Psalm 23

I am not someone who can do nothing very easily.  I find it hard to just relax.  Even when I am watching TV at night, I am busy with other things: working puzzles, playing games on my cell phone, doing the crossword from the newspaper, reading a book or magazine.  I hate to feel like I’m wasting time.

But five years ago, I had to learn how to rest.  I didn’t have a choice.  I had emergency surgery for a perforated bowel.  I could have died.  And after the surgery, I had absolutely no energy to do anything.  Six months later, when I had a follow-up procedure, once again I was knocked for a loop.  During those months of surgery and healing and recovery, I learned how to rest.  I learned how to just sit on the back porch and do nothing except listen to the birds and watch my dogs play.  I became familiar with the sounds of the neighborhood: the kids playing across the street, the family behind me having dinner together every night, the UPS truck making deliveries, the man across the street hollering at his teenage son.  I read books that were just “for fun,” watched TV shows without doing anything else, and enjoyed talking to friends on the phone.  And I began to hear God’s voice in new and different and unexpected ways.

Sometimes we all get caught up in the business and stress and anxiety of everyday living that we forget how to rest.  When there is news available 24/7, with alerts on our cell phones to every breaking story; when we are having to learn how to hold meetings remotely by Zoom or some other platform; when we are afraid every time we go into a store or post office because of the COVID-19 pandemic; when we struggle to help our children go to school by computer; when we worry about having enough money or whether our job will be secure; when we face illness ourselves or watch a loved one suffer; when we struggle to make relationships work; it is hard to rest.

When I start feeling that tension and stress building up in my body, I turn to this most familiar and beloved Psalm, maybe the most beloved passage in all of scripture.  Jeff Paschal writes,

In the heat of this pressure cooker the psalmist offers cool, refreshing peace found in knowing and celebrating who God is and who we are … God is the one who makes us rest.  God is the one who slows us down and restores our very being.

Psalm 23 was written by David, who had been a shepherd and who was now the shepherd of his people as their king.  Perhaps he was wondering how he would care for them and reflecting on how God cared for him.  He begins his psalm by remembering, “The Lord is my shepherd.”  God is the one who tends the flock.  God takes on this role willingly and with compassion for the sheep.  And because the Lord is my shepherd, I have everything I need; I lack nothing. There is no need that God cannot fulfill. 

It may sound simplistic to say that God meets my every need, maybe a little naïve.  But when it comes right down to it, God is the only necessity in life.  As long as I have God, everything else will be taken care of.  I trust God to provide for me.  That trust didn’t just happen; it grew over the years of my life, as I saw God provide for me over and over again.  When I look back at my life, I can see so clearly that God was always with me and that it was God who gave me the resources I needed to meet life’s challenges. 

And then we come to the interesting choice of words, “He makes me lie down in green pastures.”  I have always stopped at the word “makes.”  Why would God have to make me lie down in green pastures?  Why would God have to make me rest?  Because I sometimes don’t have the sense to take good care of myself, that’s why!  I work hard, I worry a lot, I feel the responsibility of caring for my parishioners, I stress over the big issues like pandemics and racial tensions, I push the limits, I burn the candle at both ends.  It takes God’s gentle but firm hand to make me rest sometimes.  God leads me beside the quiet waters and refreshes my soul.  God lets me catch my breath.  God makes sure that I am spiritually well-fed and satisfied.  I am able to sleep well at night and wake up in the morning refreshed and ready to go again.  I tap into the power and energy of God through prayer and study and silence.  God makes me lie down in green pastures; God takes care of me.

I can rest because God is leading me in the right direction.  And whether God leads me up on high mountains or through the darkest valleys, I know that God is with me, right there by my side.  And so, I have nothing to fear.  God is my powerful protector, and God knows how to use that shepherd’s rod to fight off predators that might cause me harm.  God has my back when I have to face the evil in this world.  In fact, I am so safe that I could sit down to a six-course meal right in front of my enemies and eat my fill!  My cup overflows with blessings when I am in the presence of God.

I know that God will accompany me all the way to my heavenly home, showing me love and mercy all the way. And I will dwell in God’s home forever.  No matter what happens to me between now and then, I can trust God to be with me and to provide what I need.  And then I will enter the place where there is perfect rest, perfect peace, and perfect love. 

It is hard these days to feel completely at peace or at rest.  There is so much that is troubling around us, so much bad news, so many things to worry about.  But that just makes it all the more important for us to rest in God’s care and love.  We need our physical and our spiritual strength, and the only way to have them is to learn to rest. 

Leslie F. Brandt paraphrases Psalm 23 like this:

The Lord is my constant companion.  There is no need that He cannot fulfill.  Whether his course for me points to the mountaintops of glorious ecstasy or to the valleys of human suffering, He is by my side, He is ever present with me.  He is close beside me when I tread the dark streets of danger, and even when I flirt with death itself, He will not leave me.  When the pain is severe, He is near to comfort.  When the burden is heavy, He is there to lean upon.  When depression darkens my soul, He touches me with eternal joy.  When I feel empty and alone, He fills the aching vacuum with His power.  My security is in His promise to be near me always, and in the knowledge that He will never let me go.

We are all in different places in this journey called life.  Some of us have lived awhile, and others are still young.  Some have had it hard, and others have seemed to live a life untouched by tragedy or hardship.  None of us knows what the future holds.  But we do know that ultimately our future is with God, as our present is with God.  God is our Good Shepherd; we can trust God to take care of us.  And we can learn to rest.