‘YHWH is my shepherd; I shall not want.’

The idea of a shepherd is of one who cares for and watches over his sheep. Kings liked to describe themselves as shepherds of their people when they were feeling sentimental and wanted to give a good impression. They wanted their people to love them and see them as a father figure (however unfatherlike they really were), and their people spoke of them as their shepherd when they wanted to flatter them, and receive some benefit from them. The spiritual leaders of Israel were regularly spoken of as shepherds, although sadly in many cases as failing shepherds. But here we have the Shepherd above all shepherds, the unfailing and compassionate One Whose power is infinite and Who would never fail His sheep. And once He is our Shepherd we can be confident at all times, for the provision of good pasture (compare Mat 6:32), the protection from all evil, and the sustaining of our souls, then become His responsibility. The problem lies in our unwillingness to trust Him.

‘I shall not want.’ This does not mean that He will provide for the fulfilment of all our desires. It means that He will ‘withhold no good thing from those who walk uprightly’ (Psa 84:11). We can compare how He was able to say to Israel when they had wandered in the wilderness, ‘’you have lacked nothing’ (Deu 2:7). It is a reminder that He will make full provision for whatever He sees that we need. If therefore we find ourselves ‘wanting’ we should recognise that it is not because He has failed, but because our Shepherd knows that it is good for us, and we should therefore be content (compare Psa 34:10; Psa 84:11).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Psalms 23

Introduction – The theme of Psalms 23 is found in verse one, “When we look to the Lord as our Shepherd, we will not want.” When the Lord is looking out for us, all of our needs will be taken care of. God never created us to experience lack. His original plan as we see in the Garden of Eden was to give man abundance. It is only when man forsook the Lord that lack and poverty came into his life. God will take care of our spiritual needs (Psa 23:2), our mental needs (Psa 23:3), our physical needs (Psa 23:4) and our financial, or material, needs (Psa 23:5). All of these needs are met out of His goodness and mercy (Psa 23:6) and not because of our own righteousness.

God goes before us daily to prepare our way. When we choose to walk in this way, His goodness and mercy are found. If we follow our own path, there is lack and despair. When Paul the apostle walked in God’s plan for his life, all of his needs were supplied (Php 4:18).

Php 4:18, “But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God.”

Note these words from Frances J. Roberts:

“Heaven’s resources are at thy command, and thou needest never to want, so long as I am thy Shepherd. Think not in thine heart that since I know all about thee, thou needest not tell Me. It is true that I know, but ye need to tell Me so that in the telling ye may experience the release of an open heart, and the fellowship of a Friend.” [29]

[29] Frances J. Roberts, Come Away My Beloved (Ojai, California: King’s Farspan, Inc., 1973), 111.

Psa 23:1  (A Psalm of David.) The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Psa 23:1 “The Lord is my shepherd” Comments – Jesus is a Good Shepherd. A good shepherd is measured by the condition of his flock. For example, if you saw a shepherd walking down the road with a scarlet robe, holding a gold inlaid staff, with rich jewelry, you might as first thing that this was a noble person. But is his sheep that follow him are dirty, their ribs poke thru their fur, some are cut and bruised, and even have broken legs, you would no longer look at this man as good, but rather a bad shepherd. In addition, a good parent is measured by looking as the behaviour of their children, and not by the wealth of their home and car.

Notice how well taken care of the sheep are in this twenty-third Psalm. They lack nothing. There is plenty of food. Anytime you see cattle or sheep laying down during the day under a cool tree, it is because they have fed well that morning. The sheep in this Psalm are able lie down in green pastures with security and abundance.

Scripture References – Many other verses in the Scriptures refer to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ as a type of shepherd over His people. Jesus is the good shepherd who went one step further than David’s list. Jesus gave his life for the sheep (Joh 10:11).

Joh 10:11, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”

Other similar verses:

Gen 48:15, “And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day,”

Psa 78:52-53, “But made his own people to go forth like sheep , and guided them in the wilderness like a flock . And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.”

Psa 80:1, “Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth.”

Psa 100:3, “Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture .”

Eze 34:31, “And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture , are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord GOD.”

Joh 10:14, “ I am the good shepherd , and know my sheep, and am known of mine.”

Heb 13:20, “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep , through the blood of the everlasting covenant,”

1Pe 2:25, “For ye were as sheep going astray ; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.”

1Pe 5:2-4, “ Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock . And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.”

Psa 23:1 “I shall not want” Word Study on “want” – Strong says the Hebrew word “want” ( ) (H2637) means, “to lack, fail.” Holladay says it means, “to do without.”

Comments – In Exo 16:18, all of the people had enough manna. God moved on the hearts of those able to gather and blessed the souls who were not able to gather enough for their own needs.

Exo 16:18, “And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack ; they gathered every man according to his eating.”

In Act 16:33-34, the jailer met the needs of Paul and Silas. That night Psa 23:1 was again fulfilled.

Act 16:33-34, “And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.”

Nothing is impossible with God. Trust God, so shall your baskets be full, your cupboards running over and your needs met. Praise the Lord. If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God.

Scripture References – Other verses make this same statement.

Deu 2:7, “For the LORD thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the LORD thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing .”

Deu 8:9, “ A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it ; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.”

Psa 34:9-10, “O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him . The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing .”

Pro 13:25, “ The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul : but the belly of the wicked shall want.”

Mat 6:33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you .”

Psa 23:1 Comments – Tom Leuther, then an associate pastor of Calvary Cathedral International, said that the Lord spoke these words to him, saying “To the degree that I am your shepherd is the degree that you shall not want.” [30] Mike Murdock said the Lord spoke to him and said, “Every step towards self-sufficiency is a step away from Me.” [31] We cannot lie down in green pastures without allowing Jesus Christ to be our Shepherd. We cannot be led beside still waters without Him being our Shepherd. Our soul cannot be restored without being led by our Shepherd. Only our Shepherd can lead us in the paths of righteousness. We cannot walk through the valley of the shadow of death without fear unless He is our Shepherd. His rod and staff cannot be our comfort unless He is our Great Shepherd. We cannot partake of His table of blessings in the midst of enemies without the Great Shepherd. Our head cannot be anointed and our cup running over without Him being our Shepherd. His goodness and mercy will not follow us without Him being our Shepherd. We will not dwell eternally in the house of the Lord unless He is our Shepherd.

[30] Tom Leuther, “Sermon,” Calvary Cathedral International, Fort Worth, Texas.

[31] Mike Murdock, interviewed by Rod Parsley, Breakthrough (Columbus, Ohio: Rod Parsley Ministries), on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program, 23 May 2010.

Psa 23:2  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

Psa 23:2 “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures” Comments – The phrase “green pastures” refers to “pastures of tender grass.” Matthew Henry says, “God’s ordinances are the green pastures in which food is provided for all believers; the word of life is the nourishment of the new man. It is milk for babes, pasture for sheep, never barren, never eaten bare, never parched, but always a green pasture for faith to feed in.” [32] Note 2Sa 23:4, “And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.”

[32] Matthew Henry, Psalm, in Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, New Modern Edition, Electronic Database (Seattle, WA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1991), in P.C. Study Bible, v. 3.1 [CD-ROM] (Seattle, WA: Biblesoft Inc., 1993-2000), notes on Psalms 23:2.

Notes these insightful words from Frances J. Roberts about the meaning of green pastures:

“When I promised thee green pastures, I had not in mind religious activity. When I said, ‘Come, buy milk and honey without money nor price’, I was not challenging thee to fevered service, but to contemplative fellowship and collective communion. Only thus are souls made strong, and hearts made pure, and minds refreshed.” [33]

[33] Frances J. Roberts, Come Away My Beloved (Ojai, California: King’s Farspan, Inc., 1973), 136.

Scripture References – Note similar verses regarding a flock lying down:

Son 1:7, “Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?”

Jer 33:12, “Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Again in this place, which is desolate without man and without beast, and in all the cities thereof, shall be an habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down .”

Eze 34:4, “The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.”

Scripture References – Note similar verses regarding green pastures and how God dries them up:

Jer 23:10, “For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up , and their course is evil, and their force is not right.”

Jer 25:37, “And the peaceable habitations are cut down because of the fierce anger of the LORD .”

Lam 2:2, “ The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob , and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.”

Amo 1:2, “And he said, The LORD will roar from Zion , and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn , and the top of Carmel shall wither.”

Lam 2:2, “ The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob .”

Joe 2:22, ‘Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring , for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength.”

Psa 23:2 “he leadeth me beside the still waters” – Word Study on “still” The Hebrew word “still” means “rest or satisfaction” (Psa 91:16; Psa 95:11; Psa 116:7; Psa 132:8; Psa 132:14, Isa 28:12; Isa 32:18, Jer 6:16, Mat 11:28-30, Heb 4:1-11). The same Hebrew word is used in Deu 12:9.

Deu 12:9, “For ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the LORD your God giveth you.”

Psa 91:16, “With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.”

Psa 95:11, “Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest . “

Psa 116:7, “Return unto thy rest , O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee.”

Psa 132:8, “Arise, O LORD, into thy rest ; thou, and the ark of thy

strength.”

Psa 132:14, “This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.”

Isa 28:12, “To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest ; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.”

Isa 32:18, “And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation , and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places;”

Jer 6:16, “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. “

Mat 11:28-30, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest . Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Heb 4:1-11 – Labour to enter into rest.

Word Study for “waters” – The Hebrew word “water” (H4325) is always used in the plural form. It appears fifty times in the Old Testament and has a wide range of meanings. It literally means, “waters, floods, or seas.” It occurs as a metaphor for the raging heathen, the chaotic, stormy seas at creation, and for vast nations, (or seas of people). It is used figuratively here to speak of life, sustenance, fertility, blessing, and refreshing. Note:

Psa 1:3, “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water , that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”

Isa 12:3, “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of

salvation.”

Isa 32:2, “And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.”

Isa 55:1, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters , and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”

Isa 58:11, “And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water , whose waters fail not.”

Jer 17:8, “For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters , and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.”

Comments – The phrase “still waters” literally means, “waters of “stillness,” whose quiet flow invites to repose. They are contrasted with boisterous streams on the one hand, and stagnant, offensive pools on the other.

God passes judgment upon the evil shepherds in Eze 34:11-16; Eze 34:25-31, but gives peace to His flock.

Psa 23:3  He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Psa 23:3 “He restoreth my soul” – Scripture References – Note a similar passage:

2Co 4:16, “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.”

Psa 23:3 “he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” Comments – How does God lead us in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake? We see in 2Sa 12:14 that sin in the life of King caused the Lord’s name to be blasphemed by the sinners. This principle is true in every believer’s life (Rom 2:24, 1Ti 6:1, 2Pe 2:2).

2Sa 12:14, “Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme , the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.”

Rom 2:24, “For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.”

1Ti 6:1, “Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed .”

2Pe 2:2, “And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of .”

Scripture References – Note similar verses that refer to “paths of righteousness”:

Psa 65:11, “Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness .”

Pro 4:11, “I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths.”

Pro 4:26, “Ponder the path of thy feet , and let all thy ways be established.”

Isa 26:7, “The way of the just is uprightness: thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just .”

Psa 23:4  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.

Psa 23:4 “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil” – Comments The event of David facing Goliath in the valley are commonly associated with the phrase “the valley of the shadow of death,” since he fought Goliath in a valley (1Sa 17:2; 1Sa 17:40). [34]

[34] Dave Wilkinson, David and Goliath, Moorpark Presbyterian Church, Moorpark, California, 27 April 2008 [on-line]; accessed 14 June 2011; available from http://www.mppres.org/sermons/2008/Apr27.html; Internet.

1Sa 17:2, “And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and pitched by the valley of Elah , and set the battle in array against the Philistines.”

1Sa 17:40, “And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five

smooth stones out of the brook , and put them in a shepherd’s bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine.”

A valley was a place where a man of war was vulnerable, unlike the security of the high rocks.

Comments Every person faces trials during his lifetime. The walk through the valley of the shadow of death involves a person’s experiences, feelings and emotions. This is the natural man looking at life’s difficult circumstances. In contrast, the decision to fear no evil is an attitude of the heart, which is the spirit man speaking in faith.

Illustration – When I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in July 2006, I was troubled emotionally. It took me a while to get my fears and anxieties under control. However, all through this time of the initial news, there was a pounding faith in my hearts that declared, “I will not fear.” Those years of meditating upon healing Scriptures and God’s promises embedded within my heart the faith to overcome fear. I rose up and stood in faith, so that I did not have any surgery, but simply looked to the Lord for wisdom. He gave me some Scriptures that explained the cause and the cure for this disease that had encroached within my body. Now, having stood in faith and sought God’s wisdom, I could overcome it and walk in health the rest of my life. The Lord was with me, and comforted me with His Word.

Scripture References – The phrase “the shadow of death” is used in other Scriptures (Job 3:5, Isa 9:2).

Job 3:5, “Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.”

Isa 9:2, “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death , upon them hath the light shined.”

Psa 23:4 “thy rod and thy staff they comfort me” Word Study on “comfort” – Gesenius says the Hebrew word “comfort” (H5162) literally means, “to draw the breathe forcibly, to pant, to groan.” He says in the Niphal it means, “to lament, to grieve, to repent” and in the Piel, “to comfort,” and in the Hithpael, “to grieve, to repent, to comfort oneself, to take revenge.” The TWOT says this word is not used in the Qal, but primarily in the Niphal and the Piel. The E nhanced Strong says this word is used 108 times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as “comfort 57,” “repent 41,” “comforter 9,” and “ ease 1.” The idea of repenting suggests the idea of deep signing because of regret. In its sense of comfort, the Piel form intensifies the action, so that it carries the idea of deep concern, rather than casual sorrow, so that someone joins with a person in weeping and signing together. [35] The TWOT says from this word are derived the names like “Naham,” meaning “comfort,” [ PTW ] “Nahum,” meaning “comforter,” [ PTW ] and “Nehemiah,” meaning “Jehovah is consolation,” [ PTW ] and “Menahem, meaning “comforter” [ PTW ].

[35] Dick Mills, and David Mills, “Word Wealth on Psalms 23:4: Comfort,” Spirit Filled Life Bible: New King James Version, e d. Jack W. Hayford (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Publishers, c1991),773.

Comments – Matthew Henry said that the rod and staff allude to “the shepherd’s crook, or the rod under which the sheep passed when they were counted (Lev 27:32), or the staff with which the shepherds drove away the dogs that would scatter or worry the sheep.” [36]

[36] Matthew Henry, Psalm, in Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, New Modern Edition, Electronic Database (Seattle, WA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1991), in P.C. Study Bible, v. 3.1 [CD-ROM] (Seattle, WA: Biblesoft Inc., 1993-2000), notes on Psalms 23:4.

Lev 27:32, “And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod , the tenth shall be holy unto the LORD.”

Psa 23:4 Comments – Kenneth Hagin understands that Psalms 23 reflects the Christian life. He says every believer is walking through the valley of the shadow of death because Satan has become the god of this world. [37]

[37] Kenneth Hagin, The Triumphant Church (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Faith Library Publications, c1993, 1994), 162.

Psa 23:5  Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Psa 23:5 “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies” Comments – We see this table prepared for us in Pro 9:1-5. It is a table of meat and wine, of blessings and prosperity. Meat and wine are eaten during times of feasts and weddings, and not normally for everyday use. The poor man lived on bread and water, but divine wisdom will give us God’s best every day that we serve Him and eat at His table.

Comments – Notice that God does not always remove our enemies from our presents. God often wants us to learn how to partake of His table of blessings in the midst of our difficult circumstances. But we cannot do this without making Jesus our Shepherd on a daily basis.

Scripture References – Note other uses of the word “table.”

2Sa 9:11, “Then said Ziba unto the king, According to all that my lord the king hath commanded his servant, so shall thy servant do. As for Mephibosheth, said the king, he shall eat at my table , as one of the king’s sons.”

Psa 69:22, “ Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.”

Psa 78:19, “Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? ”

Mal 1:12, “But ye have profaned it, in that ye say, The table of the LORD is polluted ; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible.”

Luk 22:30, “ That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom , and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

Psa 23:5 “my cup runneth over” Comments – When we pour into our cups and glasses at the dinner table, it is our nature to stop before the cup is full so that it does not spill onto the table and then the floor. But this is not God’s nature. God gives His children more than enough. God’s will is that we have exceeding, abundantly, above all that we would ask or think of pouring into a cup (Eph 3:20).

Eph 3:20, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,”

The book of Proverbs reveals that when we give, God gives back to us more than we can contain. Our vats will overflow (Pro 3:9-10).

Pro 3:9-10, “Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.”

When the children of Israel possessed the land of Canaan under the conquest of Joshua, the tribe of Judah took too much, so much so that they had to give some of their portions to their brethren, the tribe of Simeon.

Psa 23:6  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Psa 23:6 “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life” Comments – The word “surely” is similar to Jesus saying, “Verily, verily.” John Hagee says that God’s goodness gives us what we do not deserve and God’s mercy saves us from what we do deserve. [38]

[38] John Hagee, John Hagee Today (San Antonio, Texas: John Hagee Ministries), on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program.

