Laying down with the Good Shepherd

Many find the 23rd Psalm comforting.
Pollsters tell us it is the most memorized piece of holy scripture.
It leads us to lie down.

That's what it says, "He leads me to lie down in green pastures."  Even those of us with little or no knowledge of sheep find the image comforting.  To lie down - to be at peace - to let go of fear and responsibility - to rest.  How many days have you wished that you could do just this very thing?  When the going gets tough, lying down in green pastures is my deepest desire.  Beside still waters.  Restoring my soul.

I am suspicious, however, that sometimes this idyllic and renewing scene has become for too many the ultimate goal of our faith life.  To lie down.  To be at rest.  To leave it all up to someone else.

We forget that the psalm begins, "The Lord is my shepherd."  Perhaps this psalm is more about the shepherd than it is about the desires of the sheep.  Perhaps this psalm is about the world that the shepherd opens up for the sake of the sheep.

We forget that the psalm says, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death....."  There's some serious walking involved in this psalm.  In fact, the walking around part may be the reason we are sheltered and fed in the beginning....so we can be strong; so that we know the shepherd who is leading us; so we can tell others of the grace and power of this shepherd in these times.

This is the shepherd's psalm; we follow this shepherd and not another.  We are counted among this shepherd's sheep and not some fly by night shepherd.  This shepherd knows us; we know this shepherd, and we want to live in the pastures this shepherd supplies for us.  So we follow, closely.  We trust, completely.  We are grateful for our very lives.