Still Waters

“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters.” Psalm 23:2

There’s just something peaceful about water. As I type this, I am looking out over a rippling pond, gazing at ducks and geese and a few egrets in the distance, and marveling at the beauty of cloudy skies reflected in the wind-wrinkled surface of the water. This particular pond is in an industrial park, not the most picturesque of environments, but being able to look out over the water makes up for the other mundane surroundings.

When I read through this verse, I see in my mind’s eye a single, wooly sheep, resting on vibrant green grass, its feet tucked up cozily under its fluffy body. It should be a whole flock of sheep, perhaps, but this psalm is so personal, I can’t quite picture a flock. It’s just the sheep and his Shepherd.

Now, I’m no expert on sheep, but I do know that—like all of God’s creatures—they cannot survive without rest. Neither, dear Reader, can we. In fact, of all God’s creations, humans alone are commanded to take an entire day for physical and spiritual rest:

“Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” (Exodus 20:9-11)

Throughout the Old Testament, God Himself reiterates the importance of the sabbath rest, leaving no room for doubt as to His view of it. For us as Christians, the Saturday sabbath of the Jews is now our Sunday day of rest, in celebration of Christ’s victorious resurrection. But though the day has shifted, the principle remains the same: one day set aside for rest in obedience to the Lord.

In Isaiah 58, the people of Israel complain to God that, although they have fasted and “sought God” outwardly, God is not answering their prayers. While it isn’t necessarily fasting that is at issue here, we will see the comments about fasting here in verse 3 reflected in God’s statement about the sabbath later on. Notice what they did on the days they were fasting:

“Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.” (v.3b)

They may have been fasting ceremonially, but their focus was still on themselves. In the rest of the passage, God tells the Israelites how to truly seek Him, and promises blessings in return for their repentance and obedience. That is the context in which He mentions the sabbath:

“If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” (v. 13-14)

This gives us a pretty clear picture of what God intends for our day of rest. It is a day to do God’s pleasure, not our own. It is also a day not to do our “own ways.” So, as Exodus states, we are to rest from our work, but added to this is the giving of the day to the Lord, to do His pleasure rather than our own.

To modern society, the idea of rest is almost synonymous with self-pleasure. The weekend is “me time,” and to the world around us, the sacrifice of a whole day devoted to God seems unreasonable, even extreme. But God’s view is completely opposite. The sabbath is a gift, to be gratefully given back to Him. He commands a day of physical rest, and asks us to use it for Him, offering in return the immeasurable blessing of spiritual rest.

But what if we don’t want to rest? According to God, working on the sabbath was an offense to be punished with death. You and I are not Israelites in the wilderness, nor do the Old Testament laws govern our society. But just because hundreds, if not thousands, of people disregard God’s commanded day of rest each week without seeming punishment, that does not mean we His children get to disregard it.

As New Testament Christians, we are not bound by the law, but by the Spirit, and the Spirit of God that indwells us is the same Spirit of God that moved Isaiah to tell the people to serve God, not self on the sabbath. We are not bound to the letter of the law, but we are still bound to obey God in honoring His call to rest.

We need that day of rest, because God designed us to need it. The day of rest is also an opportunity to devote the day and ourselves to the Lord, to take time to deepen our relationship with Him. It is a day for physically resting as well as seeking God.

 As our Good Shepherd, God leads us to the “still waters” of peaceful rest in Him, on that once-a-week day of rest, but also throughout each day. The weekly visit to the still waters of rest should be a reminder to us that we need daily rest, a moment-by-moment dependance and peaceful trust in the Lord as we go about our lives. Consider the following passages:

“Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29)

“Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.” (Psalm 37:7)

God wants us resting in Him, not just when our bodies are at rest, but every moment. This is only possible, though, when we are faithfully taking time to be still in body and spirit before the Lord. The “still waters” of time spent alone with God are where we learn to rest in Him.

So, what does all this mean for you today?

I don’t know what the Holy Spirit is drawing your attention to in all this talk of rest and sabbaths and time with God, but I do know that each and every Christian needs to value time spent “beside the still waters” with our Shepherd.

How is God leading you beside still waters today?

“Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10