I hate it when I lose things. Most often, it is my car keys and most often it is when my stress levels are higher than usual.
Purse.
In my car.
One time, on the couch cushion I had just looked in.
We all lose things every now and then, keys, glasses, books. And sometimes we lose, less tangible things. Things we might not notice right away, or maybe we do. Just like losing keys or a book we can also lose our sense of self, our heart, our compassion, our empathy. We can lose track of who God made us to be, we can lose ourselves. But the good news is that, in the midst of however and whatever we have lost, these opening verses of Psalm 23 give us hope.
Now, if I took a poll, I bet at least 20% of y’all could recite all or part of Psalm 23 by memory. And familiarity with scripture is great. But sometimes when something is so familiar, we stop thinking about it. Or we might appreciate the beauty and the poetry but take for granted, I’ve heard this a lot before, I know what this means. But what does the text reveal to us when we break it down? When we consider it in a different way?
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Now, this doesn’t mean, I will never desire anything or want anything. It means, God treats me like shepherds caring for their sheep. God is my shepherd and God provides. Other translations read, “I lack nothing” or “I don’t need a thing.” In fact, the Hebrew also brings up images of emptiness and fullness, “I shall not be empty,” these words at the beginning of the psalm connecting to the words that show up later, “my cup overflows.”
“He makes me to lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside the still waters.” “He makes me lie down” is actually one word in Hebrew that also means to basically stretch out on the ground. And that word translated as “pasture,” it comes from a Hebrew word that means “home.” God makes us stretch out, lie down, homey and provided for, a place to rest and be refreshed.
“He restores my soul;” And y’all, this is it for me. Soul is nefesh, which means life or whole being. And restores is shuv, which is a word that can be translated in so many different ways, depending on context, and also means to repent, give back, or return. He restores my soul, feels calming and hopeful and bright. He returns my life? Yes. That its home. Sure we need restoration, peel the layers of paint off and restore the original hardwood. But, he returns my life? Ooof. We’ve all been there in one way or another. We’ve been in a place where we feel lost, where we’ve lost our sense of self, or part of who we are. Grief, depression, anxiety, addiction, stress, unemployment, health struggles. At some point, we’ve all felt lost and not like ourselves. And the good news is that God does not want us to stay like that. God reaches out to us, loving, leading, and helping bring us back to ourselves. He returns our life.
Think of the movie Moana. Throughout the entire movie we know the villain is Te Ka, a lava monster who spreads decay and death, who seeks the heart of Te Fiti, the goddess of creation. Te Fiti’s heart was stolen a thousand years previously, and ever since monsters like Te Ka have sought it for themselves. It isn’t until the end that we come to the shocking realization that Te Ka isn’t a monster or a villain. Te Fiti, green life giving goddess of creation, had turned into Te Ka, violent lava monster of death, when her heart was stolen. For a thousand years, no one recognized her, as she violently expressed her pain and loss and darkness spread from her bitterness and rage. No one recognized her until the brave journeier and chief Moana. Moana, as she is fighting Te Ka, realizes who Te Ka really is, recognized Te Ka’s truest self was Te Fiti, and returned her heart to her. I have crossed the horizon to find you. I know your name. They have stolen the heart from inside you but this does not define you. This is not who you are. You know who you are.1 Moana saw what Te Ka could not see. That she was Te Fiti. That the violent monster she had become was not who she really was, it did not define her. A tragedy happened to Te Fiti, her heart being stolen, and she forgot who she was. She lost herself for a thousand hears, until Moana gave her life back to her. Moana returned her life, her being, Moana returned Te Fiti to herself, and that is what God does for us.
Sometimes, we get lost. We lose track of who we truly are and sometimes we become something we don’t even recognize. But no matter how lost we may feel, how far from our truest selves we may travel, it is never too late to return. It is never to late for us to return to our truest selves, to the person who God made us to be. It is never to late to come back to life and God is there with us on that journey.
Today, maybe you need to hear that truth for your own heart and your own being. Maybe you are feeling far from yourself and need to hear that good news of wholeness, of return, of restoration and refreshment and life. Or today, maybe you need to hear that truth for someone else. Maybe you have an opportunity to recognize a beautiful life giving person behind a lava monster and be a presence of love, care, and restoration for someone else. It is not on you to fix someone else’s life, but we can be a presence of God, a safe space, a presence of support, courage, boundaries, and compassion for someone who has lost themselves.
God reaches out to us, loving us, leading us, and helping bring us back to ourselves. God restores our soul. God returns our life.
Let us pray.
God is my shepherd and God provides for me.
God makes me stretch out, lie down, homey and provided for, in a place to rest and be refreshed.
God returns my life.