Psa 23:6 “I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever” – Comments – Psa 27:4 reveals the purpose of dwelling in God’s house, which is to experience God’s presence and to find God’s leadership in his life.

Psa 27:4, “One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple .”

Psa 23:6 Comments – Psa 23:6 says that the Lord will be with us both in this life (Psa 23:6 a) and in eternal life (Psa 23:6 b).

Scripture References Note:

Pro 13:21, “Evil pursueth sinners: but to the righteous good shall be repayed .”

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Jehovah the Good Shepherd.

A psalm of David, a hymn written by David by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, an expression not only of David’s personal faith and trust, but of the confidence which all believers have in the goodness, love, and grace of God and of their Savior Jesus Christ, brought out all the more strongly since it is spoken in the name of each individual Christian.

v. 1. The Lord, Jehovah, the God of grace and faithfulness, the Redeemer of mankind, not only God the Father, Gen 48:15; Gen 49:24, but also God the Son, Jesus Christ in particular, is my Shepherd, to whom every believer stands in the relation of the most intimate fellowship, by whom and in whom he lives, through whose mighty power the life of his soul is sustained; I shall not want, being supplied with all gifts and blessings for this world and for the world to come.

v. 2. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, where the meadows are lush with young, vigorous grass, where the best spiritual food is found in rich abundance; He leadeth me beside the still waters, where the refreshing streams of His grace flow softly and gently, not with the boisterous threats of the Law, but with the coaxing beauty of the Gospel. The Good Shepherd gives food and drink, rest and peace, the fullness of His gifts of love, both for this world and for the world to come.

v. 3. He restoreth my soul, reviving, quickening, relieving it, when the spirits droop with weariness on account of the misery of sin and the afflictions of this world; He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness, walking ahead after the manner of Oriental shepherds and choosing such roads as are straight and even, where there is no danger of stumbling and falling, even if they often seem strange to the sheep themselves, for His name’s sake, to reveal and make known His faithfulness and mercy, not because of any merit or worthiness in us. These wonderful blessings of the Lord awaken and nourish the true confidence of faith in the hearts of the believers, as the next words show.

v. 4. Yea, even when conditions are not so favorable, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, where darkness and terror surround the believer, where the cry of wild beasts from the mountain caverns tends to take the confidence out of the heart of the sheep, when misfortune and trouble harass them, I will fear no evil, said in the proper defiance of faith, the believer trusting not in his own power, but in that of the upholding might of Jehovah’s strength. For Thou art with me, even in the darkest night of tribulation, even in the peril of death; Thy rod and Thy staff, the protecting and sustaining power of Jehovah’s mercy in the means of grace, they comfort me, offering the right consolation in every trouble affecting both body and soul. That is the second great fact upon which the believer places his trust.

v. 5. Thou preparest a table before me, a joyful and rich festival meal, in the presence of mine enemies, not a bulwark or fort, for they were helpless in the presence of the almighty Shepherd and the full power of Jehovah is assured in the protection of His believers, the idea of full security in spite of all adversaries, of refreshing and satisfying joys after all afflictions. Thou anointest my head with oil, this act preceding the festival meal of old and assuring the guest of the most cordial welcome on the part of the host; my cup runneth over, with more than a full measure of spiritual blessings and joys.

v. 6. Surely goodness and mercy, the greatest good fortune in the possession of the grace of Jehovah, shall follow me all the days of my life, in everything pertaining to both body and soul the way of the Lord is always gracious and merciful, is always the best; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord, in the midst of the church of Jehovah, as a member of the congregation of saints, forever, here in time, in the Kingdom of Grace, and hereafter in eternity, in the Kingdom of Glory; for the home of everlasting glory awaits all true believers above, Joh 14:2; Rev 21:1-5. It is theirs even now, by faith.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

THIS little psalm is an idyll of great beauty, describing the peace and calm delight which dwell with one whose trust is wholly in God. David’s authorship, asserted in the title, is highly probable; but we cannot fix the poem to any special period in his lifetime; we can only say that he is beyond the days of boyhood, having already enemies (Psa 23:5), and that he has known what it is to be in danger of death (Psa 23:4). But, when he writes, he is experiencing a time of rest and refreshment (Psa 23:1-3), nay, of prosperity and abundance (Psa 23:5). His thoughts are happy thoughtshe lacks nothing; he has no fear; God’s mercy and goodness are with him; and he feels assured that they will continue with him all the days of his life (Psa 23:6); he has but one desire for the future, viz. to dwell in the house of Godi.e. in the presence of God, for ever.

Psa 23:1

The Lord is my Shepherd. This metaphor, so frequent in the later Scriptures (Isa 40:11; Isa 49:9, Isa 49:10; Jer 31:10; Eze 34:6-19; Joh 10:11-19, Joh 10:26-28; Heb 13:20; 1Pe 2:25; 1Pe 5:4; Rev 7:17), is perhaps implied in Gen 48:15, but first appears, plainly and openly, in the Davidical psalms (see, besides the present passage, Psa 74:1; Psa 77:20; Psa 78:53; Psa 79:1-13 :14; Psa 80:1psalms which, if not David’s, belong to the time, and were written under the influence, of David). It is a metaphor specially consecrated to us by our Lord’s employment and endorsement of it (Joh 10:11-16). I shall not want. The Prayer-book Version brings out the full sense, “Therefore can I lack nothing” (comp. Deu 2:7; Deu 8:9; and Mat 6:31-33).

Psa 23:2

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; literally, in grassy homesteads” the richer, oasis-like spots, where a homestead would be fixed in a barren tract of land” (Kay). He leadeth me beside the still waters; rather, waters of refreshment; (LXX.).

Psa 23:3

He restoreth my soul; i.e. revives it and reinvigorates it when it is exhausted and weary (see the comment on Isa 19:7, where the same verb occurs). He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness. Which are also “paths of pleasantness and peace” (Pro 3:17). For his Name’s sake. To magnify his Name as a gracious and merciful God.

Psa 23:4

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. A sudden transition and contrast, such as David loved. The quiet paths of righteousness and peace remind the poet of the exact oppositethe dark and dismal way through the valley of the shadow of death. Even when so situated, he does not, he will not, fear. I will fear no evil, he says. And why? For thou art with me. The same Protector, the same gracious and merciful God, will be still with himleading him, guiding his steps, shepherding him, keeping him from evil. Thou art with me, thy rod and thy staffi.e. thy shepherd’s crook, and thy staff of defencethey comfort me. They make me feel that, however long and however dreary the way through the dark vale, I shall still have thy guidance and thy protection.

Psa 23:5

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Another transition. The danger of death is past. David reverts to the thought of the tranquil, happy, joyous time which God has vouchsafed to grant him. He has “adversaries,” indeed, but they are powerless to effect anything against hint They have to look on with ill-concealed annoyance at his prosperity, to see his table amply spread; his condition such as men generally envy; his wealth typified by abundant oilthou anointest my head with oilgreat, his whole life full to overflowing with blessedness. My cup runneth over, he declaresis not only full to the brim, but runs over the briman expressive metaphor, indicative of a state of bliss rarely experienced in this life.

Psa 23:6

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. The past is an earnest of the future, As God’s “goodness and mercy” have always followed him hitherto, David has no doubt that they will continue to cling to him while his life continues. And I will dwell. in the house of the Lord for ever. Such passages are, of course, not to be understood literally; they express the longing of the soul for a sense of the continual presence of God, and a realization of constant communion with him.

HOMILETICS

Psa 23:1

Human experience and Divine inspiration.

“The Lord is my Shepherd.” The few verses which compose this psalm would leave but a small blank on the page, if blotted out; but suppose all translations which have been made of them into all languages, all references to them in literature, all remembrance of them in human hearts, could be effaced, who can measure the blank, the void, the loss? To have written this short psalm is one of the highest honours ever put upon man. What libraries have these few lines survived? Yet they arc as fresh as if written yesterday. They make themselves at home in every language. They touch, inspire, comfort us. not as an echo from three thousand years ago, but as the voice of a living friend. The child, repeats them at his mother’s knee; the scholar expends on them his choicest learning; the plain Christian loves them for their simplicity as much as for their beauty; the Church lifts them to heaven in the many-voiced chorus; they fall like music on the sick man’s ear and heart; the dying Christian says, “That is my psalm” and cheers himself with its words of faith and courage as he enters the dark valley. Mere poetic beauty could not confer or explain this marvellous power. The secret of it is twofold. These words are the language

(1) of human experience, and

(2) of Divine inspiration.

I. HUMAN EXPERIENCE. This is the utterance of weakness and of trust. In the Bible, as in the Person of our Saviour, the human and the Divine are found, not apart, but in closest union. God spake not merely by the lips or pens of the prophets, but by the men themselves (2Pe 1:21). Were an angel to say, “The Lord is my Shepherd,” this would bring no assurance to a frail, sinful human heart. A voice from heaven might declare, “The Lord is a Shepherd,” or as promise, “The Lord is your Shepherd;” but only the voice of a brother man, weak and needy as ourselves, can speak this word, the key-note of the whole psalm, “my Shepherd.” God could have given us a Bible written, like the tables of the Law, “with the finger of God;” but he has spoken through the minds and hearts and personal experience of men of like passions with ourselves, making their faith, penitence, sorrow, joy, prayer, thanksgiving, the mirror and pattern of our own. This is the voice of personal experience. David is better known to us than any Bible hero except St. Paul. This psalm leads back our thoughts to his youth; but it is no youthful compositionit bears the stamp of deep experience. The young shepherd might have sung of the famous past, or of the glorious future; but the veteran king, looking back to his youth, sees in it a meaning he could not have seen then, and a light shining all along his path.

II. INSPIRED WORDS. Sweet and deep as are these echoes from the depth of the past, they would never have reached us had they been no more than the words of a man, though a hero, a poet, a king; they arc the voice of God’s Spirit in him. Hence, with that continuity which is one principal note of the inspiration of Scripture, we find this image taken up again and again, especially in five passages of signal importancetwo in the Old Testament, three in the New.

1. In Eze 34:1-31. God is seen as the Shepherd of his peoplethe nation and Church of Israel. Hence the similitude passes on to the New Testament. Christ is the chief Shepherd, who employs under-shepherds to feed his flock (Joh 21:15-17; 1Pe 5:2-4).

2. In Isa 40:11 (as in the psalm) Christ’s tender care of individuals, even the youngest, is represented.

3 and 4. In Luk 15:3-7 and Joh 10:1-16 our Saviour appropriates this similitude to himself, as seeking and saving the lost, ruling and feeding each one who follows him, laying down his life for the flock, gathering “other sheep” into “one flock.”

5. In Rev 7:16, Rev 7:17 we see the Divine Shepherd gathering his whole flock in the safety, rest, and joy of heaven.

CONCLUSION. Can you say, “The Lord is my Shepherd”? If not, the gospel has not yet fulfilled its mission in your heart and life. Observe, the warrant is not in yourself, but in your Saviour; not, “I am one of Christ’s flock,” but, “He is my Shepherd.” If you can say this, then you may fearlessly cast all your care on him, and finish the verse, “I shall not want.” (1Pe 5:7, Mat 6:25, Mat 6:26).

Psa 23:1-4

The Shepherd of Israel.

To a countryman of David, an ancient Israelite, the shepherd with his flock was no poetical figure, but a most familiar object. From Carmel to Gilead, from Hermon to the pastures of the wilderness of Paran, the green hills of Canaan were covered with flocks. On these same hills and plains the forefathers of the nationAbraham, Isaac, Israelhad pitched their camps and fed their flocks, when as yet they could not call a rood of land their own. With us the shepherd’s trade is a very humble calling. The shepherd, though he may tend the sheep as faithfully as if they were his own, is a hired servant, “whose own the sheep are not.” We must dismiss all such associations if we would understand either the poetry or the parables of Scripture. Abraham and his descendants were not the only wealthy chiefs who fed their own flocks and herds. In Homer’s poetry, princes and princesses are seen tending their flocks, and kings and rulers are called, as in Scripture, “shepherds of the people.” Rightly understood, it is an image of as great dignity as tenderness by which the Lord is spoken of as “the Shepherd of Israel; ‘ and each believer is encouraged to say, with David, “The Lord is my Shepherd.”

I. DIVINE OWNERSHIP. (Psa 100:3, Revised Version.) This is a sublime contemplation, full of comfort, but also of awe. “I belong to God.” God is the only absolute Owner. “The earth; etc. (Psa 24:1; Psa 95:5; Psa 115:16). We talk largely about our possessions“My money, business, home; my time, labour, life.” All well enoughfor he “giveth us all,” etc. (1Ti 6:17)if only we never forget that all is his, that we belong to him. “Despotism “q.d. absolute, unlimited, lordshipis a word of terror and degradation among men, because of the cruel, selfish, tyrannical use men have made of it. Doubtful if there lives a man who could safely be trusted with it. But in Divine lordship is no shadow of terror, except for the wilfully, wickedly disobedient, no taint of degradation, no suggestion of tyranny or arbitrary caprice. It would be absurd to suppose there can be a right to do wrong with God any more than with man. God’s wisdom, love, righteousness, are a law to himself. That he is Lord of all is our safety, glory, joy. God must cease to be himself before he can inflict the lightest wrong on the weakest or unworthiest of his creatures.

II. DIVINE GOODNESS, COMPASSION, TENDER AND WATCHFUL CARE. Religion, worthy of the name, cannot subsist on the bare relation of Creator and creature, any more than flowers and fruit on granite; it must be “rooted and grounded in love.” The assurance that God cannot possibly inflict wrong might free us from the slavery of fear, which otherwise the thought of his absolute ownership might bring with it, but would not suffice to fill our life with Brightness and joy, our heart with trust and courage. To feel in any measure the force and beauty of the similitude, and get into sympathy, with the soul of the psalmist, we must get rid of all that is mean, hard, mercenary in our modern English notions, and dress our thoughts in the bright colours of Eastern life; we must see the shepherd opening the well-guarded fold and walking at the head of his own flock, calling now one, now another, by its name, while the sheep willingly follow, for they know and love their shepherd’s voice; see him in dewy morning choosing their pasture, at hot noon leading them to some tranquil pool or hidden well, ever on the watch; ready, like David, to do battle with lion, bear, or wolf, in their defence; rather laying down his life than leaving them to perish (Joh 10:11). “The Lord is my Shepherd,” etc. (Psa 23:1, Psa 23:2). In Psa 23:3, Psa 23:4 the spiritual meaning shines through the figure, as in Psa 23:5, Psa 23:6 it is laid aside altogether; yet still the psalmist speaks of the “rod and staff.” “Rod,” the shepherd’s crook, the received emblem of authority, guidance, and discipline. “Staff,” that on which one leans, emblem of Divine strength and support. (Only one word would be used of a real shepherd; the two are employed for the full spiritual meaning.) All is not ease and brightness in the lives which God has in his wisest, tenderest care. Divine shepherding means more than green pastures and still waters; it sometimes means “the valley of the shadow of death.” “Paths of righteousness’ may be taken to include both the way of duty and the leading of God’s providence. In both, the right path must be, in the highest sense, the safe path, but it may be the path of deadly peril and anguish (Psa 34:19). Oar blessed Lord’s own path led through Gethsemane to Calvary. “The valley of the shadow of death” must not be limited to mean only the actual approach and experience of death; it may stand for any crisis of danger, suffering, or weakness, bodily or spiritual Travellers tell of a desolate gorge near Ispahan, “the valley of the angel of death.” Through such a ravine, trackless, waterless, gloomy with overhanging precipices, where in every cleft wild beasts or robbers may lurk, the psalmist imagines himself led. But the Divine Shepherd is with him: this forbids fear. In Bunyan’s glorious dream the valley is placed midway in Christian’s pilgrimagethe image of fierce spiritual conflict (Psa 18:5). The hardest trial that can befall the believer is, when tempted to doubt God’s goodness, to deem himself forsaken. The answer to all doubt is, “Thou art with me” (Isa 50:10). The same trials are not appointed for all God’s children. Faithful, whom martyrdom awaited in Vanity Fair, had sunshine all through the valley. But there is a point to which all paths converge. If we must not limit the figure, still less must we exclude that one application common to all, that experience in which we must he absolutely alone, unless we can say, “Thou art with me.” Death. Here, again, experience wonderfully varies. To some the approach of death is a valley of sunshine, not shadow, or only such as falls from a summer cloud; to some, a momentary passagethrough before they know it; to some, dark and rough with long suffering; to a few (even real Christians), gloomy with spiritual conflict. Here, then, above all, we need (both for ourselves and others) that highest application of this comforting image taught by our Lord himself (Joh 10:1-18, Joh 10:26-29).

