The LORD is my shepherd,

I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside quiet waters.

He restores my soul;

–Psalm 23:1-3a

I’m not the best at following trends. I know very little about fashion trends. When everyone else loved white gold, I insisted on yellow gold for my wedding set. And when Razor cell phones and Ugg boots were all the rage in high school, I just couldn’t see why.

This weakness has had some negative impact on my social life over the years, but it’s not all bad. When we think about Christmas, trends abound. There are trends in the most popular toys. There’s always cool, new gifts for her and for him. There are even trends in the family sets of matching Christmas pajamas that come out every year. But these trends tend to center around material things that have a tendency to distract us from what’s really important as we approach the celebration of Jesus’s birth.

Last week, we looked at Psalm 8 and the call to adore Jesus as we move into the Christmas season. As we journey through the Psalms, we will continue to tailor our response to Christmas using God’s Word rather than the cheap, materialistic whims of our culture.

Psalm 8 left us meditating on who God is and adoring His magnificent and abundant goodness. Today, we’re going to take it a step further and let that same meditation and adoration lead us into rest.

Psalm 23 and Christmas: An Unexpected Connection

It’s not too hard to see how Psalm 23 relates to the Christmas season, even if we don’t normally turn to it when we read the Christmas story. When Jesus arrives on the scene, His birth directly points to His future role as both sacrificial lamb and our Good Shepherd. 

He was born in an area meant to house animals, laid in a manger in the exact same manner as the lambs destined to be sacrificed in the temple, and visited by the shepherds. Without a doubt, the way He’s laid in the manger points to His sacrificial role. But the presence of the shepherds points to His role as a Shepherd. 

Christmas Shepherds: The Biblical Meaning

Bethlehem was very close to a place called the Tower of the Flock. This was where shepherds raised lambs that would be used as sacrifices in the temple. Those lambs couldn’t have any blemishes, so the shepherds would wrap them in swaddling clothes and lay them in a manger to prevent injury. 

It’s likely that the shepherds who visited Jesus were from the Tower of the Flock. They would have been used to giving such tender care to their lambs. Their role reflects the same gentleness and kindness that we see from Jesus in Psalm 23. In the same way that these shepherds would individually swaddle newborn lambs and lay them in a manger, He is both gentle and personal as He cares for us.

Just like Psalm 8, Psalm 23 is a meditation on who God is to David. Throughout the entire psalm, David is considering and meditating on how God has cared for and provided for him. The difference between these two psalms is the response to the meditation. While meditation leads to adoration and celebration in Psalm 8, it leads to rest in Psalm 23.

Soul Restoration Verse by Verse

Every verse speaks of rest in one way or another. In verse one, David rests from the feeling of being in want. Verse two uses imagery that suggests peace and rest. Verse three speaks of restoration, which comes with rest.

The valley of the shadow of death in verse four seems the least likely to include rest, but we find it there, too. David’s knowledge of and focus on who God is gives him both comfort and rest from fear.

In verse five, God provides David a means of refreshment even though his enemies have him surrounded, which indicates that he gets to rest from those conflicts. And finally, in verse six, David sums it all up. Instead of pointing out one specific way in which God gives him rest, he reminds himself that he will never be separated from the goodness and lovingkindness that have given him so much peace and rest before.

Moving from Adoration to Rest in God This Christmas

This is our pattern to follow this week. Regardless of our situation, we can choose to remember who God is and rest in that truth. After all, what is more satisfying than those moments when, as children, we rejoiced and reveled in our play until we crawled exhausted into the lap of our father for a moment of rest?

We’ve already found joy and adoration in our meditation on who God is, so let’s take that second step this week. Let’s continue to remember the goodness, faithfulness, and power of our God, and in the process, let’s draw near to Him and find rest.