First off, we will have Sunday School this week, even though we have a 11AM joint service.  We will meet before service at 10AM in the library.

Background. This week we tackle perhaps the best-known Psalm to Christians- Psalm 23. The Lord is my Shepherd.  It actually is a very unusual Psalm in two ways.  First, there are many common images of God in the Psalms, but a shepherd is not one of them!  It is in two other Psalms (28:19 and 80:1), neither which really explore explicit the role of the shepherd like this one.  Additionally, this is a very individual Psalm compared to most which see God in context to his relationship to their community now and in the past. This creates a very intimate caring Psalm about God’s relationship to just one sheep.  Not as part of a flock, but as just one sheep protected and guided by one God.

Reading Psalm 23: We will read parts later, but today read your favorite version intact (it is only 6 verses)

Reflection This Psalm is associated with funerals, perhaps because we think of death as so scary- a valley of darkness, and especially want to think of God with us.  Or perhaps to acknowledge the role of God in the whole life of a person, as we did with Rosalie last weekend.  But this Psalm isn’t about the past or the future, but about now.  Do you feel God is shepherding you?  Do you feel worthy of that attention of something as unimaginable as God?  We don’t know many shepherds.  What modern equivalent might there be for shepherd?