Steps to contentment

 

WARNING: This post went longer than I thought it would.....grab a cup of tea and take your time!

We studied the first verse of Psalm 23 and we noted that in order to find true contentment, we first must know the Lord as our personal Shepherd. "The Lord is my Shepherd." Not anyone else - it must be a relationship between us and the covenant, faithful God of creation.

Let's move on to the second "step" to contentment:

    He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters, (Psalm 23:2)

"God will provide!"

We hear this phrase often, and too often it is tossed around casually and not appreciated. David is telling us about God's gracious provisions for our lives . . . as we study, we will see so many parallels between the care and compassion of a shepherd, and the love shown by our Good Shepherd.

Digging in to verse two . . . 

Not to re-plow the same ground, but II Peter told us that God has granted to us EVERYTHING pertaining to life. But many Christians are just not content. They take their eyes off the Lord and decide that they know better. They "dig their own cisterns" and search for what they think will satisfy.

“My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
    the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
    broken cisterns that cannot hold water. (Jeremiah 2:13)

If we turn away from God and what He has provided, we will never be able to know contentment. We will never know the truth of "He makes me lie down in green pastures."

Jesus told us that there is no greater satisfaction for Him than to see His flock well-fed, resting, secure. It is His desire above all else - our Shepherd literally lay down His life to achieve this.

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. (John 10:11)

I came so that they would have life, and have it abundantly. (John 10:10b)

Not just life. Not "getting by." But abundant life. This makes us see lush green pastures in our mind's eye. Thick grasses, wet with dew. Soft hillocks of wonderful, cushiony turfgrass.

But wait. 

Why, then, are there so many pictures of shepherds in dry, hot, desert-like areas? Why do we think of Moses keeping flocks on the "back side of the desert"? While it's true that much shepherding takes place in those areas, and that it's a vocation more often found there, it's also true that a good shepherd seeks better for his charges. 

Many varieties of sheep thrive in semi-arid areas, and are troubled less by pests and disease. But these areas are often parched and dry, and the grasses are brown and look more like the stubble left after a wildfire! Green pastures in the east, where David lived and wrote, were the result of a tremendous amount of work on the part of a shepherd. Shepherds needed to not only care for their flocks, but also for the land - they were skilled in land use and in improving it. Rocks must be removed to the edges of what would be a pasture, to form a kind of fence. Brush, roots, and stumps must be torn out. The ground must be plowed and soil prepared; irrigation must bring water to encourage grasses to grow -- all of this is vital for the forage needed to sustain the sheep. 

As a youngster, I wondered about the phrase that is used in the Old Testament to describe the Promised Land: a land flowing with milk and honey. At the time, it didn't make sense to me! This is not only poetic language, but it's language that describes a scientific concept! It speaks to the richness and fertility of the land, and also to the fact that when livestock is enjoying good pasturage, the momma cows and sheep can have an increased flow of milk for their babies. The bees that visit the blossoms of the grasses will be producing an increased flow of honey. (Archeological digs have uncovered beehives dating back to the ninth and tenth centuries BC in the area around Jericho.)

So, if we say (or read) that a land is flowing with milk and honey, we are speaking of a land of rich, green pastures.

So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. (Exodus 3:8, NASB)

Now, let's look back at our verse . . . the mental image of a sheep lying down is one that means the sheep is full. It has eaten enough. The sheep then lies down to "chew its cud" just as the cows do. The Good Shepherd has supplied us with green pastures, and I think that the number one reason why we believers lack contentment is that we don't spend as much time in those pastures as we ought to! We don't feed consistently in His Word. We allow our minds to be filled with the brown stubble and dry grass of television, movies, news shows, and the newspapers. Then we wonder why our minds are troubled, and we are beset with anxiety! 

Let us be like the Jews in Berea; let's be eager to believe and eager to search the Scriptures. Let's allow the scriptures to be just as vital, just as important as our daily food.

How sweet are Your words to my taste!
Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (Psalm 119:103)

I have treasured Your word in my heart,
So that I may not sin against You. (Psalm 119:11)

God's Word has milk for the lambs in Christ, the babes, the new believers. His Word also has meat for the more mature. If only we will feed on His Word daily, we will find contentment in our Savior.