05/20/2026
Chillin’ Out
Psalm 23:2
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures …
The Lord refers to His people as sheep. Sheep are a different kind of creature than any other animal on earth. Other animals can be trained and trained well, but not sheep. You can train dogs or cats to jump through hoops and leap; you can train snakes; you can train elephants and lions; but it is difficult to train a sheep. As a matter of fact, you can take your dog or cat on a trip and let him out a hundred miles away; if you have stopped a few times and let him out, he can make his way home. But you can get a sheep and he will wander in the back yard and won’t have enough sense to come back to the front. The sheep is a dumb creature. And yet the Bible calls us sheep. Ye are my people, the sheep of my pasture.
God makes us, as sheep, to lie down. A sheep will not lie down if it is frightened. Fear is a terrible emotion. Fear keeps us from resting. Many of us have a lot of fear in the back of our minds. Old folk are afraid that time is running out; young people are afraid that too much is confronting them while they are young without having life experience to handle those things. Some people won’t go to the doctor for fear he will detect something and they don’t want to know about it. Sick folk are afraid there is not a medicine to heal them of their disease. Married folk are afraid they may find out their spouse is unfaithful. Single people are afraid they may not get a spouse. Parents are afraid the child might mess up. Children are afraid that parents may not understand them when they do mess up.
So fear is in the minds of a whole lot of people, but the Lord wants you to know that he knows how to handle your fears. The green pastures spoken of here refer to safe areas with little huts for the shepherds and pens and food for the sheep. God takes your fears away and makes you cozy and comfortable in a beautiful green pasture.