“He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.” -Psalm 23:2
All follows from verse one. Because the Lord is our shepherd, we can expect green pastures and still waters. Commentators often spend too much time analyzing the details of Psalms like this, but doing so is like explaining a joke or dissecting a frog. When you’re finished, you may understand the fine details better, but the frog and the joke are both killed in the process. So it is with trying too hard to dissect the beauty of these metaphors.
Green pastures and still waters indicate abundance of rest, safety and nourishment. One notable feature, however, is the use of the verbs makes and leads. “Me” is the object of both, but the verb makes is supplied by the translators so that the passage makes sense in English. The Good Shepherd doesn’t drive his sheep. He leads them to the good pastures and the deep waters.
See how the Lord leads Israel out of slavery and into the land flowing with milk and honey.
“So they set out from the mount of the Lord three days’ journey. And the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them three days’ journey, to seek out a resting place for them.” -Numbers 10:33
And how Jesus leads his own.
“When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”” -John 10:4–5