Sheep Trails

Psalm 23 is a famous piece from the Bible, I am sure almost all of us have heard it or some of it.

^“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

 He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.

He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. 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.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies,

You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

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.”

Ray van der Laan is my favorite Bible teacher. He has spent decades studying ancient Jewish culture. His famous series “That the World May Know” is placed in Israel and is an education each time you watch one of the series.

One he did on the topic of Psalm 23 has stuck with me. Maybe it was more because I had been to Israel. I saw the harsh and sparse hills

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But never did I put the sparse hills together with Psalm 23, it was not a fit in my brain.

The above picture is of the Judean hills. The shepherds would take their sheep and goats there. The sheep trails show up as etched into the ground. Sheep follow each other head down to the ground simply following the next sheep looking for tufts of grass. Goats are not great followers, more like every goat for himself type animals.

Ray described the hillside as having grass not lush, but a mouthful here and there. Enough to feed the sheep if they looked for it. The grass was there. The sheep followed the shepherds who talked or sang to the sheep. They knew their shepherds voice and followed it.

The sheep trusted that the shepherd would bring them to land where they would get enough for today. Tomorrow they would follow the shepherd again for their daily provisions.

For me I read Psalm 23 and go in my head to the greenest fields, usually beside a creek, the shepherd’s lounging around because the sheep are content and happy. I realize now it probably was not like that. I did see some lush green areas but Israel has a lot of desert like areas, like the above picture.

Israel is not known for a lot of rain. They get some but it is a pretty dry place. When I sat on the desert’s rocky ground if you looked around there was some grass, even some little flowers growing, not abundant but there. If there is rain the vegetation sprouts up and grass grows and the hills turn green… for a while.

David who wrote Psalm 23 was a shepherd, he knew what it was like to guide his sheep by talking or singing. David played music for the King eventually. He knew what is what like to lead the sheep over the trails day after day looking for grass. When it was dry the dew on the vegetation was their water. He protected the sheep from predators.

Yet Psalm 23 plays like everything is wonderful and peaceful, lots of food and water, and it was….for today.

Psalm 23 is about just enough for today. It’s not about storing up for tomorrow, it is not, oh we have so much we can take a week long break at this pasture. It is about trusting the one who leads to give us “our daily bread” or grass and trusting that tomorrow will bring more food, water and daily needs.

It is not about abundance, it is about daily provision. It is no wonder the Lords Prayer that Jesus taught us says, “give us this day our daily bread…”

In North America we have a bounty of food. We shop at wholesale places and “stock up”. Maybe in the ability to have we have lost the ability to understand what it means to simply have enough for today. Our heads are down and we follow the trails we usually go on instead of raising our heads to look to our Provider our Shepherd.

Is our abundance causing us to forget about our shepherd because we do not need Him, look at all our grass! Perhaps Psalm 23 is more about the relationship between sheep and their shepherd not about the pasture.

It defines a perfect relationship between sheep and their shepherd because they trust He has their good in mind. Will the grazing be “easy” not necessarily, walking, listening, and following could be involved.

If the circumstances of daily living cause us to stop, look and listen (think crossing the road instructions) then perhaps the Shepherd actually knows what He is doing by keeping our eyes and ears on Him every day. If we have abundance of food, think to yourself what else could your Shepherd use to get your attention.

Those circumstances that are challenging or hard, could those be reasons why lifting your head and checking on where your Shepherd is be one of the provisions, not a hardships to keep your eyes focused on the right thing?

Psalm 23 is not about peace and comfort, it is about a lifelong commitment and friendship between sheep and shepherd. The shepherd does all the talking, and the work of finding food and water. The sheep follow along content knowing they are fed, watered and protected.

Kind of sounds like a great plan.