Resting with the Lord in His Word Psalm 23:2-3
But Psalm 23:1, the Bible says, “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.”
And there, you know, David himself was a shepherd. David understood the shepherd life. David understood what it meant to care for his sheep. He even understood what it meant to protect his sheep. We read in the Bible where David fought off lion and bear to protect his sheep. He understood what it meant to love them, to feed them, to care for them.
And in Psalm 23, it’s really a beautiful image. He gives this picture of the Lord Jesus Christ being our shepherd. And just like a shepherd cares for their sheep and loves their sheep and protects their sheep and feeds their sheep, so too does the Lord to us. We’re his sheep and he loves us. He cares for us. He protects us. He feeds us.
And David had come to the realization, “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.” And one thing we’re reminded of a couple of weeks ago when we read that is to ask ourselves, is the Lord shepherd of my life? First, have I made him shepherd by trusting fully in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of my life? And second, am I making him shepherd of my life today?
Now, I think sometimes as Christians, we have to kind of come back and re-evaluate and ask ourselves, is he shepherd of my life today? So we were challenged to make sure we are making him shepherd of our lives.
Today, we’re going on to verses 2 and 3 of Psalm 23. And I do invite anybody that would like and that is able to stand with me in honor of the reading of the word of God. Psalm 23 beginning in verse 2, the word of God says,
“He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”
God, I thank you for your word. Lord, I ask you to help me. Help me to preach what you would have us to hear today. Preach the word. And I pray that as we dig into the word and we continue to worship you, God, that you would work inside of our hearts as believers to mold us and to shape us more and more into your image. And God, if there’s one that’s in need of a saving relationship with you, Jesus, or more than one, anybody, I pray today would be the day they give their life fully to you, Jesus Christ. God, we love you, and it’s in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
A Peaceful Picture
You know, when I read that and I read about “He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters,” I just think about that sounds like such a peaceful place. Green pastures and still waters.
Speaking of when we were in the Bahamas, talk about still waters. There’s like no waves there. We were all talking about we’re used to waves here. It’s just still and clear and blue. It’s beautiful, but it’s different without the waves. But it looks peaceful because it’s just calm and still.
But a sheep—when you get this picture of a sheep lying down in green pastures beside still waters—it just feels, it just sounds like resting. And so one thing that I thought about as I read that is the importance of resting with the Lord.
And the other thing I thought about as I read about the green pastures is as we read that we think about sheep. You know, sheep, they don’t eat meat. Sheep eat grass. Sheep eat plants. So when you think about a sheep in green pastures, you think about that’s how they’re fed. And actually, for a sheep to be able to fully lay down and rest, they have to be fed. For a sheep to be at peace and restful, they have to be fed.
We Need to Be Fed
Now, we’re God’s sheep. Amen. And as God’s sheep, we need to be fed, too. Except it’s not eating grass. I thank the Lord for that. And I’m not talking about physical food. As God’s sheep, we need spiritual food. And we need to be fed with the word of God.
So as I was thinking about all this, what God put on my heart is the importance of the fact that we need to take time to sit and rest with the Lord in his word. Obviously, when we rest with the Lord in prayer and in the word, it blesses us. But I really want to hone in on this idea of resting with the Lord in the word of God. Because as I think about being pastors, I think about sheep feeding and us needing to be fed with the word of God.
How are you doing in your life as a believer taking time to slow down and rest and sit with the Lord in the word of God?
We live in a fast-paced world. Amen. And sometimes it can be like we’re going, going, going, but you know what? We need to rest. We need time to slow down and sit with the Lord and rest with the Lord in his word.
Do you ever struggle with that? I think this is something that we all struggle with at times, but it’s something that will bless us so much if we take time to do it. If we take time—and in this age and day we live in with social media that’s always posting this, always looking at this and always going, going—we need time to rest. Amen. Anybody ever need time to rest? Yeah.
We need time to rest and be recharged and rest with the Lord in his word. And we need time with the Lord in his word. Amen. We need to be fed.
Do you ever have times where you’re not in the word and you’re not getting fed with the word of God? Just like a sheep needs to get fed to eat grass, to survive, and to thrive spiritually, we need to get fed with the word of God. If we’re going to feel alive in God, if we’re not getting fed with the word of God, we’re going to feel dead. Have you ever had those times where you feel dead because you’re not getting fed with the word of God?
We got to get fed. We need that time in the word of God. I need that time in the word of God. When I don’t get that time, it affects my relationship with the Lord. It affects my walk with God. You need that time. Amen. You need that time to get fed with the word of God.
