Psalm 23:1-6 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.… If David's shepherd life had furnished nothing else than the materials for this wonderful pastoral ode we should all be inclined to say that no period of David's history would have compensated the Church for the loss of his shepherd life. Yet the Psalm is not the utterance of the shepherd days, though it perpetuates their memory. This peaceful idyll is a voice out of the maturer life of the Psalmist; a voice that tells that peace and rest of heart depend not upon the absence of life's burdens, nor on the presence of nature's tranquillising scenes, but solely upon the shepherding of God. The keynote of the whole song is — God's servant finds his all in God. He wants nothing. All needs are met for him by that one fact — the Lord is my Shepherd. The problem of life is thus reduced to its very simplest statement. "But one thing is needful." The possession of all gifts is included in possessing the Father. Then the true end of every man's life is to become one of God's flock. And here the figure, while it magnifies the wisdom and tenderness of God, correspondingly depreciates the wisdom of man. The dependence of man upon God must be just as absolute as that of the sheep upon the shepherd. The guidance of the life cannot be shared between God and man, any more than between the shepherd and the sheep. There is a comforting assurance in the comparison of man to a sheep. A sheep is not a wild animal. He is a property. And man is God's valuable property. The Spirit leads us forth into the pastures. 1. Provision is made for two sides of man's life in his new relation to God. A godly life, if it be healthful, must be both an active and a contemplative life. 2. Provision is made for restoration. "He restoreth my soul." Here we see restoration under three phases. (1) Forgiveness. (2) Rest and refreshment. (3) Righteousness or rightness. (Marvin R. Vincent, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: {A Psalm of David.} The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. |
    |