He makes me lie down in green pastures

There is a seven-week stretch here until the season of Lent begins this year. Normally I would always try to start the new year with some kind of series that refocuses on our mission as a church. Because the beginning of a new year seems to be the time when people make resolutions to start something new or leave behind some old bad habit, it seems like a good place for our church to focus again on how it is we all fit into the mission of God’s people.

This year that is taking a little different form. I don’t have to remind anyone that 2020 was an extraordinary year. I think it is safe to say that every singe one of us is entering the new year feeling pretty wiped out. Sure, we are all looking forward to a year where things get better and life returns to some kind of normal again. But right now I think everyone could just use a little encouragement to lift us all up before we can really begin pressing into what God desires for us as people of this church in 2021.

And so, I would like to take the seven weeks we have until Lent to look at Psalm 23. There are so many things in the Bible that occur in groups of seven. It is often a symbolic number in the Bible that points to God’s perfection. Some biblical scholars go a step further and note that seven is significant as the addition of 3+4. In the Bible the number three is often symbolic as the divine number of God. And the number four is symbolic of the creation. The addition of those two numbers to equal seven is then symbolic of Divine action within the creation. Seven is symbolic of God’s active presence and involvement upon the earth. In other words, seven should automatically trigger us to be looking for what God is doing here among his created world.

With that as the backdrop, let me point out that in Psalm 23 there are seven statements of what God is doing for his people here in the world. For the purpose of this sermon series I am going to refer to it as the seven scenes of Psalm 23. These are all present tense verbs; they are references to what the LORD is doing right now. Many Psalms point to what God has done for his people in the past. Some of the Psalms point to what God will do for his people. But in Psalm 23 all the activity of God is present tense; it is what God is doing right now. There are seven of these statements of God’s present activity for his people right now. Can you find them? I’ll give you a hint: the first one is the title of this sermon.

Psalm 23:1–6 NIV

1 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3 he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Today, then, let’s start off the new year in 2021 reminding ourselves of all that the Bible says God is actively doing for us right now. The first of these statements comes in verse 2 of Psalm 23. He makes me lie down in green pastures. To get a better picture of this biblical idea, let’s use this phrase from Psalm 23:2 as a launching point to another passage. What I really want us to focus in today comes from Ezekiel 34.

Ezekiel 34:11–16 NIV

11 “ ‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. 12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. 14 I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. 16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.

shepherd imagery would have been commonplace and ordinary for the people of Israel in the times of the Bible

These biblical images of shepherds and flocks and pastures are nothing new. And this is imagery that would have been commonplace and ordinary for the people of Israel in the times of the Bible. But not so much for us. It is helpful for us to know something about the rocky terrain of Israel for us to be able to picture the scene. Much of Israel’s landscape is hilly. The pastures of grass where sheep would graze were separated into the landscape at various points depending on valleys and streams. Many of these pastures were not that large. Shepherds would have to take their flocks from one patch of grass to another for grazing. So, this biblical image of a shepherd moving a flock of sheep from one location to another is something these people in the Bible would have seen every day in the hills and valleys which surrounded their towns.

Old Testament Covenant

Covenant with Abraham was about descendants and land (Gen 15)

First of all, let’s consider the way in which the Old Testament people of Israel would have understood this prophecy from Ezekiel. In order to do that, we need to remember that the Old Testament covenant that God made with Abraham in Genesis involved land. For the people of Old Testament Israel, the covenant of God was tied directly to Canaan.

It was in Genesis 15 we read about the promise God made with Abraham to take possession of Canaan. Many generations later the people of Israel are all slaves in Egypt. But we read in Exodus how God sent Moses to lead his people out of their Egyptian slavery. And it is in the book of Joshua that we read of the nation of Israel moving into the land of Canaan as the fulfillment of God’s promise with Abraham.

since the Old Testament covenant that came through Moses was conditional, the Israelites understood the land as something which measured their compliance with the covenant

The Old Testament people of Israel always understood the promise of God for their people to be directly tied to the land itself. And since the Old Testament covenant that came through Moses was conditional, the Israelites understood the land as something which measured their compliance with the covenant. When the land was fruitful and the harvest was plentiful, the Israelites interpreted it as a sign that God was pleased with the people’s adherence to the covenant standards. When there was drought or natural disaster, the people interpreted it as a sign that they had failed to keep their end of the covenant. The ultimate measurement of Israel’s covenantal failure was exile. When the Assyrians and Babylonians conquered the nation and took the people away from the land of Canaan, it meant that the people of Israel had become so distant from the covenant arrangement that God not only stopped blessing the land, he took away the land completely.

