In Right Paths

Opening Prayer

Almighty and everlasting God, who has brought light to the darkness and made visible that which was hidden: Cleanse away the foolishness of our hearts, and purify us from our secret sins, that we may be able to serve you with a pure mind and heart; Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Pastoral Prayer

Almighty and most merciful God, you have come among us and chosen the least of us to be heirs of your eternal life. Praised and blessed is your holy Name. You revealed your will to prophets and apostles that we might perceive your mind for us. Thank be to you, O God most high.

We are born blind to your grace, yet you come to us in baptism and wash away the scales from our eyes that we may see your face. But we too often fail to acknowledge your gift. We would rather cling to our own ideas and prefer to remain sightless, rather than risk being made new. When we are faced with the reality of your presence we fail to receive you in faith, trying to find our own understandings. Where we deny you, good Lord, have mercy upon us and forgive us.

Pour out your light by the power of your Holy Spirit that we may see clearly what you have revealed. Give us strength to do that which is good and right and true, that we may bear the true fruit for which we were made.

Lord God, as Jesus sought the outcast in all he did, so guide us to the same. Give sight to those who are blind, that they too may believe and give you praise. Receive into your care those whom we have named before you; heal them and restore them to wholeness. Especially, we pray for...

Hear us, O God, not because we have a right to ask these things, but because we come in the name of the Light which came down from heaven, even Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who taught us to pray by saying...

Scripture Lesson

Psalm 23 NRSV

A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.

Introduction

These are quite possibly the most familiar verses in all of scripture besides . We hear them read particularly at funerals and when we are searching for times of comfort. I think that today we may be coming with that same kind of attitude. We are all looking for comfort in these days. I don’t know about you but it is difficult not having your normal routine. It is not always easy to work from home. There are a lot of distractions that come up. Either you have the tv in the background with all of the news of the day - stock markets tanking, supply chains disrupted, more people being infected. It wears on your mentally.

As human beings we are creatsurges who long for companionship and friendships with others. When you feel like you are closed off from everyone, it can become increasingly taxing on the mind. So it is in this enviroment that we find ourselves looking at this short but empactful psalm.

It is verse 3 that we find our theme for this week - right paths. During the season of Lent, we always journey the same path to the same destination. However, we always want to make each journey a little different. There is familiarity with this path. We know where we are headed each year. It seems however that this year may be a little different for us all. Right now, we are not journeying anywhere much physically. We are in our familiar surroundings with family and pets. But what is going to make it different for us this year than in years past is not so much the circumstances we find ourselves in as much as the experience of knowing that it is ultimately God who is our guide, our shepherd. He is the one who leads us and cares for us in these times and at all times. The path in which he leads us is not one that will necessarily be easy but one that is necessary nonetheless. It is a path that will take us to all kinds of places without us even leaving our homes. Because this journey is one that is not physical but spiritual. This is a journey that is going to take us to the very heart of God and in turn a discovery of who we are in him.

It think that is why this psalm is so popular with so many people - even those who are not familiar with any other part of the Bible. It speaks to us in depths and of places that we may not even be aware of in ourselves. So today, I invite you to journey with me through this psalm as we discover the right path that God has laid out for us.

1. The right path leads to a place of restoration.

Psalm 23:1–3 NRSV

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.

Ephesians 5:8–9 NRSV

For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light— for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.

Restoration is a word that seems to point to a going back. When we watch home improvement shows that talk about restoration we see the decorators and contractors trying to immulate how the house would look when it was first built. It is a going back in time to the place of origin.

But I think that David may have a different use for this word. This restoration is done in the context of not lacking anything. So perhaps we should say instead of restore, “replenish.” God wants to replenish us after we have been in the world and had to deal with so much that is around us and ahead of us. God want to take us to that place of rest where we can find him. It is in the replenishing that we find our way on the path in the first place.

When we surround ourselves constantly by the bombardment of the things in the world - all of the anxiety and calamity that seems to befall us, it will take a toll on us. I remember back to 9/11 and all of the names that were on the bottom line of the news constantly. I remember people who were holed up in their houses for days and weeks on end watching everything over and over again. Seeing all the people from New York who were interviewed and could not find their loved ones. It took a toll on many people. The same is true now. We can read all the headlines and watch the news and be engulfed in all these things to the point that we are living with this enhanceed fear and anxiety. But God is calling us to a different place. He does not want us to stay in that place anymore. He wants to lead us to something new and different. He wants to lead us to a place of replenishment. This is not an invitation to go back to how we were before. Perhaps, right now is a time for us to discover something new in life and about ourselves.

Paul says in that we were once in darkness but now in the Lord we are in light. We are to live as children of light. The fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. What is Paul talking about here? This section is actually a call to the Ephesians to remember the baptism. When new converts were baptized in the early Church, they would take them to the place where the baptism was to happen in the very early part of Easter morning. They would have the water poured over their heads or they would be immersed in the water facing the darkness. When they came up out of the water they would turn to the rising sun as a reminder that they were no longer children of darkness but children of light. They were entering into a new life in Jesus. This life would produce fruit that is found in all that is good, right, and true. It is way of remember the path of restoration and replenishment that God is inviting us to - beside the still waters that can refresh.

