I don't need anything else

A folk-singing friend taught me that if I could link a sermon to a song, listeners would remember the song, and thus be more likely to remember the sermon. Music resides in a part of the brain that is resistant to amnesia, he said. Putting the 23rd Psalm in this Sunday’s readings to music gives us preachers an opportunity to help the congregation rediscover this psalm and its power.

• “The Lord is my shepherd.” Invite the congregation to imagine itself as a collective disciple. Let the psalm speak first to “ya’ll” as a single body—perhaps as the “I” who is the singer. Imagine what would happen if the congregation were able to live the faith it sings. In the ancient Near East it was commonplace to speak of kings, pharaohs and caesars as the “shepherds of the people.” This is political speech. The church is called to place its primary trust not in princes but in its risen Lord. Remember the consequences of this for the Confessing Church in Germany in the 1930s when it took the 23rd Psalm seriously. What would happen if we not only sing but also live this psalm?

• “I shall not want.” The congregation sings that it does not need anything else, but this claim counters a culture that preaches that salvation comes from consuming as much as possible and from relying upon military might. Imagine the shape of a church that has this single verse as its mission statement. What does a congregation that “does not want” look like?