\forpufoit,rutihgef a Collegt inXfa Colony?

DrVINITY SCHOOL
TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY

GIFT OF
The Reverend Frank B. Lackey

THE SHJRT COURSE SERIES

THE PSALM OF PSALMS

GENERAL PREFACE

The title of the present series is a sufficient
indication of its purpose. Few preachers,
or congregations, will face the long courses
of expository lectures which characterised
the preaching of the past, but there is a
growing conviction on the part of some
that an occasional short course, of six or
eight connected studies on one definite
theme, is a necessity of their mental and
ministerial life. It is at this point the pro
jected series would strike in. It would
suggest to those who are mapping out a
scheme of work for the future a variety of
subjects which might possibly be utilised in
this way.
The appeal, however, will not be restricted
to ministers or preachers. The various
volumes will meet the needs of laymen and

General Preface
Sabbath-school teachers who are interested
in a scholarly but also practical exposition
of Bible history and doctrine. In the hands
of office-bearers and mission-workers the
" Short Course Series " may easily become
one of the most convenient and valuable
of Bible helps.
It need scarcely be added that while an
effort has been made to secure, as far as
possible, a general uniformity in the scope
and character of the series, the final re
sponsibility for the special interpretations
and opinions introduced into the separate
volumes, rests entirely with the individual
contributors. A detailed list of the authors and their
subjects will be found at the close of each
volume.

ui

Volumes already Published
A Cry for Justice: A Study in Amos.
By Prof. John E. McFadyen, D.D.
The Beatitudes. By Rev. Robert H. Fisher, D.D.
The Lenten Psalms.
By the Editor.
The Psalm of Psalms.
By Prof. James Stalker, D.D.
The Song and the Soil.
By Prof. W. G. Jordan, D.D.
The Higher Powers of the Soul.
By Rev. George M'Hardy, D.D.

Price 60 cents net per Volume

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

Ube Sbort Coarse Series
EDITED BV
Rev. JOHN ADAMS, B.D.

THE
PSALM OF PSALMS
BEING AN EXPOSITION OF THE
TWENTY-THIRD PSALM

Rev. JAMES STALKER, M.A., D.D.,
PROFESSOR OP CHURCH HISTORY IN THE UNITED FRBE COLLEGE
ABERDEEN

NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1913

TO
T.O.

CONTENTS

PAGE
Introduction i

The Good Shepherd
Rest
Discipline
In Extremis

i5
35 55
75

The Royal Entertainer 89

i°5

Forever
Appendix 125
Index 129

vii

The Twenty-third Psalm is the nightingale
among the Psalms. It is small, of a homely
feather, singing shyly out of obscurity ; but it
has filled the air of the whole world with
melodious joy, greater than the heart can
conceive. Blessed be the day on which that
Psalm was born 1
Henry Ward Beecher.

Vlll

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION
The Decalogue, the Aaronic Blessing and the
Twenty-third Psalm in the Old Testament,
and the Beatitudes, the Lord's Prayer and
the Apostolic Benediction in the New, with
perhaps two or three other passages of similar
calibre, are the best-known portions of Holy
Writ. They were learned by us at a mother's
knee, or at least from our earliest instructors ;
and they are all of sufficient substance to
stand constant repetition, as solid gold is only
brightened by frequent rubbing. To genera
tions and centuries of men such scriptures
have ministered "doctrine, reproof, correction,
instruction in righteousness " ; and, though
they are the earliest efforts of memory, they
will reward the maturest ponderings of the
human mind. The Twenty-third Psalm, in
3

The Psalm of Psalms
particular, ever since it sprang into existence
from the inspired genius of its author, has
served to express the experience of the pious ;
and the modern man can measure his own
progress and attainment by the extent to
which he can make its sentiments his own.
Not only, however, will the venerable words
measure attainment, but they will stimulate
it and awaken higher aspiration. Hence the
psalm is worthy to be studied verse by verse
and line by line. I. Authorship.
There was a time, not very long ago, when
any psalm might be quoted as a psalm of
David. We have now reached a stage when
it would be denied by experts of a certain
class that even a single psalm can be proved
to have proceeded from the Bard of Bethle
hem. The one extreme is, however, as un
tenable as the other. When the controversy
about such subjects first broke out in the
Church with which I am connected, I re
member a minister of saintliness and learn-

Introduction
ing declaring that for him the Fifty-first
Psalm would lose all its virtue if it were not
from the pen of David ; and some may be
inclined to say the same about this Twenty-
third Psalm. I should not like to say this
peremptorily about any piece in the Psalter ;
and in general I like to think of the Psalms
as proceeding from a large number • and
variety of voices spread at intervals over the
pre-Christian centuries. But, on the other
hand, when the attribution of a psalm to
some known personage, or its connection
with some recorded event, throws light on
the whole composition, and is not inconsis
tent with anything in the text, it seems to
me to be extinguishing the light not to take
advantage of this circumstance.
Now, the reasons for believing this Twenty-
third Psalm to be a legacy bequeathed to the
people of God by King David are very
strong indeed, and the assumption that he
is the author throws light on every verse.
First, it lies on the surface that the re
lation of God to His people is here compared
to the relation of a shepherd to his sheep ;
5

The Psalm of Psalms
and of this David could speak from experi
ence, as he had been a shepherd. Indeed,
the suggestion has not infrequently been
made that he may have composed this lyric
whilst as a ruddy youth he was watching his
flocks on the pastures of his father Jesse.
On the other hand, however, it has been
observed with truth that the experience
here described is not that of a stripling or
beginner, but of one mature in the life divine,
who has had experience of all forms of guid
ance, in vicissitude as well as rest, in gloom
as well as sunshine. But, even if the psalm
was composed in old age or at least maturity,
as it probably was, the sweet singer could
make use of the experiences of his youth,
which he could not have forgotten. At
that time he had been a model shepherd,
loving his flock and loved by them ; and in
the psalm the entire life of a sheep under a
good shepherd is employed as an image or
parable of a human life led under the guid
ance and protection of God.
But it may not have been noted by some
readers, often as they have read and sung
6

Introduction
this psalm, that, in the second half of it, we
are away from the image of the sheep al
together, and that another image is being
developed. When, at v. 5, it is said, " Thou
preparest a table before me in the presence
of mine enemies ; Thou anointest my head
with oil ; my cup runneth over," it is ob
vious that the words are put not into the
mouth of a sheep, but into that of a
guest, and that the person addressed is no
longer conceived of as a shepherd, but as a
host or entertainer. The table spread, the
head anointed, the cup full to overflowing
are obvious features of a banquet ; and the
idea is, that he who has God for his friend
enjoys a continual feast, where everything is
in abundance and everything is of the best.
The same cheerful image is kept up in the
closing verse — "Goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life ; and I will
dwell in the house of the Lord for ever."
The favourite is not only to be a guest, but
one who abides in the house for ever — that
is, a son.
The point to be observed is, that this
7

The Psalm of Psalms
second image agrees, as well as does the first,
with the experience of David. If, during
the first half of his life, he was a shepherd,
he was, during the second half, a king ; and
one of the duties of a king is hospitality.
Indeed, this trait is mentioned again and
again in the history as characteristic of
David's mature life ; and what a fascination
he exercised as a host may be inferred from
the offer of two of his braves to risk their
lives in order to procure wtar he wanted,
when cpressed a desire to taste a uraught
of waL torn the Well of Bethlehem. To
his guests he could supply not only the good
things of the table, but, with his musical gifts,
the feast of reason and the flow of soul. If
David was a model shepherd at one period
of life, he was a model entertainer at another ;
and this experience also supplied him with
the means of illustrating both the behaviour
of God to men and the attitude of men to
God. We shall see afterwards why it was that
David found the image of the shepnerd in
sufficient, and had to add that of the royal

Introduction
entertainer. But, in the meantime, we per
ceive how natural it was that he should
employ both figures of speech. I do not
deny that another poet might have hit upon
the same combination without having had
either experience in his own case. But to
have had the double experience in the same
lifetime must have been a very rare thing.
It certainly adds to the value of the psalm
if we assume that the sweet singer was speak
ing from «"r™*rience in both the beginning
and the end of it. There is a 1?" \eness
which supports this view ; and, ugh it
would be of no use to affirm dogmatically
the Davidic authorship, we shall assume this
throughout. II. Application.
An eccentric professor, under whom I
studied at college, used to say that the most
important word in a text may be the one
after the last ; and it is certainly true that the
message of no Old Testament passage is ex
hausted when it has been interpreted by the
mere analysis of the words and their applica-
9

The Psalm of Psalms
tion to the original situation. The first
duty of an interpreter is to find out what the
writer meant to convey at the moment when
he wrote ; but the words may suggest far more
to a Christian reader. Of this a remarkable
instance has often struck me : in the Thirty-
first Psalm a saintly singer says, " Into thine
hand I commit my spirit " ; but our Saviour,
in quoting the words on the cross, prefaced
them with the word " Father," thus placing
on them His own distinctive signature ; and
St. Stephen, in adopting them as his dying
words, actually addressed them to the Saviour
Himself, saying, " Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit." This indicates how wide may be the
scope of legitimate Christian application.
The principle applies to our Psalm also,
which is a fine example of how the beautiful
and profound passages of the Old Testament
become far more beautiful and far more
profound when read in the light of the
New. The image of the Good Shepherd, applied
in the Old Testament to God, is applied in
the New Testament to Christ ; it is especially
10

Introduction
applied by Jesus to Himself, as when He
says, " The good shepherd giveth his life for
the sheep." David might have introduced
this feature into the Twenty-third Psalm ;
because, as we know from the account he
gave of himself at his first interview with
King Saul, there were more occasions than
one when he risked his life for the flock.
He omitted it ; but the Son of David could
not omit it, because this was to be His most
characteristic act ; " for the Son of man
came not to be ministered unto but to
minister, and to give his life a ransom for
many." Some in our day are teaching
that the supreme and final message of Jesus
was trust in Providence — faith that the divine
will, whatever it may be, is best. That is a
priceless lesson ; but it had been amply
taught long before the Incarnation. Jesus
rejoiced in it, and repeated it ; but it was not
His last word ; it is not likely that He
stopped short at such truth as had already
been perfectly uttered by King David.
The other image of the Twenty-third
Psalm is the Royal Entertainer ; and this,
ii

The Psalm of Psalms
too, recurs in the words of Jesus, but with a
deepened meaning. He frequently, in His
parables, compared the Gospel to a feast.
Even in this world Christianity turns human
life into a festival, and in the world to come
the life of the blessed will be the Marriage
Supper of the Lamb. For Christ brought
life and immortality to light. He spoke of
the world unseen as of a place native and
familiar ; and His own Resurrection and
Ascension opened the gates of heaven to all
believers. Thus what the Old Testament
saints only groped after is now for us a sure
possession. Closely allied to this image is the institu
tion of the Lord's Supper, in which Christ
goes down through all the centuries, to the
end of time, in the character of Royal
Entertainer, with these words encircling His
figure, " This Man receiveth sinners and
eateth with them." Of this, Sir H. W.
Baker has taken advantage in the eucharistic
hymn, " The King of love my shepherd is,"
which is a rendering, verse by verse, of our
Psalm, with only a Christian touch added
12

Introduction
here and there. Hardly, indeed, were even
these changes necessary ; for, in its naked
simplicity, the Twenty-third Psalm gives
such adequate expression to Christian feeling,
in even its most intimate moments, that it
might compete with the Hundred-and-third
or the Hundred-and-sixteenth for the title of
the Psalm for the Communion Table.