III. THE SAVIOUR‘S CONSTANT PRESENCE AND REDEEMING GRACE. (comp. Psa 23:1, Psa 23:2 with Joh 10:9; Joh 7:37.) It is his to restore the soul, to reclaim the lost sheep (Luk 15:3-7), raise the fallen, refresh the weak, to lead in the path of duty (Joh 8:12). But especially in times of urgent need is his presence to Be claimed and felt. With Paul and his companions it was a veritable valley of the shadow of death, when “all hope was taken away” (see Act 27:20, Act 27:23; again 2Ti 4:16, 2Ti 4:17). Above all, in the hour and moment of death he has passed through it; he has “the keys;” he alone can be with us. Gentle and tranquil often is the actual approach of death; weakness and unconsciousness prevent fear; but take away the gospel, take away Christ, and who in health and strength can calmly face death, and say, “I will fear no evil”? You may be an unbeliever. Suppose the gospel not true, it does not follow there is nothing beyond death. But the believer has a right to say thisknows what is beyond (Joh 14:2-4; Rev 7:15-17).

Psa 23:6

Goodness and mercy.

“Surely goodness,” etc. These two words, “goodness and mercy, are to be taken together rather than over-curiously distinguished. Yet they are not mere synonyms. Goodness is the stream, mercy the fountain; goodness the open hand of God’s bounty, mercy his loving heart. “Mercy” is not to be taken in the restricted sense in which we often use it, as contrasted with justicegoodness to the unworthy, pardon to the guilty. It is (in the Hebrew) the same word often beautifully Englished as “loving-kindness*’ (e.g. Psa 107:43). “Goodness” reminds us that our nature is a bundle of wants; “mercy,” that our deepest, highest need can be satisfied, not by all God’s gifts, but only by himself. Faith here employs the great law of experience, and. from the past infers the future. Consider

(1) the wealth of hope,

(2) the blessedness of certainty, expressed in these words.

I. THE WEALTH OF HOPE.

1. “All the days of my life”days to come, as in (lays past. The course of thought in this psalm reminds us of a path which, after crossing peaceful plains and narrow gorges, climbs the mountain, and from its top beholds the wide, glorious prospect bathed in sunshine. This is the privilege of faith; only faith can see goodness and mercy in all God’s past dealings, and foresee them in all to come; for that varied fitness which is one great feature of God’s loving-kindness, implies a great mixture of rough with smooth, dark and bright. The “restoring of the soul” implies wandering, and means chastening as well as forgiveness. The “rod and staff” are needed in the dark valley; the table is spread in the desert and amongst foes. A child can see that a cricket-ball is a globe; but it needed much philosophy to convince men that this great world, which to ordinary vision is fiat, is a globe too. So any eye can see goodness and mercy in health, wealth, prosperity, joy; but in sickness, poverty, bereavement, private or public calamity, we are ready to ask Gideon’s question (Jdg 6:13). It needs strong faith to be sure that “all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth” (Psa 25:10). To have David’s bold hope, we need David’s experience, submission, unreserved trust.

2. “And I will dwell for ever.” This cannot mean the earthly tabernacle. David could not dwell there; even a priest or Levite could not dwell there “for ever.” He means the heavenly temple (Psa 11:4). How bright or dim his faith was we know not. But for us the way into the holiest is made plain (Heb 9:8, Heb 9:24; Heb 10:19, Heb 10:20).

II. Here is A GLORIOUS EMPHASIS OF CERTAINTY. “Surely;” “all the days;” “I will dwell,” or “I shall dwell;” not simply “I choose and desire,” but “I expect assuredly to dwell in my Father’s house for ever.” Beyond the rough, weary, winding path lies rest; beyond the conflict, peace. The mysteries and seeming contradictions of God’s dealings, compared with his promises, cannot last long. Faith sees them vanish in the light of eternity. Whence this calm, exulting security? How can one whose life is “a vapour” (Jas 4:14), standing on a point which crumbles beneath his feet, ignorant what the next hour may bring, thus boldly challenge the hidden future of earthly life, the boundless future beyond? The answer comes from the Divine Shepherd, the faithful Witness”Because I live, ye shall live also” (Joh 14:1-3, Joh 14:19; Joh 12:26; 2Co 5:1; Rom 8:35-39).

HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE

Psa 23:1-6

The good Shepherd and his flock.

This is one of the sweetest of all the psalms. That it was written by him who was raised from having care of a flock to be the king on Israel’s throne, there is no reason for doubting, spite of all that destructive critics may say. No amount of Hebrew scholarship can possibly let any one into the deep meaning of this psalm. No attainments in English literature will ever initiate any student into the mysteries of a mother’s love, and no attainments in Oriental learning will help any one to learn the secret of the Lord which is here disclosed. There is nothing to equal it in the sacred books of the East; for none but the Hebrews have ever had such a disclosure of God as that in which the writer of this psalm rejoices. Every clause in this psalm is suggestive enough to be the basis of a separate discourse; but in accordance with our plan in this section of the ‘Pulpit Commentary,’ we deal with it as a unity, indicating the wealth of material for perpetual use therein contained. We have presented to usFour aspects of the Shepherd-care of God.

I. GOD‘S SHEPHERD–CARE DISCLOSED IN REVELATION. For the Scripture doctrine of God’s relation to his people as their Shepherd, the student may with advantage study and compare the following: Psa 74:1; Psa 77:20; Psa 79:13; Psa 80:1; Psa 95:7; Psa 100:3; Psa 119:176; Isa 40:11; Isa 53:6; Jer 31:10; Jer 23:1-3; Eze 34:1-31.; Mic 7:14; Zec 11:16; Zec 13:7; Mat 10:6; Mat 15:24; Mat 18:12; Luk 15:4-6; Joh 10:1-16, Joh 10:26-29; Joh 21:16; Act 20:28; Heb 13:20; 1Pe 2:25; 1Pe 5:4. These passages summarize Bible teaching on this theme for us. We may set it forth under the following heads:

1. God is related to men as their Shepherd. A purely absolute Being out of relation does not exist. To whatever God has made he stands in the relation of Maker. And when he has made man in his own image, after his likeness, he stands to such a one in a relation corresponding thereto; and of the many names he bears to express that relation, few more tenderly illustrate his watchful care than this word “shepherd.”

2. This relation is manifested in Jesus Christ. (Joh 10:1-16.) He claims to be emphatically “the good Shepherd.” The apostle speaks of him as “the Shepherd and Bishop of souls.”

3. As the Shepherd, Jesus came to seek and save the lost. His mission on earth was emphatically for this. He regards men as his wealth, in which he rejoices; and if they ace not under his loving care he misses themhe is conscious of something lacking (Luk 15:4-6).

4. He has risen and ascendent up on high as the great Shepherd of the sheep (Heb 13:20).

5. He now appoints under-shepherds to care for the flock. (Act 20:28.)

6. As the chief Shepherd, he will again appear. Then he will gather in and gather home all the flock (1Pe 5:4).

7. Only as he gathers men to himself as their Shepherd, do they find safety and rest. (1Pe 2:25.) Till then they are homeless wanderers, perpetually in danger of stumbling “over the dark mountains.”

8. When men return to him they find all they need in his Shepherd-care. (Psa 23:1-6.)

9. This Shepherd-care is for each as well as for all. Each one may say, “He loved me, and gave himself up for me;” “The Lord is my Shepherd.” Let us not forget to note the Shepherd’s individualizing care.

II. GOD‘S SHEPHERD–CARE EXERCISED IN ACT. The points of detail are set forth in this psalm with exquisite tenderness and beauty,

1. Repose. “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.” In such a restless age as this, there is no thought which a believer has greater need to appropriate than this. As physically we must find time for sleep, however severe the pressure of work, so spiritually we must find time for repose. And God’s gracious arrangements are planned with a view to this. “He maketh me,” etc. The good Shepherd says, “I will give you rest.” When he gets back the wandering sheep he lays it on his own shoulders (Greek, see Luk 15:5). The Master never expects his servants to be always on the stretch. He tells them to “rest awhile;” and if they are heedless of this kind monition, he will himself call them out of the rush into the hush of life. It would be well if some Christians thought more of rest in Christ; their work would be richer in quality even if less in quantity.

2. Refreshment. “Still waters;” literally, “waters of rest,” or refreshment. The believer has no craving thirst: he can ever drink of the living stream, and therewith be refreshed (see Joh 4:10; Rev 7:17). Dropping the figure, the truth here conveyed is that there shall be a constant supply of the grace of Christ, and of the Spirit of Christ (cf. Joh 7:37-39).

3. Restoration. (1Pe 5:3.) This may either mean renewing the strength when worn down, or bringing back after wandering. We need not omit either thought, though the latter seems principally intended.

4. Leadership. (1Pe 5:3.) “Paths of righteousness,” i.e. straight paths. This follows on the restoration. Having recalled him from “by-paths,” the good Shepherd will lead him in the right way. The sheep can wander wide easily enough, but if they are to be kept in the right way that can be only through the Shepherd s care. God guides by

(1) his Word;

(2) his providence;

(3) his Spirit.

Sometimes, indeed, the way may be dark, even as death itself; still it is the right way (Psa 107:7; Ezr 8:21-23).

5. A living presence. “Thou art with me’ (1Pe 5:4). This means, “Thou art continually with me,” not merely with me in the darkness, but with me always. The sunshine of the living presence of a Guide, Help, Friend, Saviour, is always on the believer’s path; and if the mingling of unbelief with faith did not dim the eyesight, he would always rejoice in it.

6. Discipline. (1Pe 5:4.) The rod and staff are special emblems of the Shepherd’s care in tending and ruling the flock. The Shepherd chides us when we rove, and uses sometimes sharp measures ere he recalls us. And this comforts us! Even so. The disciplinary dealings of our God are among our greatest mercies.

7. Ample provision. (1Pe 5:5.) The riches of God’s love and life are the provisions on which we feed, and on which souls can grow and thrive; and these supplies are ministered to the soul through the invisible channels of God’s grace, even while enemies prowl around. Yea, we are entertained as guests st the Father’s board. The anointing oil is the token of the right royal welcome which the Host delights to give! So rich, so abundant, are the mercies and joys which are vouchsafed, that our “cup runneth over”!

III. THIS SHEPHERD–CARE OF GOD IS ACCEPTED, AND IN IT THE NEEDY ONE GLORIES. We can but hint.

1. Here is appropriation. “My Shepherd” (see Joh 10:11, Joh 10:27, Joh 10:28).

2. Here is satisfaction. “I shall not want.”

3. Here is loyalty. The psalmist not only consents to but delights in this Divine care, and has no wish but to follow where the Shepherd leads.

4. Here is joy. This thought is (perhaps Intently, but really) in the expression, “Thou art with me.” The presence of God is life’s exceeding joy.

5. Here is fearlessness. “I will fear no evil.” Not even the darkest shade can make him fear, for God is with him there.

6. Here is recognition of the infinite grace of the Shepherd. (1Pe 5:3.) “For his Name’s sake.” Not for our sakes, but for his own; having undertaken to be the Shepherd, he will for his own glory’s sake do all that a shepherd’s care demands.

IV. THE SHEPHERD–CARE OF GOD IS CELEBRATED IN SONG. The song has a threefold significance.

1. It is a song of gratitude. “Goodness and mercy” mark every feature of the Divine treatment, and they will, to life’s end.

2. It is a song of hope. The psalmist looks forward, without a moment’s fear of the Shepherd ever leaving him (1Pe 5:6).

3. It is a song and vow of consecration. “I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.” To what extent David thought of a future state when he wrote these words, we cannot say. Yet his meaning is to some extent clear. The house of God was the place where God made his home and manifested himself to his people (see Psa 132:13-16). And the writer says, “Where God makes his home, there shall be mine. He and I will never part company” (see Psa 61:4; Psa 48:14; Psa 73:24-26). It was not the house of God, but the God of the house, that was to be David’s homeand the home of all the saintsfor ever and for ever!

There is a picture by Sir Noel Paten, which is a marvellous illustration of this psalm. It is entitled, ‘The Valley of the Shadow of Death.’ It is worthy of prolonged study. In the foreground is a dismal and dark valley, through which a blasting wind has swept, laying low alike the warrior and the king; the helmet of the one and the crown of the other lie useless on the ground. In the centre of the picture is the Lord Jesus, with a halo of glory over his head, a crown of thorns around his brow, and in one hand a shepherd’s staff. On the left is a young maiden, whose face bears traces of the terror she has felt in coming through the valley, and yet of radiant hope as she now sees the good Shepherd there. She grasps his hand; he holds hers; his feet stand on a gravestone, beneath which lie the remains of the fallen; but where the Shepherd sets his feet, the tombstone is luminous with the words, “Death is swallowed up in victory!” The very sight of that glorious picture weaned one from the vanities of the world, and drew her to Jesus; and in the case of “an old disciple” it completely abolished the fear of death! May we all, by faith, catch a glimpse of our Shepherd, and every fear will vanish quite away!C.

HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH

Psa 23:1-6

The good Shepherd.

Dr. Arnold said that “amongst Christians, all looking upon the Scriptures as their rule of faith and life, there are particular passages which will most suit the wants of particular minds, and appear to them therefore full of an extraordinary measure of comfort and of wisdom.” This is true. Most people have their favourite passages of Scripture. But it may be said of this psalm that it holds a peculiar position. It has for more than three thousand years been one of the most precious possessions of the Church. Jews and Christians alike hold it dear, and there are few, if they were asked, but would thankfully confess that of all the psalms, it was to them the sweetest and most precious. It is among the psalms what Daniel was, compared with other men, “greatly beloved.” Why is this? Much, no doubt, depends upon association; but apart from this there are reasons, in the psalm itself, to account for the high place which it holds in all hearts. Three may be mentioned.

I. BECAUSE IT BRINGS GOD BEFORE US IN SO ENDEARING A CHARACTER. He is here represented as a Shepherd and a Host. The better we understand what this meaneth, the more will our hearts go forth to him in love and trust. He is all, and in all. Yea, each of us may say, “He is mine.”

II. BECAUSE IT GIVES US SUCH A BEAUTIFUL PICTURE OF THE BLESSEDNESS OF GOD‘S PEOPLE. They are the sheep of his pasture, and the guests of his table. Here in this world they are ever under his good and gentle keeping, and when they depart hence, it shall be to dwell in his house for ever. “The psalmist describes himself as one of Jehovah’s flock, safe under his care, absolved from all anxieties by the sense of his protection, and gaining from this confidence of safety the leisure to enjoy, without satiety, all the simple pleasures which make up lifethe freshness of the meadow, the coolness of the stream. It is the most complete picture of happiness that ever was or can be drawn. It represents that state of mind for which all alike sigh, and the want of which makes life a failure to most; it represents that heaven, which is everywhere, if we could but enter it, and yet almost nowhere, because so few of us can” (‘Ecce Homo’).

III. BECAUSE IT IS ASSOCIATED SO CLOSELY WITH OUR RELIGIOUS LIFE. Though much of Scripture may be neglected, and almost unknown, this psalm is known and loved by all. We learnt it at our mother’s knee, and we have cherished it fondly ever since. To young and old, to the rich and poor, to the people of various lands and tongues, it is equally dear. At home and in the sanctuary it is in constant use. In the time of our joy it has been the vehicle of our gladness, and in days of darkness it has brought us comfort. When weary it gives us rest; when lonely it gives us company; when oppressed with sin and care it leads us to him who can restore our souls, and guide us safely through all difficulties and dangers, onward to the bright future. In itself it is exceedingly precious, but in the light of the gospel, and as interpreted by our dear Lord and Saviour, its value is infinitely enhanced. Jesus “the Good Shepherd” is here, and his sheep hear his voice, and follow himto glory, honour, and immortality.W.F.

Psa 23:1-6

The power of reflection.

The psalmist looks back over his life, and sings with grateful heart of God’s love and care. We may use the psalm as bringing before us some of the changes and contrasts of life.

I. YOUTH AND AGE. This psalm breathes the air of youth. It is the echo of the shepherd-life among the hills of Judah. But the psalmist was now old. Still, he cleaves to God. Happy are they who have sought God early, and whose days from youth to age are linked together by natural piety!

II. HELPLESSNESS AND SECURITY. What creatures are, when left to themselves, more weak and silly than sheep? But under the shepherd’s care they are safe. So it is of the soul. Christ is the good Shepherd, and cares for his sheep. From first to last, and through all changes and dangers, they are safe under his loving guardianship.

III. SORROW AND JOY. How sweet the picture of the flock feeding in “the green pastures,” and by the “still waters”! But there is another scene brought before usthe dark and terrible “valley of the shadow of death.” So there are alternations in the Christian life. If there are lights, there are also shadows. If there are times of sweet rest and comfort, there are also times of struggling and of fear. Mark the orderGod does not at once call us to face the dark valley. It comes not at the beginning, but near the end of the Christian’s course. Christ’s disciples who have been with him in “the green pastures,” and whose souls have been “restored,” when they have fallen into sin, by his gracious discipline, are the better fitted for meeting with trial, and for treading with fearless step even the dark valley itself.

IV. WANT AND SATISFACTION. Always there is want on our part, and always there is supply with God. He who has God, the Possessor of all things, has everything. God is not only our Shepherd, but our Host, and the supplies of his table never fail.

