Paul Simon told us—“There must be fifty ways to leave your lover.” Now, I realize there are numerous ways to interpret this song: Is the person speaking about a friend, his mother, a woman who wants him to leave his current lover so that he may embrace her (literally and figuratively), or is the speaker his current lover who is dismissing his pain by mocking his comment that he is thinking about leaving her? But the point the speaker is making is clear: it is easy to leave someone you no longer love (“You just slip out the back, Jack. Make a new plan, Stan. You don’t need to be coy, Roy; Just get yourself free.”). But if that is so, the opposite must also be true. It must be extremely hard to leave many lovers behind because you are forced to choose just one. For instance, I’m going to guess that you might struggle if I asked you to pick your favorite child out of all your offspring. And I would bet you may struggle if I asked you to pick just one chocolate treat from all the items on Rheb’s shelves! So, how are we to choose just one verse from a book of favorite verses?
Today, we conclude our discussion of Christopher JH Wright’s introduction to the Old Testament, The Old Testament in Seven Sentences (IVP Academic, Downers Grove, IL, 2019). It’s an engaging book that surveys the whole Old Testament through the lens of seven verses (although he never explores in depth any of those verses which I find to be a real weakness of the book). Today, we are looking at our last verse, but it may be the hardest choice to make of all seven of our verses.
The Seventh Verse: Psalm 23:1—“The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.”
Let’s get a quick feel for Wright’s chapter by looking at three quotes (my favorite three of the chapter).
“Originally, of course, these songs were written by people and addressed to God. They are human words spoken (mostly) to God. Yet now we read them in the Bible, and they function as God’s Word to us. The psalms have become part of God’s message to us, not just human words to God.”
“Here’s a surprising little fact. The title of the whole book in Hebrew is ‘The Praises.’ Yet the largest group of “praises“ are actually laments. This may seem contradictory to us, but that is because we usually think of praise only as something we do when we feel happy and joyful. But for Israel, praise was something far deeper than that. Praise could happen, even in the darkest moments, in fact, especially in those darkest moments. For Israel, praising God meant to bow down in God‘s presence (no matter what the circumstances) and affirm God is here, and that God is at work.”
“Praise meant bringing the whole of life into the presence of God. Not just the nice bits of life for which we want to say ‘thank you,’ but also all the tough and baffling bits of life about which we want to cry out, ‘what’s going on here?’ Israel brought all of these emotions into the presence of God and stood there—weeping, wondering, waiting.
I think we have lost something in Christian worship because we hardly ever allow ourselves to do this. We ignore the psalms of lament. Instead, we try to pretend that everyone is, or should be, happy. We even imply that if you are not happy and joyful in your worship, there is something wrong with your faith. We must allow and even encourage people to be honest in their worship and to truly engage with God in the midst of their struggles.”
Four Reasons Why I Like Psalm 23:1 as One of the Top Seven Verses
Reason #1: We needed a verse from the Psalms. I would have loved to have another verse (or two) from the prophets in my seven, but a list without at least one verse from the Psalms would have been a huge oversight theologically, practically and biblically.
Reason #2: If you need a verse from a Psalm, Psalm 23:1 needs to be considered seriously. It is, after all, the best-known verse from the Psalms in the world.
Reason #3: Not only is Psalm 23:1 the best-known verse from the Psalms, but it is a Psalm for all occasions. In trying times, Psalm 23:1 is a verse of comfort. In happy times, Psalm 23:1 is a verse of joy. In times of doubt, Psalm 23:1 is an anchor for the soul. In times of faith, Psalm 23:1 is a reminder of the goodness of God. We recite Psalm 23:1 in our liturgies. We sing Psalm 23:1 in our worship services. We read Psalm 23:1 at our weddings, and we proclaim Psalm 23:1 at our funerals. Children memorize Psalm 23, and adults hold it close to their hearts.
Reason #4: Psalm 23:1 is a verse with which everyone can agree. While every other verse proposed would have to answer why we should choose it and not another, Psalm 23:1 is an obvious candidate because it offends no one. In fact, it is the least objectionable verse in this whole series.
