Fear Not. The Lord Is My Shepherd.
Earth as the Grounding that Endures. Part I of a Sideways Look at the 23rd Psalm.
In these strange times, the sense of loss and confusion many of us are experiencing has led to a spiritual awakening of sorts. Whilst many of the conventionally religious are getting down to the business of transmuting their faith into the new covidian-climate-gender cult (complete with new rules and virtues) many secular agnostics have had pause for thought. I now hear the lament of the non-religious, expressing a yearning for a re-connection to a tradition we have long since shed. This is not easy to resolve in a world that has found utility in a decidedly secular marketplace of ideas that has seen fit to regard religion as a mere private hobby when it suits.
To use Reiner Fuellmich’s term, “Mr Global” is quite prepared to harness religious tropes in furtherance of his mission. Some, noticing the cult like language surrounding the new fads and obsessions see the weary hollowness of it all. Others frolic in, eager to find a life purpose severed from an “oppressive” old God. No longer troubled by the restraint of conscience, these are the people who tut-tut at the sceptics, busily run up cloth masks on sewing machines, and wear social media badges proclaiming their transubstantiated, needled status. As Peter Hitchens describes in his book Rage Against God, we have been here before. And the story never ends well.
You cannot replace genuine moral choices with new laws. You cannot make a fairer world by decree. You cannot claim your concerns are about our health and then set about facilitating its opposite. You cannot make people “happy” with pharmaceuticals. You cannot begin with your conclusions and force reality to fit them. It is in these times of the covidian cult that I find myself reaching for words that link us with thousands of years of history, faith and love.
Don’t panic. You don’t need to be religious to get this piece. No particular belief is assumed nor necessary. In what follows, I take the first part of a sideways look at the 23rd psalm. The Lord is My Shepherd begins with a description of a pastoral idyll and moves suddenly to a dark place, the vale of death’s shadow, and then returns to a place of serenity. Here, I look at the meaning of the first line, and idea of the shepherd. I consider what that means in the context of events in the Netherlands and how the psalm really can speak to us in the present day. Especially, I hope, the part where we fear no evil.
The Lord is my shepherd.
The first line brims with potential. Just to utter, The Lord is My Shepherd is to affirm that we are not alone, for the words affirm God’s presence and goodness. If you prefer not to think of a supernatural deity, think of God as the essence of goodness. In these times, even the non-religious sense the presence of evil. And that makes the presence of goodness all the more vital. Many have struggled with the perception that they are the only person questioning the dominant narrative and finding it difficult to reconcile its strange inconsistencies. The joy at finding many others in new companionship is a heady experience. Such new friendships also affirm the presence of a tangible goodness.
The Lord as my shepherd, then reminds us that we are not alone. The Lord is my shepherd makes this immediate. It is not that the Lord was at some point in the past, “my shepherd,” and is no longer; nor could The Lord be my shepherd in some conditional abstract manner. He is, in the here and now, my shepherd. Not only is he the shepherd, but he is my shepherd. This is not an ambiguous “ours,” or “somebody’s” but mine. Therefore, the psalmist sings about a personal relationship with God. And so, The Lord Is My Shepherd.
The Lord Is My Shepherd.
Why a shepherd? Why not something else? What image do you have of a shepherd? Do you imagine a modern field worker with a sheep-herding dog rounding up the sheep, with whistles and calls? Or perhaps you see a rugged 19th century peasant. Or do you see a middle eastern biblical scene with a figure clothed in flowing garments with a shepherd’s crook? Whatever you pictured, consider the meaning the shepherd conjures.
We can picture the shepherd as a hard worker, a person of the land, the earth. The shepherd is akin to a labourer who works with his hands. The intimate connection with the fields and the flock is a real, earthy and tangible thing. The shepherd who watches over, cares for, and administers to his flock.
As I write, with that vivid image of the shepherding land-worker, I cannot help but think of the farm workers of the Netherlands and elsewhere who are having their land forcibly taken from them in an echo of the Kulaks before them. It is only when we go digging that we unearth the mealy-mouthed reason which is said to be about the changing climates. This is because the press is remarkably quiet about the whole story, especially the huge revolt currently underway. Due to censorship and propaganda, the conforming Covidians of course, remain unaware of the farmers’ plight. And let us not forget that the Netherlands is one of the earth’s biggest food producers. Second in the world no less. To have a third of that production stopped by what amounts to climate-cultic religious fiat is no small beer.
The destruction of the Kulaks was the result of Stalin’s own version of the current Schwabian dogma of a great reset and the accompanying mantra, “you will own nothing.” It was their resistance that meant they had to be destroyed or sent to concentration camps. The end result was violent death and starvation for millions. We will learn the intentions behind the present-day Stalinist-globalist technocratic diktats when we see the outcomes. They are certain to deliberately produce hunger somewhere as a result. (If we are ever allowed to see the outcomes that is).
