A Two-Fold Promise in Psalm 23

A Two-Fold Promise in Psalm 23
Several years ago, long-time member Gerald Scheiderer, who now has eternal rest from his labors, gave me a bulletin from a funeral he had attended. The funeral was conducted by a Missouri Synod pastor at a Missouri Synod congregation. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to me, and I likely would have just tossed it in the trash shortly thereafter except I noticed a subtle, handwritten red underline beneath the concluding words of Psalm 23. Had it not been for the handwritten underlining, I never would have noticed the unsettling difference between standard versions of the Bible and this one.

The last verse of Psalm 23 typically reads some of the most comforting words in all of Scripture: “And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” The words of the last verse as underlined in the bulletin, however, were, “And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for years to come” (emphasis mine). I’ll never forget what Gerald said to me when I asked him about it. He said, “I can’t help but think when I read that, does this mean my time in heaven will one day end?”

Not all Bible translations are created equal. Sometimes in an effort to make the language easier to read or more contemporary in vocabulary, or too literal to the original, newer versions, albeit unintentionally, blur the sweet, comforting Good News of the Gospel. This version of the Bible is one of them.

We live in a time when hundreds if not thousands of versions of God’s Word exist. If you are reading a version and something does not “seem right”, trust your instincts and ask your pastor about it. If he does not know the answer or have an explanation off hand, he will certainly find out for you.

Now, to be fair, the literal sense of the Hebrew in Psalm 23 reads more like the unsettling version printed in the funeral program: “And I shall return to dwell in the house of the Lord for length of days.” This begs the question: should a translation keep things literal or convey their proper sense? For David, who wrote Psalm 23, his enemies were constantly seeking his life. Before he became king he always seemed to be on the run. Death was always creeping at the door. His hope and prayer was that he would one day be able to return to the house of the Lord as a worshipper, free of the tyranny of his enemies. In this sense, his trust in the Lord’s promise was that he would spend the remainder of his days being able to worship in the Lord’s house. But all the Psalms have their fulfillment in Christ. On the one hand, yes, our hope in the Lord is that we can spend the “length of our days” in the Lord’s house every Sunday receiving the means of grace for the forgiveness of sins. On the other hand, our hope does not end there, but persists into eternity. Thus, the spirit of Psalm 23 is more than just living out our days in the Lord’s house here on earth. It has its fulfillment in paradise. The Christian can rightly understand and confess that the promise of Psalm 23 is God’s goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of this life, and we will dwell in the eternal kingdom of the Lord forever in the eternal life that is to come. It is a both/and, not an either/or.

As we approach Holy Week, we can be tempted to think that going to Church every day is just too much. Let not only the spirit of Psalm 23, but also Psalm 84:10 exhort you otherwise: “For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.” Learning to love being in the Lord’s house and learning to want to be in God’s presence for the length of our days is part of our sanctification. It prepares us for the eternal kingdom that is to come. May the Lord grant us to dwell in his house the “length of our days” here on earth, and also “forever” whenever He calls us to His eternal presence, according to His promise.

Your servant in Christ,
Pastor Hromowyk