God Gives Rest to God's Beloved
Make me lie down in green pastures for the sake of God’s good name…for God gives rest to God’s beloved, which, the last time I checked, is all of us.
Unless You, O Divine Creator, build the house, those who build it labor in vain.
O, my Beloved, You are our shepherd, we shall not want.
Unless You watch over the city, the watchers stay awake in vain.
You bring us to green pastures for rest and lead us beside still waters renewing our spirits.
It is vain to rise up early and go to bed late, consuming the bread of anxious toil…
You restore our souls.
You give sleep to Your beloved.
You lead us in paths of goodness to follow Love’s way.
Amen.
—A Liturgy for Rest from Psalm 127 + Psalm 23
(inspired by Nan C. Merrill’s Psalms for Praying and the NRSV)
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Dearly Beloveds,
My spiritual director recited the first verses of Psalm 127 to me this week as I mused about rest—needing more of it, finding it difficult to allow myself permission to take it, and so on.
Right here in scripture we have the antidote to every capitalist trope we’ve been told since we were born. Tropes like—the early bird gets the worm and cleanliness is next to Godliness and keep your nose to the grindstone—which are all sayings that promote “consuming the bread of anxious toil,” which, in turn, continue to feed a system dependent on our anxiety and lack of sleep to keep it running.
I obviously heard the non-scriptural sayings enough throughout my childhood that I still have them memorized today; however, I can’t remember ever hearing Psalm 127. If I did, it certainly didn’t stay with me. Imagine if we were taught from the beginning to prioritize rest, relaxation, and blessed, holy, precious sleep. Society, as we know it, would be unrecognizable.
People much wiser than me (Tricia Hersey, adrienne maree brown, Sonya Renee Taylor, for starters) write extensively about how our culture profits from our unrest, specifically from the forced labor of Black, Indigenous, and Latinx people, so I’m not gonna try to rehash their work here. Go read it for yourself. Wrestle with it. Question it. Try it out. I can speak from experience that their work is challenging and life-changing.
Here, in a place in which women and our stories are central to our spiritual lives, I highlight Psalm 127, along with Psalm 23, as an invitation for us to consider what we can shift in order to live more rested, loose, free lives.
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What small things could you do this week to make your schedule less tied to “the man?” What could you do to make it a little lighter? A tiny bit more loose? What could you do to make life a little less recognizable, a little less status quo?
Schedule an hour in the sun? Take a nap at least one day this week? Turn off your social media every night after 6? Make dinner instead of buying it? Resist the lie that your worth rests on how much you do? Check out books from the library? Read Psalm 127 and Psalm 23 every morning and evening as your daily prayer?
After all, we’re given the gift right here in our sacred scripture—God gives sleep to God’s beloved. God renews our spirits. God wants us to rest. We might need to question any spiritual leader or concept that preaches the contrary.
Sleep is a friend of spiritual life. Anxious toil is its enemy.
When Mary turned the world upside down with her prayer, inspired by Hannah’s prayer, which then, in turn, paved the way for Jesus to continue preaching the subversive message of love, she echoed Psalm 127 and Psalm 23.
In the reign of God, as Mary sings it, the mighty are not mighty, the rich are not rich; rather, the lowly are lifted up, the hungry are filled with good things, and mercy is shown to the merciful. The upside down, right side up way is not the way we’ve been told—to toil, to rise early, to go to bed late, to be weary and tired and edgy and exhausted all the time. No, the upside down, right side up way is the way of God, which is the way of rest, which is the way of peace, which is the way unfamiliar to most of us.
Look, the world is on fire, and, in some form or fashion, it’s always been on fire, which is to say the work to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly will always be with us. And, the burden of that work, because of inequity and injustice, falls more on certain bodies than it does on others.
Which is why the call to rest is never solely an individual one. Sure, the only one I can make lie down and sleep is me. And, because I’m connected to all other living, breathing things, when I lie down, my rest can help others do the same. When we allow ourselves rest, beloveds, we can create more authentic places of healing, more non anxious spaces of learning, and more abiding places of peace in our world.
Rest begets rest begets rest. Just like love begets love begets love.
The Divine Creator is the One who builds and watches and makes our beds and invites us to lie down. When we try to do any of it without Her, anxious toil is our food and exhaustion is our name.
So, try it with me, will you? Pray, ask, seek, “Make me lie down in green pastures for the sake of God’s good name…Lead me beside still waters, renewing my soul…for God gives rest to God’s beloved,” which, the last time I checked, is all of us.
Blessed rest. Big love.
Claire
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UPCOMING TEACHING + EVENTS
I get to teach at West End United Methodist Church here in Nashville in a few weeks! If you’re local and want to join, I’ll be there Wed, October 2, 6 to 7 p.m.
If you’re interested in learning more about women, our stories, and why they matter, let me know! I’d love to work with you!
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