We got to take time to sit and to rest and to get fed with the word of God. We need the word of God as God’s sheep. We need to be fed spiritually. And if we don’t have the word of God and if we’re not sitting in the word of God and getting fed, it’s going to affect our relationship with Jesus. And if we’re not getting fed by the word, we’re going to get fed by the world. We’re going to get fed by something. There’s something that we’re going to get fed by.
I hope one thing that we’re encouraged by today again as we think about laying down in green pastures and sheep eating grass and getting fed—as God’s sheep, we need to get fed with the word of God.
The Blessings of Resting in the Word
There’s a lot of blessings that happen when we rest with the Lord in his word. There are a lot of things that will bless me, that will bless you, when we just take time to get fed with the Lord in his word.
And listen, we ought to not make this a thing where it’s like a checklist. Okay, I read the Bible, so I’m done. I’m good now. This is something that will bless us. This will bless us when we rest with the Lord in the word. It will bless us.
And I want to talk about some of those blessings that’ll happen. This is not an exhaustive list, but when we sit with the Lord in his word, he gives us rest and peace.
Rest and Peace
Do you ever have times when you just feel overwhelmed? Maybe it’s physically, maybe it’s emotionally, maybe it’s in your mind. One blessing that happens when we rest with the Lord in the word is God helps to give us peace and God helps to give us rest.
Do you ever feel weary and tired and like you need rest? I love the scripture in Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
When we are intentional about sitting with the Lord in his word, one blessing is that we find rest. We find peace. We find comfort.
Strength and Restoration
I’ll tell you something else. When we sit with the Lord in his word, he strengthens us. It said, “He restoreth my soul.”
Think about David. David went through a lot. And David, who wrote Psalm 23, David went from being a shepherd to being a king. But then when he was a king, he had to run for his life for fear of being killed by—well, first he had fear of being killed by King Saul before he was king. Then he had fear of being killed by his own son Absalom. David had all kinds of reasons that he would have been overwhelmed and filled with anxiety. But in this psalm, he said, “He restoreth my soul.”
You know, when we sit with the Lord in his word, he strengthens us. He restores us. Our inner being matters. I mean, our outer being matters too. When we have problems on the outside of our body, it hurts. But our inner man, it really matters, right? When our inside, our inner man, our soul, our heart, our mind, when it’s not right, it affects us, right? But when we take time to sit with the Lord in the word, he strengthens us.
Psalm 119:28 says, “My soul melts from heaviness; strengthen me according to your word.”
Have you ever had times when you sit with the Lord in the word and you’re strengthened? Y’all know what I mean? Where you just block out time to get alone with the Lord in the word of God. You’re letting it soak in. You’re letting it meditate. You’re meditating on it. And you’re just sitting with God. You’re not rushed. You’re not trying to look at the next news feed. You’re not trying to do the next to-do list. You’re blocking other things out and you’re just sitting with God in his word. Do you ever feel that—how God’s word strengthens you? It will.
We got to get rid of the hustle and bustle and sit and rest. When I say rest with the Lord in the word, that means we put away all the other—we put away those worries. We put away all the fast-paced life and we just rest with God in his word and he strengthens us.
Guidance on the Right Path
I’ll tell you what else. When we sit with the Lord in his word, he guides us down the right path. The Bible here says in Psalm 23, “He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”
The Bible in Isaiah 58:11, it says, “And the Lord shall guide thee continually.” When we rest with the Lord and when we sit with the Lord in the word of God, he guides us and he guides us on the right way to go. He guides us on the right path to go.
You know, there’s two ways to go: the wrong way and the right way. The way of the world and the way of the Lord. Which path are you on? Are you on the way of the world or are you on the way of the Lord?
When we rest with the Lord and we take time to sit with the Lord in his word, we’re helped to go down the right path. There’s the wide way and there’s the narrow way. There’s the way with the world or there’s the way with the Lord.
When we sit with the Lord in his word, he gives us guidance. Have you ever noticed that when you sit with God in his word, how he convicts you? The Holy Spirit convicts you of—no, that doesn’t need to be in my life. I need to have this in my life because this is more in line with the word of God.
When we don’t have the word of God, when we’re not meditating on the word, when we’re not sitting in the word of God, we’re going to get weaker. Amen. And we’re going to start—it’s going to be a little easier to stray and to go away from God.
Help to Walk in Obedience
The other thing I think about is this. When we sit with the Lord in the word, we’re helped to walk down the right path. We’re helped to walk in obedience to the Lord.
See, it’s one thing to be guided. God’s word will guide us down the right path. But God’s word, when we sit in it and when we stay in it, it will also help us to walk down the right path. It’s not always easy to walk the way of the Lord, is it?
