{"id":1861,"date":"2020-09-29T13:42:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-29T13:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thegov.wgl-demo.net\/?p=350"},"modified":"2020-09-29T17:34:19","modified_gmt":"2020-09-29T17:34:19","slug":"green-pastures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianassociationofnigeria.org\/?p=1861","title":{"rendered":"Green Pastures and Quiet Waters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Green Pastures and Quiet Waters<\/strong><\/h2>\n

IIn a similar vein, around 1000 BC, Israel\u2019s King David composed his most famous work\u2014Psalm 23. Many of us know how it begins: \u201cThe Lord is my shepherd.\u201d I\u2019ve read or recited that psalm hundreds of times over the years, but I recently noticed something I hadn\u2019t observed before.<\/p>\n

Why did David say, \u201cHe makes<\/em> me lie down in green pastures, he leads<\/em> me beside quiet waters\u201d? Why must the shepherd\u2014David\u2019s reference to God\u2014\u201cmake\u201d and \u201clead\u201d him to do things that seem desirable, even idyllic? Did David not want peace, beauty, rest?<\/p>\n

While scholars of ancient Hebrew history aren\u2019t certain what was happening in King David\u2019s life when he wrote this psalm, what is known about his life, in general, is that he had enemies near and far.<\/p>\n

We also know that as a result of these many enemies, David was frequently on the run, either chasing off an enemy or running from one.<\/p>\n

David\u2019s reference to God\u2014\u201cmake\u201d and \u201clead\u201d him to do things that seem desirable<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While there are certainly accounts of David enjoying the benefits of being a king, his life was busy and burdened. In numerous other psalms, he admits to being exhausted and demoralized. <\/p>\n

While we aren\u2019t ancient Israeli kings constantly fending off giant and regular-size adversaries, we can relate to King David\u2019s feelings of exhaustion and demoralization.<\/p>\n

Most of all, we can relate to needing someone to make us lie down in green pastures and lead us beside quiet waters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The bodies were lying in the streets un-buried. All railroads and vessels carrying food and such things into the great city had ceased runnings and mobs of the hungry poor pillaging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[101],"tags":[105,104,106,102,103],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t