I feel the psalm’s connection with these shepherds of the land, the earth, of nature. These are the people who work with their hands, they are intimately connected with life, animals, the life cycle of birth, life and death. By contrast, the WEF technocrats, those systems guys who work with electronics, screens and mathematical modelling have no ability to see beyond their world and into the earth of a farmer. In their air-conditioned, glass fronted castles, theirs is a cult of clean flights, swish phones and tech. There is no nearness nor closeness to the planet they supposedly revere. They invariably experience it via the screen click. They are as far away from earth as a thing could be. Theirs is a world of faceless bureaucrats, and literally so, as they have adopted the surgical splashguard as an emblem of virtuous belonging. This is the world of defacement, and the anonymised empty human subject.
The technocrats touch plastic buttons, wear clean cut clothes, use mathematical modelling, talk of their theories of gender and race, even as they tinker with the very notion of the human race. Meanwhile, the farmers whose lives they sweep aside, the farmers whose faces they will never see, whose eyes they will never look into are thrown into uninvited, undeserved chaos. It is no coincidence that the farmer is the bringer of sustenance. In a world where many are hungry, Mr Global has decreed that food production must be reduced. For what or whose sake, we are not told. I can see that the reason has been conjured. It did not emerge from the earth and come knocking at the door. The modelling was used not to discover, but to create a suitable problem to inaugurate the revolution coined as a “great reset.”
By total contrast to Mr Global and his minions, the life of a shepherd is one of benevolent intimacy with his flock. From ancient times the shepherd would be with his sheep, earth-bound, bonded and familial. The technocrat’s world is an illusory one, it glimmers and shimmers, with reflective surfaces, smoke and mirrors. In the psalm, God is likened to the psalmist’s own shepherd. And this is meaningful. It is the shepherd who guides and leads. We attribute the psalm to the legendary biblical David, the shepherd boy who relates his relationship to his flock to that of the Lord shepherding him. It is, at heart a very loving image to have. What he does for his flock, God does for him. And here, there are echoes of Genesis, where humankind is made in the image of God. And being made in the image of God is not about the appearance of the human; it is about our fundamental nature. Being made in the image of God means to have a conscience and to know and understand the difference between right and wrong.
Mr Global decides in advance what is right and wrong and makes no secret of his plans to over-power and remake humans in his desired unloving image. The process is called transhumanism. The human will be recreated in the image of the very technology used to transform him. He will then become stitched into an internet of things. Our very being, and Being itself is up for question. It is not really being sold well is it?
I shall not want.
The psalm’s second line, I shall not want means that my needs are met and are satisfied. We often experience God through the warmth and companionship of other people. I shall not want encourages us to see the wonder of creation and to put your trust in the “good shepherd.” “I shall not want” is a counter-cultural statement to the modern world where claims of “I Want” dominate. A spiritual inter-net-work plugs me in to what truly matters. And I am blessed.
Could this be a reason for the ungrounded command to isolate people during the covidian episode on the part of Mr Global? Whilst Mr Global’s WEF technocrats promise a world of mandated drugs, digital control and that you will “own nothing.” With the looming food shortages, planned and hidden from scrutiny, theirs is a far cry from a vision of kindness and plenty. Having jettisoned the Judeo-Christian ethos, the globalists are meddling with our environment, seeking to control nature itself, and invent their own computer modelled reality. They play at God, mistaking his majesty for power and control. This makes them the wolf from whom the shepherd must protect his sheep.
He makes me lie down in green pastures. By quiet waters guides me.
The psalm alludes to the simple pastoral image of lush green meadows and fields. Here we have humanity situated in a natural context; the earth and its pathways trodden over generations. A way of being, like a pathway comes from the repeated treading of many individuals over a long time. The vision of green pastures is such a vivid image, not abstract nor flimsy. Abundance is suggested here also because green pastures to sheep are, of course, food. In this context, we can understand the spiritual idea of food for the soul. The green pastures then are a manifestation of peace and wholeness.
Mr Global makes a world of concrete, he wants smart cities where we are always online, he buries tons of concrete into fields in the name of wind power, and powers them with fossil fuels. Mr Global wants to ration, to withhold, to cut and refuse. He wants war and strife, terror and hunger. He wants to make unnatural mechanical food and rationalises logic so that we must eat what disgusts us. His is not a world of wholeness. His is a world of fracture, death and despair.
He makes me lie down
Lying down further suggests the importance of cessation from frenetic activity. Learning to be tranquil is important in our busy and stressful lives. The Hebrew word used (hirbits) actually means to make animals lie down. This maintains the shepherding metaphor into this part of the psalm. However, God is not treating the psalmist as an animal. Think again of the dual relationship, the shepherd writing about God as a shepherd to him. The Lord is my shepherd as I am shepherd to my flock.
Still waters enable me to drink simply because it is easier to drink from water that is not gushing. Still waters run deep. We are reminded again of the pastures and the waters, which to the sheep are food and drink. We are also reminded of the meal as a peaceful and sacred activity. One which allows for human sharing and fellowship. We contrast this with the modernisers’ individual fast food snack experience with one that feeds the soul. There is no life in Bill Gates’s laboratory grown fake meat. Whilst farm animals are currently unnecessarily culled, and burned on pyres, Gates buys up more and more land to stop farming and invests his fortune in artificial meat production.
