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 23rd
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.
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 23rd 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.
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.
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.
[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.
[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.
