“The Word of God: He leadeth me”
Psalm 23
Wayne Eberly
March 7, 2010
I remember this one day about ten years ago when I got my shoes shined. I remember the day because I don’t get my shoes shined very often…as you can probably tell. I remember the day because it was in Antigua, that ancient/modern city in Guatemala. But most importantly, I remember that day because of the mud that was washed off of my shoes. It had been so long since I had those shoes shined I had accumulated mud from a variety of special places. Those shoes had been high in the mountains of Guatemala where this very precious man named Salome was hard at work developing sustainable agriculture both for his family and a whole community. Those shoes had recently traveled in the footsteps of St. Paul through biblical cities in Greece and Turkey. And those shoes had been to a cemetery twice to bury a beloved husband and wife who died just a week apart. At both graveside services the rain had been pounding us, and the ground was wet. I tracked mud back from the cemetery into this very sanctuary. I sort of did it on purpose. I wanted to keep that mud on my shoes, as a reminder of such dear and special friends.
Maybe you will have that same experience as you journey through the pages of the psalms. Maybe you will find yourself getting mud on your shoes. Now usually when we get mud on our shoes, it is not a very pleasant experience. I’m pretty sure when you step in some of the places the psalms take you, you won’t be very pleased. The psalms take you to some messy places. But here is my hope. Here is my belief. By the time you get to the end of the psalms, or maybe better yet, by the time these psalms become a part of your life, etched on your heart, worked into the fiber and fabric of not just your shoes but your soul, you will treasure that mud for what it is, part of the holy ground on which we stand.
You will pick up all kinds of mud as you travel the psalms. Some of the Red Sea will be stuck to your shoes as you share in the triumphs of the Exodus; and there will be clay caked on from the difficult journey into exile, going to the river of Babylon where all God’s people could do was weep. You will pick up mud on your shoes when you stand outside with the psalmist on a crystal clear night and stare up at the stars, savoring how majestic is the name of the Lord; and you will pick up mud on your shoes from standing with the psalmist in the delivery room of a hospital and marveling at how God knits each little child together in the mother’s womb. Your shoes will stand in the lonely places of spiritual struggle and despair, panting like the deer for just a small stream of water in a dry and weary land; and your shoes will stand in the great halls of the Lord, leading the throngs in processions of praise. The psalms will take you to places that feel utterly and completely forsaken by God and they will take you to places where all you can do is bless the Lord for the many benefits that fill your life. You will walk with God as a friend and you will bow down to God as the great king over all the heavens and earth.
Sometimes you will have to walk through rubble and ruin. The foundations of this world are not stable, and sometimes the earth gives way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea. The people of Chile and Haiti know that all too well. But it is not just the earth that causes the shaking and crumbling. Sometimes humans in their rebellion from God fly airplanes into buildings and cause great suffering and inflict irreparable damage to life. I think of the many people who walked through the rubble of the twin towers on the night of September 11, 2001. They walked through the rubble and made their way into houses of worship all over our nation. That night a steady stream of you came into this house of worship. Our shoes picked up the mud of sadness and sorrow and the remains of terrorists and destruction and we carried all of that into this sanctuary. Then we read the psalm that says, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.” When the psalm called for us to be still and know that the Lord is God, a holy silence filled this sanctuary. Oh, believe me, you walk the psalms and you get mud on your shoes. This is real life.
Sometimes the mud is so sweet you want to take off your shoes and wiggle your toes in it, like when we experience the great joy of living in a community filled with love and trust. “Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters dwell together in unity.” (133:1) Sometimes the mud is of the messiest kind. We experience the betrayal of friends. “Even my close friend, whom I trusted, has lifted up his heel against me.” (41:9).
And sometimes you will walk that great road of redemption. Just as the people were carted off to exile, one day they returned. Don’t you know those were some happy feet as they headed home after that long absence of the heart? “When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like those who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.” (126:1-3) Remember that when your heart is broken and relationships are in chaos. The Lord God redeems, restores, recreates, and renews.
Here is something to think about as you pick up mud on your shoes on this journey through the psalms. The first word in the first psalm is happy. Happy. With that word we enter the world of the Psalms. Happy, or blessed. Happy is a nice word. It is a welcome word. An inviting word. Come in through this door of happiness and see what awaits you in the book of Psalms. Happy is the first word in the first psalm.
Happy is the one whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and on that law they meditate day and night. Happy is the one who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. The happy one who delights in the law of the Lord, who meditates day and night on that law, that happy one is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever that one does prospers.
Happy is the first word in the first psalm. It is a simple word from a simple psalm.
