BIBLICAL EXEGESIS: PSALM 23

 Psalm Twenty-Three is incontestably the best known composition in the Psalter; J. Clinton McCann, Jr., calls it “the most familiar passage in the whole Bible.” McCann suggests its very familiarity challenges modern interpreters to find ways to hear its message in afresh.[1]

      Writing in the Interpreter’s One-Volume Commentary on the Bible, Lawrence E. Toombs classifies the 23^rd Psalm as a Song of Confidence. Toombs says these are hymns in which the psalmist offers “faint rays of confidence” amid the anguish and dangers of everyday existence.[2]  Toombs is describing the funcation of the psalm as not so much a celebration of confidence but a way to affirm the old Unity adage "My good will come to me..." despite apperareances to the contrary. He proposes a three-part structure for this most pastoral of psalms. Although the shepherd metaphor may continue throughout the psalm—kings of the ancient world were frequently called shepherds of their people—Toombs reports that some commentators see an interweaving of three images—shepherd (vss.1-3a), guide (3b-4) and host (4-6).[3] These three disparate motifs are difficult to sustain in six verses while maintaining one common theme.  However, Bernhard W. Anderson finds an interesting common ground for the images of shepherd and host. Anderson says the key is Bedouin hospitality. The desert peoples are keepers of flocks, therefore good shepherds. Yet the role of good host, with its responsibility to regard the traveler as honored guest, is also a deep requirement in the Bedouin code.

He is the protector of the sheep as they wander in search of grazing land. Yet he is also the protector of the traveler who finds hospitality inn his tent from the dangers and enemies of the desert.[4]

Nevertheless, Toombs insists it is the shepherd imagery which dominates the hymn. James Luther Mays echoes Toombs but goes further:

In the ancient Near East the role and title of shepherd were used for leaders as a designation of their relation to the people in their charge. As a title, “shepherd” came to have specific royal connotation. Gods and kings were called the shepherd of their people. Both are described and portrayed with mace (rod) and shepherd’s crook (staff) as siglia of office.[5]

Vs. 1: The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.

      Patrick D. Miller finds a link to metaphors of this psalm and two beautiful passages in the prophets, Ezekiel 34:11 (“I myself will search for my sheep”)  and Isaiah 40:11 (“He will feed his flock like a shepherd”). Miller is uncertain whether the psalm is alluding to the national deliverance myth of escape from bondage in Egypt or more concretely referring to the return of the exiles from Babylon.[6] He finds a hint of the Exodus experience in the psalm’s use of the verb hasar, “to want” or “to lack,” which is used in Psalm 23 without an object. The only other occurrence of this rare form of the word is in Nehemiah 9:21, where the author affirmed God’s providential care for Israel in their forty-year wilderness trek “where they did not lack.”[7]

2-3a:  He makes me lie down in green pastures;
           he leads me beside still waters;
           he restores my soul.

      Mitchell Dahood says the verb forms in these verses are future tense. He finds “tranquil waters” to be descriptive of the Elysian Fields of the afterlife, where abundant water was present in contrast to the generally dry landscape of the ancient Near East. Dahood also believes vs. 3a should be translated, “He will lead me into luxuriant pastures…” which he hears as more confirmation of paradise as the psalmist’s destination. The lack of an actual theology of the afterlife in prophetic Israel does not deter Dahood from this interpretation. He finds a parallel between the hapax legomenon “green meadows” in vs. 2 and “luxuriant pastures” in 3a.[8] Dahood also offers a fresh translation of 2b; instead of something like the traditional “restores my soul” Dahood wants it to read “to refresh my being”.[9]

      Unity commentator Charles Fillmore expanded upon vs. 1-3 in his interpretation of the 23^rd Psalm:

You ‘shall not want’ the wisdom, the courage to do, or the substance to do with when you have once fully realized the scope of the vast truth that Almightiness is leading you into ‘green pastures ... beside still waters.’[10]

3b-4: 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.
     

     McCann calls this section the theological center of the psalm and interprets the psalmist’s message as one of trust in God’s all-sufficient care. Like most of the commentators, McCann says the “shadow of death” simply meant deep darkness. We of the twenty-first century probably have no clue how powerful images of light and dark must have been to people who grew up on the opposite side of Edison’s miracle. McCann does suggest, however, that darkness and shadows can indicate death, as in Job 10:22 where it actually describes the realm of the dead. The Hebrew words for “my shepherd” and “evil” have similar sounds, another example of richness lost in translation. [11] (See above for commentary on “rod” and “staff”.)

5-6: 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.

       Mays finds in these verses elements of feasting which may have been part of rituals of thanksgiving. The table is prepared even in times of hardship, reminiscent of the wilderness experience and mana from God’s hand. “The psalm’s confession is based on the salvation history of the people and expresses the individual’s participation in God’s ongoing salvific activity.”[12]

      Dahood sheds some light on the enigmatic phrase “in the presence of my enemies” by referring to Egyptian history.

A petty ruler of the fourteenth century B.C. addressed the following request to the Pharaoh: “May he give gifts to his servants while our

enemies look on.”[13]                                                                                             

      The words “goodness and mercy” Dahood renders “goodness and kindness” and suggests this may be an adaptation of the ritual presence of two accompanying servants who attend a god or dignitary.[14] Toombs says the phrase is usually rendered “steadfast love” in other parts of the Hebrew Scripture. He further suggests that verse 6 might have originally been a Levitical confession which expressed a priest’s joy at permanent residence at and service to the Jerusalem Temple, where he will serve “for the length of days,” i.e., all the days of his life.[15] McCann agrees, finding it an apt way to conclude this most beloved of psalms: “Thus the personal assurance articulated by the psalmist is finally experienced in the community of God’s people.”[16]

        This timeless psalm will continue to inspire people in ways the ancient author never imagined.

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[1] J. Clinton McCann, Jr., “The Book of Psalms: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflection” in The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. IV (Nashville, TN:  Abingdon, 1996), 767a.

[2] Lawrence E. Toombs, “The Psalms” in The Interpreter’s One-Volume Commentary on the Bible (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1971), 257b.

[3] IBID., 269a.

[4] Bernhard W. Anderson, Out of the Depths (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000), 180.

[5] James Luther Mays, Psalms (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1994), 117.

[6] Patrick D. Miller, Interpreting the Psalms (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986), 113.

[7] IBID., 113-114.

[8] Mitchell  Dahood, S.J., Psalms I, The Anchor Bible (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1981), 146.

[9] IBID., 145.

[10] Charles Fillmore, Prosperity (Unity Village, MO: Unity Books, 1936), 124.

[11] McCann, 768a.

[12] Mays, 118.

[13] Dahood, 147-148.

[14] IBID.  

[15] Toombs, 269b.

[16] McCann, 769b.