Psalm 23

The shepherd prayer is something I've heard my whole life but today as I read the first few verses, I had to stop and really wonder: What does it mean to not be in want?

To lie down in green pastures and to be led by the Lord to quiet waters?

I can stop right there because often I don't feel that's my daily experience or my life journey. I'm more an "on the move" kinda girl, running kind, climbing kind, falling off cliffs belly flop first kind. My life is fast; I have big dreams. I struggle with restlessness.

I don't know much of quiet waters or long pastures. Even though I live in Oklahoma, farming has never really been my thing ;)

So what is this psalm really about?

"Because the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in the path of righteousness... Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil."

So here's what really struck me. Three things.

The first is God is about restoring my soul. He sees the brokenness on this earth and the hustle and bustle that often cause us anxiety and contribute to sin and distraction. He wants to quiet us down so we can get to know Him. He has to stop us sometimes; has to literally grab our hands and say hey sit down, don't just sit down, lay down, rest with me. Because resting with someone, laying down looking up at the stars or the clouds, is one of the peaceful and most intimate activities. So first off, to know God better, to walk with God clearer, we have to slow down. We have to give God that time and I think He will slowly teach us what it means to be truly content; that travel, romance, parties, adventure can never come close to the fulfillment we can find in knowing Him.

But the second thing is more profound- you might not agree but-what if this psalm is not saying that one week we are walking through the pastures, and then the waters, and then, oh no, we walk through the shadow of death. What if it's saying that every day, we are walking through the shadow of death, but walking with the Lord makes it feel like we're walking through pastures and quiet waters?

Like what if even in the shadow of death, the Lord can make us lie down, and find the quiet waters. Not even so much that God is in the business of making us slow and boring people but more that whatever our lives look like on the outside on the inside we can have that calmness and fearlessness and rest on the inside.

Third option is that we see the Lord leading us besides quiet waters, guiding us in paths of righteousness, and then we see that "I walk through the valley of the shadow of death" but that God still goes with me. So here you could say that God is constantly leading me to Beulah land, to righteous ways which will reap good fruits, to safe and good places... yet it is my own sin and selfishness that causes me to end up in the valley of death sometimes. Yet even though the valley is not where God has led me, not where the shepherd chose, the shepherd still comes. He comes seeking, comes looking and carries his sheep back from the valley of death all the way home and back to the quiet waters and green pastures.

I don't know exactly what in this passage God is speaking to you about. But it reminds us of God's character as a shepherd who loves us and wants us to dwell in beautiful places with Him. I really want to learn more what it means to rest and abide in Christ, in green pastures, quiet waters, and paths of righteousness, and maybe even when the darkness comes I will still be abiding.

Psalm 27:4 One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.