*3

THE GOOD SHEPHERD

15

THE GOOD SHEPHERD
Verse First.
"The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want."
The handling of the material in this psalm
is very artistic. The primary idea is ex
pressed in the opening words, " The Lord is
my Shepherd " ; and then, to the end of v. 4,
follow inferences from it, mentioning in de
tail the different things which one who is a
good shepherd will do. Of these inferences
the first is included in this first verse, "I
shall not want." This is the sole negative
inference ; those that follow are positive.
1. A Profitable Practice.
Not long ago, on opening a new book —
a translation from the Dutch — on the Lord's
B 17

The Psalm of Psalms
Parables, I was struck with the way in which
the subject was divided. First were dis
cussed the parables taken from agriculture,
of which there were said to be seven ; then
those taken from the work of the vinedresser,
of which there were six ; then those taken
from the work of the shepherd ; then those
from the industry of the fisherman ; and so
on. It brought home to me more distinctly
than I had ever observed before, how the
common life of Palestine was all swept, for
purposes of illustration, into the teaching of
Christ — with what an observant and sympa
thetic eye He had looked upon the common
occupations of men, and how suggestive they
had been to Him of spiritual analogies.
I suppose, the four occupations to which I
have referred were the most common in
Palestine. There was, first, agriculture :
this was the basis of existence, and in it the
body of the people were employed. Then
there was the occupation of the vinedresser :
every sunny hillside was covered with vine
yards, and at the time of the vintage the
1 8

The Good Shepherd
whole land was filled with the songs of those
who gathered and those who trod the grapes.
Then there was the occupation of the shep
herd : the hills which were not suitable for
the cultivation of the vine were clothed with
flocks ; and every village had its droves of
great and small cattle, which were led out to
the pastures every evening. Then there was
the labour of the fisherman, which Jesus
could not possibly omit, because it was so
conspicuous in the part of the country in
which the principal scene of His ministry lay.
It was not only, however, nor was it first
by Him that these features of common life
in the Holy Land were beautifully described
and used as vehicles for conveying spiritual
truth. In both the poetical and prophetical
parts of the Old Testament we find the same
practice in full operation. How often, for
example, in the Psalms and the Prophets, are
the people of God compared to a vine, of
which God is the husbandman ; and every
single step in the history of the vineyard,
from the time it is cleared of stones and
fenced in from the surrounding waste on to
19

The Psalm of Psalms
the point where the wine is in the cup and
at the owner's lips, is made use of to
illustrate some aspect or other of divine
truth. Still more common, if possible, is
the use for the same purpose made of the
shepherd's calling. As early as the age of
the patriarchs, God is called the Shepherd of
Israel ; and in a hundred different forms
subsequently this thought recurs, every
phase and incident of the life of the shepherd
and the life-history of the sheep being turned
to account, as in the unspeakably beautiful
words of Isaiah, " He shall feed His flock
like a shepherd ; He shall gather the lambs
with His arm and carry them in His bosom,
and shall gently lead those that are with
young." Here, then, we see a distinct and prevalent
habit of the religious mind. The inspired
teachers perceived in the common occupations
of daily life innumerable hints and sugges
tions of heavenly truths, and they taught
those who received their teaching to brood
upon these analogies as they engaged in
their ordinary occupations. 20

The Good Shepherd
Now this is a precious habit ; and we also
— both those who teach and those who are
taught — ought to cultivate it. The aspect
of our modern life is, indeed, very different
from that ancient one. Though we still
have in our population the agriculturist, the
shepherd, and the fisherman, we are not an
agricultural but a commercial people, and we
have a vast number of other occupations.
Some of these may not be so poetical or
suggestive as the occupations of a simple
open-air existence. But many of them —
such as the calling of the builder, the banker,
the manufacturer, the engineer — are pregnant
with instructive and impressive suggestions ;
and there is no occupation which is altogether
unable to yield such nutrition to the brood
ing mind.
Existence is ennobled when, besides the
prose of mere loss and gain, its occupations
thus whisper to the heart the poetry of
spiritual suggestion ; and our modern world
would be a far happier place if it had poets
who could thus interpret the hidden mean
ing of common things. It is not, indeed,
21

The Psalm of Psalms
destitute of these ; but they are required in
far greater numbers. I like to think of the
poets who are still to be. There are Homers
and Shakspeares, Miltons and Burnses, still
to be born. The generations of the future
will read glorious books which we have
never seen, and be inspired with songs, full
of melody and joy, which our ears have
never heard. What these strains of the
future will be we can only guess ; but no
office of poetry is so valuable as that of
dignifying common life by revealing the
filaments by which it is connected with an
ideal region — the life spiritual and eternal.
Meanwhile, let us be thankful for this,
that every man is in some degree a poet.
There is an inarticulate poetry which never
goes into words or books, but warms,
delights and refines the soul in which it
simmers. The apprentice has it who, as he
measures a yard of ribbon or sells a pound
of sugar, is thinking of how trade unites
the races of the world and makes all men
servants one of another ; the working man
has it who, as he chisels a stone for its place
22

The Good Shepherd
in a building, is thinking how the providence
of daily experience is shaping himself for a
place in the temple of God ; the servant has
it who, as she sweeps a room or scours a
vessel, is praying that her heart may be a
clean abode for the habitation of God's Spirit.
Even the scavenger may be rapt by it out of
the gutter, where he is employed, up to the
heavenly places ; and, if he is, then in the
genuine attributes of manhood he far excels
the gentleman in broadcloth who may despise
him, as he passes, if the soul of the latter
does not soar above pounds, shillings and
pence.
2. A Fruitful Analogy.
Although all lawful occupations will yield
some analogies to divine truth, there are, of
course, certain which are more fertile in this
respect than others ; and the religious lan
guage of all ages seems to prove that in the
occupation of the shepherd such analogies
are particularly obvious.
Perhaps, indeed, this was more the case in
the East than it is in this country. The
23

The Psalm of Psalms
shepherds of our border hills are a superior
class of men, and their care for the flocks
entrusted to them is exemplary, but the
Oriental shepherd was brought much nearer
his sheep, and his affection for them was
more peculiar. By two circumstances es
pecially was this demonstrated — the one,
the well-known fact that, instead of driv
ing his sheep, the Oriental shepherd goes
before them, whilst they follow ; the other,
the fact that he not only knows his own
sheep by head-mark, as, I suppose, our
shepherds also do, but calls each of them
by its own name. In our mountains it is
not unusual to see sheep on the hillside with
no shepherd in sight, especially where there
is an enclosing wall or fence, the presence of
a shepherd being not always necessary. But
in the East, sheep are never seen without the
shepherd. In Eastern fields there are no
fences, and danger is never far off : the wolf
or the panther may be prowling about, or
the robber from the desert may be on the
watch. Our shepherds go out in the morn
ing with nothing but plaid and staff ; but in
24

The Good Shepherd
the East, even at the present day, the shep
herd goes afield armed to the teeth with
gun, sword, or other weapons ; and it is no
very unusual incident for a shepherd actually
to sacrifice his life for his flock.
Of course all shepherds are not alike
faithful or affectionate ; but we can easily
believe that David was an ideal shepherd.
We remember how he slew the lion and the
bear by which his flock had been attacked ;
and, even if we were unacquainted with
these incidents, we could imagine how his
generous heart would have gone out to the
creatures under his charge, and how his
courage would have prompted him to sacri
fice himself for their protection. We may
be certain of this, too, that the intensity of
David's fidelity became to him an inter
preter of God's faithfulness to those over
whose welfare He had pledged Himself to
watch. In the same way, it is the man who
is himself the most affectionate and loyal
father who best knows what is meant by the
fatherhood of God. And in general, we may
lay down the rule that it is the man who
25

The Psalm of Psalms
loves his occupation and is doing his daily
work with all his might who will best per
ceive the divine lessons it is fitted to teach.
The shepherd's care of his sheep begins
with the most elementary wants of existence,
but it mounts up, through successive stages
of attention and kindness, till it may cul
minate in the sacrifice of his life on their
behalf. At every step this has its counter
part in God : we are dependent on Him for
our daily bread ; and upon numerous steps
the tale of His grace has to be told, till we
come to the astounding fact that " the Good
Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep."
Thus the relation of God to the soul of
man is attractively and suggestively set forth
by the relation of the shepherd to the sheep.
Perhaps on the opposite side — the relation
of the soul to God, which is the other half of
religion — the analogy is not so serviceable.
Here also, indeed, there are pathetic hints
of the truth. The sheep has a tendency to
stray and lose itself. So all we, like sheep,
have gone astray ; we have turned every one
to his own way. 26

The Good Shepherd
There are some animals, such as the dog,
which, though lost, have a remarkable faculty
of finding their way home. The sheep is,
however, I should think, deficient in this
kind of intelligence : if lost, it has no in
stinct for finding itself again. Here also, it
may be said, the analogy holds. When man
lost God, he would never of his own accord
have come home. God had to come after
him. But none of the righteous ever knew
How deep were the waters crossed,
Or how dark was the night that the Lord passed through,
Ere He found the sheep that was lost.
Out in the desert He heard its cry,
Sick and helpless and ready to die.
Lord, whence are those blood drops all the way
That mark out the mountain track ?
They were shed for one who had gone astray,
Ere the Shepherd could bring him back.
Lord, whence are Thy hands so rent and torn?
They were pierced tonight by many a thorn.
As we say this of the human race as a whole,
so of every individual soul it may be said
that it never could and never would have
27

The Psalm of Psalms
returned of its own accord. God has to
send forth His Spirit to seek, to strive and
persuade. "No man can come unto Me,
except the Father, which hath sent Me, draw
him." But the responsibility of man to yield to
these strivings of God's Spirit, and his free
dom either to continue in sin or to come
home to God, are very imperfectly repre
sented by anything in the case of the sheep.
So especially is the choice by which we turn
away from all other masters and acknowledge
God as our own God — the most important
moment of religion on man's side.
There are also other points at which the
relation of the sheep to the shepherd does
not express very well the relation of the soul
to God. But of nearly all analogies the
same is true — they illustrate only a limited
number of points, while at other points they
break down. And our wisdom is to bring
into the light those aspects of the truth
which an image fairly illustrates, letting the
others fall into the background. The image
of the shepherd and the sheep illustrates so
28

The Good Shepherd
many points so well that there is no need of
forcing it to do work for which it was not
intended. 3. A Golden Promise.
The first inference drawn from the great
statement "The Lord is my shepherd," is,
"I shall not want." This is merely nega
tive ; yet how priceless it is ! In the
strength of such a promise a pilgrim might
almost travel the whole way.
Many people are haunted all their days
with the fear of want ; and, although they
have no real trouble today, they are con
tinually borrowing it from tomorrow, and
so allowing their entire existence to be over
shadowed. Many even of the young are
haunted with the dread that, however well
they may live and however honestly they
may work, the world may have no room for
them and may not even afford them their
daily bread. But this is a morbid and un
believing state of mind, and not in accord
ance with facts. Society is always in need
of upright men and women and honest
29

The Psalm of Psalms
workers, and does not grudge them their
wages. The fact that we have been brought
into existence is a proof that we are needed ;
and the likelihood is strong that a sufficient
share of what is required to sustain existence
will be ours, if we are willing to do our part
to deserve our place. This is the cheerful
philosophy of Jesus Himself : " Consider
the lilies of the field how they grow : they
toil not neither do they spin ; and yet I say
unto you that Solomon in all his glory was
not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore,
if God so clothe the grass of the field, which
today is, and tomorrow is cast into the
oven, shall He not much more clothe you,
O ye of little faith ? Behold the fowls of
the air : for they sow not, neither do they
reap, nor gather into barns ; yet your
Heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye
not much better than they ? "
Can we say, then, that poverty never can
overtake the godly ? I once heard the late
Mr. Spurgeon, in his own church, read a
psalm in which this verse occurs : " I have
been young and now am old, yet have I not
30

The Good Shepherd
seen the righteous forsaken, or his seed
begging bread." After reading the verse,
he paused and remarked, "David, being a
king, may never have seen this spectacle ;
but I, being a minister and better acquainted
with poor people, have seen it often." That
was a very bold statement. Let me quote
to you another of an opposite tenor. I was
once walking through a poorhouse with the
manager, a wise and kindly man, and, being
pained with what I had seen, I said to him,
"Tell me, now, what proportion of the in
mates of this house have been well-doing
people, and have been brought here by no
fault of their own." " Well," he answered,
" I know them all well, and I am acquainted
with their histories, and, I am sorry to say,
there is not a single one of the sort you have
indicated." These are widely discrepant statements,
and perhaps both of them might mislead.
An enormous quantity of abject poverty —
probably a far larger proportion of it than in
the present temper of the public mind would
be readily believed — is due to. vice ; in our
3i

The Psalm of Psalms
own society it is especially due to drunken
ness. Character and well-doing, on the
contrary, usually lift at least to the level of
honest poverty, with which the dignity and
sunshine of life are not incompatible. Be
sides, where character and well-doing are,
there is the power to rally against mis
fortune : poverty may crush for a time, but
the God-fearing spirit will rise above it, and
life will improve as it proceeds. On the
other hand, however, modern society is so
complex that many have to suffer for the
wrong-doing of others ; and it would be
blind and cruel to doubt that sometimes the
deserving may sink into destitution, and
that in the almshouse, and even the poor-
house, there are saints of God.
What do these exceptional cases prove ?
Do they prove that sometimes God's
promise fails? If we look to Jesus, we
shall understand the mystery. Though He
spoke so cheerfully of God's good provi
dence, yet He had to say Himself, " Foxes
have holes, and the birds of the air have
nests ; but the Son of man hath not where
32

The Good Shepherd
to lay His head " ; and He died forsaken
and outcast. Still, through all, He kept His
eye fixed on God and never doubted that
out of the darkest misfortune He would
cause to be born a higher good. Nor was
He disappointed ; for out of His bitter
shame has come His exaltation, and out of
His loss and suffering the salvation of the
world. So out of the mysteries of God's
providence will there be born glorious sur
prises for His other children also. His
resources are not exhausted in this life :
even after death He can still justify Him
self. If God causes any of His saints to
want one thing, it is only that He may give
a better. Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs
And works His sovereign will.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and will break
In blessing on your head.

