Why green pastures matter in Psalm 23
Will the real green pastures of Psalm 23 please come forth?
No sooner had I prepared the Welcome page for this website than I discovered the picture I chose may be suspect. The bucolic scene of rolling, green hills reminds me of those we saw in eastern New York on trips to the horse ranch and likely is somewhere in the United States. I admit they are not the hills of Israel.
Nor are they the type of pastures where David grazed his sheep, according to some who illustrate their commentary on the 23rd Psalm with pictures of rocky, barren expanses where anything green is sparse. Any blades of grass are nibletts for the sheep—certainly not a cushion where the shepherd could make the flock lie down.
Lush fields or sprigs on rocky heights, which are the pastures of Psalm 23?
The question sent me searching and here’s what I come up with: Both can teach us something about the Lord our Shepherd, but I still favor the more luxuriant green. Let me explain why.
The words say green
Bible translators used the words “green pastures” to convey in English what David expressed in Hebrew, so I started with the English. Green suggests something fresh and vibrant, a plant that is alive. I have lived through drought, when grass withers and fades from yellow to brown and its softness evaporates; the grass becomes brittle.
Pastures depict fields or meadows, maybe even a range as in our Midwest—an expanse sufficient to satisfy a flock. And there isn’t just one pasture, but many, which speaks of ongoing provision.
The translation and my website picture seem to jibe. But does our English convey the original language accurately? Next, I checked the Hebrew.
Bible dictionaries define the Hebrew that David used for green as a sprout, meaning new, tender grass. And pasture in the Hebrew primarily means a home (often translated habitation). It conveys a place that is pleasant, suitable, even beautiful—where you feel at home. One commentator builds on this, saying the word suggests a homestead in an oasis-like spot of an otherwise barren tract. Understandably, the word came to be a figure for pastures.
From this, it seems our English translation is true to the Hebrew and I can see why readers of Psalm 23—myself included—envision pastures like those in my picture. Many commentators think David had in mind
- “the most complete picture of happiness” (Charles Ellicott)
- “a flock in young and luxuriant grass, surrounded by abundance” (Albert Barnes)
- “sufficient pasture, and the best” (Biblical Illustrator)
- “He leads me not into pastures that are withered and dry” (Sir Richard Baker)
The pictures show sparse
Regardless, some teach the geography doesn’t match the words. M. G. Pearse wrote in an 1884 issue of The Sunday Magazine that “We must banish from our minds the green fields of our country, enclosed with hedges or stone walls. In the East, the barren uplands are all open and unfenced.”
Recent Bible bloggers uphold Pearse’s point and publish pictures of rugged, rocky hills where scant grass survives on dew. Two of their observations caught my attention.
First, they refer to pastures around Jerusalem, but David was a shepherd in outlying Bethlehem, where the fields are more fertile, according to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.
Then, another wrote, “God does not lead us into the rolling fields where we could never want for more; He leads us into the desert and provides enough in our moments of need” (emphasis mine). Certainly God may lead us into a desert—He led Israel and Moses through the wilderness as did the Spirit with Jesus—but nothing in the words or the context of Psalm 23 suggests David has a desert in mind.
Faith favors the words
So, can we reconcile this?
Let’s concede for a moment that geography trumps translation. Banish from our minds the fertile Northeast hills or Midwest ranges of America; what does David want us to know as he scans barren crags in Israel and meditates on the Lord, his shepherd? Lessons from these observers include:
- God supplies our daily need. Some days the blades of grass are many, some days few, but they are always enough. (This suggests sufficiency, not necessarily satisfaction.)
- God leads carefully and faithfully. The shepherd knows the paths and places to find the spotty food. Jesus elaborates, saying the Good Shepherd calls His sheep, leads them out, and goes before them (John 10:3-4).
- Dry, rocky ground can grow faith. Grass may not abound, but faith can blossom as the sheep rely on the shepherd for food and protection.
These are truths that other scriptures attest to, but is this what David is saying? The words of scripture matter because faith comes by hearing, not by seeing. Therefore, the words that David used to describe green pastures, are important. He may be expressing something is not before his eyes, and this is what I hear.
- God keeps His word. God had promised to lead Israel from Egypt into “a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey.” But a wilderness—not at all friendly to shepherds, such as the Israelites—intervened. Here, indeed, was sparse grazing and, as Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible says, “the people naturally turned their eyes to more promising pasture lands.” God sustained them in the wilderness, but this was not the “good land” He had promised. David is in The Good Land, beholding the pastures God had promised.
- God satisfies. Sparse sprigs of grass may sustain the sheep, but the scene David describes is more than sheep getting by on clumps of grass. He says they lie down in green pastures and “hungry sheep will not lie down,” writes F. B. Meyer. Weary sheep wander; when satisfied, they rest.
This reminds me of Jesus, who said “Come unto me, and I will give you rest.” When He fed the 4,000, He knew their hunger and weariness and He refused to dismiss them, “lest they faint in the way” (Matthew 15:32). As with the 5,000 He fed, the people ate and were filled, or satisfied.
Psalm 23 tells us the Lord our Shepherd satisfies.
I like how Sir Richard Baker summarizes it: “The goodness is in being green pastures, for now they perform as much as they promise; and as in being green they were a comfort to me as soon as I saw them, so in being green pastures they are a refreshing to me now as soon as I taste them.”
Conclusion: Be content with either
For all this, I think the words and context of Psalm 23 favor grassy pastures—probably not the luxuriant hills we imagine, but more satisfying than barren slopes. We can’t discount the pictures, though, so keeping these and David’s words in mind, I conclude with two thoughts.
Be content, whatever the pasture. So advises a Puritan writer, Obadiah Sedgwick, whose comments in Biblical Illustrator, continue,”God is pleased to feed us sometimes in the valleys with much plenty, variety, ease, delight; and sometimes, again, He is pleased to drive us to the mountains, to a shorter, sharper condition of life; if we are His sheep, we must be still contented with His pasture.”
I think the Apostle Paul would agree wholeheartedly: “I rejoiced in the Lord greatly…for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content” (Philippians 4:10-11).
Jesus is the better shepherd. Tradition says David wrote this psalm during the period when King Saul pursued him. I can imagine David hiding, scanning the rugged terrain, remembering his days as a shepherd when he had sustained his flock in these hills and contemplating how God was now preserving him. David had done the best he could with the pastures available, but the Lord his Shepherd leads him to green pastures that satisfy, where he can rest. In the words of the Jewish commentator, Rashi, “on the brink of death without food or drink, he was miraculously saved by G‑d, who nourished him with a taste of the World to Come.”
As the words of the psalm form, David anticipates what the New Testament writer will declare in Hebrews: Jesus is better than angels, better than Moses; He mediates a better covenant with better promises.
David would have us know the Lord is the better shepherd of better pastures.
The Son of David is Lord; Jesus is the best.
What do you think? When you read about the green pastures of Psalm 23, what comes to your mind? Your reply will be a delight and blessing.