V. TRANSITORINESS AND IMMORTALITY. All things here are fading. Sheep and shepherds pass away. Joys and sorrows come to an end. Our life is hut as a vapour. But we look to the things that are unseen and eternal. God’s two angels, “goodness and mercy,” not only abide with us here, but will bring us to the everlasting habitation. We shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.W.F.

Psa 23:5

A table prepared.

First we may apply this saying to our daily bread. Every “table” needs preparation. There is the material food, which may have come from far; and there are the kind hands that have made it ready. But besides this, there is love of God. We recognize that God has to do with our “daily bread.” It is a matter between him and us. “Thou” and “me.” How greatly is every blessing enhanced, when it is taken as from the hand of God! Then circumstances may give a special significance to our commonest mercies; difficulties are overcome, and wants are supplied, in a way that surprises us, and that leads us to confess with grateful hearts the loving-kindness of the Lord. Again, we may apply this to our social pleasures. We are not made to live alone. We crave fellowship. How graciously does God provide for our needs! We have not only the joys of home, but the pleasures of society. There are some who forget God amidst the stir an& the seductions of life. They conduct their business and enjoy their pleasures “without God” (Isa 5:8-12). But it is not so with the righteous. They desire to set the Lord always before them, and especially to acknowledge his goodness and mercy in the manifold social blessings which they enjoy. But chiefly should we apply the text to our religious privileges. The Word of God is as a “table” prepared for us. Think how much had to be done and suffered before we could have the Bible as a book free to every one of us! Think also how much there is in this blessed book to refresh and bless our souls!a “feast of fat things.” Public worship is another “table” spread for us. When the Lord’s day comes round, what multitudes come together, and there is bread enough and to spare for them all! More particularly it may be said that the Lord’s Supper is a “table” prepared by God for his people. Here we see his wise forethought. He saw what was needful, and designed this feast for the good of his people. Here we see his loving care. His hand is seen in everything from first to last. The table is the Lord’s table. The “bread” is his “body;” the wine is “his blood;” the voice that says, “Come, eat,” is his voice. There is not only preparation of the table, but of the guests. When we think of what we were and what we are; of what we deserved and of what we have received,it is with wonder, love, and praise that we say, “Thou preparest a table before me.” We have “enemies,” but they have not prevailed. We can think of them with pity, and forgive them; we can even pray for them, that they may be converted into friends, and, should they continue alienated and hostile, we can face them without fear, because “greater is he that is with us, than all they that are against us.” The future is for us bright with hope. The dark valley is behind, and the power of God before. The table below is the earnest of the table above.W.F.

Psa 23:6

All the days of my life.

Life is made up of “days.” Confidence in God gives

I. STRENGTH FOR LIFE‘S WORK. “I shall not want.” God is able to meet all our needs. “As thy days, so shall thy strength be” (Deu 33:25; Php 4:13).

II. SUPPORT UNDER LIFE‘S TRIALS. There will be changes. The “green pastures” may give place to the dark valley. There may be loss of health, of property, of friends; there may be unknown trials. “Thou art with me.”

III. FULFILMENT OF LIFE‘S GREAT HOPES. It is a great thing to be one of Christ’s flock, ever under the Shepherd’s tender care. But more is promised. There will be the going in and out, and finding pastureall through; but the end is not here, but above. The best is to come. The perfection of manhood; the “rest that remaineth;” the “fulness of joy;” the glorious fellowships that know no break, and that bring no pain, are in our Father’s house.

“For ever with the Lord!

Amen, so let it be;

Life from the dead is in that word,

‘Tis immortality.”

W.F.

HOMILIES BY C. SHORT

Psa 23:1-4

God’s providential care.

“The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want” etc. God’s care and providence over man are denoted by the following things.

I. HE GIVES REST TO THE WEARY. “Maketh me to lie down in green pastures.” Man is a combatant; he has a fight to maintain, a work to do; and he shall have seasons to rest from his exhaustion. He is a pilgrim-traveller. He has rest from bodily toil. So also rest from spiritual work. But the rest is spiritual in its kind. Not mental inactivity. But a clearer perception of those grand truths which afford the truest relief from the distraction of the conflict. Composure amidst distractions. The blessed end we aim at, and the certain issue of it.

II. HE RENEWS THE EXHAUSTED STRENGTH OF MAN. (Psa 23:2, Psa 23:3.) Religious strength consists in the power to do and the power to sufferor courage and fortitude. This power to doto conquer sin in ourselves and in the worldis strengthened by unshaken faith in God‘s truth, and by the power of self-denial. These are God’s gifts, not by any direct act of his, but as the consequence of striving to do his will.

III. GOD WILL AFFORD PROTECTION IN THE DARKEST AND MOST DIFFICULT TIMES. (Psa 23:4.) Death is not always dark or difficult to good men. But the general tendency is to view death as dark and evil, and to fear it on those accounts. Darkness creates a feeling of uncertainty and a desire for guidance. God has removed the uncertainty and affords us guidance. The evil of death is the sense of guilt. Christ gives us the victory over that evil by proclaiming the forgiveness of the Father, and the removal of our sin. All who submit to God’s guidance may claim him for their Shepherd. Jesus Christ fulfils the character of man’s true Shepherd.S.

Psa 23:5, Psa 23:6

Fulness of joy.

The psalmist has hitherto spoken of the care of the good Shepherd in removing the miseries, pains, and sufferings which this life bringsof the rest, refreshing, and protection he had received. Now he rises higher into the rich fulness of joy he receives, and the good things of God’s house. Four principal ideas here.

I. THAT THERE IS AN ABUNDANT PROVISION FOR EVERY WANT. (Psa 23:5.) For all outward and inward want. A feast or banquet is spread for us by a royal Host. There is a feast provided for the senses and appetites in outward natureif we do not turn it into a riot and a debauch. The enjoyment of it arises from and depends on labouring for it and the moderate use of it. There is also the greater feast provided for the mind and heart, in finding the truth and responding to the love which God has set forth, as the means of building up the true life. Christ is the Bread and Wine of life. David’s honour as God’s guest was the greater, that it was witnessed by those who had been his enemies.

II. HIS HEART WAS FULL OF SOLEMN THANKFULNESS AND JOY. (Psa 23:5, “Thou hast anointed my head with oil; my cup overflows.”) He had a most vivid perception that the feast, the anointing, the fulness, all came from the Divine hand This sense of God in our lives makes a whole world of difference to our experience. No gratitude possible Without it. No sense of the glory of life without it.

III. OUR ASSURANCE OF THE CONSTANCY OF THE DIVINE LOVE AND GOODNESS. (Psa 23:6.) What God had been to him in the past, he would continue to be in the future. He had suffered, had been weary, been persecuted, had had battles to fight, had been bewildered in his path; but God had been his Guide and Deliverer, and would continue to be all through the remainder of his life.

IV. HE WOULD BE BLESSED WITH THE FELLOWSHIP AND FRIENDSHIP OF GOD FOR EVER. (Psa 23:6.) This is the meaning of “And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever,” so as to be near him and have constant intercourse with him. It includes all kinds of intercourse with Godworship, communion, sonship, obedience, guidance, so as to fill the whole life of thought and feeling and action. “For ever” looking onwards, perhaps, dimly, to the life beyond, which was not so clear to him as it is to us.S.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Psalms 23.

David’s confidence in God’s grace.

A Psalm of David.

Title. mizmor ledavid. In this psalm David expresses his confidence in God, who had delivered him from the persecutions of Saul, and settled him in a prosperous condition: whom, therefore, he here compares first to a good shepherd, who carefully feeds and diligently watches over his flock; and, secondly, to a hospitable friend, by whom he was sure of being liberally and splendidly entertained. See the note on Psa 23:2. It has been observed, that, though the Psalms in general appear with inimitable beauty, even in the dress in which we have them; yet it should always be considered how much they must be supposed to fall short of their original excellence, to those who view them only in a translation, nay, in almost a literal translation, and that from a language which abounds in bold figures and ellipses; all of which must be supplied in the translation, or else to common readers it would be utterly unintelligible. Hence the Psalms lie under greater disadvantages than any writings either in the Greek or Latin languages. Yet if any of the finest and most admired pieces of heathen poetry were to be clothed like these in a plain literal dress, and then compared with them, the comparison would abundantly shew what Mr. Addison observes of the Jews, “that their nation produced men of great genius, without considering them as inspired writers; who have transmitted to us many hymns and divine odes, which excel those that are delivered down to us by the ancient Greeks and Romans in the poetry, as much as in the subject to which they are consecrated.” But, allowing David’s natural genius to have been highly excellent, and that likewise of the other authors of these divine poems, yet, as these compositions are so much preferable to all human composition, this may fairly be urged as a corroborating proof of the divine inspiration of the authors of them. See Bishop Lowth’s 6th Prelection.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Psalms 23

A Psalm of David

1The Lord is my shepherd;

I shall not want.

2He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:

He leadeth me beside the still waters.

3He restoreth my soul:

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness
For his names sake.

4Yea, 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.

5Thou preparest a table before me

In the presence of mine enemies:
Thou anointest my head with oil;
My cup runneth over.

6Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Its Contents and Origin.Under the figures of the shepherd, Psa 23:1, and the host, Psa 23:5, which were familiar to all Israelites, which are connected with that of the guide, Psa 23:3, the Psalmist describes, in clear and flowing language corresponding throughout with his calm, confident, hopeful feelings, the comprehensive and more than sufficient care of God for him, who describes his present and future condition under the corresponding figures of member of the flock, Psa 23:2, wanderer, Psa 23:4, and guest, Psa 23:6. These figures are so natural to the national life, that we cannot conclude from them that David sung this Psalm, if not in the times of his shepherd life, at least in a time when the recollection of those days was still fresh (Tholuck), or that the feast contains a reference to the meal in the house of Davids father after he was anointed, 1 Samuel 16. (Muntinghe). But we have no more reason to look away from every historical reference and from every particular reason for the use of these figures, and since there is no evidence of a prophecy of Christ (many ancient interpreters), or that it was directly meant for the congregation, to suppose that it was a free expression of feelings rejoicing in God, whether of an unknown poet (Hupfeld), or David in the latter peaceful and prosperous period of his government (Calvin and most interpreters). For the enemies, Psa 23:5, seem not to belong to the past but to the present, and are mentioned in a connection, from which we may conclude that there was destitution, yet not a destitution among the enemies whilst the Israelites, under the Maccabean leaders besieged in the fortress at Jerusalem, had plenty (Olshausen), but with the Psalmist, who must certainly be regarded as remote from the house of God (Psa 23:6). If this is recognized likewise as a historical feature, it is easy to find the occasion for the preceding descriptions in a sojourn of the Psalmist in the wilderness, but not to think of an allegorical reference to the return of the people from exile (Kimchi), or a reference back to the Divine guidance of Israel from Egypt through the wilderness (Chald.), but to abide by David in accordance with tradition, and put this Psalm in the period of the rebellion of Absalom (Ruding., J. D. Mich., Ewald, Maurer, Delitzsch). Only we must not refer to 2Sa 18:26, for the tone and sentiment do not agree with it. But we may indeed think of 2Sa 17:27 sq., and compare with Psa 3:6; Psa 4:7. The resemblances to Pss. 27. and 63., are of an entirely different kind from those to Psa 25:21; Psa 37:4, as it is then too bold to refer to Jeremiah, on account of the style and the sentiment. Respecting the house of Jehovah vid. remarks upon Psa 5:7.

Str. I. Psa 23:1. My shepherd.God is thus named already by Jacob, Gen 48:15; Gen 49:24. This figure is afterwards frequently used (Psa 80:1; Psa 78:52; Mic 7:14; Isa 63:13 sq.). It is likewise applied to theocratic rulers, Jer 3:15; Jer 23:1, and is used with reference to the Messiah, Isa 40:11; Ezekiel 34.; compare Zec 11:4 sq., and hence is applied to Jesus in the New Testament, Joh 10:1-16; Heb 13:20; 1Pe 2:25; 1Pe 5:4. In accordance with this the people are called His flock or the sheep of His pasture, Psa 74:1; Psa 79:13; Psa 95:7; Psa 100:3; Jer 23:1. The expressions which follow are taken from the life of the shepherd and correspond with the figure. The oasis of the wilderness is not merely a station of rest for the tired flocks at the time of the noonday heat (Son 1:7), but at the same time a place of refreshment by means of the green meadows and the waters, which are mentioned either as flowing quietly and therefore without danger in contrast to the wild mountain brooks and rushing streams (Calvin, Geier, De Wette, Hitzig [Alexander, Barnes]), or as the indispensable condition of refreshment for the pleasant resting-place where the flocks lie down for recreation (Sept., Stier, Hengst., Hupfeld [Perowne]).19 The imperfects are not to be regarded as futures (Hengst., et al.), or indeed as referring to the past (Sept., Chald.), but denote actions continuing and repeated in the present.

Str. II. Psa 23:3. He restoreth my soul.This does not mean conversion (the ancient translations), but the refreshment of the soul under the figure of leading back him who was about to flee away, comp. Psa 19:7.[He leadeth me.The oriental shepherd does not drive the flock before him but goes before the flock and leads them, vid. Thomsons The Land and the Book, p. 202 sq.; Smiths Dict, of the Bible, Article, Shepherd.C. A. B.].In right paths.In the figurative language of this Psalm it is evident that the right paths are not to be regarded as in similar passages, excluding the figure, as ways of righteousness (Hengst. [A. V.]) in the moral sense, or passing over the intermediate member, as ways of salvation (De Wette, Ewald, Hitzig), but as straight and even paths, excluding error and stumbling, direct and leading certainly to their end (most interpreters after the Rabbins), which are then really paths of righteousness and salvation.

Psa 23:4. Even when [A. V., Yea, though] = even then when.The contrary of Psa 23:2 is supposed as an objective possibility; but only with reference to the external condition in life and circumstances threatening with peril of death.Valley of the shadow of death.In order to explain this figure De Wette cites from Moriers second journey to Persia, p. Psa 179: In the vicinity of Ispahan is a remarkable valley, barren, gloomy and destitute of water, which is called the valley of the angel of death. [It is unnecessary to go beyond the Holy Land itself. The Psalmist refers to those deep wadies or wild and gloomy ravines, which abound in the mountains of Palestine, the rocky sides of which are filled with caves and caverns, the abodes of wild beasts of prey. It is often necessary for the shepherd to lead his flocks through these wadies and across these ravines, and it is always perilous even to the shepherd himself. There is no reference here to death itself, but to the peril of death go often experienced in life.C. A. B.].Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.The soul when thinking of the possible danger, is quieted and comforted by the assurance of the faithfulness of the Divine Shepherd. The shepherd not only leads the flock, but defends it, hence the mention of two staves; so likewise Zec 11:7, upon which an especial emphasis is put by the pronoun. It follows from this that this verse is not a general description of the rest of trust (De Wette, Hengst.), nor has a poetical and rhetorical fulness of meaning, nor indeed that one of the staves was given by the guide to the wanderer, the other retained by himself.20

Str. III. Psa 23:5. [Perowne: God is even more than a shepherd who provides for the wants of his sheep. He is a King who lavishes His bounty in rich provision for His guests. Although the figure of sheep and shepherd pass over into that of guest and host the ideas are the same, though in different forms. There is a beautiful correspondence throughout. As the sheep lie down satisfied with the rich provision of the shepherd, in the green pastures and by the refreshing waters, so the guest sits down satisfied with the rich provisions of the table of the Lord.In the presence of mine enemies.As the wild beasts surrounded the sheep in the gloomy wady and they were comforted by the shepherds rod, so the enemies surround the guest, and he is comforted by the table of the monarch. In the Orient the host was obligated not only to entertain the guest but to protect him from his enemies, and when once the meal of hospitality had been partaken all the power and strength of the host became assured to the guest. He was now safe and secure, and his enemies were powerless to injure him, for from this time forth he was the guest and friend of the host and would be protected and defended by him. Thus the idea is not of a hasty meal upon a battle-field, after which the fight was to be renewed, but of a calm and secure repose at the table of the host, with the assurance that all danger was past and the enemieswere no longer to be regarded or feared.C. A. B.]

