He leads me beside still waters (Psalm 23:2)

We observed last time that when the Shepherd took his flock to green pastures he caused its members to lie down and rest. The imagery in the next line continues the focus on rest – ‘still waters’ can be translated as ‘waters of rest’. Yet we can see that there is a change in what the sheep are doing in that they are no longer lying down; instead they are following the Shepherd to the still waters where they can drink.

Right away we can see from this description that the provision of refreshment for the sheep is the responsibility of the Shepherd. The appreciation of this reality should be of great comfort to his sheep because they know what kind of shepherd he is. If he was indifferent to them, then they would have no reason for comfort and for having a sense of anticipation or of security. But since they know what he is like, they have every reason for expecting him to provide spiritual refreshment in calm locations for them.

The love of the Shepherd

There are many comments that can be made about the competence of this Shepherd, such as his faithfulness, his wisdom, his power and his presence. Indeed, his competence is another way of referring to the divine attributes of Jesus as well as to his ability to draw near to each of them by the Holy Spirit. Yet there is one feature that includes all of the attributes and that is his love (of course, each of his attributes affect all the others). The love of the good Shepherd is always faithful love, wise love, strong love and attentive love. What can we say about the love of the Shepherd for the sheep?

One detail that is obvious about the love of Jesus for his sheep was shown in his willingness to pay the punishment that they should have paid for their sins. The reason why they can now enjoy the calm of the still waters is that he removed from them the experience of the storm of God’s wrath. And he removed the fierce storm of divine wrath by enduring it himself. Before the Shepherd could take them to the still waters he had to pay the penalty for their sins. Of course, as far as David was concerned, the time of bearing the wrath due to him was in the future, and he was blessed before it happened because the God of heaven knew that his Son would yet pay that penalty on behalf of David. But the sheep of Jesus today can say to themselves, ‘I know that he will bring me to the calm waters because he showed his love for me when he suffered in my place when on the cross.’

A second reason why they can have confidence in the love of the Shepherd is that they can look back to the beginning of their Christian lives and each can recall where they were found by the searching Shepherd. For some of them, the Shepherd had to travel a long time until he could bring salvation into the experience of those sheep. Each of us who are now among his sheep can think of where we were when he found us. At that precious moment of rescue, we did not see any annoyance on his face about the troubles we had caused. Instead, all the sheep can sense at that moment was the joy of the Shepherd who has found his lost sheep. Often we focus on what it was like for us to meet the Shepherd and we fail to think about what it was like for the Shepherd to meet us. Although he had known that we would yet become members of his flock, until that moment we had been outside the pastoral care and provision of the Shepherd. He had looked forward to the moment when the relationship would begin. And since he has so much delight in commencing it, we can deduce that he would be very unlikely to discontinue the relationship. So therefore we can assume that the One who searched for us when we were lost will provide for us as we follow him beside the still waters.

The causes of thirst

The psalmist, as we know, is here describing what Jesus does for someone who trusts in him. We saw when looking at the previous sentence that David is describing ongoing features of the spiritual life as can be observed from the tenses of the verbs that he uses. He also uses a variety of word pictures to help us appreciate the range of the activities of the Saviour. The examples that David mentions are not the only things that may be happening to the believer at that moment. Even the fact that the believer has to be led continually to the waters of rest indicates that there are repeated causes of spiritual thirst liable to occur, perhaps even together.

So it could be helpful to remind ourselves of some likely causes of spiritual thirst, of things that can make our souls dry. One obvious one is the presence of indwelling sin that can make its presence known in numerous different ways. Whatever the differences between particular types of sin, they all have the effect of making our spiritual lives arid. So called little sins can do this as easily as more prominent sins. We feel like Paul when he cried, ‘Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?’ Of course, Paul knew the answer to his question – the care of the Shepherd, so he stated, ‘Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!’ (Rom. 7:24-25). Paul had been taken by the Shepherd alongside the still waters.

Another cause of spiritual thirst is absence from the visible means of grace connected to the public worship of God. David complains of this experience in Psalm 63 when he says to the Lord, ‘O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water’ (Ps. 63:1). Yet although David could not go to Jerusalem at that moment, he knew that the God he met often in Jerusalem could come to where he currently was, so he says: ‘My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night’ (Ps. 63:5-6). David had been taken by his Shepherd alongside the still waters.

A third cause of spiritual thirst is disappointments in life, of which there are many different possibilities that can happen. Job reminds us that this is the case as he found his troubles taking their toil on him and sapping his spiritual energy. Yet he found himself receiving strength from a hidden source, a strength that caused him to argue with great power that God had not forsaken him, and how that even in the darkness of the present he received great comfort from the promise of the future when his Redeemer would yet stand on the earth and deliver Job from the state of death (Job 19:26). Somehow in that thirsty moment, Job received a drink from the still waters and calmed his soul.

