Settle Down and Feed on His Faithfulness
Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, and the justice of your cause, like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. (Psalm 37:3-7)
We’re wending our way through each invitation in this segment of an overall delightful Psalm of David. We started with “trust him and do good.” Now, he makes us lie down in green pastures––so to speak.
Dwell in the land:
The Hebrew verb is an invitation to do something more than simply live somewhere, but to “settle down.” He beckons us to more than just locate ourselves in a piece of geography. He wants us to settle down, to make our home in the land of his promises.
Have you noticed that we Americans always seem to be relocating from place to place, failing to put down roots anywhere? I for one, have lived in at least 30 or 40 different houses and apartments in my lifetime. The longest I’ve ever lived at one address is 8 years. I must’ve inherited my itchy feet from my dad, who before unpacking from the new place would comb the listings for the next new one.
Here, the Lord invites us to settle down, to quit wandering and make our home in him.
Throughout its 40 verses, this song refers to “the land” 7 times. Citizenship in the promised land was God’s gift to the Israelites who had been a nomadic and then exiled people, destined to be exiled again in the future. Here, the poet king told them to settle down in God’s country.
It’s one thing to possess land and another to settle in it, which leads to the next beautiful summons.
Enjoy safe pasture:
These heavenly words have given me limitless comfort over the years, especially during gnarly cancer chemo, and now again in this much less difficult, but still challenging season of my life nevertheless. The small and simple home of the elderly couple that took me in (where I stayed for 3 years while they nursed me back to health!) was “safe pasture” to me. My small cottage in the California redwoods is a safe pasture. But more than those homes, it’s the one who lives with me and I in him, that makes them safe pasture.
Having grown up in the fields with his father’s flocks, David routinely used images of sheep, shepherds, and pastural scenes in his poetry to convey the tender and intimate relationship between us and God. Jesus did too. “Fear not little flock… I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep… My sheep know my voice…” There are few things more assuring than safe pasture with our Great Shepherd.
Yet, a more accurate translation of the phrase “enjoy safe pasture” is “feed on his faithfulness.” As the sheep of his pasture, it’s there we’re safest, in green pastures feeding on his faithfulness. Though in the presence of our enemies at the table he’s prepared for us, we’re best nourished when we feed there on his faithfulness.
He makes us lay down in lush meadows, scopes out quiet pools for us to drink, lets us catch our breath, and sends us in the right direction––paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
[It just keeps getting better, for next we’ll talk about “delighting” ourselves in him and its predictable consequence.]
For now, may I ask how settled you are in him. Are you feeding on his faithfulness?
