Comments for sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/post/random-thoughts-on-psalm-23

Comment #2493

2011-07-20T18:42:09Z

It could also be that the still water is a more reliable source, and the swiftly flowing creek more likely to be a wadi - and thus unpredictable and dangerous.

Comment #2492

2011-07-20T09:30:51Z

It also just occurred to me that in some places (including Florida), moving water can mean a predator (e.g. alligator) is near.

Comment #2491

2011-07-20T08:35:58Z

I think they're trying to drink, not swim, but I'm told sheep aren't so bright, so as Heather said, rough water could mean a drink-turned-deadly-swim. I like moving water, but I also find a calm lake beautiful, though I would define a few ripples as calm (or still) as well. We're so well protected from nature most of the time now that I think we've lost much of our healthy fear of the elements. Standing on top of a mountain in the Alps with fresh snow quickly burying my path gave me a glimpse of what uncertainty earlier peoples lived with all the time. "Still" probably could still be applied even to waters we thought were full of movement. But it's all just guesses.

Comment #2490

2011-07-19T16:07:47Z

But for drinking? Why should it need to be still to drink? I assume that's what the sheep are doing, not swimming in it.

Comment #2489

2011-07-19T14:48:43Z

It would be especially dangerous if you're a sheep covered with wool.

Comment #2488

2011-07-19T11:58:11Z

Well, since this vacation to Lake Erie, I think I personally prefer calmer water. Calmer is safer. Lake Erie can go from hardly a ripple to near-ocean-size waves and back again within a week. (We saw it!)

I understand your point about bubbling, singing streams, and how beautiful moving water, say, waterfalls, can be. But I bet the psalmist's point is that the more the water moves, the more dangerous it can be.

Comment #2487

2011-07-19T10:30:35Z

And of course I love to see a beautiful, serene lake that reflects the sky and the mountains. But for the most part, it's moving water that looks like living water to me. I much prefer the Atlantic side of Florida, with its waves, to the Gulf, without them. Even a lake looks fresher with a bit of wind disturbing the surface—though maybe that's left over from my sailing days, when I'd eagerly look for the ripples that told us where the wind was.

Comment #2486

2011-07-19T03:19:22Z

small lakes and ponds can be relatively still and just move more at the in and out points.

Comment #2485

2011-07-18T22:13:50Z

I read or heard somewhere that sheep don't like moving water. Maybe it scares them. But there are sources of still water that are not stagnant; somehow they are kept fresh without too much movement.