Psalm for My Father
By Rev. Lee John MilliganThe poetry and imagery of the 23rd Psalm have touched people deeply for millennia. It is undoubtedly the psalm most requested at funerals and memorial services, and the one most often printed on the bulletins for those services.
Part of its comfort lies in its familiarity, but therein also lies its weakness: words that are so familiar as to be universal tend to lose their personal touch. With this in mind, I present here a ‘Psalm for My Father.’
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
The Lord always was, is now, and always shall be my father’s shepherd.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside still waters.
Every time God’s hand moved in my father’s life, it was to this end: that my father would be led to a place where he could lie back in peace, safety, and comfort, as a lamb in a green and lush pasture with calm, peaceful, still waters.
He restoreth my soul.
In that place all the wounds and bruises of life would be healed, all the calluses of hardship softened, and my father’s soul would be restored to wholeness.
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
All through his life my father followed paths where he felt that God was calling him, good paths, so people would look at him and think, ‘God must truly be leading this man.’
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou are with me.
Whether those paths led him down into dark valley or high into the air riding the machines of war, one thing my father need never have feared was evil, for he knew that God was indeed with him.
Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
A rod or staff in the hands of a shepherd can be frightening weapons, but to my father the rod and staff held in God’s hands were a comfort, for my father knew that God would use them to protect him, to guide him, and correct him (something my father often admitted would require more than a gentle nudge).
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
The words ‘in the presence of’ don’t really say it well enough. In the faces of whatever assailed my father during his life here – growing up during lean times, coming to adulthood during wartime, enduring heartbreak during times of loss, experiencing the diminishment of body and mind – God has led my father to the seat of honor at a feast table, and has poured oil upon his head as any parent would do for a beloved child. The cup of my father’s life, a cup filled and refilled by God and poured out and shared by my father’s generous heart, has been transformed by God into a sacred chalice and filled to overflowing with new and abundant life.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
Our faith tells us that our loved ones do indeed dwell with God forever. How then can we doubt that such a loving God would shower us with such goodness and mercy that we must share it with all whom we meet. God, and my father, would want it that way. Amen.
Lee Milligan is the senior pastor at Casas Adobes Congregational Church, in Tucson, Arizona and the Moderator-Elect (2010 2011) for the Southwest Conference. Lee's father passed away in December 2009.
