This week’s Song To Live By is Psalm 23

Tom writes:

The Lord is my shepherd. Its the nouns’ determiners that make the difference. You know what a determiner is - its that tiny word that comes before a noun to determine what the noun relates to. Most of us know the noun “Lord”. Most of us know the noun “shepherd”. Nouns are funny things. They catch all the attention like they are all we should think about. And a lot of benefit does come from thinking about nouns. But nouns only take us so far if we don’t recognise their determiners. You see, it’s important that David didn’t pray my Lord you are a shepherd. He prayed THE Lord is MY shepherd. I wonder if you could say the same?

Seriously, I wonder if you could say the same? Because there are lots of lords around. We have a House of them in Westminster. We sing about 11 of them at Christmas. Although we don’t use the name for them, anyone who has a boss at work knows that there is ultimately one person who can - if they want to - lord it over the space they call their “team”. But they are only people’s lords. David was speaking about THE Lord. David used the determiner THE which automatically relegated every other person’s lord to a smaller remit, to being a parochial prince. David didn’t form a habit of beseeching and befriending those lesser ones. David went right to the top of the top. David dared address THE Lord of all the universe, the one whose words trump every other dictat, whose decrees over-ride every other decision, the one whose armies can crush the sum total of every other army in creation, and still get back in time for breakfast. That was who David dared pray to.

And… that gave him his second determiner. And this one is perhaps more shocking because this determiner is a possessive article. David is actually claiming to possess THE Lord. It’s important David didn’t just say that God is gracious and compassionate. It’s important to recognise that David didn’t just delight that his God was an unfailing lover of those within his covenant. No. David used the determiner “MY” to talk about THE Lord. David - a ruddy youngest son of a nobody tribe in a weak nation who had sprung out of nowhere dared to use a possessive article about THE LORD. And so hidden in this most famous first line of all the psalms we come across the most blasphemous gospel that has ever shaken the planet. THE LORD. The ALMIGHTY ONE. The ONE WHO CANNOT BE challenged and cannot be overcome and who is eternally sovereign and astonishingly wise. The LORD is willing to become so deeply connected to sinful, tiny, simple individuals that they can even feel like they own him and can walk every moment utterly assured of his care. If you can get your head round those determiners, all the rest of the psalm will just become commentary. And all the rest of the psalm will just become your life.

A Prayer

LORD. You are THE LORD. Please increase my certainty in your greatness. Show me your provision. Help me see you as your truly are and in your mighty strength comfort away all my fear. The LORD. Please make yourself my shepherd.