Psalm 23:1-6 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.… We do not know at what period of David's life this Psalm was written, but it sounds as if it were the work of his later years It is very beautiful to see the old king looking back with such vivid and loving remembrance to his childhood's occupation, and bringing up again to memory in his palace the green valleys, the gentle streams, the dark glens where he had led his flocks in the old days. The faith which looks back and. says, It is all very good, is not less than that which looks forward and says, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. The train of thought in the Psalm is clear and obvious. The Psalm falls into two halves. I. THE DIVINE SHEPHERD AND HIS LEADING OF HIS FLOCK. The various methods of God's leading of His flock, or rather, we should say, the various regions into which He leads them, are described in order. These are rest, work, sorrow. 1. God leads His sheep into rest. The Psalm puts the rest and refreshment first, as being the most marked characteristic of God's dealings. It is so. The years are years of unbroken continuity of outward blessings. The reign of afflictions is ordinarily measured by days. But it is not mainly of outward blessings that the Psalmist is thinking. They are precious chiefly as emblems of the better spiritual gifts. The image describes the sweet rest of the soul in communion with God, in whom alone the hungry heart finds food that satisfies. This rest and refreshment has for its consequence the restoration of the soul, which includes in it both the invigoration of the natural life by the outward sort of blessings, and the quickening and restoration of the spiritual life by the inward feeding upon God, and repose in Him. 2. God guides us into work. The quiet mercies are not in themselves the end of our Shepherd's guidance; they are means to an end, and that is — work. Life is not a fold for the sheep to lie down in, but a road for them to walk on. Rest is to fit for work, work is to sweeten rest. All this is emphatically true of the spiritual life. It is not well that our chief object should be to enjoy the consolations of religion; it is better to seek first to do the duties enjoined by religion. Joy in God is the strength of work for God, Rut work for God is the perpetuation of joy in God. Here is the figurative expression of the great evangelical principle, that works of righteousness must follow, not precede, the restoration of the soul. We are justified, not by works, but for works. The basis of obedience is the sense of salvation. 3. God leads His people through sorrow. The "valley of the shadow" means any and every gloomy valley of weeping through which we have to pass. Such sunless gorges as we have all to traverse at some time or other. It is never given to the human heart to meditate of the future without some foreboding. Some evils may come; some will probably come; one at least is sure to come. So there is never pure hope in any heart that wisely considers the future. But to the Christian heart there may be this, the conviction that sorrow, when it comes, will not be evil, because God will be with us. Strange as it may sound, the presence of Him who sends the sorrow is the best help to bear it. II. GOD AS THE HOST, AND US AS THE GUESTS AT HIS TABLE AND THE DWELLERS IN HIS HOUSE. All is here intensified. 1. God supplies our wants in the very midst of strife. The mercy is more strikingly portrayed as being granted not only before toil, but in warfare. Life is a sore fight; but to the Christian man, in spite of all the tumult, life is a festal banquet. Always the foe; always the table. This is the form under which experience of the past is presented in the second portion — joy in conflict, rest and food even in the strife. Upon that there is built a hope which transcends that in the previous portion of the Psalm. As to this life, "goodness and mercy shall follow us." Higher than all rises the confidence of the closing words, — "I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever." This should be at once the crown of all our hopes for the future, and the one great lesson taught us by all the vicissitudes of life. Yonder we sit down with the Shepherd, the Master of the house, at His table in His kingdom. Far off, and lost to sight, are all the enemies. We fear no change; we go no more out. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: {A Psalm of David.} The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. |
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