“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
- Psalm 23:1 NRSVue
The iconic line.
You don’t even need to finish the first part, and you know how the rest of it goes. “The LORD is my…” and your mind finishes the line. That is how well-known this Psalm is, even to the wider population. Those outside the church or the faith could finish this verse with a level of confidence.
“The LORD is my shepherd.”
But that is getting too far off track, and too deep into the verse already. I want to start these meditations at the very beginning for a good reason. If we don’t get the start right, we’re in trouble for the long haul. If we don’t get the beginning of this passage down and have a firm understanding of a few ideas, then our broken thinking will influence and impact everything we read after this.
So, let’s start with this question: Who is the what?
The LORD, he is the shepherd.
Isn’t that the right answer?
And yes, it is. But who is the LORD?
You know, the LORD. Or Jesus.
Isn’t it God, the creator of the heavens and the earth?
What about the one riding the white horse from Revelation, ready to make war on the nations?
Or the guy who was angry with all the sinners and wiped out all creation with a flood? Or rained down fire and brimstone?
What about the Holy Spirit?
Your answer may be something similar or some other Sunday School answer. And that doesn’t make it wrong. Nor does it mean that it is totally right.
The question, who is the LORD, is asking you to examine your concept and constructs of God. It is asking you to grapple with the way that you have read the Bible and understand the passages that speak of His character and actions.
Who is the LORD? What is he like?
Is he angry and retributive? Are his rod and staff used in aggressive ways, in ways against me? Are the '“goodness and mercy” conditional, or do they really follow me all of my life? Is God’s house, where his personality is fully expressed, really a place where I want to spend all my days?
Or…
Does the LORD look like Jesus? Does he act in the ways that Jesus did, say the kinds of things that Jesus said? Where gentleness was given to the broken. Where understanding meet the fragile nature of our humanity and our experience of the world. Where the sinner and their sin was met with grace and truth, not wrath and judgement.
Those are two very different pictures of who the LORD could be. Two polar opposite views all found from the same Scriptures views us with a real problem. What does the LORD look like? Who is the LORD?
This is not a unique question to come out of Pslam 23. It is something that theologians and laypeople have been wrestling with for centuries. What does God look like? An angry old beared man in the clouds, wielding lightning bolts to smite us lowly sinners? Or an unfathomable being of self-sacrificing love, arms outstretched, hands nail-scarred? Or a twisted mix of the two?
We all have our own ideas of who the LORD is, some good, and some bad. We all read Scripture in a particular way and draw conclusions, some accurate, and some inaccurate.
I believe it is a healthy idea for us to periodically return to this fundamental question about who the LORD is. To ask the question is not to doubt who He is, but a opening up of ourselves to be corrected where we are wrong and strengthen where we are right.
Who is the LORD? serves as a powerful invitation, and a great starting point. It asks us to think about our ideas of God, and asks us to submit to the Holy Spirit and their direction as we meditate on Scripture. It is very much possible that he wants to speak to us and reshape our knowledge and understanding of who God is.
And I believe that as you and I meditate on these verses, Psalm 23 will show us plenty about who the LORD is.
Grace and Peace.