33

REST

35

REST

Verse Second.

" He maketh me to lie down in green pastures ;
He leadeth me beside the still waters."
After, in verse I, announcing the theme of
the Psalm to be a comparison between the
Lord's care of His people and a shepherd's
care of his flock, the sacred poet goes on to
illustrate the different kinds of fortune
through which human beings pass and in
which they experience the divine care and
sympathy ; and each of these is illustrated
by a corresponding situation in the history
of the sheep under the shepherd's guidance.
Life is full of transitions and vicissitudes ;
sometimes it is in sunshine, sometimes in
shadow ; sometimes it is on the heights,
sometimes in the depths ; but in every one
37

The Psalm of Psalms
of its varying phases God is still at hand,
watching over His own and doing all things
well. The imperial singer begins with prosperity,
of which he gives this picture taken from the
pastoral life : " He maketh me lie down in
green pastures ; He leadeth me beside the
still waters." This is, as someone has said,
the most complete picture of happiness that
ever was or can be drawn.
But why does he begin with this ? Why
does he describe the experience of pro
sperity before that of adversity ? Someone
has answered, Because it is the commoner
state. The lot of God's people is, on the
whole, one of happiness. Seasons of suffer
ing there are, indeed ; and they are vividly
remembered — just as an obstruction in a river
makes a great show and causes a great noise ;
but the life of the Christian is for the most
part like a tranquil stream, which flows deep
and does not invite attention.
Lord Bacon has the aphorism that, while
prosperity was the promise of the Old Testa
ment, adversity is the blessing of the New.
38

Rest
But is this true ? There are doubtless many
weighty words of the New Testament which
speak of the cross which Christians must
bear and the persecutions they may have
to suffer : " Whosoever doth not bear his
cross and come after Me, cannot be My
disciple " ; " Marvel not if the world hateth
you ; ye know that it hated Me before it
hated you." Such words abound among the
sayings of our Lord and His apostles. But
they do not stand alone ; and, when quoted
alone, they convey a misleading impression.
What said the Master Himself? "Verily,
I say unto you, there is no man who hath
left house, or brethren or sisters, or father
or mother, or wife or children, for My sake
and the gospel's, but he shall receive a
hundredfold more in this time, houses, and
brethren and sisters, and mothers and chil
dren, and lands, with persecutions ; and in
the world to come eternal life." Similarly
an aposde declares : " Godliness is profitable
unto all things, having promise of the life
which now is and of that which is to come."
The New Testament is not a sadder book
39

The Psalm of Psalms
than the Old ; on the contrary, it is far more
sunny and melodious ; and this is not only
because the misery of the present life is to
be compensated by the felicity of the life to
come, but this life itself is a happy one.
The world's no blank to us
Nor blot ; it means intensely, and means good.
i. Temporal Prosperity.
This is true in regard to temporal pro
sperity. The tendency of things is to throw
into the lap of God's people the best blessings
even of this earthly life.
What are these ? Health is one of them.
This is a fundamental blessing, on which
many more depend. All sights look dreary
when seen through the jaundiced eyes of
disease, and all pleasures are tasteless when
they touch an unhealthy palate. But, when
the blood is flowing limpidly through the
veins and the brain is fresh and unclogged,
God's glorious world, with its sights and
sounds, gratifies the senses and awakens
desire ; things have their natural taste, and
40

Rest
the simple elements of life are enough to
satisfy without the condiment of artificial
pleasure. Now, health is most likely to be
the heritage of those who obey the laws of
God. By the excesses of an ungoverned
youth, many are sowing in their own bodily
constitution the seeds of a debilitated man
hood and an early death. They are burning
out in themselves the very sense for natural
pleasure and creating the necessity for arti
ficial stimulation, which loses its effect the
oftener it is applied. Those who listen to
the voice of God and follow the path of
virtue may be scoffed at, because, during
the opportunities of youth, they do not
follow the hot and highly seasoned pleasures
which others pursue ; but their enjoyment
lasts longer, and at the period when others
are falling bankrupt they are coming into
the full enjoyment of their heritage.
Another of the best blessings of life is
love. It is by the heart mainly that human
beings are made blessed or miserable ; and
it is a notable evidence of the equality of
nature that love is restricted to no class or
4i

The Psalm of Psalms
grade of culture or fortune. The poorest
may feel the glow of pure affection and be
loyal to the vows of friendship. Love
culminates in the home, and he who pos
sesses a happy home, where the hunger of
the heart is satisfied and the voice of inno
cent mirth is heard, has not missed the best
which this earthly life can yield. But to
whom does the blessing of love belong ?
Many prostitute the name by applying it
to indulgences which make true love im
possible ; for impurity "hardens a' within
and petrifies the feeling." He who wastes
his youth is robbing himself beforehand of
the power of giving to a pure woman, should
he be so fortunate as to win the love of such
a one, heart for heart ; he is robbing himself
beforehand of the power of looking in his
children's faces unashamed ; and it is more
than possible that his offspring may have to
pay with lives of misery the penalty of his
sin. If the glory of friendship is that each
friend knows the other to be absolutely
transparent and true ; if love is the exchange
of hearts which have been kept for one
42

Rest
another unspent and undefiled ; if home is,
as has been said, the one bit of Paradise left
in a fallen world ; then is the gift of love, in
all its perfection and splendour, peculiarly the
heritage of those who have taken God's law
and Christ's will as the rule of their life.
Another of these blessings is business
success. Of this, indeed, too high an
estimate may be formed. In a business
community financial success is deified, and
multitudes, though perhaps they are hardly
aware of the fact, worship no other God.
On the other hand, it is possible to de
preciate success too much. Business is, by
the allotment of Providence, that to which
the majority have to devote the most of
their time and the best of their strength.
To depreciate it, therefore, as if it did not
matter whether or not a man did it with
all his might, is only to confuse the mind
and perplex the conscience. Business is a
providential school of virtue, in which man
hood is developed and the natural powers
are exercised, and success is, as a rule, the
evidence that we have not been faithless or
43

The Psalm of Psalms
laggard scholars. To whom does success
fall ? Some would answer, To the selfish
and unscrupulous — to those who mind
Number One and never hesitate to fling
down or trample on a competitor, and to
those who, when occasion requires, can,
without flinching, stoop to falsehood. Alas,
there are too many facts which might be
adduced in support of such a view of busi
ness. Yet it is a partial view, and there is
a vast body of facts on the opposite side.
Unscrupulousness sometimes succeeds, and
often quite eclipses honesty in the rapidity
with which it reaches the goal ; but its pro
sperity is frequently short-lived and its
hollowness is exposed at last. Character tells
in business. It may not do so today, but
it will tomorrow. "The meek," said our
Lord, " shall inherit the earth." It seems a
paradox ; for are not the meek thrust aside
and trampled in an age like ours by the
pushing and self-assertive ? Yes, they are ;
but their turn comes. The gilt of preten
tious talents is soon rubbed off, and then
what it has covered looks shabby ; but the
44

Rest
solid gold of character shines more and more
the longer it is rubbed, and in due time its
value is acknowledged. There are those who
will tell you that the Decalogue is abrogated
in the business-world, and that the Sermon
on the Mount, though beautiful to read in
a castle-in-the-air, has no meaning in the
market-place. But the Decalogue and the
Sermon on the Mount have a way of living
on, whilst their critics pass away. Some
men also venture to take these rules into the
market-place ; and the God who made the
Decalogue and the Christ who preached the
Sermon do not allow them to be put to shame.
Some possess all these blessings of the
earthly life which I have mentioned and
many more besides. They have the gift
of health ; they have known love in all its
sweet, pure forms ; their friends are warm
and true ; their home is a scene of tranquillity
in which they find refuge from the turmoils
of the world ; their children are affectionate
and well-doing ; and God has so blessed the
labour of their hands that they have never
lacked bread to eat or raiment to put on.
45

The Psalm of Psalms
The lines have fallen unto them in pleasant
places. Theirs is the condition our text
describes : " He maketh me to lie down in
green pastures ; He leadeth me beside the
still waters."
God has given these gifts. With what
effect on the relation between your soul and
Him ? It is an astonishing thing how often
in Scripture spiritual improvement is ascribed
to affliction and misfortune. " Before I was
afflicted I went astray, but now I have learned
thy law." "Whom the Lord loveth He
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom
He receiveth." In experience, too, we find
that religious improvement is closely con
nected with suffering. Hundreds of times
we have heard of sinners being converted by
a severe illness or a great bereavement ; but
who ever heard of a man being converted
by a windfall of good fortune ? It is not
creditable that we are thus dependent for
our religion on the withdrawal of temporal
blessings and so little affected by the pos
session of them.
I do not, however, believe that loss alone
46

Rest
sanctifies. Happiness does so too. A heart
made happy by pure love is not far from
the kingdom of God. The coming of a
child into a family sometimes opens the door
for Christ. Prosperity in business breeds
liberality in giving. Only, such virtues
ought far oftener to spring from God's
goodness. Many of us, if we would only,
in a sequestered hour, look back on the way
we have been led, and look round on the
ample and sunny heritage in which God has
placed us, could see a thousand reasons
for clinging with boundless gratitude and
loyalty to Him and to the kingdom of His
Son. 2. Spiritual Prosperity.
When, however, the psalmist says, "Thou
makest me to lie down in green pastures,
Thou leadest me beside the still waters," he
cannot be referring to temporal blessings
alone : this is also a description of the life
spiritual. Valuable as temporal blessings are, a
Christian must hold them with a light hand
47

The Psalm of Psalms
and be ready to sacrifice them for the sake of
the integrity of the life within. Christians
have, in fact, often thus sacrificed every
worldly possession and every worldly prospect
and laid down even life itself. A Christian
lives in the world like other men ; he attends
to business and derives profits from it ; he
enjoys the delight of friendship and the
comfort of home ; yet he has, at the same
time, a life which ordinary men of the world
have not — a life remote and solitary, hid with
Christ in God. A portion of human nature
which in other men is dormant has in him
been awakened ; he is in living intercourse
with the world unseen ; the powers of his
spirit are in activity, going forth towards
their proper objects — to God, to Christ, to
truth, to eternity.
Now this spiritual life, taken as a whole,
is a supremely happy life, and brings fresh
currents of joy into the being. So volumin
ous are these that they are able to make up
for the loss of ordinary temporal comforts
and enjoyments. Look at a man like St.
Paul. He lost much by being a Christian ;
48

