The Six Longest Short Verses in the Bible
The Church of the Wayfarer
Dr. Norm Mowery, Pastor
May 15, 2011
Psalm 23
Psalm 23 is probably the best-known passage from the Bible. I wonder what there is about it that draws us to these words so strongly.
Even many people who don't read the Bible can quote at least a line or two from it, if only because they've heard it so often at funerals.
I am sure that many of you here this morning can quote it by heart. If you haven’t yet memorized it I encourage you to do so today.
I am also sure that if you have memorized it you did so from the King James Version. I did!
By the way do you know that the King James Version is celebrating its 400th birthday? It was first published in 1611—400 years ago.
So Happy Birthday, King James.
Do you know that the 1631 edition of the King James Version read: “Thou shalt commit adultery?”
It was a typo, of course. Not was left out.
The printers were heavily fined.
A correction was made and the 1631 edition became known as the Wicked Bible.
Aren’t you glad that you know that!
When most of us conjure up Psalm 23, we hear words,
“The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul.”
Nothing else will do. For many of us Psalm 23 simply has to be read in the King James Version.
If we think of Psalm 23 only as a funeral text, we can miss the fact that the Psalm is mostly about living.
It is a psalm of life! It is about living life to the fullest.
It is a personal hymn. There are seventeen personal pronouns of ‘me’ and ‘I’ in these six verses.
It is a practical message for peaceful worry free living.
I like to think that these are the six longest short verses in the Bible because each one is jam packed with meaning. I could easily preach a sermon on each verse.
I understand that there is a sweatshirt for sale at The Mall of America that says:
Though I walk through
The Mall of AmericaI shall Fear No EvilFor with Time and Plastic in my PocketThere's Nothing to FEAR Anyway.
Speaking of shopping….aren’t you excited to know that Princess Beatrice will be auctioning the hat that she wore recently to the Royal Wedding on e-Bay? As of yesterday the bidding was up to $9,000.00!
That world is a long way from the message of the shepherds psalm!
Psalm 23 is a word of hope in a world of worry.
One of my favorite theologians was the late Irma Bombeck. She said some things about worrying that I think we can all relate to:
“I worry about introducing people and going blank when I get to my mother.
I worry about a snake coming up through the kitchen drain.
That one of my children will marry an Eskimo who will set me adrift on an iceberg when I can no longer feed myself.
I worry about scientists discovering some day that lettuce has been fattening all along.”
Psalms is a collection of Hebrew hymns. In fact, the book of Psalms is actually a “hymn” book.
Isn’t it amazing that 3,000 years ago a person wrote one sentence that should forever be a roadblock on the road to worry. This sentence is part of a song in the longest book in the Bible.
The sentence is “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”
This is the greatest message of hope that has ever been written!
As I read and reread this verse a thought came to me. God has promised to turn our "thoughs" into "throughs." Do you get it?
Though into through! What a thought. I bet you never had that thought before!
God turns our thoughs into throughs and gives me thoughts! Are you still with me?
There is a story from the first century B.C. that might be helpful.
The story took place when much of the world was unexplored and largely unmapped. Mapmakers had to have some way of portraying those areas of the earth that were as yet unexplored, so they symbolized these regions by dragons, monsters and large fish.
The message was clear.
Uncharted territories were frightening, fearsome places. Terrors lay buried there.
The story is this:
“One commander of a battalion of Roman soldiers was caught up in a battle that took him into the territory that the mapmakers had represented with their monsters and dragons.
Not knowing whether to forge ahead into the unknown, or turn back into the known, which would also be a retreat, he dispatched a messenger to Rome with this urgent request:
"Please send new orders. We have marched off the map."
Do you ever feel like you are marching off the map of life? I do at times.
Like I said, “Uncharted territories were frightening, fearsome places.”
Today we find ourselves in uncharted waters as we march off the technological map,
the political map,
the economic map,
the environmental map,
the demographic map
or virtually whatever map you can think of. How can we possibly hope to navigate through all these uncharted realms? How?
By using Psalm 23, the six longest short verses in the Bible. The power of Psalm 23 comes from its use of two key words.
What are they?
Though and through -- the same word except for a single letter. What is it? Right, it’s— "r."
It is one little letter that makes all the difference in the world. It is the letter that can turn your "though" into a "through." David, the innocent shepherd-boy, knew the truth behind that first word "though" -- there are dangers lurking around every corner. There was no "if" about the reality of life's obstacles and problems.
Psalm 23 candidly faces the inevitable.
It proclaims not "if" but "though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death ...."
Life isn't all loaded tables, overflowing cups or green pastures. Sometimes our hair isn't anointed with oil, but grimed with grease. Sometimes we're not lying in green pastures but flailing in blue Mondays.
Sometimes we're not resting by the shore of still waters but struggling in the valley of the shadow. Every one of us has a valley.
Some of us have a valley we've been given at birth -- a valley of poverty, or abuse, or disability.
Some of us, born into the green pastures of plenty, immediately proceed to dig our own valleys of shadow –
through drugs or alcohol, violence, ignorance, prejudice.
But while we are "walking" the "valley of the shadow," the Bible teaches that God is with us
and that the God with us bears all the sufferings and pains of the world
and the hurts of our scared, scarred souls.
God is with us in whatever we face.
"Though" none of us gets out of life without walking the valley of the shadow of death, the psalmist makes it plain that God does not intend for us to sojourn in valleys as we live.
The valley of the shadow is something one goes through. Valleys are not resting places, but passageways.
We can walk through our problems.
We can walk through our sorrows.
We can walk through our pain.
We can walk through our screwups.
What Psalm 23 promises us is that, in all these journeys, the Lord will walk through with us. As I said, "Though" and "through" differ only by one small letter -- the letter "r."
In American Sign Language, "r" is made by crossing the middle finger over the index finger.
Crossed fingers have a history that far pre dates American Sign Language. In the first centuries of the Church, when Christianity was wholly illegal and Christians were vigorously persecuted, believers found ways to communicate their faith in subtle ways.
Accompanying a greeting or farewell, crossed fingers were a code sign, identifying Christians to one another as "people of the cross." The crossed fingers were a mute symbol for the cross of Christ. This is what the crossed fingers of the letter "r," the difference that turns a "though" into a "through," still mean to the believer today.
Though we may walk in the darkness of the valley of the shadow, we are not alone. God is with us. Walking through the valley with us is the one who suffered and died for our sake:
The Crucified One. "He restoreth my soul" can also be translated as "I come to life again" or "He gives me new life." The presence of a "shadow," implies the presence of a light source. I pray that we will trust that the light at the end of the tunnel is the light of Christ's love and forgiveness.
This is a Psalm of confidence. The Psalms recount all sorts of human troubles, despair and fears, but like a compass needle that keeps swinging back to the north, they keep coming back to the confidence that God is with us in the darkness.
The message this morning is that God has been in the dark valleys ahead of us. We can trust him to help us through them. All because of the six longest short verses in the Bible.
Prayer
Gracious and loving Lord, we might walk through the deepest and darkest valleys of our lives:
sickness,
job loss,
broken marriages,
children who've lost their way
and, yes, even death.
We know these valleys are a part of life that humanity has had to travel since Adam and Eve.
But we know that the valley is not the destination.
We know the One who has faithfully led his followers through this valley countless times before.
For, you, O Lord, are our Shepherd; we shall not want.
You, O Lord, lead us beside the still waters.
You lead us in the paths of righteousness.
We will fear no evil; we will fear nothing in this valley of darkness for you, O Lord, are our Shepherd. Amen.