Three Reasons Why I’m Not Wild About Psalm 23:1’s Inclusion as One of Our Seven Verses
Before giving any reasons why I am against Psalm 23:1, let’s remind ourselves of the dilemma in which we find ourselves. There are 150 Psalms filled with great verses. Years ago, I went through the Psalms and chose my favorites. After a lot of soul wrestling, I was able to whittle it down to 54. Now, I would guess that there are at least two or three favorite verses in those 54 Psalms which means I now have 162 possible verses out of which I could choose one. But there were also great verses in the 96 Psalms that did not qualify as my favorites. Let’s suppose a third of them had such a verse. That means, today, I must choose one verse from 194 candidates. And those 194 verses cover a wide range of emotions, topics, issues and perspectives. And that means that choosing one favorite verse from the Psalms is a lot more difficult than slipping out the back, Jack, or making a new plan, Stan. It is more akin to questions like: “What is your mood, dude? What should it say, Ray? Should it focus on sin, Wyn? Or focus on the messiah, Maya? Or should it be a lament, Kent? Or just focus on praise, Blaise? Does it just have to be nice, Bryce? Or should it kind of slap you in the face, Race? You see my dilemma. To find one verse that speaks as a representative for all the verses in the Psalms is not an easy choice. That being said, what should we do about Psalm 23:1?
Reason #1: To be honest, I can’t in good conscience, vote for Psalm 23:1. In fact, in a contest between the three key verses of the 23rd Psalm, on my ballot verse 1 would come in last. Verse 6 (I think) would take the silver medal (“Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever”) and verse 4 would take the gold (“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me”). If verse 1 is not the best verse of the chapter, how can it be the best verse of the book?
Reason #2: Wright seems to propose Psalm 23:1 as his final choice because it is “possibly the most familiar word picture in the whole Old Testament.” However, if we use other markers to determine our choice—things like New Testament usage, Jesus’ preference, and theological importance, we would all conclude that Psalm 110:1 is a far better choice (“The LORD says to my lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’” In fact, Psalm 110:1 is the most quoted single verse in the whole New Testament. An article published by the Gospel Coalition reports that “Psalm 110 is the most frequently cited Old Testament passage in the New Testament, with direct quotes and allusions appearing over 20 to 30 times, depending on the breadth of the definition (direct vs. indirect). It is primarily used to demonstrate Jesus’s messiahship, divine authority, and position as High Priest.” To me, Psalm 110:1 or even Psalm 110:4 (“The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind: ‘You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek’”) which is crucial to the author’s argument in Hebrews 5-7, would make a far better choice.
Reason #3: There are simply too many other great choices that carry far more weight than Psalm 23:1. Here are ten out of a multitude I could have picked, but these ten more than make my point (I thought I could provide just five examples, but I couldn’t do it; getting down to one, in my opinion, is close to impossible).
- Psalm 22:1-2—My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.
- Psalm 27:1—The LORD is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?
- Psalm 32:5—When I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin.
- Psalm 51:1-2—Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
- Psalm 40:1-2—I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.
- Psalm 46:1-3—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, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
- Psalm 95:6-7—Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.
- Psalm 96:3-6—Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the LORD made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary.
- Psalm 103:8-14—The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.
- Psalm 130:7-8—Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.
There are simply too many choices that cover too wide a theological terrain for us to pick just one verse (at least for me).
My Conclusion about Psalm 23:1 as One of the Seven Verses
Psalm 23 is nice, but it is not even close to being as hard-hitting as I would want my verse from the Psalms to be. But my verses from the Psalm are all chosen because I have had a personal encounter with them, and they mean something to me because of that. They are not intellectual choices or even theological choices. They are all deeply emotional choices, but that is the glory of the Psalms. They touch our whole being and penetrate deep into our souls. As a result, my seventh verse has to be Psalm 130:7—“Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.” I cling to this thought and the hope of God’s full redemption.