2. The right path leads to a place of blessing.

Psalm 23:4–5 NRSV

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

1 Samuel 16:13 NRSV

Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah.

We are led to a place of blessing. Now this is something I believe we have to careful to define. Many times when we think of blessing, we think of getting some kind of goody from God. We are receiving something of worth to us. But David is trying to help us understand blessing differently.

The phrase that gets pulled in here is “my cup overflows.” We can image what that looks like. A cup that is constantly filling and the liquid is spilling out of sides of the cup and onto the ground. This is the image of blessing that is in our minds. God blesses us so much that it just overflows. We hear phrases like, “Live in the overflow.” The danger in that mentality is that when we seem to be in a dry place in our lives or things do not seem like they are overflowing with blessing and good and easy times we may think we do not have enough faith. That there is something that we are lacking in ourselves that is preventing us from having this overflow in our lives. We say to ourselves that if we do more God will see what I am doing and bless me.

But we sometimes skip over the places we have to go sometimes before the blessing ever happens - even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Go back to the very first verse of this psalm - “the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.” That can also be translated more accurately, “I do not lack.” What this means is that we have blessing and overflow in our lives because the Lord is our shepherd. He leads us through the valleys. He places us before our enemies. He even convicts us in our spirits. But in these times of hardship, God is with us. He is leading us and we are not lacking in him.

We can look at the circumstances of our life and think that God hates us or is nowhere around us. But our personal circumstances do not define or limit the reach and love of God in our lives. God leads us through these times so that there can be blessing on the other side. I truly believe that anytime we go through hardships in our lives, God is going to use that as a way for our faith in him to be deepened. And that is where the blessing happens. That is where the overflow takes place. When we are in a place that seems too much, God is still with us. He is leading us through it. We need to pray to have the eyes of faith to see him working through those circumstances. Because if we do, we will see the blessing God has for us in the end. He will strengthen us so that we can be a help for others. We can rely on God for all things. He is not a man that he should lie.

Just like when Jesse went through all of his sons and they were not the one, he sends for he youngest David, who was the one who would be the king of Israel. But the important verse in this story from is verse 7, “But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.’”

Do we have a heart for the Lord? When we are being led down the right paths with him, we will have a heart for him that will lead to blessing even when it does not seem like a blessing at the time. God will always lead us through and strengthen us along the way.

3. The right paths leads to a place of grace.

Psalm 23:4-

Psalm 23:6 NRSV

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.

John 9:39 NRSV

Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.”

Finally, this morning, the right paths lead to a place of grace. What is interesting about this final verse is that what is translated as “shall follow” has a much more active meaning. The way that it reads it sounds as if God is very passive in his reaching to us. But the word is better translated as pursue. It is much more active. It helps us to understand better what God is doing in our lives. God is pursuing us with his goodness and mercy all of our days. God is not a passive God that watches the world go by or looks upon our lives only when we call him. He is a God who is actively pursuing his children. He wants to be in relationship with us.

God is after us. As Wesleyans, we talk a lot about preventient grace that is the grace that goes before us. God is pursuing us even before we realize he is. He desires for us to be with him and not separated from him in our sin. Often times, we do not realize this. We can be oblivious to God’s action around our lives. We can be blind to the fact of his grace in our presence. This grace that goes before and is pursuing us and calling to us in our blindness is the evidence of God’s great love for us.

In , we have the story of the blind man who was healed by Jesus. The majority of the story deals with the aftermath of the healing, namely the lack of faith that is found in the Jewish leaders. They are wanting answers to how the man was healed. But the entire story is a condemnation on the spiritual blindness that we live in particularly in the church. We loose the joy of the fact that God pursues those who are outside of the fold and wants to be in a relationship with them. We can become comfortable with our place in the kingdom and not notice the one who God is after. God wants to heal us of our spiritual blindness and to seeing his presence all around us. That is how we can know the fullness of God’s love and grace.

When we walk in spiritual blindness we are relying on ourselves for salvation. We are not the ones who can lead us to the still waters, the right paths, or even to dwell in the house of the Lord. We must rely on the grace of God. It is he who sets the table before us. There is present in these final words of this psalm the picture of the Lamb of God who has become king and shepherd and guides the redeemed to living water. This is the absolute sense of “I do not lack” and it is completely fulfilled. In , we find these words, “For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; neither shall they sun beat down on them, nor any heat; for the Lam in the center of he throne shall be their shepherd, and shall guide them to springs of the water of life; and God shall wipe every tear from their eyes.” In this we shall see the full beauty of the grace of God before us. Jesus is on his throne even now. He is one who will wipe away our tears. He is the one who leads us as a shepherd to the living waters of God, the still waters of rest. May our eyes be open to him and the wonders of his grace.

Conclusion

As we close this morning, let me remind you that God will lead us to those places in life where we find restoration, blessing, and grace. God’s love for everyone us is why this is so. During this season of Lent, we are on a path of righteousness, that is a path of right relationship. That relationship that is found in God is only paved because of the one who has gone before us. Jesus has already made the path possible through his life, death, and resurrection. He is our path of righteousness. He is the one we are to follow. As our Good Shepherd, he will lead us and take us where we need to go because he has taken the path already. It is up to us to follow where he has already tread. Therefore, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.