Do you see how this works? The land itself was always something like a barometer for Israel to measure how well they were standing in the covenant arrangement with God. This is the way the people during the time of Ezekiel would have heard this prophecy and understood these words.

rescue from captivity and return to the land of Israel symbolized a restoration of the covenant

The promise of God through Ezekiel to rescue the people from their places of captivity and to bring them back to the land of Israel symbolized a restoration of the covenant. The promise spoken through Ezekiel to bring the people to the mountains and ravines of Israel meant a return from exile and freedom from captivity. The words of Ezekiel to specifically name good grazing and rich pasture pressed further into covenant restoration. It is not just that God will bring his people back to the land of their covenant inheritance, it is that the land will be fertile and the pastures will be bountiful. It means that the covenant will be made right again by God.

emphasis is that it will be God who does this

Ezekiel 34 also contains the warnings and judgements against those who have failed to shepherd and lead God’s people in the way of the covenant

Here is where we see the prophet Ezekiel borrowing the words of Psalm 23. God will shepherd his people once again to lie down in good, rich pastures. The emphasis is that it will be God who does this. We are only looking at a few verses from Ezekiel 34. If you were to back out and read the entire chapter of Ezekiel 34, we would see a much larger picture. Chapter 34 is much more than a promise of God to restore the covenant of God’s people as their shepherd. This chapter also contains the warnings and judgements against those who have failed to shepherd and lead God’s people in the way of the covenant. It is a warning for the people to turn from those in their world who portray themselves as shepherds, but only lead people to destruction. It is a warning to stop following those who seek to pull the flock of God’s people away from their true shepherd.

This explains for us why verse 16 seems to cast a contradictory note upon God’s promise. The judgement against those who are ‘sleek and strong’ indicates God’s action against those who ignore the righteous standards of God’s covenant, thereby failing to follow God as the shepherd. In their strength, they pervert justice and oppress the poor and the needy. When God restores his covenant favor with the people and returns them to the land, he will do it in such a way that those who ignore justice will not be included.

New Testament Covenant

Jump forward with me to the New Testament. I tend to think that Jesus has the words of Ezekiel 34 in mind when Jesus declares in John 10, “I am the good shepherd.” Look at what Jesus says:

John 10:2–5 NIV

2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”

The shepherd language is still strong in the New Testament. But now something is different. In Jesus, the Old Testament covenant is fulfilled and now there is a new covenant between God and his people. Even though Jesus still uses language of a shepherd and a flock of sheep and pastures, the covenant relationship is now a bit different.

we no longer live in a time in which the covenant is tied to land

We no longer live in a time in which the covenant is tied to land. When the day of pentecost came upon the apostles in Acts 2 the Holy Spirit was given to all the church. Through the Holy Spirit the church is now a people, not a location. The mission which Jesus has given to the church in Matthew 28 is to go and spread the gospel to all the world, not just the people of Israel. The apostle Paul says that in the Holy Spirit the people of God’s church have become the new Jerusalem—we are now temples of the Holy Spirit.

the geographic location of land in Canaan is no longer part of the covenant

The geographic location of land in Canaan is not a part of the new covenant we now live under as people of the New Testament church. We do not live as people who must physically relocate to the geographical location of Canaan in order for God’s covenant to take effect and apply. We do not look to the abundance of crops in Canaan as the measurement of adherence to the covenant.

the covenant is no longer a conditional arrangement

And there is something else different with the new covenant in Jesus. The covenant is no longer a conditional arrangement. It is no longer a promise that is built on the condition of our own ability to live in our own righteousness. We no longer live as people who need priests to keep making sacrifices over and over again to make atonement for our sin. In Jesus, the sacrifice of atonement has been given once and for all through the crucifixion of Jesus on the cross. And this covenant is forever sealed upon the church through the Holy Spirit—a guarantee of our eternal salvation in Jesus.

since we no longer live under a covenant with God that is tied to land, what are the pastures of God’s covenant promise for us in the church now?

Let’s take it back to Psalm 23 and Ezekiel 34. These passages declare a promise that the LORD is our shepherd who makes his people lie down in green pasture. The people of the Old Testament understood that as meaning a connection to God’s promise of land. So, what does it mean for us in the church today? Since we no longer live under a covenant with God that is tied to land, what are the pastures of God’s covenant promise for us in the church now? What is the pasture to which Jesus leads his sheep in John 10?

the grace of God has now become the good and rich pasture in which the sheep of God’s flock lie down

The New Testament gives us a component in the new covenant that is clearly above all the rest: grace. The grace of God has now become the good and rich pasture in which the sheep of God’s flock lie down. Grace is the nourishment which feeds our souls. Jesus, the good shepherd, leads his flock to pastures of grace.

when we respond to the invitation to live in the pasture of God’s grace, then we become people who echo that grace for others | grace becomes the pasture of our lives | grace becomes our landscape

Grace is the unconditional, unearned, everlasting love of God which invites and beckons the hearts of people to come to Jesus. When we respond to the invitation to live in the pasture of God’s grace, then we become people who echo that grace for others. Grace becomes the pasture of our lives. Grace becomes our landscape. Because Jesus, the good shepherd, has led you to a pasture of grace, you now live and feed on the grace which has been given. When we treat others with grace, we dwell in the pastures of God’s grace. When we treat others with judgement or contempt, we wander away from the center of that pasture, we find ourselves on the edges.

may we be people who always declare through all we say and do that the LORD is our shepherd, and he brings us to the green pastures of his grace

Today, hear those words of scripture again. Follow the voice of Jesus, the good shepherd, to the center of his grace. Lie down and rest in the pasture of God’s grace given for you. Abide in the pastures of God’s grace by extending and echoing grace though your life and into the lives of others. May we be people who always declare through all we say and do that the LORD is our shepherd, and he brings us to the green pastures of his grace.