Psalm – You would think by this time, this cradle Christian would know all there is to know about the 23rd Psalm. It is the first thing I memorized on purpose. I memorized it for my mother’s hairdresser and she gave me a gold star (even then, O Lord!) to put on my wall. Her name was Elzaree and my mother went every Friday to get her hair done. (Why, I recently asked? Mother said it was just what nice ladies did. Everyone had a standing weekly appt…)
Almost every Christian funeral I have been to and at least 2 of the Jewish ones have read this Psalm. I have participated in and even taught this Psalm at Sunday School.
Tonight, when I started to study this, it was like I had looked at this with new eyes. I know this is because of the Beatitude study we are doing in Presbyterian Women. I saw this Psalm has 2 stanzas with the coda. Just like the Matthew Beatitudes. See if you agree:
The first stanza is vs 1-4. Here the imagery is all about God being the shepherd and we are the sheep. Okay, classic metaphor and one that Jesus uses all the time. God provides plenty of food, a lovely place to rest, plenty of water that won’t sweep away my babies, and a place to recover from the turbulence of life. He is watching over me so that the ‘wolves’ and ‘lions’ won’t take me down and providing me with the structure I need in my life i.e. the rod and the staff.
Vs 5 is the second stanza. I think here the metaphor changes from shepherd to kingmaking. Kings have feasts, even with their stated enemies to show dominance. Kings get anointed with oil when they are made – even currently. As aside, I recently finished reading Mark Logue’s account of the real Lionel Logue and King George VI (The King’s Speech by Mark Logue) and there is a section there that talks about the placing of oil on the king’s head at coronation. The cup imagery is definitely kingish. We know all about the cupbearers and their responsibilities from the Joseph story. The king’s glass should never be empty and never be poisoned.
The coda wraps it up with a great view of how wonderful life is/will be for God’s own.
Even vs 4, at the end of it has the transition. Shepherds have staffs. Kings have rods. I looked up the Hebrew word that is used here. It is Shebet and it is primarily used in the Psalms to denote ‘scepter’ of a king.
What do you think of my analysis? Agree, disagree? A different viewpoint?
I find it amazing that something I have heard HUNDREDS of time can still teach and inspire me.
OT – this section of Exodus is a conflagration of 2 different sets of translations. This is why it seems confusing and repetitive. Even then, scholars were arguing.
As always, when I read this part of the Bible, I become frustrated with the whole ‘hardening of Pharaoh’s heart’. If you have an idea as to why this is even a remotely good thing, feel free to posit it. I get that God wanted to do something grand and big but it seemed like the hardening part just caused a lot of people and animals to die unnecessarily.
And on a personal note, I covet your prayers. My younger son Cole turns 16 today. When I called my insurance agent earlier this week, Marilyn at State Farm said, “I will add him to my prayer list”. He is not quite finished with all the paperwork for his license but he is close and will probably go next Saturday to do the driving test. He is a good driver but he is 16.
I'm back from vacation, sure missed the daily Bible readings. How often are you in a place with no Gideon Bible?
ReplyDeletePrayers to Cole, may he have 280 degrees vision.
Pat
Pharoah and the "hardening of his heart" seems to be a difficult idea. Kim and I are sitting here at the breakfast table discussing it right before I read your post.
ReplyDeleteWe came up with 2 possible reasons for God to want Pharoah's heart to be hardened:
First, this is repayment for 600 years of mistreating his chosen people. Pharoah even had started to kill Hebrew boys (as we read about a couple of days ago). All of things that the Egytians had done to the Hebrews over 600 years was repaid. After all, vengeance is mine says the Lord. If Pharoah had been nice or reasonable and let them go the first time that Moses asked, how would vengeance be reaped. I know that some of you, especially you Sis, don't like this idea of God but it comes up over and over. We have already read about the Flood, Sodom and Gommrah and even the parable from Jesus (this is for you who think that the OT and NT are different) today where the Master first let's the servant off but then tortures him. How is that for vengeance.
Second, the Hebrews had forgotten about God and how powerful he is. They needed to be shown that the Pharoah and the other Egytians who were thier earthly masters were no match for Yahweh. If Pharoah had let them go, they might have worshipped Moses as their leader. So Pharoah needed to have a hard heart, so that Yahweh's true soveriegnty could be shown.
I liked the blog about the Pslam 23. I have not thought about the idea that the structure might show an even deeper layer of meaning. Cool stuff.
Doesn't seem so long ago that we were both pregnant sitting on your parents sofa and now they are 16!
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