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PSALM 23:2 “HE MAKES ME TO LIE DOWN IN GREEN PASTURES; HE LEADS ME BESIDE THE STILL WATERS.” (NKJV, KJV, RSV)
“He lets me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.” (NASB, NIV)
“He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams.” (NLT)
“He takes me to lush pastures, he leads me to refreshing water.” (NET)
I hope you will join me as we take one more opportunity to use a passage of Scriptures to memorize, not just one individual one. We have already seen the value of knowing the whole passage of a very familiar set of Scripture Verses (the Lord’s prayer, Psalm 1). And, we can definitely make great gains toward our goal of 100 verses memorized by including passages we might have known for a very long time and heard quoted many times.
Proverbs 23 is a great example of this. These six short verses have been quoted, devoted and memorized for centuries. They have provided comfort at weddings, dedications and funerals. We have to include them in our list. We memorized Psalm 23:1 in the first book of Hiding the Word. Now, let’s make sure we memorize the other five.
Psalm 23:1 told us, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” As our shepherd, the Lord provides all we need…so we can literally find an attitude of “not wanting anything else.” Verse two continues in the theme that David was probably more familiar with than any other author of Scripture.
David, the Shepherd King knew sheep. As the youngest son of Jesse, he got the most menial job of making sure the sheep were tended. He taught the sheep to obey him but also observed their ways and, inspired by the Spirit of God, saw their ways as being very similar with our ways before the Lord. As he saw how he provided for his sheep, he could share with us how the Lord, in the same ways, cares for us and provides for us too.
David’s descriptive words make us visualize “green pastures” and “still waters.” Like sheep, we know how vulnerable we are to dangers in life.
Sheep somehow know how weak and vulnerable they are to dangers. So, the only way a herd of sheep can comfort themselves enough to stop, lie down in green pastures or near still waters is if they somehow know that the shepherd is guarding them against and keeping away all threats of danger to them. This is what our Shepherd does for us.
No animal will rest as long as they sense danger. Instead, they will turn left and right, not lie down, always watching for threats. They will remain standing and alert, just in case there is a sudden need to run. Have you ever stopped “running through life” long enough to recognize that we do the same thing?
We can get so tense that often we don’t even recognize our tenseness. Like those sheep, we need the Lord’s reminder to us that He has all the threats of life in His control that we can calm down, slow down, put those threats out of our thinking for a while and just rest. Oh, how many times I have been so exhausted that I finally recognized that what I needed more than anything else was to just rest.
Children have a particular sensitivity to this. They most often don’t know what any threats are but can somehow sense that the stimulations of life and the constant threat of change makes them so unsettled, they can’t even relax enough to go to sleep.
I can remember so many times that my wife Cheryl would spend a lot of time speaking quietly to one of our children, comforting them in any way she could, maybe even rubbing their back or stroking their hair until they unwound enough to be able to find rest and sleep. What a picture this is of the comforting Shepherd drawing near to us, showing us how he keeps the threats of life at bay and slows us down enough so we can just rest.
There is a quality of rest that comes from this kind of comfort that doesn’t come from rest after exhaustion. Flying through many nights when I worked for UPS, I would come to an end of the night, roll into a (hopefully) comfortable bed and collapse from having stayed awake all night when my body wanted to be asleep. I always recognized how unnatural that was.
In contrast, how easy is it to see how natural it is for us to find such better, greater rest from the sense of security of a mother’s touch…or the Shepherd’s touch on our life? That’s what Jesus wants to do for each of us as His children. I find that to see that happen, I have to make three things happen for me.
First, I have to recognize that the Shepherd is there. Of course, He never leaves us. But how often do we take His presence for granted or merely do not take the time to acknowledge that He is there. This is why prayer is so important.
Second, I have to let mom help me relax. Do you ever remember being so “wound up” with whatever seemed to be so dominant in its threat or presence that it seemed like no amount of comfort would help you let it go? Sometimes, against all logic, it can even seem like we want to hold onto those threats, in our fight to remove them from our life, that we experience the unhealthy clinging to them that the Lord wants to take away. Go to Him. Trust in Him. Recognize His presence by your side. See, in your spirit’s eyes that He stands guard over you to protect you from life’s threats.
In Isaiah 41:10, the Lord tells us, “Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”
Third, I need to REST. Be still. Psalm 46:10 tells us, “Be still, and know that I am God.” The world, and our attention to it, demands that we do everything but be still. Try incorporating the word STOP into your life. Like our children…like the sheep that the shepherd leads…look around you and recognize that the Shepherd is taking us to a safe place, a quiet place…a place of comfort where you can actually recognize enough safety that you can stop and rest.
Where we live now, I have about an acre of green grass that softly slopes down to about an acre of a still, quiet lake out in the rural country side. It is a very pretty view. This scenery will help me memorize the second verse of Psalm 23. The Lord can make me “lie down” in those green pastures, if I will. Just a few feet away is the shoreline of some still waters that the Lord can lead me to, if I will go.
Sometimes, we just need to put away life’s needs that seem to demand so much of our attention and look to the green pastures and still waters the Lord is trying to draw our attention to. They are there more often than we recognize. Take a rest in the grass and let the Lord speak to you.
I bought a little park bench that I can sit down on beside the lake. Sit down by the still waters once in a while and see some of the real beauty of the world and recognize that you are part of an eternally secure environment that, although it might not be seen with our physical eyes, is far more real than the world around us with all of its toils and troubles.
Do what the Lord is trying to lead us to do. Let Him make you lie down in green pastures. Let Him lead you beside some still waters. You need that far more than you recognize. You might find that this kind of exercise will bring you what our next verse promises: “He restores my soul.” Boy, do I need that! I’m sure you do too.
Questions to Consider: Why do we find the needs and stresses of the world to be more important to us than rest? What prevents you most from finding the Lord’s rest in your life? What is it about stopping, waiting and resting that causes us to find peace? Does the Lord provide places for us here on earth that can help us find peace and rest? What/where is your favorite place to meet with the Lord?
Other Scriptures to study: Luke 12:32, “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Matthew 11:28, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” Psalm 62:5 “My soul, wait silently for God alone. For my expectation is from Him.” Lamentations 3:25, “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.” Psalm 37:7 “Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.”
 
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