Rest
he suffered much ; but was he an unhappy
man ? On the contrary, an exuberant life
throbs in all his movements, and an irrepres
sible joy rings, like a peal of bells, in all his
writings. What are the enjoyments of this hidden
life? One of them is love. I have already
spoken of the deep pleasure of ordinary
human love. But the heart of man has been
fashioned with the capacity for a love
profounder and nobler than the love of
friend or father, wife or child. We are
capable of loving God and His Son Jesus
Christ. In many hearts this is a capacity
and nothing more, just as other forms of
affection may never reach their realisation.
Many do not love God ; they do not love
the Saviour. But where this divine affection
is awakened into activity, it is not only the
most sacred and influential, but also the most
delightful and satisfying emotion which the
heart can know. If to love another human
being, and to know that you are held dear by
another human heart, be one of the crowning
d 49

The Psalm of Psalms
experiences of life, what must it be to love
God and to know that you are held dear in
the heart of Christ ?
It is almost choosing at random from a
wide field of selection, when I mention as
another of the enjoyments of the interior life
delight in the Word of God. I mention
this because the words of our text have often
been applied to it. When enjoying revealed
truth, Christians often speak of themselves
as lying down in green pastures and being
led beside still waters. Thus one says,
"What are these green pastures but the
Scriptures of truth — always fresh, always
rich, and never exhausted ? Sweet and full
are the doctrines of the gospel, fit food for
souls, as tender grass is nutriment for
sheep. When by faith we are enabled to
find rest in the promises, we are like the
sheep that lie down in the midst of pastures ;
we find at the same moment both provender
and peace, rest and refreshment, serenity and
satisfaction." There are those who read the
Bible and enjoy it for its literary qualities
alone ; and, indeed, by its profundity of
5°

Rest
thought and beauty of diction, it is placed at
the head of all literature. But the delight of
a spiritual mind in it is deeper : the Bible is
one of the principal means through which it
maintains its connexion and intercourse with
the divine heart which it loves.
Let me name but one more enjoyment of
the hidden life — the bliss of doing good.
This bliss is not, indeed, the exclusive
property of the spiritual. There are those
who, from natural goodness of heart or the
influence of good tradition and training, care
continually for the welfare of their neigh
bours ; and none can do so, whatever be
their motives, without having a rich blessing
returned into their own bosoms. But the
passion of doing good belongs peculiarly to
Christians. They have learned it from
Christ. Looking on their fellow-men through
His eyes, they perceive both their infinite
worth and their immeasurable danger.
Having received salvation themselves, they
feel an instinctive desire to communicate the
secret to others. In this work many emotions
are stirred, some of them painful and some
51

The Psalm of Psalms
pleasurable. It is work which is liable to
encounter opposition ; and the opposition
may wax deadly. But, on the whole, the
reward of such work is great. No man ever
yet exerted himself for the temporal and
eternal welfare of others without being him
self enriched. And, when the work is
successful, and men and women are saved,
and they pour their gratitude on our
heads, who can measure the joy ? It is worth
living for, to be made the instrumentality
through which has been wrought an immortal
good. This is what some would call, not without
a touch of . contempt, the hedonistic or
eudasmonistic aspect of Christianity ; and
they would deprecate the emphasizing of this
pleasurable element in religion. Better, they
would say, emphasize the sober fact that
religion is a duty to be done, a yoke to be
felt, a cross to bear. I do not, however,
think so. Let each side of the truth have its
turn. And, after all, Christianity must
always be far more a gift from God to man
than a gift from man to God.
52

Rest
It is of the utmost consequence to pro
claim and reiterate that the blessedness of
man is hidden at the centre of his own being :
it lies in the opening up of the hidden world
of the spirit, into which Christianity invites
him. It is there that man meets God and
enters into the fulness of salvation by Jesus
Christ. Let no one leave the world without
seeing the one vision it contains, or die
without ever having lived.

53

DISCIPLINE

SS

DISCIPLINE Verse Third.
" He restoreth my soul ;
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His
name's sake."
In the Twenty-third Psalm the different kinds
of experience through which the people of
God pass are set forth by different incidents
in the life of a flock of sheep. The point
is, that the shepherd is always present and
watchful, consulting for the welfare of the
creatures committed to his care ; and in the
same way God is with His people in every
variety of fortune, seeing to it that all things
work together for their good. Verse 2 is a
perfect picture of prosperity ; but verse 3 is
a picture of adversity.
57

The Psalm of Psalms
i. The Fainting-fits of the Soul.
"He restoreth my soul," says the sacred
singer. But this implies that the soul is in
need of restoration. The picture is that of a
sheep which, through heat and fatigue, has
fainted away, or is on the point of breathing
out its life ; but the good shepherd, by
administering a restorative in the nick of
time, brings back the departing breath.
Here we have a totally different picture from
that of verse 2. There the sheep was in
green pastures ; all was sunshine and
happiness ; life was enjoyable and abundant.
But here life is at the lowest ebb ; and the
sheep has fainted away.
There are such contrasts in experience.
Life has its sunshine, but it has also its
shadow. There are days of prosperity, when
the tides swell the channel of life from bank
to brae ; but there are also times of adversity,
when the pulse of life is low and hope has
almost died out of the heart.
This is the case even in the Christian life.
On the whole, it is a life of joy — it is the
58

Discipli

ine
happiest of all lives — yet it has its seasons
of faintness and despair, when the cordials
and restoratives of the Good Shepherd are
required. What are the reasons for these fainting
times ?
First of all, a Christian is exposed, like
other men, to the misfortunes and calamities
of the human lot. There is a passage of
Scripture which says that God maketh His
sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and
sendeth His rain on the just and unjust :
there are certain common blessings in which
all participate, whatever be their character.
But the converse is also true, that there are
common misfortunes from which none escape,
be their character what it may. The light
ning strikes the roof of sinner and saint
indiscriminately ; a bad harvest destroys the
crops of good and bad alike ; bad times blight
the business of the honest as well as of the
dishonest ; illness and death are incident to
all the children of men. At many points,
indeed, godliness will supply alleviations of
even such common calamities : when an
59

The Psalm of Psalms
epidemic is raging, the steady man's chances
of recovery are much greater than those of
him who has wasted his constitution by
dissipation ; and, in times when trade fails,
the industrious and saving have generally
something to fall back on, whereas the reckless,
who live from hand to mouth, are thrown on
the rocks at once. Still there is in this world
a mysterious body of evil from which none
can altogether escape. " Man is born to
trouble as the sparks fly upwards," and, the
more complicated life becomes, through the
crowding of population, the more is the
individual exposed to suffering for which he
is not directly responsible.
Further, however, Christians are exposed
to suffering through the very fact that they
are Christians. Christ had to warn His first
followers that they would be hated of all men
for His sake. " Yea, the time cometh," He
said, " when whosoever killeth you will think
he doeth God service." In many ages this
has been literally fulfilled, as is proved by
the religious persecutions of ancient and
modern times. Nor has the offence of the
60

Discipline
cross ever ceased. Public persecution has,
indeed, ceased, but private persecution still
continues ; and it is sometimes harder to
bear. The natural heart is still unchanged ;
and it resents the disturbance to its self-com
placency caused by the presence and the
criticism of the followers of Jesus. In the
archives of the Church we have our books of
martyrs, and these are by no means all
written yet ; but the unwritten persecutions
are infinitely vaster in their proportions, and
they form one of the causes from which the
flock of God faints.
There are, however, deeper causes still.
The Christian life has its own special pains
and secret crosses. A Christian is a man
who has seen an ideal : Christ is his ideal,
and the life of Christ is the model with which
he is always comparing his own. This breeds
a divine discontent ; he despises himself ; he
is often in despair because he has fallen
beneath what he ought to be. Perhaps he
has been on the heights of communion,
inspiration and holiness ; but the tides of the
Spirit recede, the heart grows cold, indiffer-
61

The Psalm of Psalms
ence comes on, iniquity prevails against him.
Even a St. Paul had to cry out in bitterness
of spirit, " Oh, wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this
death ? "
To mention but one other cause of the
fainting-fits of the soul : Christians have on
their shoulders and on their hearts the public
cause of Christ, and, when it is in difficulties or
is threatened with failure, they have to bear the
burden and the shame. Sometimes it seems
as if at the back of Christianity there were no
almighty force ; the world is too strong for
it ; ancient forms of wrong cannot be over
come ; and wickedness, enthroned in high
places, is scornful and insolent. In such
cases the ungodly are always ready to exult
and ask, " Where is your God now gone ? "
The Christian may feel in his own heart that
his prayers are not being answered ; perhaps
someone near and dear to him is under the
power of a vice from which even religion
seems unable to deliver him ; and the heart
faints with the strain of unceasing shame and
long delay. 62

Discipline
2. The Restoratives of the
Good Shepherd.
I have described the occasions of depression
at length ; but the Psalm does not do so.
What it says is not, " I have many causes of
trouble," but, " He restoreth my soul." It
is as if the only element of the time of suffer
ing which was remembered was the deliverance
from it.
Man's extremity is God's opportunity.
The sympathy, the tenderness, and the loving
kindness of God would not be fully known
were it not for the days of darkness in which
He draws near to succour.
If God is ever certain to be near His saints,
it is when they are in trouble. Which of all
the sheep in a good shepherd's flock is the
most certain to have the shepherd's attention ?
Is it not the one that is ailing ? As soon as
the cry of distress is heard from afar, see how
the shepherd hastens over flood and scaur,
leaving the ninety-and-nine to look after
themselves. Of a mother's children, which
is the one that receives most assiduity? Is
63

The Psalm of Psalms
it not the one that is in danger ? When a
child is laid down with fever or has had an
accident, the mother's thoughts are never for
a moment out of the room ; the love in her
heart increases with the danger, till it becomes
painful in its intensity, and she takes no rest
till the life is restored. Such human experi
ences make us acquainted with the heart of
God ; for the sparks of affection in our
composition have been kindled from the fire
of love in His nature. Never is He so
near, never is His compassion so melting,
as when we need Him most. And, when
this is realised, the storm within us is
changed into a calm. Any grief is bearable
if we are able to say, My Shepherd knows.
But what are the restoratives with which
God overcomes the fainting-fits of those who
put their trust in Him ?
They are numerous, and it would be im
possible to specify them all. Sometimes,
when adversity has lasted long, He causes
it to be followed by a time of prosperity ;
and the joy of His goodness is all the greater
because of the contrast with preceding suffer-
64

Discipline
ing. The night may be dark, but the day
succeeds the night ; the rain may be con
tinuous, and the storm may roar as if it
would sweep man with all his works off the
face of the earth, but the sunshine succeeds
the rain, and calm comes after the storm.
In the times of persecution which our fore
fathers had to endure, being hunted like
partridges on the mountains, there came now
and then, owing to various causes, longer or
shorter periods when the zeal of the perse
cutor slackened and the persecuted were
allowed repose. These pauses were called
"blinks," and they were greatly enjoyed.
At such times their souls were restored.
Even in the lives which are most sorely
beset with misfortune there are " blinks " ;
God knows that the human spirit is not able
to bear the unceasing strain of calamity, and
He gives these intervals of rest. When one
source of comfort or joy is taken away, the
vacant place is filled with a new one. Thus,
into a home from which someone greatly
beloved has been removed there is sent a
new child ; the bereaved hearts revive to
e 65

The Psalm of Psalms
welcome the young life ; and the cypresses
of the grave are hidden beneath the climbing
roses of hope.
Sometimes it turns out that the road of
adversity is the pathway to prosperity, and
apparent calamity is only the disguise in
which good fortune is for a little concealed.
One of the most famous men of our century
has put it on record that what appeared the
misfortunes of his early life turned out in
the end to be the steps to influence and
renown. Again and again he attempted to
find refuge from the stress of circumstances
by putting into some little haven of common
place comfort, where he might have lived and'
died a nonentity ; but Providence shut up the
way in every case and kept him out on the
high seas, where, by battling with the storms,
he acquired courage and power, and in due
time he came to his kingdom. Providence
seems sometimes to delight in steering the
course of its favourites to the very verge of
ruin, till the heart of the voyager quakes
with terror, when suddenly, by a skilful
turn of the Pilot's hand, the vessel is guided
66

