Walking With Christ

Psalm 23:1–3  (1)The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  (2)He makes me lie down in green pastures.  He leads me beside still waters.  (3)He restores my soul.  He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.(ESV)

Most of us like the idea of rest better than the actual surrender of it.

We like rest when it feels earned.  We like rest when everything is finished.  We like rest when the house is clean, the bills are paid, the work is done, the people are happy, the responsibilities are handled, and nobody needs anything from us.

In other words, we like a version of rest that almost never comes.

But Psalm 23 doesn’t say the sheep politely scheduled a recovery window after finishing all their obligations.  It says the Shepherd makes them lie down.

That’s not force in the cruel sense.  It’s care in the truthful sense.

A good shepherd knows when the sheep need to stop before the sheep understand it themselves.

That’s hard for stubborn sheep.

We’d rather call it discipline.  We’d rather call it drive.  We’d rather call it responsibility.  We’d rather call it sacrifice.  And sometimes it is.  But sometimes what we call sacrifice is just fear wearing work boots.

Fear says, “Keep moving.”

Fear says, “You can’t stop.”

Fear says, “They’ll think less of you.”

Fear says, “You’ll fall behind.”

Fear says, “Everything will fall apart.”

The Shepherd says, “Lie down.”

There are moments when God’s mercy feels like interruption because we were moving too fast to recognize it as rescue.  He slows us down, not to punish us, but to keep us from breaking in places we were pretending weren’t cracked.

The green pastures aren’t a reward for being useful.  They’re the Shepherd’s provision for sheep who can’t restore their own souls.

That’s the part we need to admit.

We can manage schedules.  We can answer messages.  We can perform tasks.  We can push through tiredness for a while.  We can keep our face steady while the inside gets louder.

But we can’t restore our own souls.

Only God can do that.

So if He makes you lie down, don’t despise the mercy just because it came before you felt finished.

The Shepherd isn’t waiting for you at the end of your strength so He can congratulate you for collapsing.

He’s leading you beside still waters before you drown in your own noise.