Feasting on God's Wordනියැදිය

Day 5 - Green Pastures or Grassy Patches?

The Scriptures often use the metaphor of a shepherd with sheep to describe our relationship with God, as well as with religious leaders. God is the Good Shepherd, faithfully tending His flock. Even in modern-day Israel, shepherds watch over and care for their sheep. In Psalm 23 and throughout the Bible, the living God uses this metaphor fitting of a culture that would regularly see—and perhaps even be—shepherds with sheep to remind them of His faithful presence in their lives.

Psalm 23:1-3 says, “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.”

When you read or hear that the Lord is your shepherd, the one who makes you lie down in green pastures, what imagery comes to your mind?

I am Irish on both sides of my family. I’ve been to Ireland and seen firsthand how green and lush it is. When I was growing up, I would read Psalm 23 about the Lord being my shepherd. When I got to the part about Him making me lie down in green pastures, I would envision a location like Ireland with beautiful, flourishing, soft green grass everywhere!

But through my time in Israel, I have discovered that the phrase “green pastures,” in the original Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament, is actually “grassy pastures.” If you have been to the Holy Land, you have likely experienced that so much of the land is wilderness or desert with patches of green grass rather than solid green pastures. With this being the case, what imagery is the Bible conveying for us here about our everyday lives?

I believe we are being invited to lean into a powerful concept. Sometimes when the Lord speaks to us, we think a circumstance is going to be like Ireland-esque green pastures, but it ends up being more like patches of green in a wilderness. Then we think, But Lord, You said…, by which we mean, I thought it was going to be a certain way and this is not at all what I expected. That can feel disappointing because who wouldn’t choose the lush, green pastures of Ireland! I’ve learned that if we are being honest with ourselves, many of our days feel more like grassy patches rather than green pastures.

What Psalm 23 is actually communicating, which is a better, stronger, and more anchored word, is that the living God, as our Shepherd, is the one who leads us through all the brown spots from grassy patch to grassy patch. We will have moments of green pastures, but there’s a lot of life lived in the in-between, in the liminal space. Jewish people have the mindset that the living God often does some of His best work in the wilderness…in the desert. For years, I have watched shepherds with their sheep in the wilderness regions of Israel. They know how to lead their flocks from grassy patch to grassy patch and through the dusty desert in between. This is much closer to the imagery given in Psalm 23.

For us as Westerners, when we find ourselves in a wilderness season between grassy patches, our first question tends to be something like, “How do I get out of this wilderness?” We want it to end as soon as possible. The Jewish people view the wilderness differently and they ask a much better question. Rather than “How do I get out of this wilderness,” they ask, “Lord, what is your word for me in this wilderness season?”

What would it look like for you and me to look at our wilderness seasons this way?