By:
Hamilton Smith
He knows His sheep; He counts them
and He calleth them by name.
He goes before; they follow as He
leads, through flood or flame.
The
twenty-third Psalm unfolds before us the blessings of one who takes his journey,
through this world, with the Lord Jesus as his Shepherd.
The Psalm is
closely connected with the preceding Psalm, as well as the one that follows.
All three Psalms are of outstanding beauty, and value, seeing that in each one
Christ is the great theme. Psalm 22 presents the Lord Jesus as the Holy Victim
offering Himself without spot to God, on the cross, in order to meet the
holiness of God and secure His sheep. Psalm 23 present the Lord Jesus as the
Shepherd leading His sheep through a wilderness world. Psalm 24 presents the
Lord Jesus as the King – the Lord of hosts – bringing His people into the
kingdom glory.
The Psalm
opens with the great statement, “The Lord is my Shepherd.” Every believer can
say, “The Lord is my Savior;” but have we all definitely submitted to His
leading, so that we can each say, “The Lord is my Shepherd?” He has told us
that He is “the Shepherd;” but have we each told Him, Thou art “my Shepherd?”
Have we not only accepted Him as our Savior who has died for us to save us from
our sins, but also submitted to Him as our Shepherd to lead us home through all
our difficulties?
Let us think
for a moment of a flock of sheep without a shepherd. They are needy, foolish,
weak and timid creatures. If left to themselves to take their way through a
wilderness scene, what would happen? Being hungry creatures they would soon
starve; being foolish, they would wander and lose their way; being weak, they
would grow weary and fall by the way; and being timid, they would flee before
the wolf and be scattered.
In contrast,
let us ask, what will happen if the sheep take their journey under the guidance
of the shepherd? Now, if the sheep are hungry, the shepherd is there to guide
them into green pastures; are they foolish, he is there to keep their wandering
feet; are they weak, the shepherd is present to gently lead his sheep and carry
the lambs; are they timid, he is in front to lead them through the rough
valleys, and defend them from every foe.
Plainly, in a
flock without the shepherd everything depends upon the sheep, and this must
lead to disaster. It is equally plain, that is the shepherd goes before, and
the sheep follow, it will mean a safe journey for the sheep with manifold
blessing by the way.
This, indeed,
is the picture that truly represents the journey of the Christian flock through
this world; for does not the Lord, Himself, say that He is “the Shepherd of the
sheep,” that “He calleth His own sheep by name,” that “He goeth before them,
and the sheep follow; for they know His voice” (John 10:2-4.)
The
twenty-third Psalm sets before us this blessedness of the Shepherd going
before, and the sheep following. We, alas! In our self-confidence, may at times
get in front of the Shepherd; or, growing careless, we may lag far behind. But
granted the two conditions – that the Shepherd leads the way, and we follow –
we can count upon the support of the Shepherd in every difficulty that we have
to meet.
The Psalmist
touches upon seven different circumstances that we may be called to face:
1.
Our
daily needs.
2.
Our
spiritual needs.
3.
Our
failure and dullness of soul.
4.
The
shadow of death.
5.
The
presence of enemies.
6.
The
daily round.
7.
The
prospect of eternity.
All these things may, in varied ways
and at different times, cross our paths, and, if left to face them in our own
strength, will surely overwhelm us with dread and disaster. Nevertheless, with
the Lord as our Shepherd, to lead the way, we can with confidence face the
journey that leads to glory, in spite of the difficulties that may lie in the
path.
As every blessing in the Psalm flows
from the first great statement, “The Lord is my Shepherd,” we may very well
preface each verse with these words, “The Lord is my Shepherd.”
First (v.1,) there are the daily
needs of the body. How are they to be met? The Psalmist does not say, “I hold a
good office, I shall not want;” or, “I have kind friends who will care for me,
I shall not want;” or, “I have ample means, I shall not want;” or, “I have
youth, and health, and abilities, I shall not want.”
In all these ways, and many others,
the Lord may meet our wants, but of none of these means does the Psalmist
speak. He looks beyond all second causes, and providential ways, and he sees
the Lord; and with the Lord going before, and he himself following, he can say,
“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”
Secondly (v.2,) in the wilderness
path there are not only temporal wants, but spiritual needs. For the Christian
the world around is an empty wilderness. There is nothing in all its passing
vanities to feed the soul. Its pastures are dry and barren; its waters, only
waters of strife. If “the Lord is my Shepherd,” He will lead me into His green
pastures and beside the still waters.
How quickly the pleasures of this
world pail, even upon its votaries. The spiritual food provided by the Shepherd
is ever fresh, for He leads into the “green pastures.” Moreover, the Shepherd
not only feeds, but satisfies, for He makes His sheep to “lie down in green
pastures.” No hungry sheep would lie down in the midst of plenty. It would
first feed, and when full lie down. Furthermore, the Shepherd leads beside the
still waters. The waters of the stream that makes most noise, and show, are
ever where the rocks are most abundant and the waters shallow. The still waters
are quiet but deep. The Shepherd can calm our souls, and quench our spiritual
thirst with the deep things of God far removed from the noisy and shallow
strife’s that occupy men, and too often distract the Christian.