Discipline
into the sunny seas of undreamed-of success ;
and the poor human heart, which was half-
dead with dismay, is filled with laughter and
the tongue with song. If in the spiritual
world there are seasons of dryness and of
decline, when the tree of life appears to
wither, there are also times of revival, when
the breath of spring is in the atmosphere
and the movement of spring in the ground
— the flowers appear on the earth, the time
of the singing of birds is come, and the
voice of the turtle is heard in the land.
Over a congregation, or a city, or a country,
there passes the wind of the Spirit of God ;
religion suddenly becomes real ; the powers
of the world to come can almost be seen and
handled ; and to be alive is a joy. This
may be brought about for the individual
through slight means — by meeting with a
new friend, by the influence of a good
minister, by a little success in winning souls,
by realising some new truth of God's Word,
or the like. The Christian life is a succes
sion of new beginnings ; and they that wait
on the Lord shall renew their strength.
67

The Psalm of Psalms
3. The Best Use of Adversity.
The Psalm directs special attention to one
of the uses of adversity in the words, " He
leadeth me in the paths of righteousness."
Here the poet is holding fast by his
metaphor ; because it is a fact that in times
of peril and fear the sheep of a flock follow
close to the shepherd, and keep in a straight
path wherever he may lead them. At other
times they can expatiate over the fields and
may easily wander ; but terror makes them
keep their eye on the shepherd and follow him
without turning to the right hand or the left.
But how true to human experience also is
the statement ! Adversity has a great deal
to do with sanctification.
For one thing, it makes prayer real.
Some of us would, I daresay, confess that
we never knew what prayer actually was till
we were driven to the throne of grace by a
calamity that was brea ing our heart. I
remember being in Germany immediately
after the Franco-Prussian War ; and I was
told how, during the anxious months of the
68

Discipline
war-time, the churches, which usually are
so empty in that country, were crowded,
every time the doors were opened, with
fathers and mothers whose sons were at the
front. Prayer in days which are without
suffering or change is apt to be only a pious
form, of which we are weary ; but, when the
heart is dreading some impending calamity
or the iron of loss has entered into the soul,
the old forms are filled with fresh meaning,
and the tides of emotion overflow the forms ;
we do not measure the time which we spend
on our knees, and the words of prayer pour,
new and living, from the heart.
The same might be said of the Bible : we read
it with opened eyes when we have suffered.
Passages which we have read scores of times
without seeing their beauty lay hold of our sym
pathy. Deep calls unto deep — the experience
of the writer finds its echo in our breasts.
WhatGoethe said of poetry is true of Scripture :
Who neyer ate his bread in sorrow,
Who never spent the midnight hours
Weeping and watching for the morrow,
He knows you not, ye heavenly powers.
69

The Psalm of Psalms
Thus by the avenue of prayer and by the
avenue of the Word we are brought nigh to
God through adversity ; but adversity affects
character in many other ways. I have known
a Christian who, after years of careful living
and useful testimony, fell into a state of care
lessness and backsliding. Just at this stage
a younger brother of his own came from the
country to the city, and took up his abode
in the same lodging. The younger had
expected to receive from the elder a good
example ; but, not receiving it, he fell into
evil courses, and the issue was disastrous in
the extreme. But it terrified the backsliding
brother back to his Lord. Thus are we
sometimes taught, by the consequences of
backsliding in ourselves or others, how evil
and how bitter a thing it is to depart from
the living God ; and the immovable firmness
with which a man stands in the right path,
avoiding the very appearance of evil, may be
due to the recollection of a fall and its
calamitous consequences.
But, in whatever way adversity may lead us
in the paths of righteousness and away from
70

Discipline
the paths of unrighteousness, this is by far
the most blessed effect it can produce ; for
to a Christian nothing is so good as holiness
and nothing so formidable as sin. We all
naturally desire prosperity and seek to avoid
adversity ; but well may we say, Welcome
adversity, welcome suffering, welcome the
chastisements of God, if by these we are led
in the paths of righteousness.
4. The Best Guarantee of
Prosperity.
The phrase with which this verse closes is
not to be neglected — the phrase, "for His
name's sake " — because, though the wording
of it is brief, the meaning is profound.
Surely God restores the souls of His
sheep and leads them in the paths of right
eousness for their sakes. When we are in
distress, He pities us ; and pity causes Him
to give aid. So, when He is leading us in
the paths of righteousness, He is doing us a
great kindness ; for there is nothing either
so discreditable or so miserable to a child of
7i

The Psalm of Psalms
God as to be walking in the path of un
righteousness. But the Psalm takes a far
bolder line : it says that God must do these
things for His own sake.
If we look again at the image of the shep
herd, we easily see how just this observation
is. A shepherd succours his sheep when
they are fainting, and leads them back into
the straight path when they have gone astray,
for their sake — because he is attached to
them — but is not his own character involved
in the matter ? Would not the countryside
ring with his dishonour if in such circum
stances he neglected his sheep and left them
to die ? So the honour of God is involved
in the welfare of His people. He has
undertaken their salvation ; and, having
begun the good work, He must complete
it. If God's people were uniformly un
fortunate, the young and the timid would
be terrified away from religion. It brings
reproach on the name of God when His
professing people become backsliders.
This is a strong argument to use in
prayer : we can ask Him to save us from
72

Discipline
our sins and to make us holy, oecause
nothing reflects such credit on His cause as
the consistency of those who have named
the name of Christ. Nothing can give us
stronger hope in praying for friends or
relatives who may have fallen under the power
of sin : " Good Shepherd, lead them back
to the paths of righteousness for Thine own
name's sake." Such a form of prayer will
impart dignity also to our own lives. We
are too apt to seek deliverance from adver
sity for our own sakes alone ; we wish to be
in the sunshine of prosperity simply because
it is more pleasant to ourselves. But life
ought to have a nobler aim. God's glory
ought to be our chief end ; and, if man is
earnestly seeking to glorify God, God will
see to it that he also enjoys Him for
ever.

73

IN EXTREMIS

IS

IN EXTREMIS
Verse Fourth.
" Yea, 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."
There is some difficulty about the correct
translation of this verse. In ancient Hebrew
manuscripts there were no vowels ; only the
consonants are written, the vowels having to
be supplied by the reader. This sometimes
introduces considerable uncertainty. And in
the present case it depends on the vowel or
vowels supplied by the reader whether the
rendering shall be " the valley of shadows "
or "the valley of the shadow of death."
The latter phrase, even if it be incorrect, is
in some respects an extremely happy one,
and it has obtained so strong a hold in every-
77

The Psalm of Psalms
day speech that it is neither likely nor
desirable that it should be displaced. Yet
I am inclined to think that "the valley of
shadows " is what the writer intended to say.
It reminds us of a phrase in another
famous Psalm, "the valley of Baca," which
probably means " Weeping." So the Revised
Version renders it :
Passing through the Valley of Weeping, they make it
a place of springs ;
Yea, the early rain covereth it with blessings.
" The valley of shadows " and " the valley
of weeping " must have the same meaning.
They are expressions for a particularly trying
portion of that ideal journey which all must
travel between the cradle and the grave.
It is more than possible, however, that
there may have been some actual place
bearing the name of the Valley of Shadows
in the scenery from which the imagery of
this Psalm is borrowed. Somewhere in the
hills of Judah, where David kept his flocks,
there was a glen through which, at nightfall,
the shepherd boy used to lead home his
78

In Extremis
sheep. They called it the Valley of Shadows
or the Valley of the Shadow of Death ;
because there the darkness fell earlier than
elsewhere, and the gloom of night was
deeper. Its ravines were haunted by wild
beasts ; and, as the darkness came on, the
distant howl of wolf or hyaena could be
heard. David could remember how, at such
moments, his sheep huddled closely about
his heels, and he prepared to do batde, if
necessary, for their lives. Since then he had
learned that the life of man has also such
passages ; but, as the sheep crept under his
protection, so he had learned where to place
his trust : " Yea, 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. The Dark Valley.
The chief objection to the translation,
" the valley of the shadow of death," is that
it tends to make us think too exclusively
of death as the portion of experience here
79

The Psalm of Psalms
intended. The dark valley may, however,
occur at other stages of the journey of life.
It will be remembered where, in the
Pilgrim's Progress, the Valley of the Shadow
of Death comes in. It is not at the end,
but in the first half of the pilgrim's journey.
In thus locating it Bunyan was taking a
justifiable liberty, guided by his personal
experience ; and never has the scene itself
been more graphically described. You re
member that perilous path, with a ditch on
one side and a quagmire on the other, so
that, "when the pilgrim sought to shun the
ditch on the one hand, he was ready to tip
over into the mire on the other ; also, when
he sought to escape the mire, without great
carefulness he would be ready to fall into
the ditch." The Valley was dark as pitch,
and full of hobgoblins, satyrs and dragons
of the pit ; "also he heard doleful voices
and rushings to and fro " ; and the path was
beset with snares and nets, holes and pitfalls.
Under this imagery Bunyan bodies forth the
spiritual conflicts and terrors, amounting
almost to melancholy madness, with which
80

In Extremis
the earlier stages of his own Christian course
were beset, and of which such graphic
and moving descriptions are found in his
autobiography, Grace Abounding. These ter
rible sufferings were, in large measure, due
to a nervous temperament. The elements
of his nature were dangerously poised ; as
was the case in a still more extreme degree
with another great Englishman of Christian
genius — the poet Cowper. But there are
many who, if asked to say what to them had
been the valley of the shadow of death,
would at once think of the period when they
were passing through the conviction of sin,
so keen was the pain and so deadly the
despair which they then endured.
In the case of others, whose temperament
is not so highly strung, the causes are more
realistic. While there are some lives which
move on equably from beginning to end
with the smoothness of a boat on a canal, in
most there is considerable vicissitude of joy
and sorrow, as in the course of a ship which
sails the high seas and has to encounter all
kinds of weather ; and in most also there
f 81

The Psalm of Psalms
occur, at least once or twice, crises and
catastrophes, when feeling is put on the
utmost strain, and the vital forces seem on
the point of being crushed out by over
whelming pressure from without or within.
We speak of experiences which can turn a
person's hair grey, or out of which people
emerge as if they had risen from their graves.
It is to such extraordinary crises that the
description of the text applies.
They may be due to a thousand different
causes. Some of these may be public. A
great war, for example, may put an enormous
strain on the feelings of the inhabitants of a
country : when, for weeks and months, tens
of thousands of hearts are on the rack for
the news of victory or defeat, and every list
of killed and wounded that appears is scanned
in feverish terror of seeing the name of
husband, son or brother. The passage of a
devastating epidemic through a city may
have a similar effect : when at every turn in
the streets the passing hearse is met, and for
months the wings of death seem to be
flapping about every house. Sometimes a
82

In Extremis
commercial panic works in the same way :
when a great bank shuts its door, whereupon
failure follows failure, the gentlewoman and
the widow are reduced from affluence to
beggary, and no man knows but the next
letter he opens may inform him that the
blow has fallen on his own home.
The private causes of such sufferings are
too numerous to be even hinted at. Who
can estimate what a wife suffers when she
first perceives that her husband is becoming
a victim of drink ? An honest man, with a
beloved wife and a young family depending
on him, who is suddenly deprived of work
and sees no prospect of being able to keep
the wolf from the door, must sometimes in
a few weeks pass through the bitterness of
death. When a heart that has trusted
another and given its whole happiness into
its keeping discovers at the critical moment
that it has been deceived, it must appear as
if the whole universe were falling and as if
mankind were nothing but a lie.
But, whether the sacred poet intended it
or not, it is not without significance that this
83

The Psalm of Psalms
experience has been called the Valley of the
Shadow of Death. Death is for mankind the
great Valley of Shadows. Tens of thousands
would say that their bereavements had
robbed them of the sap and buoyancy of life
and made them old — when the mother sat
by the bedside and saw the life ebbing away
from the son who was the apple of her eye ;
when the husband laid in the grave the half
of his life ; when the friend lost the friend
whose praise was the chief incentive to high
endeavour. Death to many is an event the
very thought of which simply stupefies.
The stoppage of work, the interruption of
plans, the forced renunciation of pleasures,
the separation from the near and dear which
it implies, are bewildering and horrifying ;
and still worse is the voyage out into the un
known, with the new experiences which may
have to be encountered there. Of all enemies
Death is not only the last but the worst. It was
one who knew human nature well that said :
The weariest and most loathed worldly life
Which age, want, penury and imprisonment
Can lay on nature is a Paradise
To what we fear of death.
84

