Beside Quiet Waters: Psalm 23Sample

In green pastures

Rest is an act of faith. When we let go of our striving, will we be left empty-handed?

The good news of Psalm 23 is that as God leads us to rest, he always provides. As the Psalmist David asserts, it is in green pastures that God leads us to lay down. Commenting on this verse, one theologian points out that heat is very intolerable and even dangerous to sheep. Therefore, when David refers to “green pastures,” the picture is not one of sheep lying down in wide-open pastures under the heat of the sun. Rather, a good shepherd would prepare sheep-beds from the pasture grass so that his sheep might find rest and relief in the shade.

This shadowed rest makes me think of another Psalm, where God himself is declared to be our shelter. Psalm 91:1 says, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.” What does it mean for us today that God himself is the place where we find our rest?

Because of Christ’s death and resurrection on our behalf, we can cease striving before God and rest in his grace. Covered by the blood of Christ, we are enough. When we lose our patience and snap at our spouse, when we neglect to prioritize time with God, when we let the ball drop on our to-do list, we are still enough.

If the exhaustion of motherhood has you feeling like you have nothing to offer God, remember that your trust and dependence are the greatest offerings of all. Today, lay down your striving - you're trying to always have a good attitude, to be a good mom, to hold everything up. Lay down your striving and find yourself met with God’s grace. It is from the place of knowing you are already enough that free and genuine action then flows.