Thirdly, (v.3,) as we pass through
this wilderness world we may fail in following the Shepherd; and, apart from
actual failure, we may grow weary in the way and dull in our affections. Even
so, if “the Lord is my Shepherd” “He restoreth,” or “reviveth,” my soul. Let
us, however, remember it is “He,” Himself, that “restoreth.” It almost seems,
at times, as if we think that when we have grown weary of our wanderings, we
can restore ourselves by our efforts and in our own time. It is not so. We can
wander, He alone can restore. Naomi, restored from her wandering in the land of
Moab, can say, “I went out,” but, she adds, “the Lord hath brought me home
again.” She says, as it were, “I did the going out, but the Lord did the
bringing back.” Blessed be His Name, He can, and He does, restore. Were it not so,
the people of God on earth would be little more than a great company of
backsliders.
Moreover, He does not only restore,
but having restored, He leads un into “the paths of righteousness for His
name’s sake.” Alas! How often we may even in sincerity and zeal turn aside into
paths of self-will, that are inconsistent with His Name, only to prove how
little, in practice, we allow the Lord to lead us as our Shepherd. The path of
righteousness, in which He leads, is a “narrow way” in which there is no room
for the self-confidence of the flesh, and can only be trodden as we have the
Lord as our Shepherd before us. Even so an Apostle found, when with real
sincerity and zeal, and yet with great self-confidence, he said, “Lord, I am
ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death.”
Fourthly (v.4,) we have to face “the
valley of the shadow of death.” Even if we are alive and remain until the
coming of the Lord, and have not personally to pass through death, yet, again
and again, we have to face that dark valley as, one by one, our loved ones are
taken from us. Then, in a wider sense, what is our passage through this world
but a journey through the valley of the shadow of death? For, over all there
sounds the toll of the passing bell.
Nevertheless, if the Lord is our
Shepherd, we can say with the Psalmist, “I will fear no evil: for Thou art with
me.” The Lord can say, “If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death”
(John 8:51.) The Lord does not say, he will not pass through it, but he shall
not see it. Those who stand round the deathbed of a dying saint may indeed see
death, but the one that is actually stepping down into the dark valley sees
Jesus. Even so, if we have to pass that way it is only passing “through.” And
the journey through is very short; for is it not written, “Absent from the body
… present with the Lord.” And in that passage through the valley, not only is
the Lord with us, but He is present with His rod and His staff – the rod to
drive off every foe, the staff to support us in all our weakness.
Fifthly (v. 5,) in this wilderness
world we are surrounded by enemies that would rob us of the enjoyment of our
blessings, and hinder our spiritual progress. But the Lord is our Shepherd who
prepares a feast for us in the very presence of our enemies. And not only so,
He prepares His people for the feast, for He anoints the head with oil, and not
only fills the cup, but makes it run over. He does a great deal more for us
than ever we did for Him in the days of His flesh; for, though one of the Pharisees
desired Him that He would eat with him, and in wonderful grace the Lord sat
down to meat in the Pharisee’s house, yet, He has to say, “My head with oil
thou didst not anoint.”
Sixthly (v.6,) there is the daily
path that we have to tread “all the days” of our lives, each day of our lives
brings its ceaseless round of duties, difficulties, and circumstances, small
and great. But if we follow the Shepherd we shall find that “goodness and
mercy” will follow us. Were we nearer the Lord, following hard after the
Shepherd, should we not with clearer vision trace His hand in the little things
of the daily life, and discover therein His goodness and mercy?
Seventhly, and lastly, looking
beyond the days of our life into the great eternity that stretches beyond we
see that if the Lord is our Shepherd, it is, not only to lead us through the
wilderness, but, at last to bring us home to “dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.” For the Christian it is the Father’s house; there to dwell beyond all
bodily wants, with every spiritual longing met, where no failure can intrude,
no hearts grow cold, no shadow of death can come, no enemy approach, but where,
indeed, the cup will run over. “The days of my life” will end “in the house of
the Lord forever.” In that great home gathering not one of His sheep will be
missing. “Those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost”
(John 17:12.) Long years ago the saintly Rutherford wrote, “What think ye of
His love? What of these feet that went up and down the world to seek His
Father’s lost sheep, pierced with nails? The eyes that were oft lift up to
heaven unto God in prayer, wearied with tears? His head pierced with thorns?
The face that is fairer than the sun, all maimed, and the hair pulled out of
his cheeks? He took shame and gave you glory. He took the curse, and gave you
the blessing, He took death, and gave you life… As the Chief Shepherd, He shall
make an account of all His lambs, and tell His Father, these be all My sheep. I
went through woods and waters, and briers, and thorns, to gather them in, and
My feet were pricked and My hands and My side pierced, ere I could get a grip
of them; but now here they are.”
Remembering all that He had done for
us in the past, when, as the Good Shepherd, He gave His life for the sheep;
knowing all that He will yet do for us when He comes as the Chief Shepherd, we
may look up unto His face during our present wilderness journey and say, “The
Lord is My Shepherd.”
We follow in his footsteps;
What if our feet be torn?
Where He has marked the pathway
All hail the briar and thorn.