Delight in the law of the Lord, stay away from the wicked and the mockers, and you will thrive and prosper, like a tree planted by streams of water. Happy is the first word, but it is not the only word. It is the first word in a simple psalm, but that simple psalm is the not the only psalm. The psalms that follow will take you through an increasingly complex world, a world where troubles come from within and without. The psalms meet the challenges of life, and faith, and our relationship with God, with an honesty that is at times brutal. As you journey through these psalms, which take us from the height of joy to the depths of despair, remember the first word, in the first psalm, is happy.
In a wonderful article about the theology of the psalms the author traces the happiness of the psalms from those who delight in God’s instruction (Psalm 1) to those who find God as a refuge when the forces of the world rise up in opposition (Psalm 2) to those who are righteous. Happy are the righteous. The word righteousness holds a key to the psalms. “Righteousness is not primarily a moral category but a relational term…the righteous are persons who acknowledge their fundamental dependence upon God for life and future.”1 How is that for a working definition of happiness? Happy are those who acknowledge their fundamental dependence upon God for life and future. That is what the psalms ultimately are. They are a living and breathing testimony that in any and every situation life brings our way, we can depend on God.
Happy is the person who follows the simple wisdom of Psalm 1, sticking to the Lord’s side of the street and staying away from troublemakers on the other side. Happy is the person who finds refuge in God when the troublemakers cross over to your side of the street. Happy is the one who finds that in any and every situation of life our lives are completely dependent on God…and that in any and every situation of our life God is completely dependable. In any and every situation of our life God is there. Where can we run from the Lord? Where can we hide? And as the mud cakes on our shoes time and time again on our journey of faith we might begin to ask, “Why would we run from the Lord? Why would we hide?” The mud that builds up on our shoes is an eternal reminder that God is there, and that God is dependable, and that God can be trusted.
Back in 1995, when we got ready to leave our church in Fresno to come here to Houston, a bunch of guys in our college group got together and bought me a new pair of black hi-top basketball shoes. It was a sweet gesture. In turn, when I preached my last sermon at that church I wore those black hi-top basketball shoes with my robe. As we said goodbye to those dear friends, my shoes were brand new. Not a trace of mud was on them. Well, that is not quite true. There was the mud of all those precious friendships in which we had shared so much of our journey of faith together; graduations and mission trips and retreats and some weddings and some funerals and some heartache and tons of times of rejoicing and laughing and praising the Lord.
After eight years I was invited back to help out in an ordination service for Jon Crantz, who had been part of that college group of guys years before. Jon had followed God’s call into ministry and he was being ordained as a pastor. During my part of the ordination service I gave Jon a gift. I pulled out a rectangular box, and inside that box were a pair of black hi-top basketball shoes. I told Jon as you go into ministry, as you serve the Lord, may your shoes be caked with mud, the miracles and memories and blessings and challenges of walking with the Lord and the with the people of God.
I don’t know what kind of shoes they are wearing at the First Presbyterian Church in Fresno these days. But I do know the mud is pretty deep there right now. Suffering from a deep and agonizing depression, the pastor of the church took his own life last week. Yesterday they had a memorial service for their pastor, their shepherd. The earth is shaking and the mountains are falling into the sea. The deer is panting for streams of water. The breaking heart is crying out, “How long, O Lord. How long?” The mud they are gathering on their shoes right now, weeping, mourning, searching, aching, and trusting that God can be depended on in the most difficult of situations, that type of mud is the mud that is ingrained in the psalms.
I don’t know how God will see our friends in Fresno through this sadness and crisis. But I do believe God will see them through. The psalms walk through the deepest (1 The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume IV, 667) and darkest places of life. And they teach us about a happiness that is so profound you cannot explain it; but by the grace of God you can experience it. What else can those dear friends in Fresno do right now except acknowledge that all they have to depend on is God? I don’t know how God will see our friends in Fresno through this sadness and crisis. But the elders and staff of Pines have just returned from our annual retreat. At that retreat the incoming class of elders shares their faith statements. Basically the elders take turns lifting up their shoes, looking at the mud that has become caked on their shoes over their years of living, examining that mud, and then giving testimony to how God has been with them throughout every step of their lives. They give testimony of how they have come to realize that their only happiness in life comes from totally depending on God. In any and every situation of life, God is there.
Over the years we have heard stories of children dying, of spouses dying, of marriages dying, of personal struggle and faith struggle and financial struggle and job struggle and yes…church struggle. But through it all, when people finish their testimony and look down at their shoes, when they see the mud on their shoes, they are able to say, “God was there.” God is there. That is what the psalms tell us. Good or bad, happy or sad, up or down, Exodus or exile, feast or famine, victory or defeat, it doesn’t matter. God is there.
God is always there. One of the most enduring statements of faith we can make is to say God is there. One way we say God is there, in any and every situation is through a beloved psalm about the Lord who is our shepherd. I invite you to pray that psalm with me as we prepare our hearts for communion.
Psalm 23
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
