Psalms 23:2: “He makes me to lie down in green pastures.”

I went on a hike today through the words and pastures.  I was amazed at how everything was so green.  Of course we all learned in elementary school that the green plants through some chemical interaction with the atmosphere reduces the carbon dioxide in air, purifying the air.  The word for green in Hebrew is deshe which is also the word for grass, I assume because grass is green.

I am curious as to why the scripture says he leads me to green pastures and not just na’ah pastures. Na’ah has been used for a place of habitation, it is another word for a house and also a pleasant place. That should do it, he makes me lie down in a pleasant place.  Why does it have to be green. I suppose it is important to sheep that the pastures be green as that is what they eat.  As I was walking through the woods everything that was green was alive, you could almost feel life. If it were brown it was dead.

We are told certain colors sets a mood. That is why you find emphasis in certain colors in commercial places such as stores.  Red creates excitement.  If you want a costumer to feel relaxed you will create shades of blue. There are even experiments in using color therapy to treat depression and other emotional disorders. During the middle ages there was not much color, everything was sort of grey. The wealthy had color and the church, oh my, those colorful robes, stain glassed windows and icons, wow like any peasant stepping out of his black and white or grey world and seeing those priest in their bright colors and the pictures, surely that was heaven.  People did not get much color in the Middle East, everything was sandy color, grey rock color, and their clothes were grey, but the temple and the priest, wow, that would rock anyone’s soul with their display of color.  Perhaps that is why God is saying green pastures, this is a color he created and not man.

I suppose there are many reasons why the writer says green pastures. It is plentiful in food, it is relaxing, and it creates an atmosphere of peace.  For me as I walked through the woods and saw all the green I just had the feeling of life. There is not much more to say about green according to our lexicons and Bible dictionaries.

Yet, I am still unsettled, I just believe there is something more God wanted to teach me about green. So I decided to see if the word for green deshe has a built in commentary to give me a little more understanding as that seemed to be the purpose of my journey this afternoon.

The word is spelled Daleth which is a doorway or portal to the next letter which is a Shin for the passionate love of the last letter which is the Aleph God.  So for me personally, as God took me beside the green pastures He  used the color green to remind  me of his passionate love in his provision from the food we eat to the very air we breathe.

Interesting that he makes us lie down in the green pastures. He has to make us lie down. In spending this time of silence I am more aware than ever how we let the cares of this world dictate our lives. We are so busy, so active doing things for God that we never really sit back and enjoy God.

Sure we have a job to do and as much as I bask in this week of silence and the simple pleasure of being in the constant presence of God, I am aware that the week will end and I must return to my activities I am beginning to realize true retirement is not just quitting your job and living on social security, it is continuing to find the things that God wants you to do on this earth and once that is done you retire to your forever home.

I had a friend who was a bachelor and spent his whole life working for a Fortune 500 corporation in their IT department.  He help install their first main frame and traveled to locations around the world to service these mainframes.  It was a good job, an exciting job.  He saved practically every penny. He never purchased a new car or a new home.  He lived in a cheap one bedroom house all his life. At the age of 62 personal computers made main frame computers obsolete and he was forced into retirement.  Finally a chance to spend the money he had saved, only thing is there was nothing he wanted to spend it on.  He was alone, he had traveled the world been there done that.  I did not see him for almost a year after he retired.  When I did see him I could not believe it was the same person. He was a little bent over old man.  It was like he aged twenty years on in one year.  Later that year he died. No disease, no heart condition, no cancer, nothing, he just died. His body just shut down.

I believe what the green pastures have taught me is that I shall not be green, filled with life in my present state for too many years.  Just as the green around me will all be gone in a few months, so shall I when God calls me home, but until that time I have a mission, a job to fulfill and I will not leave this planet until it is fulfilled, once fulfilled, I can then retire forever. I will not retire from any job just to wait to die as my friend did.