Psalm 23 is the Hinge and the Playlist—September 2024

Psalm 23 is the Hinge and the Playlist

Sunday school teachers managed to lodge in my understanding the idea that the middle of the Bible is the Psalms. 

True enough. 

Though verse counters think the literal midpoint is around Psalm 103, I rather like to think that the center, the core, the hinge of the whole book is Psalm 23.

In many cultures, that Psalm has a wide significance. Pieces and phrases are lifted for any number of uses from those 6 verses like:

The Lord is my Shepherd 

He leads me

Valley of the shadow of death

Restore my soul

Goodness and mercy follow me

A couple decades back, when I chose to start intentionally memorizing more Scripture, the first passage retained was David’s pastoral psalm canonized as #23. Now all these years later, I’ve probably recited it to myself and the open air hundreds, nearing thousands, of times. Occasionally it’s just to practice it, but there have been other times it erupted from my being as a mantra and prayer, said repeatedly as a breathless lifeline.

In the passage King David names the Lord,

(My Shepherd)

and he specifies the effect He has on us,

(We lack nothing, want for nothing)

(We find rest, gentleness, refreshment & guidance)

then David locates us in our reality,

(Darkest valley or shadow of death, near to and surrounded by enemies)

and declares our condition,

(Fearing no evil, comforted, fed & anointed)

after which David reminds us of promises, which deserves vs 6 to be quoted here:

“Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

 For the past few weeks I’ve been re-reading and listening to this Psalm daily. It came back to the top of my mental playlist because of a new release from Charlie Peacock. Take a second and go spin “Get Yourself Some” and you’ll hear one of the gentlest, 23rd-esque invitations you’ve probably ever heard!

 There are a handful of other, really good tunes centered around King David’s lyric like CeCe Winans’ “Shepherd” and cover of “Goodness of God”, the gorgeous acoustic rendering by Michael Olson some 20 years ago and young Leanna Crawford’s new work “Still Waters”. I’ve started a playlist simply called Psalm 23 so I can readily access reminders time and time again.

“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.”