Anybody ever walk the way of the world? Anybody ever go down the wrong path? I think we all have. We have flesh, right? And the flesh—when we’re feeding the flesh and we’re not feeding the word of God and we’re not feeding the God inside of us, it’s easy to go towards the flesh. We also have an enemy who wants to tempt us to sin. The enemy wants us to stray from God. It’s real. We’re in a spiritual battle.
All the more we talked about the armor of God, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. We need to be in the word. When we’re in the word, when we’re sitting with the Lord in the word, we’re helped to know the right path, but we’re also helped to walk in obedience to the Lord.
When I think about walking in obedience to the Lord and getting help from the word of God to walk in obedience to the Lord, I think about Psalm 1: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night.”
That man of God that is described in Psalm 1, it says he meditates day and night on the law of the Lord. That word “meditates”—when I hear that, I think about sitting with the Lord in the word. When I think about meditating on the word, I think about other things are blocked out. And we’re reading the word and we’re pondering the word and we’re meditating on the word and we’re letting the word of God meditate and sit in and resonate in our hearts.
Anybody ever like to have a good steak, a good ribeye? Some people will marinate it, right? And you’ll let it sit there for an hour at room temperature or you’ll at least put salt and pepper on it, right? And you’ll let it sit at room temperature for a while. If you don’t, you’re not going to get as good of a steak. But if you let it sit there and marinate on that steak, you know, that steak tastes a little better.
With the word of God, all the more we should let it meditate on our hearts. The more we let it meditate on our hearts, the better. Yet when we sit with the Lord, when we rest with the Lord—like picture a sheep resting in green pastures—when we rest with the Lord, distraction-free in the word, it’s going to bless us and we’re going to be helped to walk down the right path and we’re going to be helped to walk in obedience to the Lord.
How Are You Doing?
How are you doing sitting with the Lord in his word?
If you were to rank yourself today, take a minute to think about that for yourself. Where would you rank yourself on a scale of one being the worst, ten being the best? Take a minute and think about this for yourself. Where would you mark yourself with how you’re doing resting with the Lord in his word?
Maybe you’re like never doing it and you’re at a one. Maybe you do it here and there, but you feel rushed and you don’t feel like you’re resting. You don’t feel like you’re meditating on the word. Maybe you say you’re at a three. Maybe you’re taking a good amount of time daily and you’re just sitting with the Lord. How are you doing sitting and resting with the Lord in his word?
And if you feel like you’re not doing it like you’d like to, I don’t mean this in a bad way. I just mean why not? What’s the reason? What’s holding you back? It might be busyness. It might be all kinds of other things. I don’t know what’s holding you back.
Because I want to say this much—and we can all have those times. I have those times. You have those times where we don’t rest like I want to do better than resting with the Lord in his word. As I’m preaching this, I’m like, I want to do better. I don’t want to have those days where I’m rushed and I’m rushing my time with the Lord in his word. I want to sit with the Lord a little longer in his word. Anybody else want to sit a little longer?
I think one thing I’m reminded of—I hope you’re reminded of—is how much it blesses us when we do. The one it helps is us. I mean, we’re going to be strengthened. We’re going to have more peace from God. God’s going to give our soul rest. We’re going to be helped. We’re going to be helped to walk down the right path. We’re going to be guided down the right path. But more than just guided, we’re going to be given strength to walk down the right path. Amen.
So maybe today you’re here and you’re struggling with resting with the Lord and you want to do better. I hope you remember—I remember, we remember—how much it blesses us when we do.
Practical Helps for Resting in the Word
But I also want to just kind of wrap up by saying this, because I believe someone that’s born again, someone that’s been saved and their life has been changed by Jesus—I believe that you want to grow closer to Jesus if you’re truly born again. But there might be something that’s holding you back and you’re struggling with.
How can we be helped to take more time to rest with the Lord in his word? I don’t have all the answers, but I thought about a few things that have helped me.
Find a Quiet Place
One thing I think of when I think about the green pastures and I think about the still waters—I think about how much it can help when we have a place. We have a quiet place. The still waters and the green pastures—I picture a peaceful, calm, quiet place.
I think it’ll help me and help you and help us if we want to rest more with the Lord in his word to find a peaceful place, to find a place where it’s quiet, to find a place where we can kind of block out some of the distractions that get our attention. Because the devil loves to just get us distracted from God. It’s so subtle, but the devil loves to get our attention on something else.
Have you ever had this happen where you’re taking time to try to get in the word of God and then you have your phone out there and you start getting a text about something or you get an email or you get a Facebook notification and you start to look at it? Have you ever had that? The enemy loves to just—okay, let me get you over here so you forget about that. Let me pull you to this side.
I think getting a place where it’s a peaceful, quiet place, where it’s your place—that’s where you go to be with God. Now, you can go other places. I’m not saying that, but it’ll help. It helps to have that place. I love sitting early in the mornings or in the evenings, you know, in a backyard where it’s quiet and it’s peaceful and there’s trees and plants and birds chirping. Find a place.
