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The Lord is My Shepherd, He Restores Me
What was your best vacation like? Was it peaceful? Relaxing? Or was it extremely stressful? Today we focus on verse 2 of Psalm 23 as we focus on Jesus as our Good Shepherd. 🐑🐑🐑(Know someone who's feeling a little stressed out? Remind them of God's love for them, and/or invite them to church, so they too can feel refreshed and rejuvenated.)
Psalm 23:2-3
Have you ever thought to yourself I need a vacation from my vacation? There’s a lot of people that live by the motto work hard, play hard and so even when they’re on vacation it’s filled with stress as they feel like they need to go, go, go. See everything. Do everything. You know, I’ve been there, especially with a bunch of kids on vacation, all the sites that we’ve seen, and feeling we need to get our money’s worth, and it’s go, go, go. I’ve often commented to my wife I need a vacation from our vacation.
It’s not the way vacations supposed to be, right? It’s supposed to be relaxing, refreshing, rejuvenating. It’s the picture of what we see in Psalm 23 verse 2 that says this
He causes me to lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside quiet waters.
(Psalm 23:2)
That’s a perfect picture of vacation. A relaxing scene of reclining in green grass, all around, perfectly still water. There’s even more than that for a sheep. A sheep would consider that a feast, right? That grass as far as the eye can see, as much water as they can drink, everything they need and what does it say at the beginning of the very next verse?
He restores my soul.
(Psalm 23:3)
A vacation. Rejuvenation. God intends for his people to have these little breaks, to have vacation time, rest.
In the Old Testament he instructed them that they were to take one day a week off and to do no work on that day. To also spend that day in his word to be refreshed by it. He instructs us to do a similar thing even today. To make sure that we take a day off, a time especially in God’s Word, for what purpose? To be refreshed by it. Rejuvenated.
And how is this possible? Well, as we come to church, God brings to us again his word that reminds us of our sin, but also reminds us of our Savior, Jesus, who has forgiven our sins, who has wiped away our guilt, who has accomplished everything necessary for us. There is nothing more we need to do or be stressed out about. It’s all done in Christ. He feeds us also with himself and his sacrament. Through these things we are truly refreshed, restored.
So take a vacation, every week, and go to church. And be fed by God and His Word and there find true refreshment. Amen.