After that Thou hast anointed my head with oil.Anointed, literally made fat, as a perfect subordinate to the imperfect, refers to the sprinkling of the beard, hair, etc., with sweet-smelling essences, which in ancient times preceded the festival meal, hence the figurative use, Psa 45:7; Psa 104:15.21My cup runneth over.The ancient translators have instead of this, drunkenness, which meaning, however, is admissible only in the Aramaic, but not in the Hebrew. The Sept. has connected the first words of the following verse with this clause and translated, .22

Psa 23:6. Only.Instead of only, as Psa 39:6; Psa 39:12; Psa 139:11, it may be rendered, yes! as Psa 73:13; Psa 85:9; Gen 44:28. [The rendering of the A. V., surely, is better.C. A. B.].Happiness and grace will pursue me.Pursue is used not only in the sense of follow or accompany (Olsh.). as an inversion of the usual figurative phrase used of men: pursue something sectari=aspire after (Hupfeld), but is used in contrast with the pursuit of the enemies. [His enemies had pursued him even to the presence of his host, henceforth grace and joy will pursue him and load him with blessings.C. A. B.].And returned shall I dwell in the house of Jehovah to length of days.The closing word does not mean: lifelong (Hupfeld), but in contrast with the short affliction (Delitzsch), opens a prospect of an indefinitely long time, Psa 21:4, and indeed of communion with God and the enjoyment of His grace, Psalms 27., which is afforded by the use of the religious institutions of grace. Many ancient translations have, after the Sept., my dwelling, etc. They have likewise regarded the infinitive with the suffix as from yashab. So likewise Geier, Rosenm., De Wette, Hengst. But then we must read shibth, as Psa 27:4. But our text has shabth, which vocalization the Masoretic Punctators could only have fixed in accordance wish tradition. Now some have regarded this form after De Muis as a perfect of yashab, supposing that the first syllable has fallen away. But the possibility of such an aphresis is disputed by Olsh. and Hupfeld as ungrammatical. The examples cited in its favor are explained by the former as mutilations of the text, and are regarded by Delitzsch partly as a corruption, as Jer 42:10, partly as only belonging to the vulgar tongue, as 2Sa 22:41. Hitzig, however, again appeals particularly to Jdg 19:11, together with Jer 42:10. In any case the matter is very doubtful, and therefore the derivation from shb (=return) is preferable, yet it cannot be translated: I return to the house (Knapp, et al.), for it is followed by the preposition and not and duration is expressed. This leads to the acceptance of a pregnant construction (Delitzsch). The idea of dwelling is not expressed in words, but is indicated as a consequence of the return, by the nature of the closing word, as already mentioned. The perfect with the vav consec. after the imperfect has likewise the meaning of a future. Misericordia Dei prcedit, comitatur et subsequitur nos (Augustine). [Alexander: Dwelling in the house of Jehovah does not mean frequenting His sanctuary, but being a member of His household and an inmate of His family, enjoying His protection, holding communion with Him, and subsisting on His bounty.C. A. B.].23

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Every member of the congregation of God may appropriate in faith the promises which God has given to the people of the covenant, but he must likewise make earnest use of the privileges graciously bestowed upon the congregation, and have, hold, and confess the God of the covenant as his own God, in order to have in himself the evidence and experimental sense of the all-embracing and all-sufficient care of God, which is always comforting and refreshing in every circumstance of life. Comp. P. Gerhardts hymn which has grown out of this Psalm: Der Herr, der alter Enden.

2. He who would truly experience in himself that love, power, and faithfulness of God, whereby believers are called, sustained, preserved and entirely furnished in this world as a flock of the good shepherd, must likewise, in the constant sense of his need and weakness and at the same time in unshaken faith in the willingness and the power of God to help him, lay hold of for himself and use the means of grace and salvation prepared and offered to him; he must likewise truly let himself be led, refreshed, protected, cared for and saved by God, and meet the condescension of God with the resignation of himself to God. Although this confidence in the care of God does not exclude provision for the body, yet we are to think chiefly of the supply of all our spiritual need, which comes down from above (Umbreit).

3. Trust in God and resignation to His will is essentially facilitated by the fact that we have to do, not with an unknown and hidden God, but with the God of historical revelation, who has made known His name by His word and His works, and has declared therein what we have to think and expect of Him. On this fact we should base ourselves in the changeable fortunes which meet us in this world, and should hold fast to it amidst the changing feelings and dispositions of the heart: for that is the golden art, to hold on to Gods word and promise, decide according to it and not according to the feelings of our hearts; thus help and consolation will surely follow and we shall not lack anything at all (Luther).But now when God has revealed Himself as the Shepherd in the person of His only begotten Son, much more clearly and more gloriously than formerly to the fathers under the law, we do not sufficiently honor His keeping, unless we tread under foot all fear and danger by fixing our eyes upon Him (Calvin).For David here prescribes one common rule for all Christians, that there is no other means or expedient on earth of escaping from all kinds of trouble, than for a man to cast all his cares on God, apprehend Him by His word of grace, hold fast to it and let it in no wise be taken from him. He who does this can be satisfied, whether it fares well with him or ill, whether he lives or dies, and can likewise finally endure, and must prosper in spite of all the devils, the world and misfortune (Luther).

4. The best consolation in trouble is the certainty of the nearness of God, as this is the strongest reminder of our duty when successful. But we have these, not that we may make of His benefits a ladder by which we may ever ascend nearer to Him (Calvin), but we have them on the ground of His condescension to us, in virtue of His dwelling among us and in consequence of our reception into His house and to His table, where He has Himself prepared what serves for our sustenance and complete satisfaction, and where He likewise anoints those who partake of these blessings, good things and joys, that is, He festively prepares, distinguishes, and adorns them. This advances by many stages from the typical to the fulfilment, from the Old Testament to the New, from time into eternity. For a time is coming when wandering will cease and the shepherd as the host will not allow His guests again to leave His house. But first of all we must abide by this. This presence of the Lord is not to be perceived with the five senses; faith alone sees it, which is sure of the fact, that the Lord is nearer to us than our own-selves (Luther).

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The glad spirit of a Christian in life and in death: 1) how it shows itself; 2) whence it springs; 3) whither it moves and leads.The happiness of those who can confess: the Lord is my shepherd: 1) in what it consists; 2) how it is attained; 3) how it is preserved.Who goes most successfully through the world? 1) The wanderer in Gods flock; 2) the guest at Gods table; 3) the child in Gods house.He who lets himself be led by God will likewise be kept and provided for by God.Even pious people are not spared the walk in the dark valley; but they have a threefold comfort: 1) that the Lord leads them in; 2) that the Lord remains with them; 3) that the Lord in time helps them out.The certainty that the Lord is with us: 1) on what it is based; 2) what its effects; 3) what supports it.We will attain that happiness and grace will step in the place of our persecutors when we resign ourselves entirely to the guidance, care and training of God with willing obedience, humble desire and hearty trust.

Starke: The ungodly man may call Jesus a shepherd, but not his shepherd, which is only for those who appropriate Him.It often seems as if the little flock of Christ lacked many things in this world; yet these words of Christ must remain true for all time with respect, to spiritual things (Joh 10:11), and with respect to bodily things they may be satisfied with the loving provision of the Great Shepherd.Believers find in the pastures of the Gospel not only complete satisfaction, but likewise gentle rest.The many who do not experience refreshment of heart from the Gospel have only themselves to blame.The ungodly grudge believers a piece of bread; their Good Shepherd, however, gives them not only this, but likewise the heavenly manna.That which seems to be needful, pleasant and good, is not good unless it is a gift of the mercy of God (Jam 1:17).It is well for him who has his portion in the house of his heavenly Father; there are many mansions there; but the most joyous thing is that their possession endures to all eternity.Renschel: Christ carries the rod woe and the staff mild.

[Matth. Henry: If God be as a shepherd to us, we must be as sheep, inoffensive, meek and quiet, silent before the shearers, nay, and before the butcher too, useful and sociable; we must know the shepherds voice, and follow Him.Let those not fear starving that are at Gods finding, and have Him for their feeder.Those who would be satisfied with the fatness of Gods house must keep close to the duties of it.F. W. Robertson: Beneath the burning skies and the clear starry nights of Palestine there grew up between the shepherd and his flock a union of attachment and tenderness. It is the country where at any moment sheep are liable to be swept away by some mountain torrent, or carried off by hill-robbers, or torn by wolves. At any moment their protector may have to save them by personal hazard. And thus there grows up between the man and the dumb creatures he protects a kind of friendship. You love those for whom you risk and they love you; therefore it is that, not as here where the flock is driven, the shepherd goes before and the sheep follow him. They follow in perfect trust, even though he should be leading them away from a green pasture, by a rocky road, to another pasture which they cannot yet see. He knows them alltheir separate histories, their ailments, their characters. Alone in those vast solitudes, with no human being near, the shepherd and the sheep feel a life in common. Differences disappear; the vast interval between the man and the brute, the single point of union is felt strongly. One is the love of the protector: the other the love of the grateful life; and so between lives so distant there is woven, by night and day, by summer suns and winter frosts, a living network of sympathy. The greater and the less mingle their being together: they feel each other. The shepherd knows his sheep, and is known of them.. Try to feel, by imagining what the lonely Syrian shepherd must feel towards the helpless things which are the companions of his daily life, for whose safety he stands in jeopardy every hour, and whose value is measurable to him not by price, but by his own jeopardy, and then we have reached some notion of the love which Jesus meant to represent, that eternal tenderness which bends over usinfinitely lower though we be in natureand knows the name of each and the trials of each, and thinks for each with a separate solicitude, and gave itself for each with a sacrifice as special and a love as personal, as if in the whole worlds wilderness there were none other but that one.Spurgeon: Sweet and full are the doctrines of the Gospel; fit food for souls, as tender grass is natural nutriment for sheep.These twin guardian angels (goodness and mercy) will always be with me at my back and my beck. Just as when great princes go abroad they must not go unattended, so it is with the believer. Goodness and mercy follow him alwaysthe black days as well as the bright days, the days of fasting as well as the days of feasting, the dreary days of winter as well as the bright days of summer. Goodness supplies our needs and mercy blots out our sins.C. A. B.]

Footnotes:

[19][It is better to translate this latter clause with Ewald and Hupfeld: To waters of refreshment He leadeth me. The idea is not of a flock grazing in a rich meadow land on the banks of a quiet stream, but that of a flock led by the shepherd to their resting-place and watering-place. In this place they lie down satisfied, in the midst of the richest abundance of pasture and refreshing water, all their wants being supplied. It is not necessary to think of a stream, since in the Orient flocks are fed from wells or fountains in troughs, Gen 29:10-11; Exo 2:16-21. Vid. Tristram, Natural History of the Bible, p. 142.C. A. B.]

[20][The reference is still to the shepherd guide. The rod and staff are synonymes, expressing the twofold use of the crook in ruling and defending. The crook is essential to the shepherds business. He uses it as a walking stick in ascending and descending the mountains; he uses it to punish the rebellious and stubborn sheep. It has a curve on one end with which he catches the sheep by their hind legs and urges them on. It is likewise a weapon to beat the dogs and ward off the beasts of the wilderness. Then finally he uses it when he puts the sheep into the fold, causing them to pass under the rod as he tallies them off to see that none are missing. Thus the crook is the symbol of his power and authority, and at the same time of his love, care, and protection. When the flocks are led through the gloomy wadies they crowd close together, and the rod and staff in the shepherds hands reassures them and gives them a sense of comfort and security, though the wild beasts roar and growl about them.C. A. B.]

[21][The entertainment was royal, the guest was received with the highest honors. Oil was used at the feasts of the wealthy to do honor to their guests. It was used to anoint the head as a symbol of the grace of God which the host would have his guest enjoy. It is not unusual at the present day n the Orient to sprinkle the guests with perfumes and to burn incense in the festival rooms, diffusing delightful odors. Vid. Lanes Modern Egyptians, p. 203. Vid. Amo 6:6; also Luk 7:46, where Jesus contrasts the devotion of the woman with the neglect of the host who did not honor Him with the basin of water, the kiss of friendship and the anointing oil.C. A. B.]

[22][For the meaning of the cup vid. Psa 16:5. It is full and satisfying and more than abundant. As the oil was the symbol of grace and favor, so the cup is the symbol of joy and gladness.C. A. B.]

[23][Wordsworth: David, the shepherd of Bethlehem, could speak from personal experience of what the shepherd feels for his sheep. He had led his flock through the dark defiles of the rocky fastnesses of Judah, which presented an image of the gloomy valley of the shadow of death, and he experienced in his exile the loving care of hospitable friends, like Barzillai, who spread for him a table in the wilderness, when he fled from Absalom his son (2Sa 17:27-29), and his eyes were raised upward from them and their affectionate care, to a loving contemplation of his home and Father in heaven.C. A. B.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

DISCOURSE: 528
DAVIDS CONFIDENCE IN GOD

Psa 23:1-6. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his names sake. 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. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

IN reading the Psalms of David we are apt to think of him as a highly privileged person, whom we can never hope to resemble in the fervour of his piety, or the height of his enjoyments. But, whilst as the anointed King of Israel whom God had so particularly chosen, and as a distinguished prophet of the Lord, he was favoured with communications and supports, which we are not entitled to expect, in his more private character, as a saint, he possessed no advantage above us. His views of divine truth were far inferior to ours: and his experience of its efficacy was no other than what may be enjoyed by every saint in every age. The psalm before us is a bright specimen of devout affection; and, in point both of composition and sentiment, is universally admired: yet it contains no other recollections than what every Believers experience must afford, no other confidence than what every saint is warranted to express. Considering David then as a pattern for ourselves, we shall notice,

I.

His retrospective acknowledgments

In recording the mercies of God to him, he speaks of his heavenly Benefactor under the character of,

1.

A Shepherd

[The Son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ, was Davids Lord [Note: Mat 22:42-45.], and Davids Shepherd [Note: Gen 49:24. Eze 34:23-24. Joh 10:11.]: and whatever pertains to the office of a good shepherd, he both executed for him, and will execute for us.

Is it the office of a shepherd to provide good pasture for his sheep? O what pasture is provided for us in the sacred records! David in his day could say, He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters: and if he, with so small a portion of the inspired volume in his hands, when the great mystery of redemption was hid under a veil, and the Spirit of God was yet but sparingly bestowed upon the Church, could use such language, how much more may we, who have the meridian light of the Gospel shining around us, and the Holy Ghost poured forth in all his gracious influences, almost without measure! What views have we of the covenant, that is ordered in all things and sure! of the prophecies, which have been so minutely fulfilled! and of the exceeding great and precious promises, which are so suited to all our wants! And how abundant are our consolations, when the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, seals all these truths upon our souls, and witnesses with our spirits that we are the Lords!

Is it the office of a shepherd to bring back to the fold his wandering sheep, and to guide them in right paths? How justly may we unite with David in saying, He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his names sake? Mark the words, For his names sake. It is his own glory that he has consulted in all his dealings towards us; and especially in that astonishing patience and forbearance which he has exercised towards us from day to day. Our backslidings have been so grievous, and our departures from him so frequent, that we might well have been left to perish in our sins. But he considers that his own honour is involved in the preservation of his sheep; and, therefore, he has never withdrawn his loving-kindness from us, or ceased to watch over us for good. It is on no other principle that we can account for our recoveries when fallen, and our preservation from ten thousand evils into which we should have fallen, if we had not been guided and upheld by him.

Is it the office of a shepherd to protect his sheep from danger? This he does, as well for the lambs of his flock, as for those that have attained a greater measure of strength. By the valley of the shadow of death we may understand a dying hour [Note: Job 10:21-22.]: but we rather understand by it a season of darkness and distress. This is more agreeable to the context, and better accords with the general import of those words in Holy Writ [Note: Psa 107:10; Psa 107:14. Jer 13:16.]. Sheep, in going from mountain to mountain and hill to hill, may easily be supposed to pass occasionally through valleys where dangers affright them, and difficulties obstruct their way: and in this respect the saints resemble them; for however rich their pastures for the most part may be, they find occasional seasons of darkness and gloom. But in such seasons the Lord Jesus Christ, as the great Shepherd and Bishop (Overseer) of souls, is with them, and with his pastoral rod and staff protects them. It is with that rod he numbers them when they come into his fold [Note: Lev 27:32. Eze 26:17.], and with that he secures them from every harm. This he has promised to them in the most express terms [Note: Isa 43:2-3; Isa 43:5.] and he will fulfil it even to the end [Note: Isa 41:10.].]

2.

A Friend

[This is a character which God assumed in reference to Abraham [Note: Isa 41:8.]; and our blessed Lord honours all his faithful disciples with this endearing name: Henceforth I call you not servants, but friends [Note: Joh 15:15.]. Now, as the friend of his people, he uses all hospitality towards them. As in the days of old he spread a table for his people in the wilderness, where they could not otherwise have subsisted, so he prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies. Enemies we have on every side; and such enemies as would deprive us of every blessing, if they were not restrained by an invisible and almighty power. But our heavenly Friend protects us from their assaults, and gives us an abundant supply of all good things, even a feast of fat things, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. Nor does he omit any thing which can possibly evince his love towards us. As a Host who delights to honour his guests, he anoints our head with oil; and as the Master of the feast, he fills our cup with the richest wine, so that it runneth over. These figures, though strong and clear, very inadequately represent the communications of his grace, and the consolations of his Spirit. David, in another psalm, says, The Lord himself is the portion of my inheritance and my cup [Note: Psa 16:5.]: and when this is the case, can it be matter of surprise that our cup runneth over? No indeed; for there is nothing on this side of heaven that can be compared with the manifestations of his love. Truly, in his favour is life; and his loving-kindness is better than life itself.]

Whilst acknowledging thus the goodness of God to him in past times, the Psalmist does not hesitate to proclaim,

II.

His prospective consolations

These pervade the whole psalm, and arise out of every truth contained in it. Three of his assertions in particular we shall notice:

1.

