This Sunday is also known as Mothering Sunday, and the images of Psalm 23 do present God in a mothering as well as a fathering role.
Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
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.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
my whole life long.
The Psalms have an uncanny ability to meet us in different places. This psalm is a psalm of calm living and of deepest danger, a psalm of deep assurance and a psalm which must have helped Jesus face the cross. No wonder Murray Watts in a recent little book calls it Anthem for Life.
23 Shepherd Sonnet
Contradictions, with a sudden dark
to overtake our cosiness, our rosy
hopes. The unexpected snakes devour
the flimsy ladders that we pick and park
for easy climbs to happiness. Who knows,
we might today be falling, calling out
for God to hear us, hold us, help us, fold us
in those arms that felt the hammer blows
to nails through ankles, wrists – such love to meet
the cost of shepherding the likes of us;
or finding courage in the cold of night,
the daytime heat, the struggles of the street.
You fill my cup with hope again: indeed
I find, with you, I’ve everything I need.
Jock Stein