WEEKLY WORD

The Lord is Our Good Shepherd! (Part 3)

(Overcomer Wu)

“The Lord is my Shepherd, ... He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.” --Psalms 23:1a-2

He Led Me Besides the Green Pastures and Still Waters

"He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters” [or other translations say, "He leads me beside waters of rest”] (v. 2). David said in Psalms 55 while he was in deep dismay, "O that I had wings like a bird! Then would I fly away and be at rest. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest” (Psa 55:6-8). The green pastures and still waters are much more than just a rich and lush feeding ground, but it offers us a place of rest and tranquility that few, if any, people in this wicked world of turmoil is able to find apart from God. For this reason, drugs like Valium or Diazepam, which are supposed to give them tranquilize the mind a bit chemically, are being prescribed to about 60% of the adult population here in US. Others turned to Yoga, Zen or transcendental meditations to find some temporary rest to their frazzled mind and emotion. We find ourselves caught up in hurricanes of activities, deep distress, frantic schedule, and an incessant list of worries, desperately needing these green pastures and the water that offers us tranquility of mind and spirit. I believe the emphasis here is on learning how to rest in the Lord more than eating, because it says “He makes me to lie down in green pastures.” Lying down is not normally the posture for a sheep when they are eating; therefore, I believe that resting in the Lord is the main emphasis of our need here. Thank the Lord that we Christians have the only One, our Good Shepherd and Lord, Who can offer our hearts these green pastures of rest, still waters to soothe our soul and spirit. The Lord bids us, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28). When our heart finds rest in the Lord, then the rest of our being will be rested and refreshed. The problem is that sometimes we focus on getting our body rested and refreshed, but our heart, which includes our spirit, isn’t rested and refreshed; thus, we’re still in turmoil within.

Before a sheep can be productive to its master to provide wool, propagate, and provide meat, they have to be healthy and mature by being well-fed, well-rested, and well-developed. In our Christian lives we tend to put productivity first and either ignore or simply put our spiritual health on a lesser priority. But an unhealthy, immature spiritual life cannot be truly productive as God measures productivity. You may do well in school or be productive at your workplace, but are you productive in your spiritual life before the Lord? Are you bearing fruits of the Spirit in your walk with Him daily? In practice, we seemed to read, "The Lord is my Shepherd, and He immediately leads me to places where we can work for Him and be productive …." That is not the mindset we see in Psalm 23. First, "The Lord is my Shepherd…. He makes me lie down in green pastures: He leads me beside the still waters.” Why? So we can be well-nourished, refreshed, and well-rested before we go out and try to be productive for the Lord. This is the spiritual principle we see in the Bible for us Christians from the very beginning. Remember, right after man was created on the sixth day, the seventh day was a day of rest, not only for God but also for man. So God rested after His work of creation in Genesis chapter 2, but the first day for man after he was created was to rest because the first day for man after he was created was the 7^th day of God which is the day of rest. In the New Testament, we also start each week with the Lord's day/Sunday to find out rest and supply in Him before we start the week. This matter of rest principle is so crucial that it is one of the ten commandments given to God's people, because this is important that we rest first in the Lord before we can be of any use to Him.

We can also illustrate this with a nursing mother: A nursing mother has to be well nourished herself before she can provide quality nourishment for her hungry and thirsty baby. She can only give out and minister the nutrition that she herself takes in first. Many of us, in trying to minister to and disciple others, when we ourselves are malnourished spiritually. Attempting to nourish others when we ourselves do not spend a solid block of time to be nourished up in the Word of God and to receive the life supply from His Spirit of life is simply an exercise in futility. Spiritually, we cannot feed and nourish others and bear fruits of the Spirit, when we are not abiding in Christ the Vine and constantly drawing our nourishment and supply from Him. Sad to say, the modern-age people today, even within the Church, seem to be more impressed with worldly busyness and achievements in the world rather than spiritual attainments and maturity. They more impressed with how high a degree you can achieve, how many jobs you can hold and how high a salary and position you can attained to, how many activities you’re involved in; rather than how well-nourished and well-rested you are in the Lord so that you can be truly productive in the things that really matters in the eyes of God. In our day and age, it sounds even somewhat lazy and unproductive to talk about lying down in green pastures to be nourished up in the Word of God and meet with the saints for a time to find peace and rest in Him, instead of laboring on several jobs and working even at church meeting times on our list of “things that needs to get done at home, go grocery shopping or elsewhere.” And when they do find time to rest, they usually would spend it by going on vacations for their own pleasure rather than spending quality time to rest in the Lord.

We have heard of the saying, “Haste makes waste.” Well, hurry is the enemy of Godliness or Godly intimacy. In other words, when we hurry into our tasks, whether that be a worldly duty or even a spiritual duty in the church, without first spending some quality time with the Lord to be nourished up by Him and find rest in Him, we will only succeed in accomplishing nothing in the eyes of God. As you read the Gospels, we see the pattern of Jesus’ life. One of the things that strikes me is that Jesus never seemed to be in a hurry. It is not that He wasn’t busy, but Jesus doesn’t seem stressed by it. We do not read of Him running. I’m not saying He didn’t, but God didn’t think it important enough if He did, to put mention it in the Bible. Instead, we read about Him spending time to commune with the Father even before dawn; we read about Him walking from place to place while ministering to the needs of the people; we read about Him sitting at the well in the middle of the day. We read about Jesus reclining at meals, and we read about Him resting in a boat even in the middle of a storm, but never running or sprinting from place to place even though there were more than plenty of work for Him to get done.

