Ray Pritchard - Green pastures, quiet waters : refreshing moments from the Psalms

GREEN

PASTURES, QUIET

WATERS

refreshing moments from the Psalms

RAY PRITCHARD

2011 by

Ray Pritchard

Dedicated with joy to my brother, Alan Pritchard

Surely you have granted him eternal bless ings and made him glad with the joy of your presence.

Ps alm 21:6

Special thanks to Greg T hornton, Jim Bell, Bill Thrasher, and Cheryl Dunlop ofMoody Press for many acts of kindness in the writing of this third volume inthe trilogy of wisdom books for busy readers. Greg, in particular, hasencouraged me in my writing career from the very begi nning.Special thanks also to Kathy Duggins and Mia Gale for freeing up my time so Icould write. And I continue to be indebted to my wife, Marlene, for her faith,love, and hope, in precisely that order.

It is no secret that the book o f Psalms is perhaps the most universally beloved book inthe Bible. Across the centuries, stretching back thousands of years, people offaith have turned to these ancient hymns for hope, en couragement,direction, and inspiration. The green pas tures and q uiet waters of the Twenty-third Psalm are familiar toChristians and unbelievers alike. Few have been disappointed in this book ofScripture, because the Psalms look at every part of the soul. Whether you arehappy or sad, defeated or triumphant, seeking w isdomor simply needing a way to pour out your soul to God, there is something herefor you.

Many years ago Iheard Armin Gesswein, a mission ary and leader of theprayer movement, say he liked to take "a morning dip in the Psalms."The image of a man swim ming in the cool waters hasstayed in my mind as a way to understand why this part of the Bible remains sopopular. Leviticus is the Word of God too, and so is Nahum, and 2 Peter forthat matter, but I don't know anyone who habitually reads those books eve ry morning. But many Christians read the Psalms every day.Some read five a day so that they can finish the book in a month and thus readit through twelve times a year.

So some peopleread the book dozens of times and a few people read it hundreds of time s. Surely there must be something special about a book thatnever loses its hold over people. It speaks to the human condition. When youread Psalm 23 for the fiftieth time, you find it just as refreshing as thefirst time you discovered that "The Lord is myshepherd; I shall not want" (KJV).

The book you areholding in your hand is not a com mentary on thePsalms. It's too short to be a commentary, and I'm not qualified to write one.Using Armin Gesswein's metaphor, here you have one hundred morning dips i n the Psalms. These are short readings (all of them aroundfive hundred words) arranged around ten general topics. My goal in writing thisbook is to take you into every part of the Psalter. Since there are 150 psalms,I can't cover all of them, or even ev ery verse ineach psalm that we will visit. This book is like a tour bus: We don't have timeto see everything, but together we'll visit some of the more intriguing sites,and I'll offer some commen tary on the passingscenery. I hope when we're done, you' ll come back andvisit the many nooks and crannies of Psalms left untouched.

I've included ashort prayer with each entry as a gen eral way ofguiding your response to God. You'll also find - three questions for furtherthoughtand possible use in a Bible class or a smallgroup discussion.

As we begin, let's remember that thebook of Psalms is first and foremost a hymnbook for the people of God. If weread it without responding in praise, prayer, wor ship,and confession, then we've missed the reason this b ookis in the Bible.

One final word:I hope you won't read this book straight through. It's meant to be picked upand read a little bit at a timean entry here, an entry there, perhaps two orthree entries at a time. If you feel like stopping to sing or to pray or to jot down some notes, by all means, put thisbook aside and spend some time with the Lord. If you want to skip around in thebook, that's fine too. My only goal is to lead you into Psalms in a new way andultimately to meet the One about whom ev ery psalmspeaks. If my words help move you in that direction, then our time togetherwill not have been in vain.

How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant andfitting to praise him!

Psalm 147:1

W orship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness; tremble be fore him, all the earth.

Psalm 96:9

My favorite definition of worship comesfrom William Temple, archbishop of Canterbury many years ago. "To worshipis to quicken th e conscience by the holiness of God,to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination with thebeauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to thepurpose of God." Worship is to be the central point of the Christi an life, and when we make it first, every thing else falls into place.

One fine springmorning in Texas I noticed that the sun was coming out, the grass was beginningto grow, and it was time to bring out the lawn mower. When it wouldn't start Ikept pulli ng until I finally broke the rope. Then Ichecked the spark plug and put it back in place. I put my fingers in the gaschamber and found dirty gas from the past fall. I checked a few otherconnections and found everything in working order. The blades were sharp and ready to gono problem there. I took it to a repair shop,where they said they would fix it. A few days later it was ready. They had hadto replace something in the engine. I asked what the matter was. They saidthere was no oil in the motor. For some reason it hadnever oc curred to me to put oil in a lawn mower.When the oil had run out, the motor wouldn't run anymore.

Behold thissimple truth: Worship is the oil of the spiritual life. When you start to runlow on worship, your life starts to br eak down. Ifyou feel a little broken down, it may not be because you are busy, but becauseyou have run low on worship. When you lift the worship of God back to itsproper place, your life will start working again.

Holy God,quicken my heart that I might worship You in spiritand in truth. Amen.

A MOMENT S REFLECTION

Are you "running low" onworship? What do you need to do about it? Take a moment to reread WilliamTemple's definition of worship. Which of those characteristics do you most needin your l ife right now?

Come, let us bow down in worship, let uskneel before the Lord our Maker.

Psalm 95:6

It has been said that we worship ourwork, we work at our play, and we play at our worship. In many ways t his explains the problem with contemporary Christiani ty. We worship something, but not the right thing. In allof life nothing is as important as learning how to wor ship.When we learn how to worship, whole new vistas open before our eyes. Until thathap pens, our days will be filled with mere religiousactivity. We will come to church on Sunday morning, we will give money, and wemay be very active, but we will miss the one thing for which we were created.