God Gives Rest To the Weary

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. Psalm 23:1-2 ESV.

Are you weary? Overwhelmed? Do you fall into bed exhausted, then lay awake for hours because your mind won’t stop spinning? Or do you wake up feeling like you never slept at all?

Psalm 23 was the first scripture I read when God supplied a Bible a year before I needed it during my cancer journey. Recently, I experienced a short-term season of extreme fatigue because of illness. Fear and worry about my health threatened to envelop me until God reminded me to seek the soothing words of Psalm 23 again.

Rest is not just more sleep. In her book, Sacred Rest, Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith defines seven types of rest, including spiritual rest. She calls rest, “an opportunity to put back in order anything that has shifted out of alignment with God’s best.” ¹

She writes, “You are made up of a body, a mind, and a spirit. When any one of these three experience brokenness, it affects the function of the other areas. Spiritual rest is where the broken places mend. Rest holds up the fragments, naked and unashamed, before God. Rest acknowledges the disconnection and draws near. Your faith and relationship with God affect your ability to feel well rested.” ²

Whoa, stop right there and reread that last line. Our ability to rest depends on our faith and relationship with God. How do we receive God’s gift of rest?

God gives rest

King David writes, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters” (Psalm 23:1-2 ESV).

David knew what it was like to be a shepherd (1 Samuel 16:11). Sheep depend on the shepherd for everything. The shepherd guides the sheep, and provides food, water, and a safe place to rest. If they wander off, the shepherd pursues them and brings them back into the herd.

David also knew what it was like to need a Shepherd for provision, protection, salvation, and strength. We depend on God like the sheep depend on the shepherd. The shepherd knows when his sheep need rest.

In Psalm 23:2, the phrase “makes me lie down” comes from one Hebrew word, rabats, meaning stretch oneself out, lie down, lie stretched out, and usually refers to animals.

Animals don’t second guess the need to rest like we do. Even when I am “resting”, I feel guilty about ignoring my to-do list. Can you relate?

But God knows when I need rest, and He makes me rest, even if I deny it. The Hebrew word translated “still” in Psalm 23:2, menuchah, means resting place, or rest. So “still waters” means “waters of rest.” God leads us to waters of rest and restores our souls.

The meaning of rest

When God created the world, He rested when finished (Genesis 2:2). God designed a way for us to share in His rest, now and forever, through His Son Jesus.

First, God gives rest on earth through a relationship with Him. We are free from fear and enjoy peace. Trust God to supply what we need while we rest.

Second, God gives the gift of eternal rest when we believe in Jesus. We do not need to work for our salvation from sin because Jesus completed the work for us on the cross. We rest in the knowledge “it is finished” (John 19:30).

Jesus gives rest

Jesus is our Good Shepherd. He guides and we follow. We leave our old lives behind and entrust everything to Him. Just like Jesus said to the disciples, “Follow me,” we follow Jesus because He laid down His life for us, His sheep. (John 10:14)

Jesus promises rest for our souls if we come to Him and learn from Him. (Matthew 11:28-30). He is the bread of life and supplies living water that never runs out (John 6:35). And if we stray from the fold, He pursues us and finds us (Luke15:3-7).

Next Steps

Fortunately, my season of extreme fatigue ended, at least for now. But I know many of you are suffering from fatigue, stress, anxiety, and lack of good sleep. God knows it too.

Read Psalm 23 aloud and meditate on each word. Stop striving to do everything on your own. Surrender to Jesus and accept God’s gift of rest.

Download my free gift to you, a bookmark of Psalm 23. Keep it close as a reminder of how God gives rest. (If you print in Adobe Acrobat Reader, select Actual Size.)

I highly recommend checking out Dr. Dalton-Smith’s website to get started on your quest for rest. She offers many free resources, including a quiz to help you find out what type of rest you are missing.

References

1. Dalton-Smith, Saundra. Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity, Faith Words, 2019, pp. 29.
2. Dalton-Smith, Saundra. Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity, Faith Words, 2019, pp. 69.