The Lord is my shepherd. …He leads me down the paths of righteousness for His name sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

The rain was beating against the hospital’s eighth floor window. Evening was coming on and it was gray. The storm inside the hospital was much worse than the one outside, but as I sat there in the hospital waiting area at end of the hall by the elevators, these thoughts regarding the 23rd psalm spilled out on the paper.

The Lord is my shepherd, I long to hear His voice. His voice carries comfort and hope. I can’t say that I’ve really heard it, maybe once, but I’ve heard His whispers. It is His whispers that I hear when I read the Bible or I hear It read. I’ve heard it enough times that I can recognize It. It brings me comfort like an old friend. It is something I’d follow after.

I long to know the sound of footsteps, to see His silhouette, and know it is Him. You know how you can recognize some people a long way off- maybe it is their walk, or their shape or height- you’ve just been around them long enough to just “know them,” maybe it is all those paintings of Jesus as the Good Shepherd but I almost feel that I might recognize Him from distance. But what is more important is that He would recognize me. I believe He would because He has said that He is my shepherd and a shepherd knows His sheep and keeps watch over them.

As I was sitting there watching evening coming on, I remembered a story that I had read a while back. It was about some parents who had a premature baby, a baby so premature that all the odds were against her. She had to immediately be put in an incubator and her mother couldn’t even hold her. The mother recalled countless prayers asking Jesus to hold her baby because she could not. Against all earthly odds the baby survived and thrived.

Fast forward to a west Texas little league baseball field, that little “pre-me” baby was now four. She was playing with friends in front of bleachers at her big brother’s game. Mom was visiting with friends and hoping the game might finish before a fast approaching summer storm overtook them, everyone could smell it coming.

With the smell of summer rain in air the little girl looked up and began to look here and there with great expectation! Her mother asked her, “What are doing?” “Who are you looking for?” The little girl said again and again, “It is Him. It is Him, The One who held me long ago that what He smells like. I know He’s here, Mama. I know He close. Oh, can’t you smell Him, Mom.” … I don’t know what Jesus smells like but I long to know. To be so hugged by God that I recognize His smell even when it is there for just a moment.

I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. I shall know and trust that He sees my needs and provides for them. Jesus went off after His baptism into the desert for forty days. Having not eaten for forty days He was hungry. He knew it, His Father knew it, and Satan knew it. Satan came to Him with such a temptation. We know it by these words, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Maybe your Father has forgotten about you or overlooked you. Jesus responded, It is written: Man, does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. (Matt 4.1-4) There is so much that I think I need, but I pray I would be brought by the hearing of His voice, by the hearing of the Scriptures, that I would first and foremost, come to want, to trust in, to desire, that which can sustain me: God’s Word. It can sustain me when all that I see around me is crumbling, failing, or is upside down. The Psalmist writes: Some will trust in chariots and some in horses, but I will trust in the name of the Lord our God. (Ps 20.17) I trust in the words of my Shepherd. Please bring me this hour, this day to trust in the words of my Shepherd.

He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name sake. For this verse I had to walk with Him. At first I didn’t realize it but we were walking to the cross. At first nothing seemed different as we went along but then His appearance began to change: He began to sweat from a burden He seemed to be carrying; it bent Him over. I can’t tell you when, I only looked away for a moment, but when I turned back He was crowned with thorns and it was clear He was straining under the weight of the cross. Before I could say anything I was standing at the foot of cross. He was dying, pouring out His life’s blood. He had once whispered to me without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness. (Heb 9.22) The way of the cross, He once explained was the path of my righteousness. By His death my sins could be forgiven and I could be brought again into right standing with God, a right standing before God is what righteousness is.

Put another way: He knows everything that I have done, even the secret misdoings of my thoughts. He knows my sins- He knows me and still He forgives me, more than that my risen from the dead Shepherd embraces me and calls me brother, and walks with me, and His forgiveness spoken even now through His words of absolution restore my soul, in the midst of the storms.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of: ….leukemia, aging, loss of a spouse, desertion, abuse, addiction, unemployment, destruction, loneliness, indifference, lies told against me, or even death I will fear no evil. WHY? Because You are with me. He has declared, Never will I leave you, never will I abandon you. (Heb 13.5) Yes, in this world we will have trouble but fear not for He has overcome the world. (Jn 16.33) I can walk through these valleys for He is with me.

Your rod and your staff they comfort me. Your stable, Your stories, parables, and records of Your miracles they truly comfort me. Your cross, as gruesome as it is, comforts me. Your empty tomb, the power that could raise someone from the dead, not just breath life into a crucified body but the power that could rise up a body, resurrect a body glorious THAT comforts me. Your Word and promises comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil and my cup overflows. When I hear these words I am reminded of the greeting I hear when I come to communion: “Welcome to the Lord’s Table.” He has prepared a meal for me that is so much more than just bread and wine: He has joined Himself in a real yet sacramental way to the bread and wine. By and through communion He takes hold of me in a real manner: embracing me, forgiving me, and strengthening me. There are times I need to have Jesus take very real hold of me and He does it by and through His communion.

He anoints me. Just as heirs to the throne were anointed I too have been anointed. He has anointed me, my grandson, all His children by and through His words and promises of baptism. He has declared that we are no longer a slave but a son, an heir of my heavenly Father not by anything we have done but by everything He has done. (Gal 4.7) And being an heir I have the certainty my prayers are heard by my Father. Truly, my cup, our cups, overflow time and time again when we gather with others to read, study, and discuss the Shepherd’s words.

Surely, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. A better word for follow is “pursue.” Surely, goodness and mercy will pursue me all the days of my life. Several years ago a dear friend of mine was battling with cancer. It was a very hard time for her and her family. Some days were okay but other days things didn’t go so well, the news wasn’t so good, the chemo hurt, the radiation hurt. I remember sitting in her kitchen and discussing the three angels in this verse. Can you find them?.... One is “Goodness” and the other is… “Mercy,” but who is the third angel? … It is “Shirley.” Shirley, we laughed was the third angel, and we could tell when Shirley was on duty. We figured it was a Shirley day when things went wrong, the pain was up, the chemo left its after effects. I can remember asking her what kind of a day has it been and some days she’d say, “It was a Shirley day,” And I knew what that meant.

Oh, don’t get me wrong we never lost sight that God was watching over us but it made the tough days a little more bearable when we could for just a moment laugh and blame Shirley. When your sick or someone you love is sick or your in one of those valleys you’ll know the “Shirley Days.” But, don’t be deceived God has not abandoned you. God is with us and pursuing us.

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Sometimes people think of heaven as some far away place. It is and it most definitely isn’t. It is right now. It is as close as His Word. It is light reflected in hands and faces of others who love the Good Shepherd. Where two or three are gathered in His nam,e He is there also. Heaven is in a small measure within our hearts for it is there the Holy Spirit resides. The fullness of heaven is out there but it is only one heartbeat away. Heaven is in communion - all that Jesus is here and where He goes so goes the hosts of heaven for just a moment our church gets really crowded, and in His supper He is with us. Yes, one day I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever, right now I have just a foretaste of the things to come. Right now, I have the Shepherd. I hear His voice and I need, I want, to follow after Him. Right now, He looks after me.