I shall not want

[With such a Shepherd, and such a Friend, how could he want; or what can any one so privileged ever stand in need of? Does he not know all our wants? and is he not able to supply them [Note: Php 4:19.]? Has he not absolutely pledged himself to supply them? and is there not an inexhaustible fulness treasured up in him on purpose that he may supply them? Do we need a righteousness wherein we may stand before God? The righteousness of Christ shall be unto all and upon all them that believe Do we need grace to mortify all our corruptions, and to fulfil the whole will of God? His grace shall be sufficient for us Do we need peace in our troubled breasts? He has left us peace as a legacy; Peace I leave with you: my peace give I unto you: yea, He himself will be our peace Even of temporal things he has said, that they who fear him shall want no manner of thing that is good [Note: Psa 34:10.]. Whether we look to the blessings of time or the glories of eternity, it is every believers privilege to say, I shall not want.]

2.

I will not fear

[It were presumptuous in the extreme for any one to use such an expression as this, if he looked only to an arm of flesh: for of ourselves we have no sufficiency even to think a good thought: but, with such a protector as the Lord Jesus, we may laugh all our enemies to scorn. We know how powerful, how subtle, how malignant is that roaring lion that seeketh to devour us; and we know that we are as weak and impotent in ourselves as sheep: but if David, a man like ourselves, slew a lion and a bear that invaded his fathers flock, what shall not Jesus effect in our defence? Who shall escape his eye, or who shall withstand his arm? Hear what our Lord himself says; My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places; when it shall hail, coming down on the forest, and the city shall be low in a low place [Note: Isa 32:18-19.]. Let the timid then dismiss their fears, from whatever source they may arise. I will fear no evil, said the Psalmist; and we, whether we take a general view of our enemies, or enter into a distinct enumeration of them, may adopt the same triumphant language [Note: Psa 46:1-3. Rom 8:35-39.] If we know in whom we have believed, we may be assured that he will keep that which we have committed to him against that glorious day, when all his flock shall be gathered together, and be one fold under one shepherd.]

3.

Of my happiness there shall be no end

[Behold how confidently the Psalmist speaks on this subject! Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. What! hast thou no doubt about this great matter? No: it shall be surely so. Art thou not presumptuous in speaking thus in relation to thyself? No: it shall be thus to me. But would it not be abundantly sufficient to say, that goodness and mercy shall not turn away from thee? No: they shall follow me, and that too all the days of my life: they shall follow me, even as my shadow does, wherever I go; goodness, to supply my wants; and mercy, to cover my defects. And art thou bold enough to carry this confidence beyond the grave? Yes: I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever; not only serving him in his house below, but enjoying and glorifying him in his house above.

Behold here the felicity of the Saints! All the rest of the world are following after happiness, and it eludes their grasp: but those who believe in Jesus have happiness following after them: goodness and mercy are their attendant angels, that never for a moment turn aside from them, or relax their attention to them.

The ignorant world have no idea of this blessed truth: they would account it almost blasphemy to utter such language as this. But the reason is, they know not what a Shepherd, and what a Friend, we have: did they but duly appreciate his love, they would know, that nothing within the sphere of our necessities to require, or of his ability to grant, is too great for us to expect at his gracious hands.
Enlarge then your expectations, all ye who are of the fold of Christ: learn to estimate alight your privileges: see them yet more distinctly stated by the Holy Psalmist [Note: Psa 91:15-16.] and look forward to the full enjoyment of them in that house, where the same adorable Saviour that now ministers unto you, will continue his ministrations to all eternity [Note: Rev 7:15-17.].]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

CONTENTS

The Psalmist here expresseth his entire confidence in the Lord, and considers him under the beautiful and interesting character of a shepherd: a well known office of Jesus Christ.

A Psalm of David.

Psa 23:1

When we consider in how many parts of Scripture the Lord Jesus is described under the character of a Shepherd, we shall not be at a loss immediately to make application, through every part of this Psalm, as it concerns ourselves to him. I stay not to observe also how, and in what sense, Christ himself, in his mediatorial character, might call Jehovah his shepherd; but I shall confine what is here said concerning the shepherd, in reference to him. God had promised in the Old Testament scripture, to raise up a faithful Shepherd, meaning, Christ. And it is well worth our inquiry, under how many descriptions the several writers of the word of God had it in commission to point him out. He is called God’s Shepherd, Zec 13:7 . And that no possible mistake concerning him might arise, he is called One Shepherd, Eze 34:23 . He is called also the Chief Shepherd, 1Pe 5:4 . And the Great Shepherd, Heb 13:20 . And Christ himself takes the appellation of the Good Shepherd, Joh 10:11 . Reader, how delightful, you and I, like David, can with the same authority say, ‘The Lord is MY Shepherd.’ Depend upon it, if so, we shall never want either food or raiment, neither chastisement nor support, either blessings in providence nor grace. He that is the Good Shepherd, and the Great Shepherd, and Jehovah’s Shepherd, will never suffer his sheep to be unprovided for.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

The Shepherd-psalm

Psa 23

It is with this Psalm in the light of Christian experience that I now wish to concern myself. The first impression which the reading of the Psalm produces upon the sympathetic soul is that of a wondrous soothing. If you ask, whence came this Psalm, I know of but one adequate reply. It came from a soul God filled; it came from the lips of a man to whom the cardinal reality of life was Jehovah. It presents two thoughts of God; in the first four verses Jehovah is Shepherd of His Sheep; in the last two He is King entertaining a highly favoured subject. About these two ideas we will group what we have to say.

I. ‘The Lord is my Shepherd,’ not merely a shepherd having a hundred sheep, with an interest only in the flock as a whole, but the Shepherd who cares for me, though I be the solitary wanderer, and His flock scarcely reduced by my absence. From the Divine Shepherd this member of His flock receives three priceless gifts rest, restoration, guidance.

( a ) Rest: the thought appeals to us all. Rest from the continuous battle with temptation, peace from the confusions of tempestuous trials, some cessation from the tiring monotony of the daily journey. All these, affirms the Psalmist, he finds in God.

( b ) The Shepherd is the Restorer. Men forsake God, but they do not escape Him. They desert Him, but He refuses to abandon them. They act mercilessly to themselves; He cares for them with a wiser and stronger love. ‘Restoreth;’ yes with infinite grace and with infinite wisdom.

( c ) Guidance is the other great benediction which the Psalmist recognizes as he meditates on his experience. We still lack wisdom, and the counsel and guidance of the Father are still freely available. ‘He guideth me in the paths of righteousness.’ He is my Teacher and Leader in goodness. Before I pass from the study of the Shepherd let me emphasize one outstanding word. It is ‘for His name’s sake,’ that He guideth me in the paths of righteousness. ‘For the sake of His name’ God acts thus that is for the sake of His character. Because He cannot be other than He is ‘The Lord gracious and merciful, slow to anger, plenteous in mercy’ He acts as He does.

II. Consider the other picture presented in the closing verses. The singer has changed the figure. No longer does he behold Jehovah the Shepherd, but Jehovah the King. He is not now one of His flock, but one of His subjects, a servant who has striven to be faithful in spite of many enemies, and one to whom His Royal Master is showing singular favour. Even in the presence of jealous foes, helpless before the King, the banquet is set, and the servant honoured with every token of royal approval. How true a picture of Christian experience triumph even in the presence of the foe. Not transference to new conditions. It is the presence of the enemies, the harassments and temptations, the doubts and hindrances, that makes goodness possible.

J. Rushbrooke, The Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxii. p. 21.

References. XXIII. T. Sadler, Sermons for Children, p. 180. G. H. Hepworth, American Pulpit of Today, vol. i. p. 23. T. Arnold, The Interpretation of Scripture, p. 101. J. Burnet, Penny Pulpit, No. 1628, p. 73. C. and E. Briggs. International Critical Commentary, p. 207. A. Maclaren, Sermons Preached in Manchester, p. 341. A. Maclaren, Life of David, p. 37. M. R. Vincent, Gates Into the Psalm Country, p. 53. I. Williams, The Psalms Interpreted of Christ, p. 421. Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii. p. 419. XXIII. 1. J. G. McFadyen, The City with Foundations, p. 201.

Psa 23

When Edward Irving was on his deathbed, he repeated the 23rd Psalm in Hebrew. His last words were, ‘In life and in death I am the Lord’s’. He had the conviction for a time that he would certainly remain till the coming of Christ; but he realized at length the approach of death.

Ver. 4. ‘Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me,’ were the dying words of the great Scottish philosopher, Sir William Hamilton.

When Dr. Alexander Duff, the Indian missionary, was travelling in the Himalayas, he saw a native shepherd followed by his flock. The man frequently stopped and looked back. If he saw a sheep drawing too near the edge of the precipice, he would go back and apply his crook to one of the hind legs, and gently pull it back till the animal joined the rest. Going up to the shepherd, he noticed that he had a long rod, as tall as himself, and twisted round the lower half a thick bar of iron. The region was infested with wolves and other dangerous animals, which in the night-time prowled about the place where the sheep lay. With his long rod the shepherd could strike the animal such a blow as would make it flee. This brought to the remembrance of the traveller the expression of David the shepherd, ‘Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me,’ and saved it, as he thought, from the charge of tautology, the staff referring to God’s hold of the sheep, the rod to his defence against enemies. When he himself lay dying, and apparently unconscious (Feb. 1878), his daughter repeated to him the 23rd Psalm, and he responded at the end of each verse.

John Ker.

In Green Pastures

Psa 23:2

It is only when the Spirit of God has given us spiritual eyesight, has led us to feel and confess our natural blindness, our inability to see light in God’s light, has led us, like Bartimaeus, to Christ, the Healer of nations, to cry, ‘Lord, that I may receive my sight’; it is only, in short, when we have been brought to, and made to lie down at, the foot of His Cross, that we may reach the new standpoint and can say, ‘Thy mercy, O Lord, is’ (like a rainbow) ‘in the heavens’. I. Take the words in their literal or natural sense; God has included temporal as well as spiritual blessings in His covenant with His people. The inheritance of His children is not all reserved for the afterlife. Godliness has the promise of the life that now is, as well as that of the life to come. But let us ‘take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth’. If we have received ‘a hundredfold more’ than we gave up ‘in the present time,’ it is only that we may dedicate to God a hundredfold more than we have been doing in the interests of His kingdom, in the service of the poor, and in the cause of the Gospel at home and abroad.

II. Take the words in their figurative and symbolical meaning. The Eastern shepherd leads his sheep into green pastures, not only that they may find food there in greater abundance, but that also of the sweetest and pleasantest quality. And that had been David’s experience from his youth upwards. Jehovah had been his Shepherd and had supplied all his need. Jehovah had been his Guide and had led him in the paths of righteousness.

III. Let us take the words in their spiritual significance. It was David’s lot to begin his reign in revival times. This 23rd Psalm is a song of the springtime; it is also a revival hymn of the Church. Nature was rejoicing over her awakening from winter sleep, and David and Israel were rejoicing over Jehovah’s return as the Shepherd-King of His people. It was a happy synchronism: the springtime of the year and the revival of the Church. David’s cup was overflowing. The angels of his youth had returned to follow him, and his dwelling-place at last would be in God’s House for ever. God had made him to lie down in green pastures.

R. Balgarnie, The Christian World Pulpit, vol. LXXV. p. 36.

References. XXIII. 2. S. Home, The Soul’s Awakening, p. 31. J. Vaughan, Sermons (10th Series), p. 29. Bishop Thorold, The Presence of Christ, p. 39. M. G. Pearse, Some Aspects of the Blessed Life, p. 213.

The Soul’s Master, Leader, and Restorer

Psa 23:2-3

Christ, by promising to be the Good Shepherd of our souls, has absorbed all the teaching of this shepherd-Psalm of David into himself, and when we think of David’s shepherd we have a vision of Jesus Christ.

I. There is first of all a thought of mastery in our text, ‘He maketh me to lie down in green pastures’. The sheep does not lie down where he pleases, but where the shepherd sees fit. The first supreme characteristic of Christianity is this recognition of Christ as the soul’s Master. There are those who boast their independence even of Jesus, but it is a lonely and hazardous undertaking.

II. We have also a thought of leadership. ‘He leadeth me beside the still waters.’ Christ is the only Leader of the human soul who always leads to peace. Life is a tragedy always to a thoughtful man who looks at it without hope in Christ. There is no situation this side of perdition so terrible that a man or a woman under the leadership of Jesus Christ may not find in the midst of all the storms and dangers of life the still waters of heavenly peace.

III. There is a thought of restoration. ‘He restoreth my soul.’ David knew by personal experience what that meant. I think there must be some deep meaning in the order of our text First the soul is mastered by the Divine love. Then it is surrendered to the heavenly leadership. Then comes restoration. Mastery, leadership, restoration, that is God’s order. But it is only in Jesus Christ that the sinner finds any promise or hope of restoration. The man who closes the Bible has no hope for the sinner.

L, A. Banks, Sermons Which Have Won Souls, p. 397.

References. XXIII. 2, 3. G. Matheson, Moments on the Mount, p. 67. G. Bainton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xii. p. 5.

Guided By God

Psa 23:3

In this world of dimness and disorder we are not wise enough to guide ourselves. The old pagans confessed as much when they watched the stars, if perchance they might spell out some secret of their own destiny, and knelt by the oracles to catch some whisper of Divine purpose which might shape their course.

I. People cling to the faith that there is a Guide. Our popular English Creed has for its chief article the reality of Providence that power above us who hedges the paths and numbers the years of man. And all Christians believe in One who is in this very nature the Provider, the Father, the Shepherd the Leader of faithful souls.

II. There are various methods and degrees of guidance. A rider guides his horse with bridle and whip and spur. A shepherd will guide his dog with his voice and his gestures. Signor Marconi can flash wireless messages of guidance to the captain of a ship hundreds of miles away on the sea. Yet when we consider the channels of communication between two personalities, we realize that there must be mutual sympathy between them, before one can effectively guide the other.

III. Clearly the highest guidance implies far more than an exercise of authority. Indeed the true use of human authority is to educate us until we can do without it, because we are become a law unto ourselves. How does a wise father desire to guide his child? At first it may be, perhaps it must be, by his definite directions and commands. But he is not content until these are superseded by the free choice of the child’s own nature, which spontaneously reflects and expresses the father’s character and will. Even so, God desires to make us not slaves, but sons.

IV. God’s inward leaning is not independent of the guidance which comes of the use of our natural faculties. He has granted us all some amount of reason and experience and common sense. We recognize certain practical duties. And we dare not expect any direct illumination of spirit unless we use to the full whatever outward illumination has been vouchsafed to us. We dare not shut an eye, and expect God to keep us from falling into the ditch. The gift of the Holy Ghost comes to supplement, not to supersede, our ordinary, everyday way of learning God’s will. These two are not contrary but co-ordinate.

V. Doubtless this doctrine of supernatural guidance involves subtle perils of its own. Some Christians grow intoxicated with the idea of a private and personal illumination. They lose sight of the New Testament and common sense, and the judgment of their fellow-Christians. They sometimes even imagine that the Divine Guide leads them into the paths of unrighteousness. They pay no heed to anything except inward feelings, which may be just their secret preferences distinguished and canonized. They mistake the murmurs of their own restless self-will for the voice of the authentic will of God. Nevertheless Divine guidance remains the corollary and consequence of Divine communion.

T. H. Darlow, The Upward Calling, p. 73.

References. XXIII. 3. J. Vaughan, Sermons (10th Series), p. 37. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xix. No. 1149. Bishop Thorold, The Presence of Christ, p. 83.

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

Psa 23:4

We have always associated the word ‘rod’ with chastisement. Herein we have deprived ourselves grievously of great comfort. Will the preachers collate the passages in which the word ‘rod’ occurs? they will find material there for a never-ending course of lectures, full of sap and encouragement and profitable gladness.

I. ‘And the Lord said unto Moses, Take the rod.’ Even Moses was nothing without the sign; Moses, greatest, strongest of lion-hearts, was only a layman when he had no rod in his hands. God always gives a sign; there is always a Divine mark; whatever it may be, it is of God’s choice, and only when we hold that mantle or rod or staff are we mighty with omnipotence. The rod was in a sense the Lord Himself; the mantle was a token of the Divine presence and inspiration. The rod is done away, but the thing signified abides for ever. When Moses is called upon today to do any great work, the Lord always says to him, Take My Word, take the Bible, take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of truth. So even we, the modern and latest descendants of Moses, have our rod, our sign of commission, our seal and pledge of being no laymen in the sense of not being initiated into the mystery of the heart of God. When the Lord calls a man from sheepfold or orchard or harvest-field, He does not send him empty-handed to do His work. He says, Take the rod. Lord, what is the rod? The Book. What book? My Book; the Book of inspiration, the Book that holds in it the germs, the beginnings, of that great tree which is to overshadow the whole earth and form a cathedral of singing delight.

