An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 100: The Lord is My Shepherd. But, Is It Good To Be A Sheep? (Psalms 21-25)

Psalms 21-25
The Lord is My Shepherd. But, Is It Good To Be A Sheep?

Welcome to the 100th instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).
In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT
For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

Psalms 21
“(To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.) The king shall joy in thy strength, O LORD; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!”

On the surface this psalm is a very personal one from David to God, giving thanks for being made king and for protection against his enemies (who have “imagined a mischievous device, which they cannot perform”). It could probably be read metaphorically as well with Christian hindsight, as it speaks of salvation and eternal life, and I bet Matthew Henry gave it this interpretation (checks: yep).

Psalms 22
“(To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David.) My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?”

First of all, I looked up Aijeleth Shahar which means “hind of the dawn” and is thought to be a particular tune or musical style. But the rest of this psalm is interesting. I know enough NT to recognise the opening words as the same ones that Jesus is said to have cried out on the cross. So was he quoting this psalm? The rest of it is about how the psalmist is suffering, likening his troubles to being attacked by dogs, bulls, lions and unicorns variously. The language is of physical suffering (including piercing hands and feet) but could equally be metaphorical. But some of the physical injuries described are quite similar to those described for the crucifixion. Which could be why Jesus chose to quote it, feeling a lot like the singer in psalm 22, or possibly the account of the crucifixion was written to align nicely with psalm 22, or possibly it was a coincidence. Or, of course, if you are a believer it was part of God’s plan. Either way it is an interesting echo.

Psalms 23
“(A Psalm of David.) The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

Is this the most well-known of all the psalms? Possibly. I think it is the one most often still set to music and sung (we used to sing a version at school). At heart it’s a prayer of protection; simple yet quite powerful. You don’t have to be a believer to get some kind of courage from “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil”. The shepherd metaphor is interesting if the psalmist was David, who was himself a shepherd before becoming king. I wonder if the saw his kingship as being a shepherd of the people? It certainly invokes a kind of benign pastoral image over the concept of protector – quiet green pasture beside gentle brooks, Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony playing in the background. And a very different tone to the images of the last psalm.

Psalms 24
“Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.”

From protection back to a straightforward hymn of praise, this psalm proclaims God as creator of all and King of Glory, as well as making mention that only a person with “clean hands and a pure heart” can ascend to the “hill of the Lord”. There’s a nice poetic device in the last four verses, a repetition for the gates to open (as quoted above) and asking “Who is this King of glory?” followed by the answer.

Psalms 25
“Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O LORD.”

We are in familiar psalm territory here, with the psalmist asking God for forgiveness for his sins and protection from his enemies, with a bit of flattery and faith thrown in for good measure. That said, rather flippantly, it’s pretty comprehensive and the writing works quite well as a comfort to the soul. From a modern psychological perspective, the exhortation I used in the quote, for God to forgive sins of youth, is quite a potent tool – not to hang on to guilt or shame for past mistakes can be a liberating thing, whether your require the help of a god or not to do so.

Well so far, one sixth of the way in, I can’t entirely agree with the Voice of God from Monty Python and the Holy Grail – the psalms haven’t been that “miserable”. Some are very abject, it’s true, but also they’ve been surprisingly varied in their subject matter, and I’ve found more discussion points than I thought I would. We’ll see how I feel after another twenty five.

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