Skip to main content

He Makes Me Lie Down In Green Pastures


The Lord is my shepherd… He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, (Psalm 23:1a & 2)

          Ah, peace, quiet, green pastures and still waters. This is the life! Yep, you gotta love a shepherd who provides such luxuries. But the passage doesn’t say provides. It says makes and leads. Now if we happen to want to go in the direction of those green pastures or quiet waters it’s in freedom that we follow Him there, but that’s not what it says, either. It says He makes and leads. So it doesn’t matter whether we want to go or not. If we do not go willingly, we go against our will.
          That’s where a lot of us are today. We don’t want to lie down in these pastures, whether they’re green or not. We don’t want to be beside quiet waters. We want to do what we want to do. Sure, the green pasture might be fun for a little while, but day after day?
           “It’s getting a little boring, Shepherd. Isn’t it time we moved on?”
          “You know, I really need to get back to the fold, there’s stuff I need to do.”
           We think we know better. We chafe at being hemmed in. But the Shepherd makes us lie down. He leads us beside quiet waters. And I (at least) grit my teeth at God or at the pain in my knee (Yes, I’ll say it’s the latter, it sounds more spiritual) as I once again hear the Shepherd saying “Lie down here. Bow the knee to My will.”
            One of the characters in my stories repeatedly asks another what he is trying to tell her without telling her this time, and what is he trying to tell her this time. It went into the story because that’s such a part of our lives with God. I often agree with God, I’m just not getting it. But it’d be so much easier if He explained (and got my approval) about it. This making me lie down, and leading me by another boring shoreline. I mean, it’s the same pasture and the same shoreline as yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that. Isn’t it time to stop circling this mountain and go conquer the Promised Land or something?
          But if we’re not willing to settle down, sometimes, He makes us. The Israelites didn’t give their land the rest that God commanded, so God removed them from the land for the length of time that they should have let the land rest. If we resist when He tells us to lie down in green pastures or walk beside the still waters, He may do something that takes away other possibilities. He may make us lie down. We’re free to do as He asks, but if we’d rather be made to do it as slaves, He may just give us what we want.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shepherd!

                 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep . (John 10:14) God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Genesis 3:14) The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths     for his name’s sake. Even though I walk     through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,     for you are with me; your rod and your staff,     they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4) For the Jews, it was politically incorrect to make claims about yourself as a teacher (or possibly as anything else.) Teachers were expected to take pride in the...
Post a Comment
Read more