Psalm 23 is divided into two balanced stanzas, each having four couplets with a triplet in between serving as a transition (4d-f). A couplet is one line of Hebrew poetry. BDBD is looking at one couplet a day. Today’s couplet reads, “He leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.”
Although David, the author never refers to himself as a sheep, he implies it by calling the Lord his shepherd. Sheep are not known for a sharp-wit. They react to their environment with dull impulse reactions, never considering the wisest response before they act. Thus, a fear impulse will drive them away from a babbling brook even though they are thirsty. They do not even know they are thirsty.
A good shepherd knows this about the sheep under his care. Therefore, he leads his sheep beside quiet waters so they will have a sip of cool refreshing water. David learned this as a shepherd boy.
While meditating on his pasture days and his adult life he was shown that his adult impulses are like the sheep of his youth. Even though he is thirsty for the Lord, especially when life circumstances push him to a dull impulse reaction he does not go to the Lord for a drink of the Spirit. Instead, he seeks to either run away from life or try to solve the problem himself. He is just like a sheep and his Lord is like a shepherd. David realizes that the Lord leads him to quiet waters, not babbling brooks. The Lord restores his soul.
John, the author of Revelation wrote concerning Jesus, “For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:17) During the Feast of Tabernacles when they pour a lot of water onto the temple mount to purify it, Jesus prophecies a shepherd’s declarations. “On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.” (John 7:37-39)
I thank Jesus who is my shepherd.
