Compulsion or Permission
He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, Psalm 23:2 NIV
Make me – You probably learned this psalm with the traditional rendering like the NIV. “He makes me . . .” has the sense that I am caused to lie down in safe and secure sustenance. Green pastures in a desert topography are as welcome as they are rare. But what are we to make of the verb rābaṣ (to lie down)? The NASB has a very different nuance with the translation:
He lets me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.
Is it compulsion (NIV) or permission (NASB)? Is God the one who creates your safe haven or does He simply allow you to make it yourself?
The grammar provides some hint. The verb here is a Hif’il, imperfect. Right away we know that this isn’t a complete, one-time action. Whatever it means, it’s continuous. The Hif’il form tells us that it’s causative. The subject acts upon the object. “Makes me lie down” captures the force of it. “Let’s me lie down” doesn’t. It’s what we’ve always hoped for. God makes it happen. All we have to do is follow along.
But that isn’t the end of the story. You see, the poem is about the role of the shepherd, and while the shepherd may bring sheep to green pastures, he cannot force them to eat. That they must do for themselves. God provides the opportunity. The sheep must take advantage of it.
Jonathan Sacks adds an important insight to this “cooperative” venture:
“The ‘anger’ of God, so often expressed in the Hebrew Bible, is actually not anger but anguish: the anguish of a parent who sees a child do wrong but knows that he or she may not intervene if the child is ever to grow, to learn, to mature, to change, to become responsible.”[1]
If we think of the characteristics of the shepherd as a parent, then we may realize that God isn’t interested in making you do anything at all. He’s interested in giving you choices. Sometimes, the more the better. All those different pathways. So many options. And now He watches to see if you will apply the education you received as a lamb and follow the right path. But He isn’t going to use a prod. If He did the parable of the “lost sheep” would make no sense at all. You and I have been given the permission to choose—even if that means wandering out of the green pastures.
Sacks is absolutely correct. God doesn’t often get angry, but He often feels anguish. How many times His children, so precious, so important, wander away from the green pastures He so carefully constructed. How many times He must weep over us, wondering what happened?
Topical Index: rābaṣ, lie down, compulsion, permission, anger, anguish, Psalm 23:2
[1] Jonathan Sacks Covenant & Conversation: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible: Exodus: The Book of Redemption (Maggid, 2010), p. 122.
