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Rabbi Rami Guides are brief, often humorous, no-nonsense explorations of issues facing spiritual seekers. Written for people of any faith or none, Rabbi Rami Guides hope to start conversations rather than end them.

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Psalm 23

Psalm 23 & Jesus’ Two Great Commandments: A Rabbi Rami Guide By Rami Shapiro

ISBN: 978-0-9896454-6-1

www.rabbirami.com

Cover and interior design by Sandra Salamony

Cataloging-in-Publication data for this book is available upon request.

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PREFACE

CHAPTER ONE:
The 23^rd Psalm

CHAPTER TWO:
Jesus’ Two Great Commandments

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SOME TEXTS ARE MERELY TEXTS—words on a page conveying information about the past; others become touchstones—a living teaching that shapes your life in the present. As a rabbi and professor of religion, I am lucky enough to teach both types of material, texts and touchstones, and while I find value in texts, it is touchstones that I truly treasure.

In this short Rabbi Rami Guide, we will explore two such touchstones from the Bible, the 23^rd Psalm and the Two Great Commandments of Jesus. I chose these two texts because they are touchstones for millions. The 23rd Psalm brings comfort to people in times of terrible tragedy and grief, and the Two Great Commandments of Jesus bring direction to people in times of terrible confusion and doubt.

As with all the volumes in the Rabbi Rami Guide series, this book is not a book about any religion in particular. While the 23^rd Psalm and the Two Great Commandments are found in the Hebrew Bible, this is not a book about the Bible or Judaism. Nor is it a book about Christianity. It is a book about two touchstone texts that can help you in times of crises. While it is true that in order to understand these texts you must understand the deeper meanings of their words, and to do this I must explore their Jewish context and Hebrew nuances, my concern isn’t with the offcial theologies of any faith, but with the needs of people struggling for spiritual moorings.

It is my hope that you will find touchstones for your own lives in my explorations of these two texts; that you will return to these texts and my commentaries again and again whenever you need solace and support; and that with the help of this brief Guide, you will deepen your own spiritual walk so that you can become a shoulder for others to lean on when they need solace and support, as well.

I wish to thank Aaron Shapiro for his help with editing the earlier drafts of this manuscript, and Victoria Sutherland for polishing the final version. I am also grateful to Matt Sutherland and the entire Spirituality & Health family for making this and the other Rabbi Rami Guides possible.

The 23^rd Psalm

THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY poems of Sefer Tellihim, the Book of Psalms, provide much of the poetry of our religious and spiritual lives. Yet one psalm above all the others calls to us most power-fully: Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd.” This is the psalm that comforts us when we grieve, that offers us refuge when we are lost, and that proffers hope when we are hopeless. But why? What is it about the 23^rd Psalm that makes this the hymn of solace? Let me suggest four things.

First, the psalm is compact and easily memorized: only fifty-seven words in the original Hebrew, and rarely more than twice that in its various English trans-lations. Second, it speaks to us where we are, reminding us of what is available to us now in the midst of our fear, grief, and sadness. This is not a hymn to past glory or future redemption, but an invitation to walk with God here and now. Third, Psalm 23 speaks not only about God, but also to God; shifting mid-hymn from third person to second person, from “he” to “Thou,” from God as idea to God as presence. And fourth, Psalm 23 asks nothing of us, but speaks instead of the unconditional grace and gifting of God’s love. We don’t earn God’s love; we awaken to it: God is my shepherd no matter how wayward a sheep I may be.

Psalm 23 speaks to us without artifice or abstraction, but not without metaphor. It is the task of this guide to unpack the metaphors and lay bare their meaning. In keeping with the brevity of Psalm 23, I too will be brief. But do not mistake brevity for shallowness. This guide is to be read and reread. It was not written for your bookshelf, but for your night-stand, purse, and briefcase. This book, like the psalm it explores, is meant to travel with you as you walk through the shadowed valley of your own mortality, for it is only in the immediacy of your own life that the 23rd Psalm reveals the reality of God shepherding you at every turn.

The 23rd Psalm

A Psalm of David

23:1 The Lord is my shepherd;

I shall not want.

23:2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures

He leadeth me beside the still waters.

23:3 He restoreth my soul:

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness

for His names sake.

23:4 Yea, though I walk through 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.

23:5 Thou preparest a table before me in the

presence of mine enemies,

Thou anointest my head with oil;

my cup runneth over.

23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

all the days of my life, and I will dwell

in the House of the Lord for ever.*

* I have chosen to use the King James Version of the 23rd Psalm because it is the most commonly used translation among those who find the psalm both moving and healing.

The 23rd Psalm

A Psalm of David

23:1 The Lord is my shepherd;

THE 23RD PSALM is ascribed to David, the once and future king of the Jews. David was the youngest of eight children, a child of the tribe of Judah, and a direct descendent of Ruth the Moabite. He was a shepherd, a musician, a poet, a giant slayer, a warrior, a rebel, a king, and even a murderer. But above all, he was a lover of God.

