If there is any scripture you know by heart, if anything you have learned at mother's knee, if any passage from God's book that you have heard from earliest days, and with which you are familiar, it is likely the Twenty-third Psalm. Through all centuries it has made its appeal to the human heart. If we could know the history of this little psalm--how often it has been resorted to for comfort and consolation in times of trouble--in bereavements, in sorrows, in distresses, in wars and famines and in anxious, perilous days--what a story it would make! Wherein lies its peculiar appeal, and what is the secret spring of its comfort? It must be in this that all the way through it turns our eyes away from ourselves and our circumstances to God. Here we see from first to last the Shepherd. It is HE that makes us to lie down in green pastures and HE leads us beside still waters; HE restores our souls. HE guides us in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Yea, though I pass through the valley of the shadow of death it is He that is with me, and His rod and staff doth comfort me. He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies. He anoints my head with oil and makes my cup to overflow. Throughout, it is to God, as the great, all-powerful and all-faithful Friend and Shepherd, that our hearts are directed. A young apprentice seaman was sent aloft to rig in the sails. The ship was swaying and the winds blew fiercely. The boy's head began to swim as he looked down from his eery height and his uncertain foot-hold. An older seaman below who saw the boy's danger called to him, "Look up boy! Look up!" The boy did so and regained his balance. So in the storms and turmoils of life it is only as we look up to God that we can keep our assurance and peace.

      It was not an unworthy comparison which David used when he said, "The Lord is my shepherd." David had been a shepherd himself, and he knew from experience what a faithful shepherd's task was and what the care of the sheep that were committed to him, would mean. And surely if the Lord assumed this task for him--would not He fulfil it to perfection? Now the first and chief thing a good shepherd must see to is that his sheep shall not lack anything. The sheep must not want. Will not the Lord, if He is my shepherd, see to that? Oh surely, surely! So, moved by the Holy Spirit (for it was the Spirit of Jehovah that spake by David, and His word was upon his tongue, 2 Sam. 23:2) David wrote

      I shall not want for food nor for rest--for he maketh me to lie down in green pastures. I shall not want for drink nor for peace--for he leadeth me beside the still waters (Heb.--the [49] waters of peace). I shall not want for forgiveness and renewal, for He restoreth my soul. I shall not want for guidance, for He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. I shall not want for strength and comfort, for though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me: thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. I shall not want for honor nor for vindication, for He prepareth a table before me in the presence of mine enemies--He anointeth my head with oil, my cup runneth over. I shall not want for any good thing in this life, for goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I shall not want for any good thing in the life beyond, for I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.--So the whole cycle of all my human needs is summed up in this word, "The Lord is my Shepherd."

      This short psalm contains a succession of five pictures. The first is a very pleasant one. In the dry uplands the scorching sun beats down upon parched pastures; but down at the quiet river-side where rich grasses grow the good shepherd makes his sheep to feed and lie down to rest. And it is so in the lives of all God's children. True, they must go through their share of affliction and toil; but by all preference a good shepherd always leads his sheep into pleasant places. How much of joy and blessing and peace is found along the Christian's path! How good a Master is the Lord! One of His fundamental promises is that which the world never knows nor finds: the heart's peace and rest. "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me  . . and ye shall find rest to your souls." The Christian's way, though it is "the way of the Cross," is not all jagged stones and thorns. Flowers bloom along that path--that cannot be found elsewhere, flowers that never wilt nor die. Nor need we think that the broad way that leads to destruction is all ease and pleasure. The darkest sorrows human hearts have ever known are found on that road. The way of the transgressor is hard. You can read from the very faces of the servants of God and the servants of the devil, which has the good master. "The devil has no happy old men!"^a

      The next picture portrays an incident of the toilsome path. Often it happened in David's shepherd life, that one of his sheep was lost or hurt, perhaps seized by some beast, perhaps torn by thorns, perhaps overcome by the heat or the journey and fallen by the wayside. How quickly then did he go to the rescue of the injured one and bind up its wounds and set it on its feet again, or go out after the sheep that was lost until he found it. And had not the good Shepherd done that for him also? There were some dark places in David's [50] career. How terrible was his guilt, how awful his danger! But greater still was God's mercy and grace, which dealt with him and sought him, humbled him, forgave him, restored him. (See Ps. 32 and 51.) So David sat down and, guided by the Holy Spirit wrote, "He restoreth my soul."

