Psalm
22/23 which begins with the words, “The Lord is my Shepherd,”
is probably one of the best known, most often quoted and memorized
of all David’s beautiful hymns. It has always occupied an important
place in the spiritual life of the Orthodox Christian, and is one
of the Psalms included in the order of preparation for the reception
of Holy Communion.
In
the early Church the catechumens, especially as the time for their
baptism drew near, were made familiar with its contents and were
even obliged to learn it by heart. It seems, however, that its meaning
was not fully explained to them until after they had received the
grace of the All-holy Spirit in the mysteries of baptism, chrismation
and the eucharist.
“We
gave you the Psalm, beloved children who hurriedly approach the
baptism of Christ, so that you might learn it by heart. But, it
is necessary, because of its mystical, hidden meaning, that we explain
it to you, with the light of divine grace.” (From a sermon
attributed to St. Augustine.)
The
Fathers of the Church saw in Psalm 22 both a prophecy and a summary
of the mysteries (sacraments) of Christian initiation: “By
this Psalm, Christ teaches the Church that, first of all, you must
become a sheep of the Good Shepherd: the catechetical instruction
guides you to the pastures and fountains of doctrine. Then you must
be buried with Him into death by baptism. But this is not death,
but a shadow and image of death. Then He prepares the mystical table.
Then He anoints you with the oil of the Spirit. And finally He presents
the wine that gladdens the heart of man and produces that sober
inebriation characteristic of the true Christian” (St. Gregory
of Nyssa).
It
is to be noted that then, as now, our Orthodox Church used the Greek
Old Testament (the Septuagint – it is Psalm 22 in the Greek),
and the understanding of its mystical meaning was based on this
version. The traditional meaning given the Psalm in our Church is
obscured in a few phrases of the most widely known English translations,
since they follow the Hebrew rather than the Greek. In the following
selection of commentaries on the six verses, we give first the King
James translation and in the parentheses a more or less literal
translation of the Septuagint.
1.
The Lord is my Shepherd (The Lord shepherds me); I shall not
want (I shall lack nothing).
“David
invites you to be one of the sheep whose Shepherd is Christ and
who lack no good thing. The Good Shepherd makes Himself everything
for you: pasture, water of rest, food, dwelling place, and the way
of righteousness, and He gives you the Comforter, distributing His
grace according to your needs” (St. Gregory of Nyssa). Those
who belong to Christ “have as their guide not a simple holy
man, as Israel had Moses, but the Prince of Shepherds and the Teacher
of doctrine, in whom are found all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”
(St. Cyril of Alexandria). “He shall feed His flock like a
shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them
in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are young...they
shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite
them...(Isaiah 40:11; 49:10).
2.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures (He has made me to dwell
in a place of verdure): He leadeth me beside the still waters (He
has nourished me beside the waters of rest).
“The
place of verdure (green pastures) means the ever-fresh words of
Holy Scripture, which nourishes the hearts of believers and gives
them spiritual strength” (St. Cyril of Alexandria). “The
waters of rest means, no doubt, holy baptism, by which the weight
of sin is removed.” After having fed the person who comes to
Him in faith with His word, the Lord leads him to the waters of
baptism, making him a sheep of His holy flock, whose destiny is
only to enter into God’s rest. “There remaineth therefore
a rest to the people of God...Let us labour therefore to enter into
that rest...” (Hebrews 4:9,11). (“Rest” in both Hebrews
4 and our Psalm is “anapausis” in Greek.)
3.
He restoreth my soul (He has converted my soul): He leadeth me
in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake (He has led
me...).
David
speaks of his own experience: after having learned of God’s
ways he strayed from the paths of righteousness and fell into deadly
sin. His experience in this Psalm becomes a prophecy: anyone, no
matter how far he may have strayed from God, in Christ may be converted
and return to the way of righteousness and learn to do God’s
will.
4.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil (...though I walk in the midst of the shadow
of death...): for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort
me (...they have comforted me).
“It
is necessary for you to be buried in death with Him by baptism.
But it is not really death, but a shadow and image of death”
(St. Gregory of Nyssa). “For we are baptized into the death
of Christ, baptism is called the shadow and image of death, in face
of which there is no longer anything to fear” (St. Cyril of
Alexandria). The last part of this verse refers to the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit. “He comforts the believer, or guides him,
with the rod and staff (the Shepherd’s crook) of the Spirit,
for the One who guides or comforts is the Spirit (the Paraclete
– the Greek verb here is “parekalesan”) (St. Gregory
of Nyssa). “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you
another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever...when He,
the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth...”
(John 14:16; 16:13 – the verb translated “He has led...”
in v. 3 of the Psalm, and “will guide” in John is “hodigise”
and “hodigisei” in Greek).
5.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies
(...in the presence of those that afflict me...): thou anointest
my head with oil; my cup runneth over (...thy cup which inebriates
me, how excellent it is).
“What
does David mean by this (“Thou hast prepared a table...”)
if not the mystical and spiritual table which God has prepared for
us?...He anointed thy head on the forehead with the seal of God,
which thou didst receive so that thou mightest bear the seal impressed
as the sign of consecration to God. And you see that David is speaking
of the chalice, over which Christ said after giving thanks, “This
is the chalice of my blood” (St. Cyril of Jerusalem). “Having
abandoned the remains of the former error and renewed his youth
like that of an eagle, the newly baptized hurriedly approaches the
celestial banquet. He arrives, and seeing the altar prepared, he
exclaims, ‘Thou hast prepared a table before me...’”
(St. Ambrose). “In these lines the Word clearly designates
the sacramental unction (chrism) and the holy sacrifice of Christ’s
table” (Eusebius of Caesarea). “The Holy Spirit expresses
in the Psalms the same figure of the Eucharist when the Lord’s
chalice is mentioned; ‘Thy cup which inebriates me, how excellent
it is!’ But the inebriation which the Lord’s chalice gives
is not similar to that of profane wine. It intoxicates in such a
way that it does not make one lose his reason; it leads souls to
spiritual wisdom...” (St. Cyprian of Carthage). “Others
mocking said, These men are full of new wine. But Peter...said unto
them...these are not drunken, as ye suppose...but this is that which
was spoken by the prophet Joel: and it shall come to pass in the
last day, saith God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh: and
your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall
see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams” (Acts 2:13-17).
6.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
life (...mercy shall pursue me...); and I will dwell in the house
of the Lord for ever.
“Christ,
providing the soul with the wine ‘that maketh glad the heart
of men,’ provokes in it that sober intoxication which elevates
the dispositions of the heart from transitory to eternal things...He
who has tasted, in fact, this inebriation trades the ephemeral for
that which has no end and remains in the house of the Lord all the
days of his life” (St. Gregory of Nyssa).
(The
preceding article, written by Archbishop Dmitri, was originally
published in the May 1986 issue of The Dawn.)
From The
Dawn
Publication of the Diocese of the South
Orthodox Church in America
July 1999
