in that time, when a person of faith is dying, the affirmation that God is with them, even now, seems to be a great comfort to many. Other translations take this phrase and call it “the darkest valley.” Truly those who are experiencing a loss, in the midst of grief, perhaps they feel like they are in the darkest valley of their lives - and again, it’s comforting to be told, even now, even in this loss, even in this dark valley with the shadow of death hanging over you, God is with you.
Of course, the comfort and power of this Psalm isn’t just about death and dying - it’s about life and living and God being with you every step of the journey. Every claim this poem makes, every hopeful, promise-filled line - it’s about this life, here on Earth.
“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures.”
Biblical Studies Professor Jin Han says, “Thanks to the good shepherd, the sheep finds rest, sustenance, and confidence in the green pastures next to the water, where everything that the sheep may need or want has been provided.” This struck me cause we often think of wants as, well…stuff, material. But when it boils down to what we all really want - what we need - rest, sustenance, confidence - love…God offers us all that, in this life.
“he leads me beside still waters;”
In Scripture and in other Psalms, water is often depicted as chaos. Like the primordial waters of creation or rapids that threaten to overwhelm you, drowning you under them. But here the Psalm talks about still waters, a place of peace. Our Lord guides us to places of peace and wants peace for our lives and peace for the world.
“he restores my soul.”
God is a healer. He wants healing and wholeness for your soul, in this life.
“He leads me in right paths for his name's sake.”
When we follow the voice of our Good Shepherd, when we follow God’s call in our lives, we will not be led astray. Each of us has a path that God calls us on for this life.
“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff-- they comfort me.”
Look, we know life is hard. There will be dark valleys. There is evil in this world. And it does affect us. And yet the Psalmist says, “I fear no evil.” We too can say this for our lives. Not that we won’t encounter evil but that there is nowhere, nowhere, where you can go where God won’t be with you. Even in the darkest valleys, even as you are dying, we can say along with the Psalmist, “You are with me.” God has a rod to fend off beasts, a staff to guide our steps, and wherever we are, God is right there. Again, this is why “the valley of the shadow of death” is so comforting to those who are on their deathbeds, because it tells us that even in death, the end of life, God is there with you. You are never alone.
My spiritual director would sometimes say to me, “Allison, what are you so afraid of? Why are you acting like the bottom is going to be pulled out from under you?” She has helped me learn that there is no bottom that is ever going to drop out from under me - because I am held in God’s hand. Even in dying and even in death, it is God’s hand that holds me. And God’s hand isn’t going anywhere.
“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”
Even when life is hard, God does not stop taking care of us. And it is not scraps that God is offering us, it’s a feast. It’s not just a sip of water to carry us through, it’s an overflowing cup.
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,”
A different translation for “follow” in this verse could be “pursue” - God pursues us, doesn’t give up, is constantly wooing us with goodness and mercy.
“and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD my whole life long.”
My whole life long. This Psalm offers hope to the dying, yes. And it can offer so much hope and promise and comfort to those living now - that for your whole life, God is with you. You are in God’s care.
And, for just a moment, I do want to take it a step further. We’ve talked about how the 23rd Psalm is a comfort to those who are dying and those in this life. Now I also want to talk about life after death. Our reading from the book of Revelation this morning seems to be talking about just that. It paints this gorgeous image of this multitude worshiping the Lamb on the throne:
“After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.
They cried out in a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!"”
It goes on… “They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
And while I don’t often read this text on deathbeds and at funerals, I do often read from the 21st chapter of Revelation which makes similar promises about the life after death:
“See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them and be their God;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.”
If from the 23rd Psalm we can take away the promise that in this life, even while dying, God is always with us. From Revelation we can take away that God is with us in the next life too. Which, of course, brings us comfort now. That in the next life there will be no more hunger, no more thirst, no more death, no more tears. God will be with us.
The text today also references in that great multitude a certain group of people.
“Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?"
I said to him, "Sir, you are the one that knows." Then he said to me, "These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
These are those who have come out of the great ordeal - what I hear there is that those who have suffered, those who have been oppressed, those who have been victims of violence in this life - they are with God for all eternity, the God who is the Lamb who they are worshiping is also the Shepherd who will keep them all their days, not just the days here on earth but in the endless days beyond this life.
Now something we need to understand about the book of Revelation was that it was written for a group of people who were being oppressed under the Roman Empire: imprisoned, marginalized, killed for their beliefs. The letter that we know as the book of Revelation was giving them hope for their current situation in coded language as to fly under the radar of the authorities as well as acting as a prophetic vision for a future time and place.
So to hear these promises of the next life as one suffering greatly in this life to hear that God was their Shepherd who would always care for them, even beyond death…it was a comfort and power that could not be matched.
So as you can see, once again, it’s not all about life after death. These Scriptures they’re about life after death and dying and living life now, all three in one. And so let’s view this text from Revelation through our living lives here today in 2022.
We live in divisive, polarizing times. We are segregated and cut off from one another - someone or other is always trying to tell us that those who are different from us are our enemies.
And that’s why we need to hear of this great multitude worshiping the Lamb on the throne: “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb…: We are in for a shock if we expect heaven to look like Vermilion or to only have those like us. We might begin to ask ourselves: how are we called to live now in light of the great multitude that we will worship in one day? With people from EVERY nation, ALL tribes, ALL peoples, ALL languages… before the throne of God. And those clothed in white who have been oppressed, marginalized, victims of violence…
There are lots of connotations for us today, lots of things we can glean. How we are called to do the work of anti-racism, to do the work of standing up for minorities, to stand with the oppressed, to build diverse, inclusive, and divine communities now so that we can reflect the Kingdom of God.
This is where the text switches from comforting to confronting. It’s okay for these texts to comfort us - to think about green pastures, still waters, and a life thereafter in the presence of the Lamb, our Shepherd. They should comfort us. And they should confront us. To push us to go behind the individualistic comfort, to the power beyond the text, for our lives, and the lives of our neighbors, here and now.
To go from:
God is with me - in life, in death and in life after death,
To
God is with YOU
To
God with us - all of us, not an us versus them, but an us that is the great multitude.
To go from Christ is my Shepherd to we are called to be Christ for others, especially the marginalized and oppressed.
To go from Christ pursues me with goodness and mercy all the days of my life to I will be Christ for others by pursuing them with goodness and mercy.
To let our cups overflow into the cups of others.
To walk right paths alongside those who need someone to take the journey with them.
To seek still waters, peace not just for ourselves but for the whole world.
To not just feast in the presence of our enemies, but invite all to a seat at the table…
This is the power of Scripture. To comfort and to confront so that all may know the love and power of our Shepherd.
May it be so.
Amen.
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