Dec 10 - Psalm 23:2b

he leadeth me

beside the still waters.

Psalm 23:2b

 

I saw a scary video just the other day. Eighteen hunting lions were trying to pull down a baby elephant. (Don’t worry. The baby elephant won!)

 

But here’s the question: In what part of the wilderness were those lions hunting?

 

Answer: Near the watering hole.

 

Why? Because that’s the easiest spot for predators to hunt. Since every animal needs water, all that predators have to do is hang out by the water hole and a revolving buffet will pass by several times a day.

 

In a matter of fact, water is life. In ancient imagery, water is also chaos.

 

In another video I watched recently a gazelle almost got her head bitten off by a crocodile! A ten-foot long behemoth leapt from the chaos of the murking water. Fortunately, gazelles leap higher.

 

But think about the danger of water. In Biblical times, few people knew how to swim. Therefore, while water was life, water was also death. Storms would batter ships. Waves were absolutely terrifying. Therefore, what this petition suggests is that God doesn’t just protect us from predators (which was yesterday’s theme), but God protects us from a more profound chaos – a frightening, drowning, overwhelming force that threatens to suck us to our grave.

 

“Still waters” implies that God wants to rescue us from that fear and death. Indeed, our Shepherd wants to enable us “to take hold of the life that really is life” (1 Tim 6:19).

 

So … water is a literal need. And God helps us fulfill our needs.

 

Still water is an added benefit because God wants to give us a peaceful blessing.

 

But life – eternal life – is the real goal.

 

Therefore, as the lost and thirsty woman said to Jesus, "Sir, … where do you get that living water? Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life” (John 4:11-14).

 

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who wants to hunt

as passionately for living water

as lions hunt elephants and

crocodiles hunt gazelles