The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
- from Psalm 23:1-2

Sheep require a lot of care. Left to their own devices, they’ll overheat, overeat, overstretch, overdo and overextend themselves. Sound familiar?

Rest is important for our health and sanity.

When David writes in today’s passage “He makes me lie down,” David’s painting an image of the Lord slowing us down the way a shepherd would slow down a hyper member of his flock. The Lord’s work is here described as deliberate and even forceful. He’s not suggesting a rest. He’s making the rest thing happen.

Sometimes, the Lord who is our Good Shepherd and who provides for us also makes us lie down in green pastures. Sometimes he makes us lie down when we’d rather be off gallivanting. Sometimes we smack into our limits and our health, energy, emotions come clattering, crashing and collapsing down until we lie down, until we lie down and rest.

This movement of rest comes at the beginning of a psalm that’s full of action. In short order, we’ll hear about being guided along right paths and through the dark valleys on our way to the Lord’s own house. But today, we hear about rest, even about forced rest.

Now don’t get us wrong. We still have a choice to rest or not. We’re like sheep, but we’re not sheep. There are consequences to resisting the Lord’s rest. And the wise among us will go where the Good Shepherd leads us, even if that’s to a moment of pre-adventure rest.

Take a few moments today. Where has the Lord slowed you down over the course of your life? What does this tell you about the character of our Good Shepherd?