II. ‘And Elisha said unto Gehazi, Take my staff.’ Could not the man walk without the staff? He could not; there is a sense in which the staff makes the man; there is another sense in which the staff tries the man, pulls his muscle to know if it is aught but gristle. Set a man with the Bible in front of him, and you change his whole relation, you change and you test the man himself. Take away the Bible and leave him to the riot of his own fancy, and he might say many beautiful and graphic things; put before him the Bible which he is called upon to interpret, and he cannot interpret a word of it unless the Spirit be in him, the inner light, that throws its blaze of splendour upon the outward and visible sign. Gehazi took the staff, what became of his doing so? Nothing; he could wake no child from the dead. Why? Because he was a bad man. The good staff in the bad hand means failure the world over.

III. ‘And the Lord said unto Moses, Take the rod;’ ‘And Elisha said unto Gehazi, Take my staff’; and the greatest, sweetest of all the minstrels said, ‘Thy rod and Thy staff,’ I will take them both, they comfort me, and thus prove that they are the Divine rod and the Divine staff. Still you see the same idea penetrates the whole thought of this discourse that we must have, so to say, something. You will find the rod and the staff of God everywhere if you look for them with the right eyes and the pure intent. Everything in all nature is the rod or the staff, comforting human souls, and bringing God quite near. Sometimes we cannot see God Himself, but we can see the rod, and we know it to be His rod; we can see the staff, and we know it to be His staff. Rod and staff are written all over with a cipher which the inspired and sanctified heart alone can interpret and apply.

IV. Thy rod, and Thy staff, and Thy promise. We have exceeding great and precious promises at our command; God has placed them at our disposal. There is nothing that can occur in your experience personally, domestically, or otherwise, that is not provided for in the Bible. The promises you do not know how sweet they are until you need them. They are delightful companions; they take up no room, they make no noise, they never fret or vex the soul by calling attention to their claims. They are never out of the way, yet never in it; they are like the atmosphere, they are like the summer weather; the light fills all space and leaves plenty of room for every little child to sit down in.

Joseph Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. v. p. 175.

The Table Prepared in Presence of Foes

Psa 23:5

There are three points of resemblance between the provision made for David and the provision made for us. These are its Divine preparation, its abundance and suitableness, and its being made in the presence of our enemies.

I. The enemies in whose presence our table is prepared human as well as natural. The harvest will not give us its blessing without a stern struggle with hostile elements.

II. The table prepared before us. This table is wisely adapted to our necessities as human beings. And what a table is thus spread for us every year! What sacred memories gather round the table thus so richly furnished!

III. The preparation of the table. The harvest is the subject of a Divine covenant engagement. Never once has the pledge given five thousand years ago been violated.

IV. The fruits of the harvest should be used in the work and for the glory of God.

Hugh Macmillan, Harvest and Thanksgiving Services, p. 1.

References. XXIII. 4-6. S. A. Brooke, Sermons, p. 71. J. Vaughan, Sermons (6th Series), p. 133. XXIII. 5. H. Bell, Sermons an Holy Communion, p. 77. F. Corbett, The Preacher’s Year, p. 164. XXIII. 6. H. Woodcock, Sermon Outlines, p. 98. S. A. Tipple, Sunday Mornings at Norwood, p. 233. S. Martin, Comfort in Trouble, p. 70. H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1848. Bishop Thorold, The Presence of Christ, p. 217.

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

Psa 23

[Note. Some think that this psalm was written by David in the early days of innocence; but against this view Psa 23:5 is quoted. Besides, it is doubted whether any youth could have had an experience so rich and large. Common opinion assigns the psalm to David. The images of the shepherd watching over his flock, and of the banquet where Jehovah presides over the just, are familiar in Hebrew poetry. It has been said that the mention of the House of Jehovah appears to be decisive against the Davidic authorship. Some have suggested that if David’s fortunes coloured the psalm it must have been through the mind of some later writer. The twenty-third Psalm stands apart in all its most tender and fascinating characteristics. Imagination can hardly dissociate it from the royal shepherd on the hillsides of Judah, where he studied nature so profoundly and communed so deeply and lovingly with God.]

The Divine Shepherd

“The Lord is my Shepherd ” ( Psa 23:1 ).

It is vital that we should define God’s relation to us, and our relation to God. Every one may have an image peculiarly his own; an image which most clearly typifies the divine nearness and care, and through which, therefore, he can see most of God and understand him best. God is the infinite name shepherd, father, healer, deliverer; these are the incarnation of it, not in the sense of limiting it, but in the sense of focalising its glory, and subduing it into daily use and daily comfort.

“I shall not want” ( Psa 23:1 ).

An indirect tribute to the earthly shepherd. Some titles are characters as well as designations. A shepherd that allowed his flock to want would divest himself of his character, and rank himself with the horde of hirelings whose business it is to fleece the flock, and deliver it as a prey to the wolf. The assurance of nurture has here large meaning. It may be paraphrased variously: I am God’s child, so I need not yield myself to anxiety; I am religious, therefore I am provided for. Or the reasoning may start from the other and better point: God is for me, who can be against me? God is housekeeper, so there will be bread enough. God reigns, the universe is safe. There is no selfishness in the reasoning: the Psalmist is not magnifying a little personality, he is stating the practical and universal sequence of fundamental reasoning. The violet is not immodest when it says in its mossy dell, The sun shines, I shall be warmed.

“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters” ( Psa 23:2 ).

He knows what I need: he treats me according to my quality: he proves by easily comprehended blessings that higher benefactions shall not be withheld. Pasture and water are the earnest and pledge of truth and grace. Did we know things as they are, we would know that they are all parables, whose meaning is spiritual. Bread is sacramental. Providence is the visible and historical aspect of theology. If God clothe the fields, will he not clothe the husbandmen? if he clothe the body, will he not clothe the soul? if he feed the flesh, will he starve the spirit? If we knew the earth aright we should have some understanding of heaven.

“He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” ( Psa 23:3 ).

So the sweet singer has not missed the higher significance of his music. Already the green fields have lured him into the sanctuary; already the “waters of comfort” have brought him to the river of God. This is the very purpose of nature. All the stars lead to Bethlehem. All the waters trickle to the pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. Oh that men were wise! then all nature would be but the vestibule of the sanctuary, and all providence but the many-figured gate which opens upon the soul’s storehouse. Soul-restoration is peculiarly the work of God. He alone knows that wonderful instrument, and he only can keep it in tune. “The inward man is renewed day by day!” Day by day the soul must be judged, re-adjusted, fed, comforted by the Living One. The proof of renewal will be a stedfast walk in the paths of righteousness. Morality will prove religion. Sentiment will be crystallised in character. Is our piety rhapsody or service? Is our restoration a dream or a discipline? Do we know in our very heart of hearts that he who made the rainbow a covenant made the Cross the only way to heaven? These are the questions which shock the complacency of self-satisfaction, and bring men to penitence, confession, and prayer.

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil” ( Psa 23:4 ).

It is indeed the valley of shadows, the valley of night. However much the expression may be softened by Hebrew etymology and usage, we know what the valley is. It is ever before even the youngest life. It must be traversed, and the darkest part of it must be passed alone. Sweet mother cannot follow her child right through; and ardent love, the love which makes two souls one, must stand back in wonder and be made dumb with awe. Opinions come and go; laughter and madness have their times of riot and triumph; attention is arrested by politics, business, war, and pleasure: but there is the black, silent, gloomy valley, waiting for us all! Is there no escape? May we not fly on white wings away to the city of light, the home of bliss? We know the answer. We bow our heads, and our hearts are cold with fear. “We must needs die.” “There is no discharge in that war.” Proud man, boastful, foolish man, let the “valley” sometimes come within thy purview, and sober thee into a moment’s considerateness!

“For thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me” ( Psa 23:4 ).

Then the pious boast is not irrational, or presumptuous, or sentimental. It is a sanctuary built upon a rock. The Psalmist will be without fear, simply because he is in vital fellowship with God. Nor is he left with the overpowering thought of Deity a magnificent intellectual conception he has something he can see and handle and enjoy, even a “rod” and a “staff.” In many forms do these helps present themselves, the written word, the palpable ordinance, the sympathetic friend, the remembered and realised promise, all those may be as the rod and staff of God meant for inspiration and comfort when the darkest cloud descends upon the expiring day. The peculiarity of the Christian religion is that it is most to us when we need it most The night cannot frighten it; the storm has no effect upon its courage; death owns its sovereignty and retires before its approach. This is the sweet necessity of the case, for God can know no fear, and to be in God is to be like God. “Thou art with me,” my hand is locked in thine, my life is drawn from thine, my future is involved in thine; God and the saint are one. When death triumphs he slays not the saint only, but also God. Take heart, then, for this we know is impossible.

“Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over”. ( Psa 23:5 ).

God is a hospitable host; he furnishes or spreads the table on a high mountain, and the enemy looks on with rage and impotence from the deep valley. God is the cup or portion of his people, and each can say, as in this case, “My cup is abundant drink.” God does everything for his people. Rod, staff, table, unction, cup, all are God’s. “What hast thou that thou hast not received?” Truly, my soul, God treateth thee as a favourite and setteth on thee special seals. So every believing man can say. Each of us seems to be God’s only child God’s one ewe lamb God’s chosen delight. But all this favour involves corresponding responsibility. Nothing is said in mere words about the responsibility, but it is in the very heart and necessity of the case. We cannot receive all and return nothing. Gratitude must find its own most appropriate expressions. I must judge my piety as certainly by its gratitude as by its mercies. No gratitude means that the rain of love has been lost in a desert of insensibility.

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever” ( Psa 23:6 ).

It has been thought that this reference to the house of the Lord is decisive against the Davidic origin of the psalm. Perhaps so, in a purely literal sense, but certainly not in the larger interpretation of the singer’s thought. The house of the Lord is a wide term. Jacob saw “the house of God” in an unexpected place. Surely there is a house for the heart a sanctuary not made with hands a hiding-place and a covert from the storm. Is not this suggested by the very words “for ever”? No man can literally abide in a literal house for ever. Man dies, stone crumbles, all things earthly vanish as if but a phantasm. But this sweet singer says he will abide for ever in a house that cannot be destroyed. The house of God is Truth, Wisdom, Holiness, Worship, Sacrifice, it signifies nearness to God, communion with him, a perpetual abiding under the shadow of the Almighty. My soul, seek thou no other home! In thy Father’s house there is bread enough and to spare, and they that trust him shall want no good thing.

This sweetest psalm holds a place of its own in sacred minstrelsy. By many figures may its place be signified. It is the nightingale of poems, for it sings in the darkness of death’s valley. Yet it is a poem that trills like the lark high above green pastures and landscapes, yellow with golden wheat. Nay, it is more than all this, for it seems to be sung by some one high in the summer light, and thus to come down from heaven rather than rise from earth. Did some angel open heaven’s gate and sing this lyric as the sun rose on the dewy pastures, and as morning made burnished silver of the tranquil streams? No no. It is a human psalm. Even man may sing. Even sinners may celebrate “free grace and dying love.” Sad is the psalmless heart, orphaned, indeed, and shepherdless is he who sits in silence when all nature celebrates the honour of her Lord. Shepherd of the universe, seek thy lost one!

Prayer

Almighty God, we bless thee that Jesus Christ has told us of his suffering and his death, especially that he has told us of his rising again from the dead, for no grave can hold his almightiness, and as for the darkness, lo! he openeth his eyes upon it and it fleeth away for ever. We bless thee that he has known the pain of death and the loneliness of the tomb, because, having himself suffered as the captain of our salvation, he is able to sympathise with those who are in suffering: he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are but dust, and there is nothing in our life that he himself has not first gone through. There hath no temptation assailed us with which he is unfamiliar: he was in all points tempted like as we are: he is touched with the feeling of our infirmities: we have not a high priest who is far exalted above our lot of sorrow and distress, but a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, in whose great woe we may forget our light suffering which is but for a moment. We gather in his name; may he come into our midst and send a warm glow of new and sacred love through all our hearts. There are no words like his: we know his voice it is the shepherd’s tone, it is the gentle word, the soothing accent: it is full of gospel, it is full of promise behold, thou dost give those who follow thee, O Son of man, great light and measureless liberty, and an outlook upon things to come, far and bright. Amen.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

XIV

THE PSALMS OF DAVID’S EARLY LIFE (CONTINUED) AND SEVERAL OTHER GROUPS

The subject of Psa 29 is the “Voice of God in the Storm,” and it seems to be addressed to the angels, Psa 29:1-2 . The progress of the storm is shown in Psa 29:3-9 , and the local idea in it is seen particularly in Psa 29:5-8 . The storm seems to rise on the Mediterranean, then visiting Lebanon and Kadesh, it progresses on to the Temple, where everything says, “Glory.”

The application of this psalm is easily determined from Psa 29:10-11 , which show that Jehovah, the mighty God of the storm as king will give strength to his people) and like the blessings of the calm after the storm, the blessing of peace follows the mighty demonstration of his power. So Jehovah is not only the God of war, but is also the God of peace. There can be no doubt that the author of the Psa 23 is David; it was written perhaps late in life, but it reflects his experiences in his early life. This psalm as literature is classed as a pastoral, a song of the fields.

The position of this psalm in the Psalter is between the passion psalm and the triumphant psalm. In other words, Psa 22 is a psalm of the cross, Psalm 23 a psalm of the crook and Psa 24 is a psalm of the crown. The parallel of this psalm in the New Testament is Joh 10 , Christ’s discourse on the Good Shepherd.

The divisions of this psalm are as follows: Psa 23:1-4 present Jehovah as a Shepherd; Psa 23:5-6 present him as a host. In the light of the double imagery of this psalm, its spiritual meaning, especially the meaning of the word “valley” and the word “staff,” is very significant. For a discussion of this thought I refer the reader to my sermon on Psa 23:4 , found in my Evangelistic Sermons.

I give here four general remarks on the psalms of the persecution by Saul, viz: –Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; and 142, as follows:

1. These psalms have their origin in the most trying experiences. One is here reminded of the conflict of Nehemiah in which he constantly breathed a prayer to God, or of Francis S. Key who, while the battle was raging, wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner,” or of Cardinal Newman who, while in the conflict with doubt and gloom, wrote “Lead, Kindly Light,” or of Stonewall Jackson who constantly read his Bible and prayed before going into battle, or of the singing army of Gustavus Adolphus before the decisive battle of Leipzig, or of Cromwell and his conquering heroes at the famous battle of Dunbar.

2. These psalms contain the sublimest expression of faith and hope amidst -the darkest hours of adversity. In them are some clear messianic references and prophecies which prove David’s intimate fellowship with the Spirit of God while under the very fires of the enemy and vouchsafes to us their inspiration.

3. We find also in these psalms expressions of human weakness and despondency, which, but for the supply of the grace and spirit of God, might have resulted in David’s defeat. But ‘a man is never whipped externally until he is whipped internally, and though David when smitten by calamity gave signs of human weakness, yet he remains the example for the world of the purest type of faith, the most enduring patience and the sublimest optimism.

4. In this group may be seen also not only the growth of faith in each individual psalm, but from the collection as a whole may be noted the progress of his conflict with the enemy. This progress is as marked as the march into a tunnel in which is discerned the thickening darkness until the traveler is overwhelmed in its gloom, but pressing on, the dawn breaks in upon him, and the light seems clearer and brighter than ever before and he bursts forth into the most jubilant praises and thanksgiving.

The psalms of the king prior to his great sin are Psa 101 ; Psa 18 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 110 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 21 ; Psa 60 . Psa 101 gives us the royal program, Psalms 20-21 and Psa 60 are called war psalms. Psa 2 celebrates the promise of Jehovah to David in 2Sa 7 . Psa 24 applied to Christ’s ascension, and Psa 110 is the psalm of his universal reign.

We here give an exposition of Psa 110 . In verse I Jehovah is represented as speaking to David’s Lord, saying, “Sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” We may be certain as to whom this scripture refers by comparing Mat 22:41-45 in which Jesus himself silences the Pharisees by quoting this passage and applying it to the Christ who was to come. So this is a psalm of his universal reign.

The following questions are suggested and answered in this psalm, to wit:

1. Who is first Lord? The speaker, or Jehovah?

2. Who is second Lord? The one addressed, who in New Testament light is interpreted to be the Christ.

3. When did Jehovah say this to Christ? After his resurrection and ascension, when he was seated at the right hand of God (Act 2:34 f.). This is to be conceived as following the events of his humiliation described in Phi 2:6-11 .

4. How long is he to sit at God’s right hand? “Until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” Thus we see he is to rule there till every enemy has been conquered.

5. How then is he to manifest his reign and send out the rod of his strength? Heaven is his throne and earth’s center is Zion. His church here on earth is the church militant, so this is a war song also.

6. But who constitute his army? His people here on earth, whose business it is to go forth as he gives marching orders.

7. What is to be the character of the people who constitute that army? (1) They are to be volunteers, or offer themselves willingly. Verse 3 properly translated would read as follows: “The people shall be volunteers in the day that thou leadest out thine army, going forth in the beauty of holiness, and multitudinous as the drops of the dew in the dawn of the morning.” From this we not only see that they are to be volunteers, but (2) they shall be holy, i.e., regenerated, made new creatures. Indeed, they shall be good people.

