2020 Lenten Devotional March 30, 2020 - Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Gospel Reading: Dn 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62; Ps 23; John 8:1-11

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want…Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side.”

Psalm 23 is surely one of the most recognizable, oft-quoted, mis-quoted and reinterpreted texts of the Bible. From a decorative plaque in a great-aunt’s kitchen to seemingly every movie funeral scene to Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise,” these words (or some version of them), are very familiar.

Maybe it was all the funeral scenes, but I always found this psalm a little scary: the imagery of “shall not,” “evil” and “dark valleys” evoked a sense of dread. Then a few years ago I became a preschool and kindergarten catechist. The children light up when they hear the parable of the Good Shepherd and the Good News Bible translation of Psalm 23, “The LORD is my shepherd; I have everything I need.” What the children respond to in the parable is love—that because the Good Shepherd loves the sheep so much he takes good care of them and knows them all by name. Hearing the children’s responses made me realize what I was missing when I had allowed myself to be afraid of the dark valleys.
Psalm 23 isn’t about the dark valleys. It’s about how the dark valleys don’t control or define us when we are strengthened by God’s love for us, when we feel at peace and when we have trust in the Lord. We have everything we need.