Green Pastures

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

“He makes me to lie down in green pastures”  is a famous line from Psalm 23. The typical Christ follower in America who reads it, sees wide areas of unending soft, green grass. But that certainly is not the case in Israel. You need to rid your minds of acres of rolling hills of soft grass just waiting for hungry sheep. 

Long ago, the shepherds of Israel learned to find grass where most people wouldn't think to look. Here, green pastures are created as the breeze from the Mediterranean Sea brings moisture into the arid climate. It is from that moisture, that dew settles on the sides of hills creating little tufts of grass — some just big enough for one day's feeding for a flock of sheep. The shepherds would lead their flocks through the hot parched desert in search of pockets of “green pastures.” It's no wonder the sheep obeyed the shepherd's voice. They learned to depend on the shepherd to daily lead them to their sustenance.

How many times have you felt like you were walking through a barren wilderness? It can seem that way when going through a trial or testing. But keep in mind that while walking through the desert, our Shepherd is leading us to green pastures. Like sheep, we must depend on Him to lead us to the places where we find our “daily bread.” 

Don't despise those desert walks with the Shepherd, and don't be afraid. A green pasture near.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures: He leads me beside still waters. Psalm 23:2