Psalm 23:1-2, The Two Banquets, Part II of II

Posted on Thursday, February 5, 2015 in Bible Commentary | 0 comments

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

//A sheep won’t drink from running water. The shepherd knows that if he brings the sheep to running water, he must then build an inlet where the water will pool. There, the sheep will cluster.

I bet you’re wondering what this has to do with yesterday’s topic, where I compared King Herod’s banquet in the palace to King Jesus’s banquet in the desert. Well, it turns out this “desert” was next to the water. Jesus went there by boat and left by boat, and he led the multitude there beside the still water.

There, Jesus taught, and spread his banquet of loaves and fishes. But not before this instruction to the disciples:

And he commanded them to make all sit down [anaklinō] by companies upon the green grass. –Mark 6:39

However, the Greek word anaklinō doesn’t mean sit; it means recline. Jesus commands them to lie down in the green grass. Is this beginning to sound like the twenty-third Psalm? If you haven’t made the connection yet, note this verse at the beginning of the story:

And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd. –Mark 6:34

Is it coincidence that Jesus sees the people as sheep without a shepherd, so he leads them beside the still waters, and makes them lie down in the green pastures? I think not.