Carve Out a Time
I think another thing that can help us is find a time. Do you have a time daily where you sit with the Lord and you rest with the Lord? Do you have a time that you’ve carved it out and you’ve said, “Every day, this is going to be my time with God. There might be other times, but I’m going to make sure I give God this time.”
It’s kind of like you think about tithing. Sometimes someone will say, “Well, I don’t have any money left to tithe.” But that’s because we didn’t give it to God first. But when we prioritize it and give God the tithe first, we have the money because it’s there. We give that to God before anything else.
We schedule all kinds of things, right? I mean, Crystal and I just scheduled a vacation. Anybody else ever schedule a vacation? But we schedule this, we schedule that. We schedule all kinds of things. We block out time to do all kinds of things. We’ll block out time to go out to dinner and get real fat and eat, right? We’ll block out all kinds of times for things.
What about carving out time that you say, “This is the time every day I’m going to give to God”? If you don’t have that, that would be another thing that I think will help you if you want to be able to rest with the Lord more in his word.
Make a Plan
And one other thing I’d say is make a plan. Make a plan.
Have you ever had times when you try to get in the word and you try to open your Bible randomly and you just don’t feel like you got anything out of it? You just kind of open the Bible and you didn’t really know where to go. Have a plan. And it’s okay—I mean, it’s okay to open the Bible randomly. God can use that for sure. But I found for me at least, it helps me to kind of know, kind of have a plan and know where I’m going. So I’m not waking up and I’m not trying to figure it out when I’m just waking up.
You know, we’ve been reading through the Bible. Some of y’all have. And we’re going to be in First Timothy this Wednesday. So come out Wednesday. Let’s break and read the word before that. I think 1 Timothy is five or six chapters and then we’ll talk about 1 Timothy.
Well, one thing I love about reading through the Bible with y’all is every morning, you know, I’m not getting a sermon ready. Every morning I’m reading through that book in the Bible. You know what I mean? I love having a plan of having a book in the Bible to read through. And you know, maybe I got a handful of chapters done the day before, so the next day I’m starting on the next chapter. You know what I mean? So I do believe that will help you.
A Personal Word
Is there anybody here today that wants to do better at resting with the Lord in his word? I hope we all do. No matter where we’re at, I hope we all do. And I hope if that’s you, I hope something today—if it’s just encouragement to get you to do that, if it’s just because of all God’s done for you, maybe it’s to think about this idea of having a time or a place or a plan—I hope you’re encouraged.
Bottom line, I hope you’re encouraged to want to get in the word more and rest with the Lord more in his word. When we do, it’ll bless us. It will bless us.
And when we are in the word, pouring into the word of God, God starts to transform us. God’s word is what saves. Amen. Faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the word of God. God’s word is what God uses to call us.
You know, when I got in the word, you know what God did? He called me to preach. When you get in the word, God is going to start. He’s going to strengthen you. He’s going to guide you. He’s going to give you peace. He’s going to help you walk down the right path. He’s going to help you walk in obedience. And God will use it to mold you and to shape you. And God will even use it sometimes to put on your heart what it is you would do for him, what he’s calling you to for the season of life that you’re in.
A Closing Commitment
I just want to close by just saying, would you commit to God today to resting more with the Lord in his word?
Would you be willing today to say to God, “You know what? I know you call us to meditate on your word. And I know it’ll bless me to dig into your word. Lord, I want to commit to you today to slowing down more with you, to sitting more with you, to resting more with you in the word of God.”
If you make that commitment and you follow through on that commitment, I have 100% confidence—this is my opinion—it’ll bless you.
Closing Prayer
Let’s pray.
God, we love you and I just thank you and I praise you for this day. I thank you and I praise you for your many blessings. And Lord, I thank you for your word. Lord, we thank you that “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Thank you that you are our shepherd and when you’re shepherd of our life, we don’t have a need of all these other things. We’ve got you.
And God, thank you for your word and that reminder in your word today about the importance of resting in you, Lord, sitting with you, Lord, in the word of God. And God, I do pray you help me to do that better. And I pray you help us to do that better.
I know that as we get in the word and as we sit and rest with you more and more, you’re going to use it to bless us. You’re going to give us peace. You’re going to give us comfort. You’re going to give us rest. You’re going to help us and give us strength. You’re going to help us to walk down the right path and walk in obedience to you.
And God, I also know this. If there’s someone here that’s not saved, as they get in the word, you can call them to salvation. And God, I know as believers, you can use it to call us to whatever it is you have us to do for you.
Lord, we love you. We just thank you for this time that we’ve had in your word.
