“The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honour to his name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.”
Psalm 23:1-4 NLT
With our picture building of “green meadows”, “peaceful streams” and times of “rest” it is inevitable, or so we think, that our strength would be renewed. After a hard day’s work, a good meal and an evening on the sofa followed by a good night’s sleep, we will be equipped for the next day with all the strength we need. But that’s the physical strength that is necessary for our work-a-day lives. When we consider our spiritual strength we are in a different league, one that needs a different approach, and one that cannot be achieved without God.
Consider the spiritual “green meadows” and “peaceful streams”. They are places where we can satisfy our spiritual hunger and thirst, but finding them is impossible for those who don’t believe in Jesus. We have said before that counterfeit solutions are sought after, in the hope that a worldly solution exists to renew an unbeliever’s spiritual needs (they definitely have them, by the way). Just because someone says he or she doesn’t believe in God doesn’t remove the need to find a remedy to the internal craving in their souls. Just yesterday, I shared the Gospel with a neighbour who subsequently became quite agitated and defensive. I suspect that I wasn’t the first to talk about God in his presence but he explained that he wasn’t “religious” and that he tried to be a good and kind person, worthy of respect. Of course he was, but that won’t feed and satisfy his soul. I pray for another opportunity to introduce him to God, the only One who can satisfy his spirit’s needs.
We pilgrims know where we can find the “green meadows” and “peaceful streams”. We find a quiet place somewhere and open God’s Word if we can, or remember a particular verse if we don’t have our Bibles with us. It could be a park bench, or a corner of our bedrooms. Our office desk or on a walk somewhere. I can remember the rich times I spent with God feeding my spirit as I walked around the Union Canal in Edinburgh during my lunch breaks. I was going through a stressful time at work and I needed to “renew my strength” before facing the second half of the day. It was truly amazing how God spoke to me and encouraged me through God-incidents and encounters on those walks. I am eternally grateful.
Isaiah wrote, “Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding” (Isaiah 40:28). We worship a God who is limitless, who has all the resources we need, and who is always looking for an opportunity to bless His people. But we have to put ourselves into a receiving mode. For most of our waking hours we are filling our lives with noise, not just of the audible variety, but also with our busyness, with our activities and distractions. Hence the need to find a quiet place, where we can get away from all our worldly cares and anxieties. Isaiah knew the limitlessness of God. He knew about God’s constant presence and he went on to write, “He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:29-31). What an amazing picture of God’s bountiful provision. It doesn’t matter if we feel “weak” and “powerless” because God has, and is, all the strength that we need. It’s not a physical thing, with muscles strong and functioning. It is all about our spiritual resilience in a world that despises anything to do with God.
Yesterday I had a walk in a local park, where the weekly “Parkrun” was taking place. Runners displaying a cacophony of colours, with different forms of attire. Lycra very much in evidence. People of all ages and shapes pounding their ways around a circuit marked out with different coloured cones. I was amused to even see a man with a toddler in a running buggy (one with extra large wheels) puffing and panting, pushing his way around the course. What the toddler thought I don’t know. The runners’ dedication to their event was commendable. They would have eventually returned home, full of self-satisfaction no doubt, but the hunger and thirst in their souls would have still been there. I remarked to one of the stewards that physical exercise was good, but all these sweating bodies would one day lie “mouldering in the grave”, their souls that will live forever sorely neglected.
We pilgrims “trust in the Lord” don’t we? David did and he wrote this wonderful Psalm from his own experiences. Pastures and streams for his body and his soul. He knew them all. He fed his soul in places of rest, as he worshiped and meditated in God. There he renewed his strength, just as Isaiah wrote. And so can we pilgrims. If we find that we don’t have time in the morning to spend it with God, then we must get up a bit earlier. But find the time we must, because our spirits are refreshed and our “strength renewed” only when we sit in God’s presence.
Dear Lord Jesus. Only You are the Way to Heaven. Only You have the word of eternal life. Only You can refresh our souls. Thanks You. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 