In Extremis
2. The Presence of God.
Again the poet is back among the experi
ences of his early days. As the sheep
entered the Valley of the Shadows, fear
huddled them close round the shepherd ;
but through contact with his body they
became fearless ; his well-known voice soothed
them ; even the touch of his crook, laid on
them to keep them together, filled them
with confidence.
It has often been asked what is the
difference between the rod and the staff, but
no very satisfactory answer has, as far as I
am aware, been given. Some have regarded
the words as two names for the same thing :
but this is unlikely, as it would be a
manifest tautology. Although it cannot be
proved from the modern customs of the
East, it is most probable that the ancient
shepherd carried with him two instruments
of his trade — one rod of lighter make, to be
used in dealing with the sheep, and another
of heavier weight and shod with iron, for
the purpose of dealing with the enemies of
85

The Psalm of Psalms
the sheep, striking at the lion or the bear
which might attack them. At all events, in
God there are resources corresponding to
both : He has all that is required for both
the guidance and the protection of His own.
The peace and contentment of the sheep
are not, however, due to the rod and staff,
but to the bearer of them. And the secret
of the heart's peace is God Himself — "I
will fear no evil ; for Thou art with me."
It is a universal experience that fear departs
when the appropriate person is near on
whose love, strength or wisdom we can
rely. A child dreads to be alone in an
empty house ; but to be there along with
its mother makes fear impossible. A boy
lost in the crowd cries as if his heart would
break ; but, carried through the crowd on
his father's shoulder, he is as happy as a
king. As the train rushes through the
night at the rate of fifty miles an hour,
what a panic it would cause if the passengers
should learn that no one was on the engine ;
but, when they have reason to believe that
the engineer is with them, they fear no evil.
86

In Extremis
The prisoner placed at the bar charged with
a crime of which he knows himself to be
innocent would be lost if left to himself to
unwind the rope which the sophistical skill
of the prosecutor is twisting round his neck ;
but, when he looks at the advocate who is
with him, armed with complete knowledge
of the facts and with brilliant powers of
argument, he is not afraid.
There can be no circumstances in which
God is not with His own. It has been
pointed out that the four verses about the
Good Shepherd in the Twenty-third Psalm
correspond in a remarkable way with four
names of God — verse i , " The Lord is my
Shepherd, I shall not want," with Jehovah-
jireh, the Lord will provide ; verse 2, " He
maketh me to lie down in green pastures :
He leadeth me beside the still waters," with
Jehovah-shalom, the Lord is our peace ; verse
3, " He restoreth my soul : He leadeth me in
the paths of righteousness for His name's
sake," with Jehovah-tsidkenu, the Lord our
righteousness ; and verse 4, " Yea, though I
walk through the valley of the shadow of
87

The Psalm of Psalms
death, I will fear no evil : for Thou art with
me ; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort
me," with Jehovah- shammah, the Lord is
there. Jehovah-shammah is one of the watchwords
of the spiritual life. Ascend I into heaven,
He is there ; descend I into hell, He is
there. Be my lot in sunshine or in dark
ness, in health or in sickness, He is there.
When I am on a bed of weakness, when I
am drawing my latest breath, and when I
stand before the great white throne, still
Jehovah-shammah, the Lord will be there ;
and I will fear no evil.
This is a secret which thousands of times
has transmuted the bed of death from a place
of fear and mortal defeat into a scene or
victory and transfiguration. This is the
secret : " Lo, I am with you alway even to
the end of the world. Amen."

88

THE ROYAL ENTERTAINER

89

THE ROYAL ENTERTAINER
Verse Fifth.
"Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of
mine enemies :
Thou anointest mine head with oil ;
My cup runneth over."
At the fifth verse, it is manifest, the figure
of speech is changed. Up to this point
every clause has been a picture from the
experience of the sheep ; but, when the
singer says, "Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies ; thou
anointest mine head with oil ; my cup run
neth over," it is obvious that the figure of
the sheep and the shepherd is entirely
dropped.
I. The New Figure of Speech.
If at this point the figure of speech is
changed, it is a question what the next
figure is. 91

The Psalm of Psalms
In a published sermon, characterized by
spiritual power and especially by the vivid
ness imparted to the interpretation of the
Old Testament by knowledge of the Orient,
Principal George Adam Smith takes this
verse as a picture of a scene from pastoral
life. He thinks the speaker is a fugitive
who, having committed some crime, is pur
sued by the avengers of blood, and has taken
refuge in the tent of a shepherd-chief. By
Eastern law and custom such a fugitive
would be protected with all the resources
of the person on whose mercy he had cast
himself, and regaled with the best which
the encampment could afford. It is a truly
tragic picture to see the fugitive there with
in, protected by the sheikh and feasting on
the best, while his infuriated and blood
thirsty foes glare at him from the opposite
side of the threshold, which they dare not
cross. Principal Smith takes these pursuing
enemies to represent the writer's sins. The
spectres of guilt pursue every son of man,
for who has not behind him an evil past ?
But, if a man has taken refuge in God, cast-
92

The Royal Entertainer
ing himself on His mercy, his pursuers dare
not touch him. Undoubtedly this gives a
striking sense to the verse ; and the inter
pretation has this recommendation, that it
still adheres to the pastoral life. But the
author is not so happy in explaining the
sixth verse.
By the perusal of a fascinating booklet,
entitled The Song of our Syrian Guest, from
the pen of the Rev. W. A. Knight, the
minds of multitudes on both sides of the
Adantic have been captured for the view
that the image of shepherd and sheep is con
tinued to the end of the Psalm. For the
fifth verse this is argued ingeniously, but not
convincingly : the preparing of a table being
taken as the selection of a pasture, the
anointing as the salving of wounds and
bfuises, and the cup as the vessel by which
the trough is filled out of which the sheep
drink. Far more natural is the application
of the language to the various features of a
banquet. But it is in the sixth verse that
that interpretation breaks down. A sheep
does not dwell in the " house " of a shep-
93

The Psalm of Psalms
herd, unless it be a pet lamb ; and this is a
condition which does not last "forever."
No doubt the word " house " has great
latitude of application ; and it might pos
sibly refer to the fold, though I do not
remember a case where it is so used. When
"the house of the Lord" is taken as the
palace of the king, in which the banquet of
the fifth verse has taken place, the sixth
verse is the climax of the whole Psalm, as
from its position it ought to be ; but under
any other interpretation this character is lost.
In short, David is here making use of the
experience of the second portion of his own
life, as in the image of the shepherd and the
sheep he utilises the experience of the first.
As in youth he was a shepherd abiding in
the fields, in manhood he was a king living
in a palace. One of the obligations of a
king is to be an entertainer, exercising a
frequent and a splendid hospitality. In this
virtue, we know from the historical records
of his reign, David did not come short ; he
had the cordiality and the personal fascina
tion by which hospitality is rendered delight-
94

The Royal Entertainer
ful. Many a guest had he made happy at
his table, thereby binding him in triple
loyalty to his own person ; and, as in his
own conduct as a shepherd he had found a
fruitful image of what God had done, so
does he find in this other role, played by
himself with such distinction, an ampler and
more intimate representation of the divine
goodness. 2. An Image of Activity.
Why is it that the sacred singer forsakes the
image of the shepherd and the sheep, and em
braces in his poem this one also? I have already
given an external reason in the two periods
of David's history ; but there is an internal
reason as well : it is that the first image is
not sufficient to express the spiritual life in
its entirety. Some aspects of it were ex
pressed by this image admirably, but others,
no less important, could hardly be expressed
at all.
For example, it expressed the passive but
not the active side of religion.
95

The Psalm of Psalms
The relation of the sheep to the shepherd
is wholly passive : the sheep is fed, it is led,
it is protected ; a sheep does nothing for
itself, or next to nothing. And there is a
side of religion which corresponds to this :
in religion God does everything, and man
has nothing to do but passively receive.
This is a great truth ; but it is not the
whole truth. Religion has an active side as
well : it is a battle and a victory. Well was
David aware of this : he was a great worker
for God, a fighter and a victor ; and this
side of his religion is expressed in this next
image. Perhaps this is most distinctly hinted at
in the phrase, "in the presence of mine
enemies," because this denotes that it is a
warrior's feast which is described.
Many of the banquets in David's palace
must have been of this type. One of the
features of his reign was that, like our own
King Arthur with his knights of the Round
Table, he collected round himself from all
parts of the land the young men of promise
and aspiration, and trained them up in valour
96

The Royal Entertainer
and usefulness. Their exploits were long
remembered by their countrymen with pride
and affection. At their head were the three
mighties, and after these the thirty ; Joab
and Abishai, Benaiah and Asahel were names
familiar for generations afterwards as house
hold words. These David sent forth to
clear the land of enemies and to widen its
borders on every hand ; and, when they
came home to record their triumphs, no
doubt he feasted them in the palace, making
them feel how much he rejoiced in their
valour and their victories.

3. An Image of Friendship.
Another element of the spiritual life imper-
fecdy expressed by the image of the sheep
and the shepherd, but far more adequately
set forth by that of entertainer and guest,
is communion. Between sheep and shepherd there is a
strong tie : they understand each other, and
may be said to love each other. Yet they
are far apart : between a brute and a man
g 97

The Psalm of Psalms
there is a great gulf fixed. It may be said
that the gulf between man and God is wider
still. But this is not the case. The Eighth
Psalm boldly declares, in the correct translation
of the Revised Version, that man has been
made but a little lower than God ; and all
Scripture unites in declaring that man was
made in the image of God. Man is capable
of knowing, loving and obeying his Creator,
and this is his highest honour. It is, indeed,
an infinite condescension on the part of God ;
but He allows and invites man to a far closer
fellowship with Himself than it is possible
for a sheep to have with a man ; and this
was the fact of religion which required to be
represented through a new image.
A banquet is a living image of fellowship.
To invite a man to be your guest is an
expression of respect and affection ; and it
is an intimation that you wish to know more
of him, and to come closer to him. Thev
house is adorned, the table is spread with
unusual care, and the viands are chosen to
give him pleasure and do him honour. As
the feast proceeds, distance and shyness are
98

The Royal Entertainer
broken down ; the lips are opened, and the
heart is opened. The host not only gives
his entertainment, but he gives himself ; and
the guest gives himself in return.
This is an image of religion. Religion is
fellowship with God ; this is its very soul
and essence. To be religious is to walk
with God. It is to move all day long in an
atmosphere warmed and enlightened by His
presence. It is to realise Him to be so near
that you can appeal to Him in every emer
gency, seek His aid in every time of need,
and in every joy make Him your confidant.
It is to see Him everywhere — in the sun
shine, in the beauty of hill and dale, in the
life of the market-place and the vicissitudes
of home. This immensely brightens and
intensifies life ; and in this sense all a
Christian's life may be said to be a banquet.
Others, sitting at the table of Providence,
receive ordinary fare ; but those who enjoy
God in everything partake of festal food.
A crust, if God's blessing is given with it,
and if it is received with thankfulness, causes
more enjoyment than the most savoury food
99

The Psalm of Psalms
where God is forgotten. To the mind which
can discern God the whole world becomes a
king's palace.
But in another sense the Christian life may
be compared to a banquet : not only is God
in every part of it, but now and then He
favours the soul with special seasons of com
munion. In its very nature a feast is an
occasional thing : it does not take place
every day. And perhaps, therefore, the
experience for which it stands is one which
is not the Christian's daily portion, but given
as a special favour and reward now and then.
There are such seasons : religion has not
only its ordinary tenor, but its exceptional
experiences — its mounts of transfiguration
and its evenings in the upper room. At
such times God comes very near, and fellow
ship is very close. Of such occurrences
the saints of every age have spoken. Says
one : Upon my heart, bestowed by Thee,
More gladness I have found
Than they, even then when corn and wine
Did most with them abound.
IOO

The Royal Entertainer
Another, on the evening of a day spent in
communion, said, " I had rather be a door
keeper in the house of my God than dwell
in the tents of wickedness." St. Paul was
caught up to the third heavens, and did not
know whether he was in the body or out
of the body. Read the Confessions of St.
^Augustine, or the Sermons of St. "Bernard,
Bunyan's Grace ^Mounding, or Rutherford's
Letters, and you will see that the Christian
life has what Bunyan calls its "golden
hours " ; and what makes these golden is
the nearness of God and the sense of
the divine love. Ordinary humanity no
doubt has its rare and memorable moments
too : it is a poor life in which there are not
some days which shine like gold and dia
monds among the wood, hay and stubble
of ordinary experience — days so precious
that they would not be exchanged for years
of commonplace existence — but nothing
earthly can lift the human spirit to such
heights as the influence of the Spirit of
God. Perhaps I ought to interpret in detail the
IOI

The Psalm of Psalms
different parts of the banquet as they are
described in the text — the food, which is no
doubt chiefly intended in the opening words,
" Thou preparest a table before me " ; then
the delightful extravagance of oil, with its
cool touch, so grateful in an Eastern climate,
and its fragrance, enveloping the senses ; then
the drink, so abundant as to overflow the
wine-cup. In Christian experience some
thing could easily be found corresponding
to each of these ; and those so disposed may
exercise their ingenuity in finding it out.
But I will not take the trouble ; these are
only poetical amplifications of the idea of a
right regal banquet. The most important
thing is that which underlies them without
being expressed. What is the reason why
you go to anyone's table when you are
invited ? It is not because you will get
a better meal than you would at home,
though this may be welcome ; it is not for
the abundance and the splendour, though
you may feel these to be in place : it is
friendship which takes you there ; you go
to find your friend, not to receive his food ;
102

The Royal Entertainer
these externals are only preparations and
contributions to the true feast. So, in re
ligion, it is God Himself we seek ; and the
various blessings of salvation are nothing
in themselves except as they bring us nigh
to Him.

