ANOINTED FOR PEACE

“He anoints my head with oil” (Psalm 23:5).

For years, I thought that verse from the famous psalm was just beautiful poetry—David’s way of saying God was keeping him healthy, maybe keeping his mind strong. But I didn’t realize just how powerful that imagery is—until I learned what David, the shepherd boy-turned-king, was really pointing to.

In the Middle East, shepherds would take special care of their sheep. Because out in those dry fields and rocky hills, the danger wasn’t always a wolf or a lion. Sometimes, the greatest torment came from the smallest enemies—flies.

There’s a certain kind of fly that doesn’t just buzz around to bother sheep. These flies try to lay their eggs right in the nostrils of the sheep. And when those eggs hatch, they turn into larvae, burrowing into the sheep’s nose and causing such torment that the poor animal will bash its head against a tree or rock in desperation. Some die that way.

So the good shepherd steps in. He anoints the sheep’s head with a soothing oil. He rubs it around the nose, the ears, the eyes, the forehead. And that oil becomes a shield. It protects the sheep from what it cannot protect itself against. It brings calm to the chaos. The flies no longer torment. The sheep no longer thrashes. There is peace.

And isn’t that what our hearts long for? Our minds and spirits are often under siege. Sinful and negative thoughts buzz around us, tormenting and threatening to rob us of rest. We try to shake them off. We try to fix it ourselves. But sometimes, like those poor sheep, we end up feeling like we’re banging our heads against the wall.

Friends, as Armenian Christians, we carry the reality of that anointing with us—quite literally. The Holy Muron, the sacred oil of our Church, is the visible sign of that invisible grace. It’s the oil that anoints our foreheads at baptism and marks our ordination.

So, stop trying to shake off those sinful and negative thoughts in your own strength. Instead, let the Good Shepherd fill your mind with His Word and your heart with His promises. Let His oil do what only it can—bring rest where there’s been restlessness, clarity where there’s been confusion and stillness where there’s been a storm.

Bishop Mesrop Parsamyan
April 9, 2025