Of sheep and psalms.

I want to do some bible study... Of sorts. I'm not an expert, but a long time ago I tried to understand a passage using my own frame of reference and I thought I'd share it.

I want to explore other things to include in my blog and this is one of the things I have in mind.

The passage I want to study is Psalm 23, now the Psalms are quite artsy and use a lot of metaphors, some of which the 21st century world in which I inhabit might not make a lot of sense anymore. So I decided to attempt to understand the metaphor and just post what I had.

I broke the passage into six logical sections and study them piece by piece, so with nothing more ado here's my humble interpretation.

Psalm 23 (English Standard Version) reads as follows:

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 

He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters and he restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will 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 forever."

Section 1:

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want."

OK, so I'm not a sheep, but it's all about historical context, you see before CCTV, ABSOs and the mass culling of country critters someone had to keep watch over the sheep personally, a Shepard.

They lived outside with the animals, they would have honked worse than a bevy of swans! You think some people on the bus smell bad? Imagine an adolescent male who lives outside.

In a field.

With animals.

And regularly engages in mortal combat with apex predators for a living.

Trust me, you've got it easy.

Sheep were their life, you don't take on big beasties if you're not invested in what it is you're responsible for.

In short, a Shepherd loved the sheep.

This is saying that God is basically our bad-ass beast slaying guardian that has our needs covered.

I like to read it as follows:

"With God as my provider I have everything I need."

Section 2:

"He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters and he restores my soul."

So, I'm supposed to be a sheep and what do sheep like, other than sheep nuts? Well, grass and water I suppose!

And because I'm a sheep (in the metaphor), I guess really green grass and a nice calm lake to drink from would be a pretty sweet deal actually.

It basically means that through God I've got all the things I could ever need, and I'm able to rest, relax and feel restored, I kinda read it this way.

"He brings me to a prosperous place where I will be refreshed."

Section 3:

"He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake."

Righteousness is a tricky one, it's one of those words I can use in context but could I define it? Well, I looked it up and it means that ones actions are just or right. So, God leads (or gently guides me) down right and just paths, but why?

This is where the second part comes in, if there's a for, then it's an implied answer to a why, so why does God do this? Well, for his name's sake, again, this was another thing that sounded fluffy and artsy and hard for me to understand, until I read it put this way: For his 'reputations' sake.

So I read the section this way:

"He guides the direction of my life towards goodness and justice because he is true to his word."

Section 4:

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me."

That's some heavy stuff, but, sometimes life is.

I think the first part is rather self explanatory, up to the rod and staff bit, what the heck are rods and staffs?

Well, it keeps making references to sheep and shepherds, so I figured they were tools of the trade and I looked them up. A shepherd didn't have much in the way of possessions and could only take what he could carry, these two things were the two things he'd rely on to keep the sheep, but what did they do?

A rod was a handmade weapon by the shepherd himself, it had a clubbed end and the shepherd would use it to defend the sheep from predators.

A staff was different, it's not a walking aid, as it might sound, it's closer to a crook (that thing Bo-Peep carries in Toy Story). It was another long stick with a curled end, if a sheep was wandering off in the wrong direction and shepherd would hook the staff around the sheep and yank it back into walking in the right direction.

So, basically the two tools a shepherd had in his possession at all times were a stick to defend the sheep and a staff to herd the sheep in the correct direction.

And so the passage according to Neil continues to read as such:

"Even though the direction may go through a dark place, I have nothing to fear because I am never alone, I can rest easy because he knows, protects and guides me."

Section 5:

"You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows."

The first element to this is again, a bit arty in the language but basically it meant to have a meal served in your honour with all the people who hate you invited as guests. That's pretty audacious, only madness or sheer confidence does that. 

It gets bolder though!

To anoint someone with oil means to show great favour, or setting aside for a special purpose. At a meal full of people who hate you and to have you selected and proclaimed to be set aside for greater things, to be blessed. These 'guests' must be grinding their teeth so hard they're almost down to sawdust in their mouths.

And yet, there's more!

We are then blessed so much that we can't keep it to ourselves. At this meal full of people who have it in for you, to be set aside for a greater thing than those there and to be blessed so much you are overflowing and presumably blessing these people who hate you, they must be so confused!

So, to modernise this a little bit:

"He will honour me in the worst of times and bless me in front of those who would do me harm, more than I can contain, so that I will overflow and bless everyone I meet."

Section 6:

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

I thought I had this tied down, but then I looked deeper into this and looked up 'mercy' because, it does have a few different possible meanings depending on the context and what I found was fascinating!

1) Mercy, from the French to mean 'price paid'.
2) Compassionate treatment.
3) Something to be thankful for.

So, all my life, I have my life paid for, I am treated compassionately and I am thankful for that! 

We know that our lives have been redeemed, that is, we've been bought back, price paid: John 3:16.

We know that we have a compassionate God: Jeremiah 29:11.

I'm certainly thankful for that!

My final interpretation comes in this form:

"My life has been bought back, I am thankful because God is compassionate and will never stop loving or caring for me, forever more will I be in his presence."

In full:

"With God as my provider I have everything I need.

He brings me to a prosperous place where I will be refreshed.

He guides the direction of my life towards goodness and justice because he is true to his word.

Even though the direction may go through a dark place, I have nothing to fear because I am never alone, I can rest easy because he knows, protects and guides me.

He will honour me in the worst of times and bless me in front of those who would do me harm, more than I can contain, so that I will overflow and bless everyone I meet.

My life has been bought back, I am thankful because God is compassionate and will never stop loving or caring for me, forever more will I be in his presence."

That concludes the first time I've ever revealed my own personal study of the bible, if you liked it and want to hear more, let me know, feedback is always welcome.

Enjoy.