The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want. Psalm 23:1

Psalm 23 is the most beloved of all the 150 psalms which comprise the Psalter, the hymnbook of Jerusalem Temple and of our friends at B’nai Jacob Synagogue on Starr Street right here in Phoenixville. On a dreary Saturday afternoon in Hazleton when my Grandmother was babysitting my sisters and me, she had us memorize this psalm. After we recited it for her she rewarded each of us with a dime which led to the purchase a bag of penny candy at the neighborhood store. Learning the Bible verses has never been so sweet.

But there’s more to this psalm that being able to recite it verse by verse. Last Wednesday at Bible study one of the women shared the story of two men who were invited to recite the 23rd Psalm. The first was a well-known orator with a beautiful, well-modulated voice. He gave a dramatic rendering; the audience cheered and called for an encore so they might hear it from him again.

The second man took the podium and with great humility recited, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…” In a spirit of reverent prayer, he went all the way through to the final verses: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” There was complete silence as the audience sat quietly, many with their heads bowed.

“Ah,” the orator said wistfully, “I know the Psalm. He knows the Shepherd.”[1]

Knowing the shepherd begins with the realization that the shepherd knows us. Now this is more than Santa Claus knowing if we’ve been naughty or nice, it’s the shepherd, it’s God knowing us to the core of our beings, in fact knowing us better than we know ourselves. One of the exercises I would do with our Ninth Grade Confirmation students is the Johari Window which was developed by two psychologists, Joe Lutz and Harry Ingham. The first frame of the window called the arena represented traits that are known by both yourself and others. The next called the blind spot, are things known by others, but not you. The third frame, called the façade is known you by, but not others. And finally, the fourth frame is the unknown. In the exercise each student wrote in the window panes what they knew about themselves and then passed their window on to others in their small group so they could add what they knew. Self-understanding grew, as well as self-confidence and an awareness of mystery for there was a part of them that only God knows. The adventure of life is discovering what’s in that unknown frame of the window, the part of us that God knows and loved. Presbyterian Pastor, Timothy Keller puts it this way: “To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.” [2]

So we begin for the shepherd knows us. Knows what kind of grass we love to munch on, knows how rushing water in the stream frightens us so much we don’t dare stoop to drink, that we need still waters to drink, knows when we’re cranky and tired and need to take a rest and how we can so often wander off and get ourselves lost in our own anxiety and self-centeredness. The shepherd knows everything about us – our hopes and fears, what motivates us and what terrifies us. The shepherd knows us better than we know ourselves. There is so much intimacy in this knowing that it can be downright scary. We think that if the shepherd knows that deep secret or this terrible deed, we will not be accepted or loved. Well, guess what? The shepherd knows it all and loves us anyway.

Beginning with the shepherd knowing us, we are invited to know the shepherd. That might start with memorizing the 23rd Psalm, but it goes deeper, it is an opening up of our hearts, minds and souls, so that even when we forget the words, we remember the love. My husband John and I enjoy watching the TV show Call the Midwife, now in its fifth season on PBS. Set in East London of the late 50’s and early 60’s it tells the stories of nurse midwives some of whom are part of an Anglican order of nuns, while others are secular. In a recent show after one of midwives brushed up against the liturgical traditions of the nuns, Sister Monica Jones who suffers from dementia replied, “The liturgy is of comfort to the disarrayed mind. We need not choose our thoughts the words are aligned like a rope for us to cling to.”[3] The liturgy, the prayers and the psalms all provide such comfort. And not just for those with dementia, for at one time of another even the most astute of us experience a disarrayed mind. I had an experience a few weeks ago when I was visiting one of our homebound members. She’s living in a memory unit in a local assistant living facility and was having a good day. She shared that she no longer remembered all of the Lord’s Prayer, that after she prayed, “Give us our daily bread,” she couldn’t recall the next line. I told her that sometimes that happens to me too, that I get so wrapped in thinking about God’s kingdom coming on earth as it does in heaven and how amazing that promise is, that I forget where I am. She laughed and then we practice the prayer – going over it line by line. When we were done, she asked if we could do that with some scripture, and so we did with the 23rd Psalm, taking it a line at a time. I read a verse using contemporary English, and she replied in the King James. When we got to “yea though I walk in 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,” she said, “That’s where I am and God is with me.” Such trust — she knows the shepherd.

Jesus promises us that we too know the shepherd in our Gospel today. He says, “My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand.” (John 10:27-29) Trusting Jesus to be with us when our minds or our world is disarrayed, is knowing the Shepherd. Hearing his words, listening to his stories and the stories told about him is knowing the Shepherd. Eating at his table, receiving in bread and wine his Body and Blood, is knowing the Shepherd. Being anointed with oil at our baptisms, confirmations, when we are sick and in our dying is knowing the Shepherd. Dwelling in this house and in the house of God’s whole creation, is knowing and being known by the Shepherd.

Let us pray. Good Shepherd you know us better than we know ourselves and you love us beyond our understanding. Help us to know you, to trust you and to live lives that reflect your love and mercy in all that we do. In the name of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. Amen.

Pastor Cynthia Krommes

[1] Insert from Margaret Walker’s Bible.

[2] Timothy Keller, The Meaning of Marriage, http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/532976-to-be-loved-but-not-known-is-comforting-but-superficial

[3] Call the Midwives, season 5, episode 1, 2016.