A Remedy for Restless Souls

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake." -Psalm 23:1‭-‬3 

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not "want." Let's hone in on that word "want." We all know what it is to want something...  Our wants can be for good and for bad, can't they?  John warns us that our wants ought to be those desires that God wants.  Otherwise, our wants fall into three categories of sin; the desires of the eyes, the desires of the flesh, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16), all of which are the definition of worldly wants, and these are passing away (along with the world).  James reminds us that we may not always get what we pray for because those wants we pray for are intended to gratify our selfish desires (James 4:3).

Well, here's some good news... The Hebrew word that David uses here isn't exactly the word "want" as we would necessarily understand it.  It carries a broader scope.  It means to be diminished or to be lacking.  So we could understand this verse as "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be diminished" or "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not lack of any thing."

This is fantastic, because or English renderings seem to put the action on us.  Since the Lord is our Shepherd, we should discipline ourselves into a contentment for the good things of God.  Now, there's nothing wrong with that, in fact, it's still a viable application of the inference of The Lord being our Shepherd, but the Hebrew places the action on God.  Since The Lord is our Shepherd, He will not allow us to be diminished; He will not allow us to go utterly destitute.  

With this thought in mind, the Psalmist proceeds into the next image...

"He makes me lie down in Green Pastures..." The imagery David uses is obviously of a sheep, but the word to lie down carries the depiction of the sheep lying on his breast, belly down to the ground...  

Now, I've never been a shepherd and I don't really have any experience with sheep outside of the petting zoo but I can tell you, at the zoo, I've never seen a sheep at ease lying on its belly.  Why? Because these kids are stressing them out! Sticking their hands in his face... Poking him in the back (kids have a hard time being gentle with animals).  On top of that, sheep are skittish little creatures.  When one of the flock freaks out, they all freak out!  

There was a video circulating the internet and a couple news outlets picked it up... There was a herd of sheep in China that formed up in a perfect circle, which was pretty amazing to see how perfect a circle they could form, but they had been at it for 12 days straight!  12 days of pacing without sitting down.  They were unsure if the sheep had taken the time to even eat or drink, but experts said it was likely due to the sheep being confined in their pens for too long and being troubled by it.

Anyway, David is saying that the Lord, His Shepherd, makes him to lie down in green pastures.  Notice it's the Lord who MAKES him lie down.  David wasn't wandering through the desert and came upon some grazing lands and began to eat... No, the Lord had to cause him to lie down.  There is a wonderul book called "A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23" and in it the author comments from his experience that the Shepherd will often resort to injuring the sheep who constantly goes astray... It's within the purview of care that these measures are taken, because otherwise this wandering and anxious sheep will never take the time to eat and rest. They'll just continue to anxiously pace...

How true is this of us? How often do we miss the times of refreshment in our lives?  We get too busy.  We get too anxious.  Our spirit is eroded by worry.  We get too political... We focus on all the turmoil around us and forget that if the Lord is our Shepherd we will not be diminished!  

Sometimes, we will be MADE to lie down. Has that ever happened to you?  I know it's happened to me.  I would be out there, wandering through the desert lands of worldiness... Just being beat up by the wolves...  Anxiety, fear, even apathy would just consume me... And even when I would come by those pastures of abundance I couldn't calm my soul to partake of that sustenance that I so crave and need... 

So the Lord would MAKE me lie down...  You ever have everything that could ever go wrong go perfectly wrong?  You ever see all your fears just manifest at once in rapid succession?  You ever get so sick that you're just a trembling pile of flesh on the floor and there you cry out to God in a sincerity that can only be found in those moments of desperation?

But then... You find Him.  You feel His presence.  You hear His comforting voice and realize that He had never forsaken you, despite your eagerness to depart from Him, He had been leading you to the green pastures and now He has made you to lie down...

You see, when we forget that the Lord is our Shepherd, and that He will provide our every need, we find ourselves needing to be MADE to lie down...  Don't we?  But when we finally are at ease, we aren't like those sheep pacing in circles, we aren't like the sheep at the petting zoo... We're like my chihuahua basking in the sun rays coming through the window (sorry, that's just the picture I conjure here).  We find ourselves at rest and it's only then we can eat and be filled with the provision of God.

The latter half of verse 2 follows the logic of the first half, in that after being made to lie down in the table lands, our Shepherd will also lead us beside still waters...  Now remember, we are at ease.  We have had our anxieties ceased.  Our fears are no longer dictating our actions.  We are instead being led by the voice of our Shepherd, and after satisfying ourselves in the green pastures, He now leads us beside the still waters...  but notice this... 

This verse is literally translated, He leads me beside the waters of rest.  

And how cool is that?  So far, we get the picture of an anxious sheep... But one that is being refreshed and being put at ease.  We need this don't we?  Well, here's the good news...

Jesus described Himself in John 10 as the Good Shepherd, didn't He?  He says that those who are His sheep hear His voice and follow Him.  He is the Good Shepherd who not only leads us to green pastures, but he invites us to "Come, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you REST."

He leads us besides the waters of rest.  Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath... The Lord of our rest.  We are invited to enter into His rest...

So how is it that we can do that?

Look at verse 3... "He restores my soul." I love that Jesus restores our soul, but again, we are lacking a bit in our english translation... The Hebrew word for restore is actually "to turn back from" or "to do an about face..." If this word was used in a geographic sense, it would speak of a departing from and returning to a place from which you've come... And in a moral sense, it would be used to speak of turning back from something bad and returning to something good... 

So how do we place our souls at rest and at ease in Him?  Repentance...  That's just our Christian term for doing an about face...

My friends...  We so often muddy the waters of our spirit.  We find that our prayers just seem to hit the ceiling...  Our fear and our pain consume us.  We try to cope, but so often default to the comforts of our flesh.  We run back to that sin that easily besets us... You know what it is...  We cry over and over "forgive us!" Having already been forgiven... But we don't feel forgiven... We become overcome by shame and we end up in the cycle of sin...

We want to worship, but it feels like love and compassion are just no longer in our hearts.  

And then... We find God suddenly making us to lie down as He begins restoring our souls by calling us to return to Him!

I implore you today... If you have not felt the joy of His presence in a long while... If your times of devotion are merely words on a page and you're not inspired to sing heartfelt praise to Him... I beg you to turn around...  

He has not forsaken us... But we have departed from Him... Like wayward sheep...  

Turn and silence the shouts of anxiety, of depression, of confusion, of bitterness, of unforgiveness... Silence these shouts and incline your ear to the voice of the Good Shepherd.  He shall restore our souls and satisfy us with pastures of abundance, of waters of rest... Indeed, He will lead us in paths of righteousness for His name's sake.

Let's be filled with His presence and take comfort in his provision.  We will not be diminished, for the Lord Jesus Christ is our Good Shepherd.  He has laid down His life for His sheep and He invites us to come...

Will you turn around from the deserts you've been wandering in and be put at ease in His rest?

“And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus."  -Acts 3:17‭-‬20