Lovers of God seek to embrace and be embraced by the Divine, to rise above weaknesses, despite continually succumbing to them. Lovers of God may be saints, but most often they are sinners. They may be whole, but most often they are broken. They may be pure, but most often they are sullied. They may be perfect, but most often they are damaged. We have little need for saints: whole, spotless, and perfect. They can’t speak to us because they do not know what it is to be us. They call us to be like them, when we are condemned to be only who we are: flawed and foolish stumblers on the way, who dare to hope that sin isn’t the measure by which we are gauged, but rather another opportunity to rise up and move forward.

David speaks to us not because he was a saint, but because he was a repentant sinner. David knew what it was to succumb to evil, and he knew what it was to “turn from evil and do good” (Psalm 34:14). David doesn’t judge us, because he is us. And because he is us, his poetry speaks to us.

The 23rd Psalm is a Psalm of David not simply in the sense that David may have written it, but in the sense that it speaks to us in the midst of our struggles. It is a Psalm of David in that it is the hymn of a sinner repenting of sin, and realizing that no matter how far he has fallen, God is there.

A Psalm of David

23:1 The Lord is my shepherd;

I shall not want.

DESPITE THE WORK OF countless translators, the Hebrew Adonai (Lord) never appears in our psalm. David doesn’t speak of Adonai but of YHVH, the Ineffable Reality beyond all words and ideologies. Adonai is a patriarchal euphemism that comes into use long after David wrote this psalm. Where the noun “Lord” implies masculinity, hierarchy, fixity, power, and even militarism, the verb YHVH speaks of mystery, unconditionality, and ongoing creative liberation. It is YHVH not Adonai who is your shepherd, one unlike any other.

Human shepherds keep their flocks safe by herding them along well-worn paths. But the Divine Shepherd is not about safety. The Divine Shepherd is about free-dom, justice, and compassion. Where human shep-herds call their flocks back to the familiar path, God calls us to the opposite.

When God called Abram and Sarai (soon to be renamed Abraham and Sarah), God called them to leave everything they knew and to travel to an unknown land (Genesis 12:1). When God called to Moses from the Burning Bush (Exodus 3:1), God called him to leave the path he was traveling and return to Egypt to liberate the Hebrew people. Human shepherds call their flocks to return to the known; the Divine Shepherd calls us to the unknown. Human shepherds call their flocks to return to the herd; the Divine Shepherd calls us to free us.

Abraham and Sarah are called to be a blessing to the world (Genesis 12:2); Moses is called to be a liberator (Exodus 3:10). The two are not different. The ultimate blessing is the blessing of freedom, the blessing of liberation from Mitzrayim (Egypt), literally “the narrow places” of life, the places of egotism and hubris, the places of arrogance and ignorance. It is this blessing-through-liberation that David is referencing when he says, “The Lord is my shepherd.” When you recite this psalm, you realize that God is your shepherd as well; that you, no less than Abraham, Sarah, Moses, and David, are called to be a liberating blessing for the world.

23:1 The Lord is my shepherd

I shall not want.

23:2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures

“I SHALL NOT WANT” does not mean, “I shall not desire,” but rather, “I shall not lack.” The Hebrew verb echsar (lack) is in the future tense, suggesting that freedom from want comes only when you realize that God is your shepherd. Why? Because it is then that you realize your desires, endless and endlessly unsatisfied, are a distraction seducing you from your true calling and trapping you in the narrow and lifeless worship of the next big thing.

With God as your shepherd, the chains of idolatry are severed. You are now free to be what God is calling you to be: a source of blessing and liberation for the world. David is not saying that with God as your shep-herd you will have everything you need to fulfill all your desires, but that you have everything you need to fill God’s desire—that you will have everything you need to become a blessing to others by liberating yourself and them from narrowness.

David uses the future tense because he wants you to know that God is not fixed, but flowing; that God does not shepherd you in one moment, but in every moment, and the way you experience God in this moment may not be the way you experience God in the next. God is forever unfolding. God is forever fresh and surprising. So the tools you need to effect liberation are also unfolding, fresh, and surprising. Nothing of God and nothing that is godly is fixed, and slavery is precisely the brutal effort to dam the flow of God and godliness by restricting the flow of freedom and creativity. This is why pharaohs of all kinds and in all ages see themselves as gods. Pharaohs deny God, the unconditioned and unconditional source of all reality, and impose slavery—the denial of godliness and the freedom and creativity godliness demands.

David is saying that when you allow God to shepherd you, when you dare to leave the path for the pathless, the known for the unknown, and take upon yourself the challenge of becoming a blessing and a liberator, you can trust God to provide you with the means for being both in this moment and the next.

I shall not want.

23:2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures

He leadeth me beside the still waters.