Commentary by Dr Noel Donnelly
Psalm 22, The Lord’s My Shepherd is probably the best known of all the psalms. It has been sung at weddings and funerals by all sorts of folk, many of whom have never darkened the door of a church for years, perhaps with good reason! It has a gut appeal by its simplicity and depth of meaning, and its openness and relevance to all of us.
In the Hebrew Scriptures God has often been referred to as the Shepherd of Israel but in this psalm the wording is very personal: God is “My” shepherd who makes ME lie down in a green place (a dear Green Place perhaps?) where he pitches MY tent and feeds and anoints ME and so on.
The heading to the psalm is “A Psalm of David”, the king who had once been a shepherd boy but now in mature years appreciates the guiding hand of the Shepherd God who has anointed him as King and also restored his soul after tempestuous and even sinful times as he walked through the shadow of death threatened by foes and family alike. Now at last he is safe in the hands of the same caring God who has pursued him with goodness and mercy all his wandering days.
A favourite Jewish psalm, uttered calmly and most solemnly in the darkness of the holocaust, it is also the psalm of Christians who try to follow the Good Shepherd Jesus, who invites us to be honoured guests at his banquet here on earth at the Eucharist or later, hopefully, in heaven. I wonder what might be on the menu at the celestial banquet: a lovingly-prepared Shepherd’s Pie perhaps?
Psalm 22 words (c) The Grail, England. Music (c) Gerry Fitzpatrick. Recording by Grace Buckley. Graphic (c) Netta Ewing.