Hurrying to a church meeting is perhaps okay, except don't run a red-light or exceed the speed limit :-) In general however, being in a hurry is not conducive to godliness or to our spiritual growth. Nor it is wise to hurry into a human relationship that leads to marriage – that is where a lot of young people make mistakes. Hurrying is not conducive to being good parents, because it causes them to overlook the little indicators of a child's problem, whether physically being sick or psychologically or behaviorally being in need of certain attention. Similarly, hurrying is not conducive to discipleship, for it causes one to overlook certain minute indicators of their spiritual needs and problem areas. It is not conducive to being fruitful in the church, for our fruitfulness in the church can only come from our time of prolonged abiding in Christ and receiving of His supply of life and His Word. If we’re living a hurried life, we will miss some of the most important, valuable, precious opportunities to pour into the lives of others – whether it be an opportunity afforded for us to preach the gospel to a friend, or a perfect timing to instill a lesson to a child due to a certain incident that has just happen, or perhaps a last chance for you to tell your loved ones that you love them before the Lord call us away or call them away. Many people have regretted after the passing of their loved ones that they did not do so when the opportunity was afforded them.

The Lord Jesus did not hurry in order to seize every opportunity given to Him to minister to the needs of various people. In John chapter 4, when Jesus left Judea and was headed for Galilee, He purposely did not hurry by taking the long way through Samaria in order to give the Living Water of Life to the Samaritan woman who in turn brought many more to the Lord. Had he hurried, He would have missed the woman with the issue of blood who came pressing through the crowd, wanting life and health when He was on His way to Jairus’s house to heal the dying daughter of Jairus (Luke 8:41-48). Instead Jesus purposely stopped and to minister to not only this woman but also to the blind man who called out to Him and many other people on other occasions. Most importantly, we need to realize that godliness and intimacy with the Lord are not cultivated on the run. We are exhorted to “exercise yourself unto godliness” (1 Tim 4:7). The following verse continues by comparing physical exercise is of no comparison to the godly exercise which yields much more gain and even gains that are of eternal worth. But my point is that it is interesting that Paul used the analogy of exercise, because as we all know that even to stay fit physically, we need a minimum of 30 minute exercise everyday. However, athletes have to exercise such as a gymnast, boxer, baseball, or football player require at least 8 hours of exercise per day. Spiritually, of course, it requires at lest that much time if not more. After all, we are liken in 2 Timothy 2:5 to be spiritual athletes. Therefore, we need to devote our time, effort, and focus on the Lord and in receiving His Word, His supply of the Spirit, and Himself as our everything.

There are no shortcuts to spiritual maturity. There is an old hymn that we don’t sing much anymore, maybe because we think it is not the kind of lifestyle we like to live and spend quality time on: "Take time to be holy, the world rushes on; spend much time in secret with Jesus alone…." Sometimes when we rushes on, we might miss out on the Lord's will and purpose for us. The Lord may purposely delay in revealing His will to us to develop our patience in Him. Habakkuk 2:3 says, “though it tarries(or delay), wait for it.” If we do not wait on the Lord an rushes off to do our own things or what we think the Lord wants us to do, then we will miss out on both the Lord and His blessings.

It is an interesting fact that sheep don’t know that they need to rest nor when they need to rest, and often that’s the way we are. That’s why they need our Lord as our Good Shepherd to care for us. However, for that to work, we need to be attentive to the Shepherd's speaking and be obedient to His directives. Thank the Lord that we have a Shepherd who makes us lie down in green pastures. I’m learning that if I won’t let Him lead me there, sometimes He will make me lie down in green pastures. He has ways of stopping us and of getting our attention. Of course, if we insist on continually going on our wayward ways, then there is not much the Shepherd can do to help us because He still gives each of us a free will to choose. If we refuse the Shepherd's guidance, then we will surely suffer the negative consequences.

The Lord Jesus’ twelve disciples had to learn this. In Mark 3:13-14 we are told that He chose them first that they might be with Him. Only after a period of being with the Lord for a good period of time and being trained by Him did He then send them out to minister to others. Unfortunately, that’s not the way we do it in most churches today. Once people are saved and baptized, and even before three years of establishing a good spiritual foundation of walking and growing in the Lord, we already have them serve in Sunday school classes, oftentimes before they’ve been grounded in life and in the Word of God. Thus, the young people under their care receive very limited spiritual guidance and nourishment. Even for the well-seasoned relatively matured Christians, they need to spend time first with the Lord to receive His constant supply and up-to-date speaking before they can effectively minister others. If we are to be fruitful and productive in the Lord's hand as His ministers or even as a mere sheep under His care, we need to learn the indispensability of spending quality time with the Lord on the “green pastures” and by the “waters of rest” to be nourished, fed, strengthen, and developed by our Good Shepherd.