Psalm 23:5-6 'Home'

  

I have a recurring dream.  It’s about home.  It’s actually about the home I associate with growing up.

I am in our house with mum.  I look at her and ask, ‘how come we are getting to use this house, we sold it?’  To which she replies, ‘they are away for the weekend.’  But I have an objection.  If that is the case how come my stuff is still in the cupboard?  At that stage the dream would end.

But then the dream developed.  Now my mum explained that the people who purchased the house never moved in.  They didn’t like it.  So, we still have use of it.  Sometimes I dream that I am outside of the house and not welcome to go in because the new owners are there.

We all have a longing for home.  Humanity has had that longing since we were expelled from Eden.  The final verses of Psalm 23 are about coming home.  But our deepest sense of home is found not in a place but a person.

Maybe Jesus is calling you home for the first time.  He has broad shoulders to carry.  All you need to do is admit that you are lost and helpless.

Maybe you have strayed from the path.  You are now sad and miss being close with Jesus and his people.  He comes looking for us no matter how far away we have gone.

Maybe you are passing through the valley of the shadow of darkness, and what you need to know is that there is a banqueting table just over the horizon.  He is travelling with you.

1.       The host prepares a feast

There is a debate whether these last verses continue the picture of shepherd and sheep or whether we are now dealing with a host and his guests.  I think the picture has switched to the host, but the shepherd and the sheep are still in the back of our minds.  Notice that the psalmist is still speaking to God not just about God—it is still ‘you’ not ‘my’.

In that culture the host would have commissioned the women of the house or the servants to prepare the banquet.  But notice that the host does it himself.  ‘You prepare a table before me.’  It reminds me of some amazing verses in Luke’s gospel where Jesus speaks of his return.  ‘It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes.  Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, he will have them recline at the table and he will come and wait on them’ (Luke 12:37).  When Jesus returns he will wait upon his people. That’s astonishing.  It is interesting that just a few verses earlier in Luke Jesus addresses to his people saying, ‘do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom’ (verse 32).

Jesus’ people are his delight, and he loves to serve them.

2.      He serves us in the presence of our enemies

C. S. Lewis doesn’t like the idea that we are served in the presence of our enemies.  It sounds vindictive, as if we are taking pleasure in our enemies cowering before us as we are served.  But maybe the way to view this is to see how Jesus served his people in the presence of their enemies.

In Luke’s gospel (7:36-50), a woman who had lived a sinful life weeps and wets Jesus’ feet with her tears, pouring perfume on them.  Simon, the host, is a Pharisee, and he criticises Jesus for allowing such a woman do such a thing.  What does the friend of sinners do?  Jesus defends her.  ‘She loves much because she has been forgiven much’.  She is safe with Jesus from the accusations of her enemies.  When people try to shame you with your past, do not fear, you are washed, you are cleansed and you are justified.

3.      He anoints your head with oil and your cup overflows

The anointing referred to her is not the anointing of a king for service but the anointing of a guest in an act of generosity to make them feel relaxed and secure.  Home is where we are full known and totally loved.

Our cup overflows.  Spurgeon says, when Jesus is the host no guest goes empty at the table’.  The host comes to top up your glass.  In Romans we read that, ‘the Holy Spirit pours God’s love into our hearts’ (Romans 5:5). 

4.      Your perspective changes

‘Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.’  There are two special Hebrew words used here. 

‘Goodness’ is a translation of the Hebrew ‘tov’.  Tov is used in Genesis 1, where God sees his creation and pronounces it good.  God restores our souls and makes good out of the chaos.

Mercy is a translation of the Hebrew ‘chesed’.  Chesed is God’s covenant love.  It is love based on a covenant and love that goes beyond what is expected.  I heard a description of chesed being live a man who marries a woman, and when she gets a chronic illness he gives up his job to care for her.  His actions are based on their covenant relationship but they go beyond what would be normally expected.

Apparently ‘follow’ is too soft a translation.  ‘Pursue’ would be better.  Goodness and mercy pursue us.  David Gibson suggests that something pursues us we see it as we look backwards over our shoulder.  As we look back on the valley and the chaos it is only the passing of time that enables us to look back and see that goodness and mercy were pursing us.  In the Lord of the Rings Sam asks Gandalf, ‘is everything sad going to be made untrue?’  Looking back with the eyes of God’s care helps us rethink our memories.

The was an old shepherd who used to preach.  He once said that he would like to name two sheepdogs ‘goodness and mercy.’  Every time we are straying it is God’s goodness and mercy which brings us back to the shepherd.  ‘It is the kindness of God that leads to repentance’ (Romans 2:4).

5.      Home now and forever more

I saw a brief chip on RTE where a man talked about doing up an old house.  He said that while his friends were partying and travelling the world he was working on the building.  He admitted, ‘I grew up with my mum moving from bedsit to bedsit.  This house fulfilled a deep need.’  But that need cannot be met with bricks and mortar, it can only be met in a person.  As Augustine said at the beginning of his spiritual autobiography, ‘you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.’

The banqueting table is not just a picture heaven.  Goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our life.  But we do look forward to a wedding feast.  Jesus delights to be with us now and he will be with us for ever.

I only got to one day of Kinfire.  In the meeting I attended a woman called Shirley was interviewed.  She said, I am eighty-six years old and I am looking forward to heaven.  That’s wonderful.  John Lennox was reflecting on being in his eighties and said, ‘I am looking forward to seeing Jesus.’  He explained, ‘heaven is not the goal, heaven is where Jesus is, being with him is the goal.’

Home is not a building, it is a person.  That person is Jesus.