Rev. Michelle Manuel and Shelby Olive

Psalm 23 (NRSV)
1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
 2     He makes me lie down in green pastures;
 he leads me beside still waters;
 3     he restores my soul.
 He leads me in right paths
     for his name’s sake.
4 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.
5 You prepare a table before me
     in the presence of my enemies;
 you anoint my head with oil;
     my cup overflows.
6 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. 

Reflection:
When thinking about worship in the Bible, we often turn to the Book of Psalms, and given that the psalms are actually songs, it makes sense. These are the songs of our people! We join with our ancestors when we worship with them.

Psalm 23 is arguably one of the most well-known passages of Scripture and is commonly read at funerals and memorial services. Sometimes when Scriptures are familiar to us, they can lose their glimmer and depth of meaning. This is frequently the case with this psalm. Funerals utilize this passage because it depicts a wonderfully peaceful and comforting scene in which God is present and providing, gently ushering our loved ones into eternity. This passage is a vision of rest and in light of the passing of a loved one, we view this scene as the big rest—the final rest. However, we need not wait until the end of our lives to participate in the rest the psalmist envisions here. God invites us and guides us to enjoy the rest God graciously provides in the here-and-now.

Not all psalms express this type of praise, but this is indeed a picture of praise. The author praises God for God’s provision, acknowledging that God’s shepherding leads him to a place where everything is restored and set right again—a place of goodness and mercy, a place of anointing, a place where those who were once our enemies become our intimate friends through the breaking of bread. Here, the psalmist captures an image of rest and praise in the same picture. What if we viewed rest as worship? It turns out that this is not such a far-fetched idea.

When Moses presents the Ten Commandments to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai, God demands from them both their worship and holy rest within one tablet. Why would God say that? What does rest have to do with the worship of God and God alone? Sometimes, broken human beings that we are, we have a tendency to make gods out of ourselves. We can all too easily fool ourselves into believing that we are the author of our agendas, our days, and the days of others in our homes and our workplaces. It makes us feel self-sufficient, completely independent and offers us a feeling of the control and stability that we—including the psalmist—so desperately crave. But God knows that we make terrible gods. So God offers us rest, not as a punishment, but as a gift. When we rest and keep the Sabbath holy, we are dedicating a full day of giving in to God’s goodness, letting God be the sole author of our day.

The Sabbath is not a mere prohibition of work for a whole day, though that is what it entails. It is a day of intentional surrender where we don’t have to burden ourselves with being our own gods. We can instead release our agendas to God, knowing that God is always our shepherd, guiding us to what is good and what is right- guiding us to rest. May our rest become worship.

Prayer:
Good Shepherd,
Thank you for the invitation to rest. Bless me with the wisdom to order my days in such a way that keeps the Sabbath. Push back the urge in me to accomplish, be efficient, and produce. Empower me to say no to things so that I can worship you with my rest. You are God. I am not. I trust you enough to take care of the worries of the day so that I can worship you.