Where Mr Global stresses, fractures and breaks, God guides us towards tranquillity and peace. Peace here is understood as wholeness and completeness, not merely quietness. This is the meaning of “shalom.”
Yet lurking on the horizon for us is the spectre of deliberately engineered hunger. And here, the psalm takes us into the reality of life that cannot be forever idyllic. The psalm moves from a pastoral scene of fulfilment to one of impending danger.
My life he brings back. He restores my soul.
Robert Alter’s translation is helpful here. The image is of one who has lost consciousness, stopped breathing and is brought back to life, one who is revived, as if from the dead. This is understood as divine help. We must get our priorities in order. When I am faced with threats and injustice over the globalist reset and their plans, it is goodness that restores me. In the poetry of the psalm, it is God who is the personification of goodness. Mr Global’s vision does not restore the soul, his is a vision that requires defibrillators in city streets, and the normalisation of heart attacks, strokes, blood clots and myocarditis in children.
He leads me on pathways of justice for His name’s sake.
We can interpret this as being about making choices on life’s journey and choosing the right pathway. We must, like Abraham, go forth because there is no turning back in life. You cannot go back in time; you can only move forward. We must take the right path in the name of God (goodness) and we choose the path of justice, of righteousness. No matter how difficult, it is crucial that we tell the truth. The phrase “pathways of justice” means to be a witness to the truth. This means to honour nature, not to collude with her destruction. Nor is it to take the idea of totalising control as a laudable or even worthy thing. In every opportunity we must face up to fear and create the goodness we seek.
Though I walk in the vale of death’s shadow, I fear no harm. I fear no evil.
In the middle of this covidian nightmare and mass formation madness, the pastoral meadows where once I lay down beside the still waters…..become killing fields. Life is like this. One moment, all is well. Then we are told we must totally transform our lives. We are asked to sacrifice “just three weeks to flatten the curve,” and then before we gather our thoughts, our lives are changed forever. The politicians lied and evil abounds. It takes all my strength, but I fear no evil because I know the difference between right and wrong. Nobody escapes bad things in life, but taking the decision to do what is right, no matter what, is calming and strengthening. Human existence is unpredictable and yet all of this turmoil has meaning. Just as we have to undergo various trials in life, we come through in the end.
Fear is the deliberate weapon used by the globalists to gain compliance and pliability. So this part of the psalm teaches me that even when they inflict their strangest stories about war, climate change, viruses, I am not afraid because I have a goodly outlook, I seek the truth, I speak the truth. I have the company of others who also understand this. There is nothing they can do to me that can really harm me because I will not cooperate with their evil. I refuse to comply. This makes me calm and resolved to what is good.
And even if the ultimate price has to be paid, death may not be the end. We cannot know for sure what is beyond this most mysterious of events. I think here of Natan Sharansky, imprisoned by communists whose memoirs were entitled Fear no Evil. The title was inspired by the 23rd Psalm.
This forms the conclusion to part I. In part II, I examine what I regard as the linchpin of the psalm. The shepherd’s staff and rod. This will ultimately suggest a vision for overcoming the mountain we have still to climb.
Thanks for reading. Please share this piece and feel free to leave a comment below.
Pictures by The Sideways Thinker.
Apologies for being so late to the party. Something must be wrong with my notifications, since I'm only just now seeing all this.
One passage struck me:
"By contrast, the WEF technocrats, those systems guys who work with electronics, screens and mathematical modelling have no ability to see beyond their world and into the earth of a farmer..." etc.
I'm a "systems guy," though not in the way you describe here. True "systems guys" (and girls) see a broader perspective than merely the mechanistic view, which you so devastatingly well describe, evoking the image of He Who Must Not Be Named (but I will anyway), Uncle Klaus.
The yang to the mechanistics' yin is organic (and I don't mean food). The organic systems thinker recognizes and embraces the idyllic images and relationships as well. It's just that so much of systems thinking these days is wrapped up in the mechanistic, the organic is lost in the maelstrom.
The yin-yang analogy is actually appropriate, because the two are inseparable. Until we all reach our ultimate fulfillment in the Kingdom of the Lord, where spirituality (organic) prevails, we do ourselves a disservice if we fail to recognize that the obverse side of reality---the mechanistic---is fused to its reverse side, the organic.
Kudos to you-dos for raising our awareness of the organic ... it deserves equal time, if not more now to balance the deficit in emphasis it has suffered for decades...
Thanks for the thoughts Sideways. They are well worth reflecting on and I'll be sharing your substack.
I have been lucky enough to discover that the Scripture, liberated from mistranslation, is actually in-line with what I've learned of the world and history these past decades.
Unfortunately that revelation is unaccessible to most, due to the reign of Esau. Oh well.
Let's each figure out what we can, exposing each lie and corruption as we find it.