Psalms 23:2,6:  “ He makes me lie down in green pastures…Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

Practically every English translation will translate that last phrase as I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Yet, this is not the standard Hebrew word for forever. We are automatically assuming that the house of the Lord is referring to heaven where we will live forever.  It was this verse that I was discussing with an orthodox rabbi who simply shook his head and said: “You Christians do not understand the heart of David.”

It was then I realized why the word le’orek rather than olam is used in this passage.  Both can mean forever, but le’orek simply means a length and is followed by yomim which means days. Thus it literally means a length of days. David really seems to be talking about the remaining days of his life on earth not in heaven.  We assume the house of the Lord means heaven and therefore David is speaking of the afterlife.  But Heaven does not exist in time, there are no yoms days in heaven. David is talking about the here and now.

Before this David says that goodness which is tov or harmony with God, and mercy will follow him all the days of his life. The word mercy is chasad. Jewish literature teaches that in a spiritual context this word chasad (mercy) pictures one being sheltered in the heart of God. The word follow is radapa which is used in a Piel form and means to be pursued, chased or sought after.  In other words God is chasing after us to be in harmony with Him and to shelter us in His heart. He is longing to share His heart with Him as a wife is longing to share her heart with her husband and he with her. We don’t have to beg and plead with Him to be sheltered in His heart, we just have to stop running away from Him in pursuit of our own ways and simply trust Him enough to share our hearts with Him.

Looking a little deeper into this word radapa (follow) we find it has a numerical value of 284. The phrase: for his mercies endure forever also has a numerical value of 284.   Ancient rabbis believed that these words, his mercies endure forever, opened a portal, as it did for Jehoshaphat when he went to war against the three kings.  In other words God is pursuing us with an open portal to His heart. Once we enter His heart we will find rest.

I believe hidden in Psalms 23, one of the most famous and favorite of all Psalms, is a key to opening a portal to God’s heart of rest. It is in verse 2: He makes me lie down in green pastures. A green pasture in Hebrew is dasha. The spelling of this word reveals a built in commentary, the word itself will tell us what these green pastures are. The word is spelled Daleth which is a portal to the Shin a resting place in the Aleph – God’s heart.  Note that David says that God makes or causes him to find a resting place in His heart.  God is the one who opens this portal.

When David says that surely goodness and mercy will chase after me all my days, he is admitting that he is running away from God.  What happens when we let the lovingkindness of God catch up with us?  He will lead us to green pastures or He will open a portal to his heart of rest.

Until the rabbi challenged me to understand the heart of David, I just assume that when David referenced the house of Jehovah, he meant the temple where the presence of God dwelled or heaven.  But the word house or byith in Hebrew which has a broad range of meanings and could also mean the heart as a dwelling place. To fit the poetic flow of this Psalm it would be appropriate to render this as: I will dwell in the heart of Jehovah for all my days.  To David, it was not enough to dwell in the presence of God, he wanted to dwell in the heart of God.

Dwelling in the heart of God and finding rest in the heart of God is really the message I found this morning when reading this passage.  When two people fall in love with each other, they will naturally share their hearts with each other.  They will open themselves up and reveal the very depths of their longings and desires with their beloved. We are made in God’s image and this does not mean physical features but emotional features. In other words we have a heart like God’s heart that longs to be shared with another person.  Yet, sharing your heart with someone is very risky business. It makes you vulnerable to that person, it gives them the power to deeply hurt and wound you.

Thus we only open our hearts to that person that we can trust. We are so designed to long to share our hearts with someone that people will actually pay someone to open up their hearts to.  They would pay a therapist or counselor knowing that that person is professional sworn and legally bound to not betray the secrets of the heart that the person will reveal. Yet, the greatest fulfillment of love is when you can trust someone who is not bound by profession or law to protect your hearts secrets but is bound by love to never reveal the secrets of your heart.

So too with God, we know we can share our hearts with God, he poses no threat to us, he is not going to go around blabbing to all the angels about the secrets of your heart.  But this works two ways. If someone shares their heart with you because they love you and you love that person in return you will make yourself just as vulnerable by sharing the secrets of your heart with them. This creates a deep bond between you and the one you love, you both have made yourself vulnerable and it is this vulnerability that deepens this bond and also brings you rest and peace with you are with that person. It is that bond that causes you to find comfort in that person and makes you long to be with that person. If you were to share your heart with another person that one that loved you enough to share their heart with you will be deeply wounded and feel betrayed.

If we can trust God enough to share our heart with Him, can He trust us enough to share His heart with us?  Can He trust us to not seek other gods for comfort and security. Can he trust us to open His heart to us, to share His longings, desires and pain with us.  Can He find rest in us?  For only when two hearts make themselves vulnerable to each other do they find that rest and security. Only when we share our hearts with God and He shares His heart with us do we lay down in those green pastures.