103

FOREVER

105

FOREVER

Verse Sixth.

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the
days of my life :
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
On a celebrated occasion King David, in
thanking God for the singular success which
had marked his life-history, made special
mention of the fact that God had pledged
to him His goodness for a great while to
come : " Then went King David in and sat
before the Lord, and he said, Who am I, O
Lord God, and what is my house, that Thou
hast brought me hitherto ? And this was
yet a small thing in Thy sight, O Lord
God ; but Thou hast spoken of Thy
servant's house for a great while to come.
And is this the manner of man, O Lord
God ? " 107

The Psalm of Psalms
It is a wonderful mercy to be able not
only to remember the past with gratitude,
but to contemplate the future with confi
dence. Mortals are naturally terrified at
the future. However bright the past may
have been, the dread haunts them that in the
future may be hiding some ironical revenge.
After the foaming cup of life has been
drunk, there may be bitter dregs at the
bottom. We cannot tell what a day may
bring forth. Only a step in front of every
one of us hangs a dark curtain, which we
cannot lift. Who knows what may be
awaiting us in any of the unknown days of
a new year ? It may be some spectre of
misfortune, which will turn all our bright
life into darkness. So whispers our ignor
ance. Nor is the fear of the future always so
vague. Some know that it must contain
exceptional trials for them. The young
man who has just come to the city to push
his fortune finds himself confronted with
danger at every turn. All the influences
which have hitherto supported and en-
108

Forever
couraged him are left behind ; he is sur
rounded with new temptations ; the pace of
life is so fast that he has no time to think,
and the numbers and the novelty bewilder
him. He asks anxiously how he is to
survive the trying time, and whether it is
possible to come out with safety and honour
on the other side.
Many who have long survived this initial
stage yet fear the future, and not without
good cause. They have passed the summit
of life, and see before them the downward
slope on what is called the sunless side
of the hill. They must look forward to a
more limited range of activity, to failing
powers and to the infirmities of old age.
Must the sweetness of life, then, be only
a reminiscence of the past ? So the world
believes :
Gather the rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And that same flower which blooms today
Tomorrow will be dying.
Such is the philosophy of the world. But is
there a truer philosophy ? is there a gospel
109

The Psalm of Psalms
which can assure us that the best is still in
front — that the sun of life is not sinking
behind our backs, but rising in the direction
to which our faces are turned ?
It is this blessed gospel which is embodied
in the text. This Twenty-third Psalm, as we
have seen, celebrates the past — it is a record
of varied past experience — but it also speaks
of the future " for a great while to come."
i. The Future on this Side of Death.
The sacred poet does not assume that the
future will contain no difficulties or perils
for him. On the contrary, he knows that
his life is to be one of service and warfare.
It is the same person we have speaking in
this last verse who, in verse 5, described
himself as seated at the table of the king,
anointed with oil and drinking an overflow
ing cup. But, as we saw, that was a warrior,
and the banquet was a reward for deeds
bravely done. When, however, the feast is
over, the soldier must gird on his armour
again and return to the field. Enemies
no

Forever
have been vanquished, but not the whole of
them ; there are still batdes to fight and
victories to win.
If we are in the army of God and know
what it is to be rewarded by communion
with Himself for past services, we must not
grow weary in well-doing. There remains
yet very much land to be possessed. God
does not call us to a valetudinarian and
cloistered virtue. He desires us to perform
our part in the struggle of life, and in the
common business of the world to play the
man for Him. Besides, there is the burden
of His cause to be borne, and the means
have to be provided for extending His
reign. The earth is the Lord's and must
not be surrendered to the devil. Every
department of human effort is yet to be
holiness to the Lord ; every corner of the
globe is to be filled with His glory ; every
tribe of the human race to be numbered
among His people. Every false form of
faith must be exploded ; every practice of
cruelty and oppression by which the world is
cursed must come to an end. The struggle
in

The Psalm of Psalms
is a long one ; it is full of labour and peril ;
no Christian, however, dare decline it ; to
his dying day he must be a soldier.
But, as he leaves the banqueting house, to
return to the field of action, who are these
two figures that accompany him by order of
the king? "Goodness and Mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life." These
two divine attributes are here personified :
they are servants appointed to follow the
departing guest, to see that no evil befalls
him ; they are guardian angels sent to pro
tect him from calamity. In the Homeric
poems gods and goddesses sometimes de
scend to the earth and visit the field of
battle, to assist their favourites. In a
moment of deadly peril a goddess will
diffuse round the warrior who is too
severely pressed a mist, in which he is re
moved from the sight of his foes ; or, as
suming human shape, a god will plunge into
the struggle in which the mortal in whom
he is interested is being worsted and, with
a spear before whose point everything goes
down, completely turn the tide of batde.
112

Forever
No such mythology finds admission into the
sacred Scriptures ; but this is something like
the function here intended for the personi
fied Goodness and Mercy.
What attractive figures these two are —
how full of sympathy and bounty ! Can
there be any misfortune for which divine
Goodness cannot find a remedy ? How can
life ever become bare and empty when this
kind angel is present, ready to pour in
strength from the horn of plenty ? Still
more welcome is Mercy ; ah, we cannot
afford to be without her. Of all the dangers
which the future contains, our chief fear is
the danger arising from ourselves. The
batde, however severe, would be nothing, if
only we were absolutely sure of our own
loyalty. But we have in us an evil heart of
unbelief, which departs from the living God ;
the old man within us would betray the
whole cause to the enemy ; terrible is the
force of besetting sin, frequent are our fits
of coldness and backsliding. We require
mercy every day.
But goodness and mercy shall follow us
H 113

The Psalm of Psalms
all the days of our life. In days of pro
sperity they will be with us, lest pride
should betray us ; in days of adversity, lest
fear should make us turn back. It is true we
can never tell with what a portent any new
day may be in travail ; but, let it be what it
may, yet, if Goodness and Mercy be with us,
what need we fear ? In the hot days of
youth and in the feeble days of old age ; in
the busy day of action, in the sequestered
day of thought, and in the holiday of re
pose still they will be with us. As we
sleep, they will keep watch and ward ; and,
when we awake, they will be ready to ac
company us. In the day when friends are
many they will be there, the best friends of
all ; and in the day when all have deserted
us they will be there, never leaving or for
saking us. Finally, on the day of death,
when the world is fading from our grasp,
and around us are crowding the new shapes
of the world unknown, still these old and
familiar figures will be with us — " Goodness
and Mercy shall follow me all the days of
my life." 114

Forever
2. The Future on the Other Side
of Death.
The "great while to come," for which
David had received the assurance of the
Divine countenance, did not merely reach to
the very end of this earthly life but extended
beyond the boundary of death — " and I will
dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
" The house of the Lord " is a common
phrase for the temple or the tabernacle ; and
many have so understood it here. In this
sense the text would mean that David would
always have free access to God in His earthly
house ; and, of course, " forever " might not
mean more than as long as he should live.
But " the house of the Lord " is not here
intended in an ecclesiastical sense. It is the
palace of the Divine King — the same in
which the banquet of verse 5 took place.
As a reward for his exploits the warrior was
admitted once into the palace as a guest ; the
banquet being over, he had to return again
to the field of battle ; but he looked forward
to a time when, all his battles being finished,
"5

The Psalm of Psalms
he would be invited back to the palace, not
again to enjoy a banquet lasting only for a
night, but to be a permanent inmate of the
place ; as Mephibosheth was fed every day at
King David's table.
The figurative language being stripped
away, this looks as if it were the expression
of an assurance that, after the efforts of the
mortal life are over, those who love God will
dwell forever in communion with Him in
heaven. To us there is nothing in the least novel in
such an idea ; but it is very unusual in the
Old Testament — so unusual that many
scholars would declare that it cannot possibly
be supposed to have a place in one of the
Psalms, especially if this be by David. One
of the most extraordinary features of the Old
Testament is the absence from it of the
scenery of the future world to which in the
New Testament we are accustomed. In the
Books of Moses, for example, when the
punishments are described which will ensue
upon disobedience, all kinds of woes which
can be endured in this world are piled up
116

Forever
in the most appalling numbers, but no
mention is made of punishment in a future
state of existence ; and, in the same way,
when the rewards are mentioned which are
promised to obedience, all earthly blessings,
such as long life, plentiful harvests, political
peace and domestic joys, are enumerated, but
no mention is made of that which, according
to our notions, ought to be most prominent
of all — the promise of a reward in heaven
after death.
Not that the Hebrews supposed that at
death life is extinguished, and that there is no
existence beyond. Many things might be
adduced to prove that they were quite aware
that they would continue to exist. Thus
when anyone died, he was said to be
" gathered to his fathers " ; that is, he went
to meet in the other world those who had
died before him ; and some passages appear
to show not only that there would be recog
nition there, but that the inhabitants lived in
nations and tribes, as they had done in this
world. But the extraordinary thing is the
quality of the future life as they imagined it.
H7

The Psalm of Psalms
The place where the dead assemble is called
Sheol; and they often speak as if it were
located somewhere below ground ; but there
is no clear description of it ; and no wonder,
for it is "the land of darkness and the
shadow of death; a land of darkness, as
darkness itself, without any order, and where
the light is as darkness." Dim and shadowy,
too, is the existence there : " there is no work,
nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in
Sheol." In such a prospect there was nothing to
attract, but quite the reverse. Accordingly,
the way in which even good men speak in the
prospect of death is totally unlike what we
should now expect in the mouth of a
Christian. Read, for example, the prayer of
Hezekiah, when he was sick and expected to
die. There is not in it a scintillation of any
bliss to which he was looking forward on the
other side of death. On the contrary, he
says, " I shall not see the Lord, even the
Lord in the land of the living. Nothingness
cannot praise Thee ; death cannot celebrate
Thee ; they that go down into the pit cannot
118

Forever
hope for Thy truth." Similarly in Psalm
Thirty, a good man in prospect of death, but
pleading hard for life, prays, " What profit is
there in my blood when I go down to the
pit ? shall the dust praise Thee ? shall it
declare Thy truth ? " And another psalmist
pleads in similar circumstances, "For in
death there is no remembrance of Thee ;
in the grave who shall give Thee thanks ? "
" The dead praise not the Lord," says
another, "neither any that go down into
silence." The Ecclesiast is the most doleful
of all : "The living know that they must die ;
but the dead know not anything ; neither
have they any more a reward ; for the memory
of them is forgotten. Also their love and
their hatred and their envy is now perished ;
neither have they any more a portion forever
in anything that is done under the sun."
What may have been the purpose of God
in keeping the secret of the world to come
hidden from so many of His servants, is an
extremely interesting question. Perhaps it
was because He wished them first to recognise
that religion is a good thing for this life,
119