      Next comes the picture of the highway--the way that leads home, which only the Shepherd knows, and which no sheep can ever find for himself (for "it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps"). Perhaps in early life we do not so much appreciate the meaning of this; but when we have lived long enough to see how grievously men do err on our right hand and on our left and how terribly some have gone astray, we come to realize how kind and strong was the hand that kept us and guided our feet in the path of righteousness--not for any merit or desert of ours, but for His good Name's sake. As he says elsewhere: "For thou hast delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling." (Ps. 116:8.)

      But here the road enters a dark ravine, such as is not uncommon in that land, where a narrow path leads between high cliffs, where the light of the midday sun is turned into gloom, and wild beasts lurk in hidden lairs. And through such a place the Shepherd leads his sheep. Oh, why? The why we cannot now know; but of this we can be sure that, whether the way leads to pastures green and by still waters, or along the open highway, or through the dark valley--it is always toward home. How solicitous is the Shepherd here! He is before His sheep, behind them, on this side and on that; He speaks to them, He comforts them, He touches them with His friendly crook to let them know that He is there, lest they take panic and madly rush away to ruin. Is it not in our distresses and sorrows, in trials and perils, that we become most aware of the Lord's help and presence with us? So that it seems our loss was gain, and our trouble more than worth while, for the new vision and experience we have had with Him who strengtheneth us.

      Now the scene changes utterly. The figure of the sheep and the Shepherd no longer suffices to set forth what here God does for His own. What we see is a royal banquet hall. At the festive board sits an honored guest; and the host anoints his head and fills his cup till it overflows; round about his enemies stand and glare in impotent rage. The guest is David, and his host is the King Himself. Was there ever a faithful servant of the Lord that was not hated, slandered, persecuted? Read the story of the great servants from Paul on down--what enemies they had--what evil things were told of them, what wicked judgments pronounced against them! But there is One who watches and never fails to vindicate His own. [51] They need not defend themselves, it is He who will vindicate them in His own time.

      Now David looks back over the road he has come, He sees again the living pastures and the peaceful waters, the dusty highway, the festive banquet hall. So long and so far has his good Shepherd helped him. But what will tomorrow bring? "Tomorrow" is a great bugaboo to some folk, True, God has never yet let us perish, but tomorrow--ah, that word is filled with nameless, unknown dreads. But "be not anxious for the morrow," says the Saviour's re-assuring voice--"for the morrow shall be anxious for itself: sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." And is not the Keeper of all our yesterdays sufficient also for the coming morrow? So David believed and calmly, trustfully wrote, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life."

      But there is yet one great unanswered question. David once more surveys the checkered landscape of his life. Yes--here are the meadows green and the watercourses; there the wilderness, and there threads the King's highway; and yonder is the deep, dark valley; and here is the Royal Banquet Hall and the feast of the King's table--but what after all the journey shall be the end and the outcome of it? When all the changing scenes of life are done--what then? What awful mystery is it that lies beyond the veil? To answer this last and deepest of all the heart's anxious questions the Spirit of God lifts for a moment the dark veil and grants him a look beyond. And what does he see? The same thing the Lord Jesus showed to His own on that night of the betrayal when they were gathered in the upper room. "Let not your heart be troubled," He said to, them--"ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you . . . ." This was what David saw; and in his heart's great joy and peace he wrote these final words: "And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever."

      "The Lord is my shepherd," said David. Is He my Shepherd also, even mine? Let me rather ask it otherwise: Am I one of His sheep? And who are His sheep? A friend of mine many years ago made a journey to the Holy Land, and he related to me what his eyes saw: how shepherds pooled their sheep at night in a common fold, and how in the morning each shepherd called out his own sheep (for the sheep know their shepherd's voice) and went before them and they followed him. Sometimes, though rarely, some of one shepherd's sheep would become mingled into another's flock; and the first shepherd, missing them, would say to his neighbor--"I think some of my sheep are there among yours." "Good--get them out," he would answer. So the shepherd utters his call, [52] and if any of his sheep were there, they would instantly stop grazing and throw up their heads. That is the way he spots them. Is not that also the way the Lord Jesus spots His sheep? When He calls--they that hear, they that respond, they that come to Him, they that follow--they are His sheep. Have you heard the Shepherd's loving call, and have you come to Him for life and for salvation? Do you hear Him today and follow in His lead? Then blessed are you. "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father who hath given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to pluck them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one." (John 10:27-30.) These are His sheep and the Lord Jesus their good Shepherd who lays down His life for them that they may live for ever.

[SSS 49-53]