Rector’s Reflections
Wednesday 11th September 2024
A Different Take on Psalm 23
Having introduced Joseph Addison, it is now time to turn to the text of his hymn.
The first verse reads as follows:
“The Lord my pasture shall prepare,
And feed me with a shepherd’s care;
And guard me with a watchful eye;
My noonday walks he shall attend,
And all my midnight hours defend”.
There is much that this verse has to say to us about our relationship with God, but I am going to limit myself to sharing three reflections.
The first point it is that it reminds us that God has a plan for our lives, and that it is a good plan, full of blessing. God is “preparing” a “pasture” for us, and He will feed us “with a shepherd’s care”. So we can look to the future with hope. Things might be difficult for us at present, but we can look ahead to future with confidence, knowing that all shall be well. We are the sheep of God’s hand, and God cares for His sheep.
Why can we place such trust in God? Because He is with us. He is not some absent God, who has to be summoned from some far off corner of the galaxy. Far from it. God is present, and He is always present. Nothing can ever separate us from the presence of God. In the words of the hymn, God’s “presence shall my wants supply, And guard me with a watchful eye”.
There is a further aspect of this, which is worth noting. Addison seems to be suggesting that God’s mere presence is enough. It is not the case that we have to make two separate prayers: the first prayer to summon up God’s presence, and the second, to ask God to do something, once He has appeared on the scene. The first prayer is superfluous, as God is always present – although often we forget this, and need to be reminded of the fact. But furthermore, the second prayer is also superfluous: we don’t need to ask God to “do” anything, because His very presence is enough. In philosophical terms, we may say that God’s Being is united with His Acting, so God cannot help giving expression to Who He is. In practical terms, this means that God isn’t just Love in an abstract sense: He is continually expressing His love in acts of love. Another way of thinking about this is to say that for Christians, the word “God” is both a noun and a verb: in other words, God is continually expressing Who He is. So God’s presence is enough. It is all that we need. Our task is to recognise and accept God’s presence, even at those times when we are angry, frightened or embarrassed. I think at times even the Saints can find this a challenge. But the Saints persevere – and perhaps this perseverance is what makes them Saints.
Finally, God’s presence is a defence for us. Addison reminds us of this in the final two lines of the first verse: “ My noonday walks he shall attend, And all my midnight hours defend”. The reference to God defending us in our “midnight hours” is intriguing. Was Addison subject to nightmares or bad dreams? Did he find it difficult to get to sleep, and find himself lying awake in his bed, worrying about all sorts of things? Or perhaps the reference to our “midnight hours” should be taken figuratively, rather than literally. Perhaps Addison is saying that God protects us when we are most vulnerable, or at our lowest ebb.
So in Addison’s first verse, he is saying that we can trust God, because God cares for us with a “shepherd’s care”. God is always present, and His presence provides us with a sure defence and protection. God “attends” us in the noonday, and “defends” us in our midnight hours.
Having given us these thoughts, he goes to develop them further in the second verse. We shall look at this in tomorrow’s reflections.