The Psalm of Psalms
apart altogether from a life to come.
Certainly, when we read how the saints of the
Old Testament rejoiced in God and declared
that His love had made them happier than
the godless ever could be, even when their
corn and wine abounded, and when we re
flect that these saints perhaps knew little or
nothing about the rewards of the next life,
we begin to suspect that perhaps their
religious standpoint is not lower but higher
than our own. Is our secret feeling not
sometimes that the religious life in this world
is a poor affair, the prizes and tit-bits falling
mosdy to the worldly and the wicked, but
that what religion costs here will be com
pensated by the pleasures of the world to
come ? And, if this is our thought, were not
those far above us who, apart altogether from
the punishments and rewards coming after
wards, were confident that wickedness in all
its forms is despicable and detestable, but
that godliness is life and peace ?
Another reason why the saints of the Old
Testament were kept in the dark on this
subject may have been that God does not
1 20

Forever
reveal the truth till it is needed. Truth
given to those unprepared for it would have
been little prized ; but, when they were
stretching out their hands and yearning with
their whole hearts for it, then the revelation
was seized with avidity and retained with
tenacity. In the Old Testament we see the human
mind being prepared for the revelation of
immortality, till at last it may be said to be
panting for it, as the hart for water-brooks.
The need of it was felt in twdways. On
the one hand, it was felt to be necessary, in
order to make up for the imperfect justice of
this life. The Mosaic Law taught that
godliness and righteousness would have for
reward prosperity in this world ; and this
was echoed in a hundred forms in the sacred
books, as in the First Psalm, " Blessed is the
man that walketh not in the counsel of the
ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners,
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But
his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in
His law doth he meditate day and night. He
shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of
121

The Psalm of Psalms
water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his
season ; his leaf also shall not wither ; and
whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." But
although this principle, of prosperity attend
ing the steps of the righteous, was amply
justified in the general course of history, it
was not justified in every case. Sometimes
the good man was not prosperous, and
sometimes the wicked were. In such cases
what was to be said ? God's justice was not
vindicated in this life ; must there not be
compensations in another life ? Job was an
example of calamity after calamity falling on
a righteous man, and the whole Book of Job
may be said to consist of the moans and cries
of the human soul, as it knocked at the gate
of God for the revelation of immortality.
But the human spirit was also brought to
the same point along a happier path. Life,
according to Hebrew ideas, was the breath of
God : at the Creation God breathed into
man's nostrils the breath of life, and he
became a living soul ; death, on the other
hand, is the withdrawal of the divine breath.
But, by living in constant intercourse with
122

Forever
God, might not the human being be so filled
with the divine energy that he could not die ?
Sometimes the saints, when living very near
to God, felt themselves to be so full of health
and strength, derived from God Himself, that
the conviction forced itself on their minds
that nothing, not even temporal death, could
separate them from His love. This is the
glorious feeling of the Sixteenth Psalm :
I have set the Lord always before me :
Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be
moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth :
My flesh also shall dwell in safety.
For Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol ;
Neither wilt Thou suffer Thine holy one to see
corruption.
Thou wilt shew me the path of life :
In Thy presence is fulness of joy ;
At Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
It was along this sunny path of communion
with God that the singer of the Twenty-third
Psalm also was led to belief ; and, although
his vision may have lasted only for a moment,
it would be unwarrantable to deny that he may
have seen the promised land.
123

The Psalm of Psalms
We, however, are more favourably situated.
In the interval between the Old Testament
and the New the mists in which the other
life was enveloped began to clear away ; and
the writers of the New Testament all adopted
and developed the faith in immortality. Jesus
Himself made the revelation of this hope
peculiarly His own. He Himself breathed
the atmosphere of the other world ; He
raised the dead and was Himself raised from
the dead ; He spoke of the many mansions
in His Father's house ; and, as we follow
His departing figure from the summit of
Olivet, we obtain a very near view of that
country in which those who have come to
Him as the Shepherd and Bishop of their
souls will be led to fountains of living water,
and those who have worn themselves out in
His service on earth will be made to rest
from their labours forever.

124

APPENDIX

125

APPENDIX
Though I have chosen, for tide, The Psalm
of Psalms, other phrases may occur to the
ingenious. Mr. Meyer has entided his
sweet and tender comment The Shepherd
Psalm, and Dr. John Stoughton called his
The Song of Christ's Flock. A good
tide by an anonymous author is The Shep
herd King ; and an attractive one might
be The Psalm of our Childhood.
When occupied with any portion of Scrip
ture, I like to have at hand two commentaries
— a thoroughly scientific one, to make clear
what exactly the author said and intended,
and a more devotional or homiletical one, to
suggest applications. For the Psalms, the
couple I have thus used most have been
Hupfeld and Spurgeon.
Hupfeld is not only the best commentary
on the Psalms known to me, but the best com-
127

Appendix
mentary I have ever used on any part of Scrip
ture. In fact, it taught me what exegesis is.
It is rationalistic ; but it is easy to discount
this ; and nothing can surpass its learning
and knowledge, its literary appreciation and
intellectual grasp. Unfortunately it has not
been translated ; but much of the essence of
it has been transferred to Perowne. Those
who prefer what is more recent may turn
to Kirkpatrick's three volumes, to be had
bound in one, or Briggs' two volumes in
the International Commentary.
As for Spurgeon's Treasury of "David, the
bulky volumes and miscellaneous contents
will repel scholarly readers. Yet Spurgeon
has far more learning than he gets credit
for ; he seldom misses the drift of a psalm ;
and in his heaps of accumulations there is
many a remark or illustration that can be
made to shine like a gem in a discourse.
Maclaren's three volumes on the Psalms in
the Expositor's Bible are among the best
of his expository writings.

INDEX

I. QUOTATIONS

Lord Bacon, 38.
Sir H. W. Baker, 12.
Henry Ward Beecher, viii.
Browning, 40.
Bunyan, 80, 101.
Burns, 42.
Clephane, Elizabeth C, 27.
Goethe, 69.
Herrick, 109.

Homer, 112.
W. A. Knight, 93.
Rutherford, 101.
Shakspeare, 84.
George Adam Smith, 92.
C. H. Spurgeon, 30.
St. Bernard, 101.
St. Augustine, 101.

II. TOPICS

Backsliding, 70.
Character, 44.
Death, 84, 115 ff.
Discipline, 57-
Friendship, 97.
Health, 40.
Hospitality, 8.
Humility, 61.
Instruction, early, 3-
Love, human, 41, 49.
Misfortune, 31, 59.

Parabolic teaching, 18, 28.
Persecution, 60.
Poetry in common things, 21.
Prayer, 68.
Presence, the Divine, 85, 1 13.
Prosperity, 38.
Success, 43.
Supper, The Lord's, 12.
Tenderness, the Divine, 63.
Well-doing, 51.
Word of God, 10, 50, 69.

I29

THE
SHORT COURSE SERIES
EDITED BY
Rev. JOHN ADAMS, B.D.

This Series is designed to encourage a healthy re
action in the direction of expository preaching.
Leading expositors in all the Churches have kindly
promised assistance; and the Series, to be issued at
the "uniform price of 60 cents net per volume, will
furnish a sufficiently large variety for individual
selection.

NOW READY

A CRY FOR JUSTICE: A Study in Amos.
By Prof. J. E. McFadyen, D.D., U. F. C. College,
Glasgow.
THE BEATITUDES.By Rev. Robert H. Fisher, D.D., Edinburgh.
THE LENTEN PSALMS.
By the Editor.
THE PSALM OF PSALMS.
By Prof. James Stalker, D.D., Aberdeen.
THE SONG AND THE SOIL.
By Prof. W. G. Jordan, D.D., Kingston, Ontario.
THE HIGHER POWERS OF THE SOUL.
By Rev. George M'Hardy, D.D., Kirkcaldy.

The Following Other Volumes are in
¦ ¦¦-¦¦¦ I.M   i II IJ I ¦»» -Ii ¦— — ^
Preparation,
THE STORY OF JOSEPH.
By Rev. Adam C. Welch, B.D., Th.D., Glasgow.
SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF DAVID.
By Prof. H. R. Mackintosh, D.D., Edinburgh.
A MIRROR OF THE SOUL : Studies in the Psalter.
By Rev. Canon Vaughan, M.A., Winchester.
STUDIES IN THE BOOK OF JOB.
By Rev. Charles F. Aked, D.D., San Francisco.
THE PROPHECY OF MICAH.
By Principal A. J. Tait, M.A., Ridley Hall, Cambridge.
THE EXPOSITORY VALUE OF THE REVISED
VERSION. By Prof. G. Milligan, D.D., University of Glasgow.
JEHOVAH-JESUS. By Rev. Thomas Whitelaw, D.D., Kilmarnock.
A PREFACE TO THE GOSPEL : An Exposition of
Isaiah 55.
By Rev. A Smeixie, D.D., Carluke.
THE SON OF MAN.
By Prof. Andrew C. Zenos, D.D., Chicago.
READINGS IN THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE.
By Prof. W. Emery Barnes, D.D., Cambridge.
THE PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL SON.
By Principal A. E. Garvte, D.D., New College, London.

BELIEF AND LIFE: Expositions in the Fourth
Gospel. By Principal W. B. Selbie, D.D., Mansfield College,
Oxford.
THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS.
By Prof. Robert Law, D.D., Toronto.
THE OVERTURES OF JESUS.
By Rev. Newell Dwight Hillis, D.D., Brooklyn.
IN THE UPPER ROOM.
By Rev. D. J. Burrill, D.D., LL.D., New York.
THE "I AM'S" OF OUR LORD.
By Rev. Thomas Marjoribanks, B.D., Edinburgh.
THE SEVEN WORDS FROM THE CROSS.
By Rev. A. B. Macaulay, M.A., Stirling.
THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL.
By Prof. W. G. Griffith Thomas, D.D., Toronto.
THE METAPHORS OF ST. PAUL.
By Rev. A. Boyd Scott, B.D., Glasgow.
THE HOLY SPIRIT.
By Rev. F. Stuart-Gardiner, B.D., Kingstown,
Ireland.
THE REDEMPTION OF GOD.
By Prof. T. B. Kilpatrick, D.D., Toronto.
STUDIES IN THE APOCALYPSE.
By Prof. W. T. Davison, D.D., Richmond.
EXPOSITORY STUDIES.
By Prof. Arthur S. Peake, D.D., Manchester.
SOCIAL STUDIES.
By Rev. Canon Simpson, M.A., D.D., St. Paul's,
London.

OPINIONS OF WEIGHT.
"I thank you very heartily for a copy of your
'Lenten Psalms.' Your 'Short Course Series' finds
in this volume an interesting example of the kind of
book you are proposing to produce. It is brightly
written, and is full of stimulating illustration. I
think it exceedingly likely the plan may meet a mod
ern want. The Bible as a backbone for preaching
appeals to people better than general sentiment or
edifying exhortation of a vague type."
Bishop Ryle, D.D., Dean of Westminster.
"The book is attractive in a high degree, and noth
ing could be better calculated to stimulate expository
preaching in the Churches. One may confidently
anticipate for the Series a genuine success."
H. R. Mackintosh, D.D., Edinburgh.
"May I express my own judgment that you are
working a very fruitful line, and that it will be most
acceptable to a great many readers."
J. H. Jowett, D.D., New York.
"I am wholly with you in this. And I wish you
great success in what you are proposing to do. Your
plan will help us all to give a scriptural breadth and
fulness to our pulpit work. For this and other rea
sons I hail your proposal, and shall do all that I can
to further your good work."
Principal Alexander Whyte, D.D., Edinburgh.
"You have got hold of a fine idea, and your Series,
I am sure, will fulfil a most necessary ministry.
There is vast need of just such expository preaching
as you wish to encourage."
Alexander Smellie, D.D., Carluke.

3 9002