Then there is the effect of temptations on our hearts. We may find ourselves seemingly watered with grace, and then an idea goes through our minds, an idea that we do not like, and right away we feel its draining effects. When that happens, we may fear that we will succumb. Yet at that moment a passage of scripture or a promise comes to mind and the temptation starts to weaken and we are revived.

But what happens when we fall? That is a very thirsty state to be in, to lose desire for the sweet refreshments of grace. Of course, there has to be repentance, but why do we repent? Why did Peter repent and Judas not repent at the time Jesus was arrested? Because Jesus had prayed for Peter. Why do we find ourselves wanting to repent after we have sinned? Because Jesus is on our case, working to make our souls suitable for his still waters.

The calm waters of Jesus

Of course, the reference to still waters are an illustration of what Jesus can do for his spiritually thirsty believers. As we think about them, we can note some details. First, Jesus knows the kind of refreshment that each of his sheep needs and he can provide appropriately for each. Second, Jesus provides the refreshment personally – we know that he does so by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, but he does it as the agent of Jesus, as the other Comforter that Jesus had promised he would send to help his disciples after he had returned to heaven.

In addition to his presence, the usual way by which Jesus provides spiritual refreshment is by his promises. The illustration of being brought to still waters suggests that the way to absorb the benefits of the promises is by taking a long drink concerning whichever one is brought to our minds. It seems that healthy sheep like to drink a lot of water. In a way, sheep drinking at the still waters is similar to sheep chewing the cud as they lie down in the green pastures – both actions illustrate meditation.

So how would be meditate on the promises of God? We can look at some examples. Take the presence of sin in our lives. One promise is that when we ‘confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’ (1 John 1:9). Confess basically means to ‘say the same thing about our sins as God says’, which means that we regard them as unclean and repugnant. Then we could observe that the attributes of God mentioned are not his mercy and kindness but his faithfulness and his justice. When I was a child, I would say sorry to my father and he would forgive me. But he did not forgive me out of justice because in reality no one had paid the penalty for my childish wrongdoing. In contrast, God the Father forgives me because it is line with his justice for him to do so. He can be merciful to me because Jesus paid the penalty for me. So when I realise that is the case, I can take my sins to him separately and say about each of them. ‘I am being forgiven because Jesus paid the penalty and God does not ignore his justice when he forgives me.’ And then we see that the promise says that God cleanses me from the defiling effects of sin when he forgives me. So we are to drink all that in.

Or what about the disappointments and trials of life? We are all familiar with the wonderful promise found in Romans 8:28: ‘And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good.’ Who are the ‘we’? All believers, which means that this applies to all of them. Believers are described as those ‘who love God’? So we ask ourselves if we love him, and we find that we do. Then there is the ‘all things’, which means everything. And Paul uses the present tense when he says that they ‘work’, and that they work together. Events that we imagine have no connection are somehow being used by God to produce something amazing, which he describes as ‘good’. By ‘good’, he means eternal good because it will be experienced by every Christian, even those not already born. So something hard happens to us. We ask God for grace to accept it and he sends the grace. Someone watching us sees our response and wonders, ‘What makes that person respond in this way?’ Eventually that individual believes the gospel, and we may not find out until the end of the story that she had believed. And what if we also find out then that she became the grandmother of the next John Wesley whom God used to turn our nation back to God after we have gone from this world.

What about temptations that we find so hard to endure? Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that ‘No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.’ That verse says that with God’s help we can endure temptation without succumbing, and that he will never allow us to be tempted above what we can endure, which is a reminder that when we fall it is our own fault. It also tells us that God always provides a way of escape, which we have to look for and use. The escape may be to run like Joseph did from Potiphar’s wife, or to pray as Nehemiah did when the Persian emperor asked him why he was sad.

These and many more are the still waters which Jesus provides in order for us not to be spiritually dry. How many promises are there in the Bible? They are all there to be utilised for the benefits of our souls. So let us drink as much as we can from the Saviour’s provision.

How are we to drink them? Here are four suggestions. First, we should drink slowly. The various promises mentioned above as well as many others in the Bible should be contemplated on word after word and digested into our thinking. If we rush, we will miss much of the blessing.

Second, we should drink each promise separately, although there is nothing wrong with combining some. Still, as out physical bodies like different types of drink, so our souls like different promises at particular times.

Third, we should drink them steadily, that is often throughout our lives. How often do we come back to this psalm itself? Who can tell how often they have read it for comfort and help?

Fourth, we are to drink them spiritually, with an awareness that God is focussing on our sanctification and may not always give us what we imagine our earthly progress should have. The still waters are designed to make the sheep become in character like the Shepherd they are following.