8. How many in that army? “They shall be multitudinous as the drops of the dew in the dawn of the morning.”

9. What is to be their weapon? The rod of his strength. But what is the rod of his strength? The rod is his word, to which he gives strength or power. This warfare and final victory is paralleled in Rev 19:11 , the white horse representing the peace of the gospel.

10. How is this great army to be supported? By Jesus, the High Priest, after the order of Melchizedek. It is necessary for him to live as long as the necessity for the army lasts. So this great warfare is to continue until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ.

The psalms connected with David’s great sin are Psa 51 ; Psa 32 . The occasion of each of these Psalms, respectively) was as follows:

1. The occasion of Psa 51 was Nathan’s rebuke to David for his sin.

2. The occasion of Psa 32 was the joy of forgiveness that came to David upon his repentance.

The relation of these two psalms to each other is that Psa 51 expresses his penitence and Psa 32 the joy of his forgiveness.

Some important doctrines in Psa 51 are prayer, confession, cleansing from sin, depravity, restoration, evangelism, praise, penitence, and intercession.

The New Testament teachings clearly stated in Psa 32 are forgiveness of sins, atonement for sins and imputation of sins, all of which are quoted from this psalm in Rom 4:7-8 , thus: Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin.

The psalms of the period of Absalom’s rebellion are Psa 41 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 3 ; Psa 4 ; Psa 63 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 . The New Testament parallel to the psalms of this period, as a product of a dark experience, is Paul’s letters written during the Roman imprisonment.

QUESTIONS

1. What is the subject of Psa 29 ?

2. To whom is it addressed?

3. What is the progress of the storm as shown in Psa 29:3-9 , and what is the local idea in it?

4. What is the application of this psalm?

5. Who is the author of Psa 23 and when was it written?

6. What is the classification of this psalm as literature?

7. What is the position of this psalm in the Psalter?

8. What is the parallel of this psalm in the New Testament?

9. What are the divisions of this psalm?

10. In the light of the double imagery of the psalm, what is its spiritual meaning, especially the meaning of the word “valley,” and the word, “staff”?

11. Give four general remarks on the psalms of the persecution by Saul.

12. What are the psalms of the king prior to his great sin?

13. Which of these gives us the royal program?

14. Which are called war psalms?

15. Which celebrates the promise of Jehovah to David in 2Sa 7 ?

16. Which one applies to Christ’s ascension?

17. Which is the psalm of his universal reign?

18. Expound this psalm.

19. What are the psalms connected with David’s great sin?

20. What are the occasion of each of these psalms, respectively?

21. What are the relation of these two psalms to each other?

22. What are some important doctrines in Psa 51 ?

23. What New Testament teachings are clearly stated in Psa 32 ?

24. What New Testament parallel to the psalms of the period of Absalom’s rebellion, as a product of a dark experience?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

PSALMS

XI

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS

According to my usual custom, when taking up the study of a book of the Bible I give at the beginning a list of books as helps to the study of that book. The following books I heartily commend on the Psalms:

1. Sampey’s Syllabus for Old Testament Study . This is especially good on the grouping and outlining of some selected psalms. There are also some valuable suggestions on other features of the book.

2. Kirkpatrick’g commentary, in “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges,” is an excellent aid in the study of the Psalter.

3. Perowne’s Book of Psalms is a good, scholarly treatise on the Psalms. A special feature of this commentary is the author’s “New Translation” and his notes are very helpful.

4. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David. This is just what the title implies. It is a voluminous, devotional interpretation of the Psalms and helpful to those who have the time for such extensive study of the Psalter.

5. Hengstenburg on the Psalms. This is a fine, scholarly work by one of the greatest of the conservative German scholars.

6. Maclaren on the Psalms, in “The Expositor’s Bible,” is the work of the world’s safest, sanest, and best of all works that have ever been written on the Psalms.

7. Thirtle on the Titles of the Psalms. This is the best on the subject and well worth a careful study.

At this point some definitions are in order. The Hebrew word for psalm means praise. The word in English comes from psalmos , a song of lyrical character, or a song to be sung and accompanied with a lyre. The Psalter is a collection of sacred and inspired songs, composed at different times and by different authors.

The range of time in composition was more than 1,000 years, or from the time of Moses to the time of Ezra. The collection in its present form was arranged probably by Ezra in the fifth century, B.C.

The Jewish classification of Old Testament books was The Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings. The Psalms was given the first place in the last group.

They had several names, or titles, of the Psalms. In Hebrew they are called “The Book of Prayers,” or “The Book of Praises.” The Hebrew word thus used means praises. The title of the first two books is found in Psa 72:20 : “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” The title of the whole collection of Psalms in the Septuagint is Biblos Psalman which means the “Book of Psalms.” The title in the Alexandrian Codex is Psalterion which is the name of a stringed instrument, and means “The Psalter.”

The derivation of our English words, “psalms,” “psalter,” and “psaltery,” respectively, is as follows:

1. “Psalms” comes from the Greek word, psalmoi, which is also from psallein , which means to play upon a stringed instrument. Therefore the Psalms are songs played upon stringed instruments, and the word here is used to apply to the whole collection.

2. “Psalter” is of the same origin and means the Book of Psalms and refers also to the whole collection.

3. “Psaltery” is from the word psalterion, which means “a harp,” an instrument, supposed to be in the shape of a triangle or like the delta of the Greek alphabet. See Psa 33:2 ; Psa 71:22 ; Psa 81:2 ; Psa 144:9 .

In our collection there are 150 psalms. In the Septuagint there is one extra. It is regarded as being outside the sacred collection and not inspired. The subject of this extra psalm is “David’s victory over Goliath.” The following is a copy of it: I was small among my brethren, And youngest in my father’s house, I used to feed my father’s sheep. My hands made a harp, My fingers fashioned a Psaltery. And who will declare unto my Lord? He is Lord, he it is who heareth. He it was who sent his angel And took me from my father’s sheep, And anointed me with the oil of his anointing. My brethren were goodly and tall, But the Lord took no pleasure in them. I went forth to meet the Philistine. And he cursed me by his idols But I drew the sword from beside him; I beheaded him and removed reproach from the children of Israel.

It will be noted that this psalm does not have the earmarks of an inspired production. There is not found in it the modesty so characteristic of David, but there is here an evident spirit of boasting and self-praise which is foreign to the Spirit of inspiration.

There is a difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint. Omitting the extra one in the Septuagint, there is no difference as to the total number. Both have 150 and the same subject matter, but they are not divided alike.

The following scheme shows the division according to our version and also the Septuagint: Psalms 1-8 in the Hebrew equal 1-8 in the Septuagint; 9-10 in the Hebrew combine into 9 in the Septuagint; 11-113 in the Hebrew equal 10-112 in the Septuagint; 114-115 in the Hebrew combine into 113 in the Septuagint; 116 in the Hebrew divides into 114-115 in the Septuagint; 117-146 in the Hebrew equal 116-145 in the Septuagint; 147 in the Hebrew divides into 146-147 in the Septuagint; 148-150 in the Hebrew equal 148-150 in the Septuagint.

The arrangement in the Vulgate is the same as the Septuagint. Also some of the older English versions have this arangement. Another difficulty in numbering perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another, viz: In the Hebrew often the title is verse I, and sometimes the title embraces verses 1-2.

The book divisions of the Psalter are five books, as follows:

Book I, Psalms 1-41 (41 chapters)

Book II, Psalms 42-72 (31 chapters)

Book III, Psalms 73-89 (17 chapters)

Book IV, Psalms 90-106 (17 chapters)

Book V, Psalms 107-150 (44 chapters)

They are marked by an introduction and a doxology. Psalm I forms an introduction to the whole book; Psa 150 is the doxology for the whole book. The introduction and doxology of each book are the first and last psalms of each division, respectively.

There were smaller collections before the final one, as follows:

Books I and II were by David; Book III, by Hezekiah, and Books IV and V, by Ezra.

Certain principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection:

1. David is honored with first place, Book I and II, including Psalms 1-72.

2. They are grouped according to the use of the name of God:

(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovah psalms;

(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohim-psalms;

(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovah psalms.

3. Book IV is introduced by the psalm of Moses, which is the first psalm written.

4. Some are arranged as companion psalms, for instance, sometimes two, sometimes three, and sometimes more. Examples: Psa 2 and 3; 22, 23, and 24; 113-118.

5. They were arranged for liturgical purposes, which furnished the psalms for special occasions, such as feasts, etc. We may be sure this arrangement was not accidental. An intelligent study of each case is convincing that it was determined upon rational grounds.

All the psalms have titles but thirty-three, as follows:

In Book I, Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 33 , (4 are without titles).

In Book II, Psa 43 ; Psa 71 , (2 are without titles).

In Book IV, Psa 91 ; Psa 93 ; Psa 94 ; Psa 95 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 97 ; Psa 104 ; Psa 105 ; Psa 106 , (9 are without titles).

In Book V, Psa 107 ; III; 112; 113; 114; 115; 116; 117; 118; 119; 135; 136; 137; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150, (18 are without titles).

The Talmud calls these psalms that have no title, “Orphan Psalms.” The later Jews supply these titles by taking the nearest preceding author. The lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; and 10 may be accounted for as follows: Psa 1 is a general introduction to the whole collection and Psa 2 was, perhaps, a part of Psa 1 . Psalms 9-10 were formerly combined into one, therefore Psa 10 has the same title as Psa 9 .

QUESTIONS

1. What books are commended on the Psalms?

2. What is a psalm?

3. What is the Psalter?

4. What is the range of time in composition?

5. When and by whom was the collection in its present form arranged?

6. What the Jewish classification of Old Testament books, and what the position of the Psalter in this classification?

7. What is the Hebrew title of the Psalms?

8. Find the title of the first two books from the books themselves.

9. What is the title of the whole collection of psalms in the Septuagint?

10. What is the title in the Alexandrian Codex?

11. What is the derivation of our English word, “Psalms”, “Psalter”, and “Psaltery,” respectively?

12. How many psalms in our collection?

13. How many psalms in the Septuagint?

14. What about the extra one in the Septuagint?

15. What is the subject of this extra psalm?

16. How does it compare with the Canonical Psalms?

17. What is the difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint?

18. What is the arrangement in the Vulgate?

19. What other difficulty in numbering which perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another?

20. What are the book divisions of the Psalter and how are these divisions marked?

21. Were there smaller collections before the final one? If so, what were they?

22. What principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection?

23. In what conclusion may we rest concerning this arrangement?

24. How many of the psalms have no titles?

25. What does the Talmud call these psalms that have no titles?

26. How do later Jews supply these titles?

27. How do you account for the lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ?

XII

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS (CONTINUED)

The following is a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms:

1. The author: “A Psalm of David” (Psa 37 ).

2. The occasion: “When he fled from Absalom, his son” (Psa 3 ).

3. The nature, or character, of the poem:

(1) Maschil, meaning “instruction,” a didactic poem (Psa 42 ).

(2) Michtam, meaning “gold,” “A Golden Psalm”; this means excellence or mystery (Psa 16 ; 56-60).

4. The occasion of its use: “A Psalm of David for the dedication of the house” (Psa 30 ).

5. Its purpose: “A Psalm of David to bring remembrance” (Psa 38 ; Psa 70 ).

6. Direction for its use: “A Psalm of David for the chief musician” (Psa 4 ).

7. The kind of musical instrument:

(1) Neginoth, meaning to strike a chord, as on stringed instruments (Psa 4 ; Psa 61 ).

(2) Nehiloth, meaning to perforate, as a pipe or flute (Psa 5 ).

(3) Shoshannim, Lilies, which refers probably to cymbals (Psa 45 ; Psa 69 ).

8. A special choir:

(1) Sheminith, the “eighth,” or octave below, as a male choir (Psa 6 ; Psa 12 ).

(2) Alamoth, female choir (Psa 46 ).

(3) Muth-labben, music with virgin voice, to be sung by a choir of boys in the treble (Psa 9 ).

9. The keynote, or tune:

(1) Aijeleth-sharar, “Hind of the morning,” a song to the melody of which this is sung (Psa 22 ).

(2) Al-tashheth, “Destroy thou not,” the beginning of a song the tune of which is sung (Psa 57 ; Psa 58 ; Psa 59 ; Psa 75 ).

(3) Gittith, set to the tune of Gath, perhaps a tune which David brought from Gath (Psa 8 ; Psa 81 ; Psa 84 ).

(4) Jonath-elim-rehokim, “The dove of the distant terebinths,” the commencement of an ode to the air of which this song was to be sung (Psa 56 ).

(5) Leannoth, the name of a tune (Psa 88 ).

(6) Mahalath, an instrument (Psa 53 ); Leonnoth-Mahaloth, to chant to a tune called Mahaloth.

(7) Shiggaion, a song or a hymn.

(8) Shushan-Eduth, “Lily of testimony,” a tune (Psa 60 ). Note some examples: (1) “America,” “Shiloh,” “Auld Lang Syne.” These are the names of songs such as we are familiar with; (2) “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” are examples of sacred hymns.

10. The liturgical use, those noted for the feasts, e.g., the Hallels and Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 146-150).

11. The destination, as “Song of Ascents” (Psalms 120-134)

12. The direction for the music, such as Selah, which means “Singers, pause”; Higgaion-Selah, to strike a symphony with selah, which means an instrumental interlude (Psa 9:16 ).

The longest and fullest title to any of the psalms is the title to Psa 60 . The items of information from this title are as follows: (1) the author; (2) the chief musician; (3) the historical occasion; (4) the use, or design; (5) the style of poetry; (6) the instrument or style of music.

The parts of these superscriptions which most concern us now are those indicating author, occasion, and date. As to the historic value or trustworthiness of these titles most modern scholars deny that they are a part of the Hebrew text, but the oldest Hebrew text of which we know anything had all of them. This is the text from which the Septuagint was translated. It is much more probable that the author affixed them than later writers. There is no internal evidence in any of the psalms that disproves the correctness of them, but much to confirm. The critics disagree among themselves altogether as to these titles. Hence their testimony cannot consistently be received. Nor can it ever be received until they have at least agreed upon a common ground of opposition.

David is the author of more than half the entire collection, the arrangement of which is as follows:

1. Seventy-three are ascribed to him in the superscriptions.

2. Some of these are but continuations of the preceding ones of a pair, trio, or larger group.

3. Some of the Korahite Psalms are manifestly Davidic.

4. Some not ascribed to him in the titles are attributed to him expressly by New Testament writers.

5. It is not possible to account for some parts of the Psalter without David. The history of his early life as found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1and 2 Chronicles, not only shows his remarkable genius for patriotic and sacred songs and music, but also shows his cultivation of that gift in the schools of the prophets. Some of these psalms of the history appear in the Psalter itself. It is plain to all who read these that they are founded on experience, and the experience of no other Hebrew fits the case. These experiences are found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.

As to the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition, I have this to say:

1. This theory has no historical support whatever, and therefore is not to be accepted at all.

2. It has no support in tradition, which weakens the contention of the critics greatly.

3. It has no support from finding any one with the necessary experience for their basis.

4. They can give no reasonable account as to how the titles ever got there.

5. It is psychologically impossible for anyone to have written these 150 psalms in the Maccabean times.

6. Their position is expressly contrary to the testimony of Christ and the apostles. Some of the psalms which they ascribe to the Maccabean Age are attributed to David by Christ himself, who said that David wrote them in the Spirit.

The obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result if it be Just, is a positive denial of the inspiration of both Testaments.

Other authors are named in the titles, as follows: (1) Asaph, to whom twelve psalms have been assigned: (2) Mosee, Psa 90 ; (3) Solomon, Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ; (4) Heman, Psa 80 ; (5) Ethem, Psa 89 ; (6) A number of the psalms are ascribed to the sons of Korah.

Not all the psalms ascribed to Asaph were composed by one person. History indicates that Asaph’s family presided over the song service for several generations. Some of them were composed by his descendants by the game name. The five general outlines of the whole collection are as follows:

I. By books

1. Psalms 1-41 (41)

2. Psalms 42-72 (31)

3. Psalms 73-89 (17)

4. Psalms 90-106 (17)

5. Psalms 107-150 (44)

II. According to date and authorship

1. The psalm of Moses (Psa 90 )

2. Psalms of David:

(1) The shepherd boy (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 ).

(2) David when persecuted by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ).

(3) David the King (Psa 101 ; Psa 18 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 110 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 21 ; Psa 60 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 3:4 ; Psa 64 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 ).

3. The Asaph Psalms (Psa 50 ; Psa 73 ; Psa 83 ).

4. The Korahite Psalms (Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 84 ).

5. The psalms of Solomon (Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ).

6. The psalms of the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah (Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 )

7. The psalms of the Exile (Psa 74 ; Psa 79 ; Psa 137 ; Psa 102 )

8. The psalms of the Restoration (Psa 85 ; Psa 126 ; Psa 118 ; 146-150)

III. By groups

1. The Jehovistic and Elohistic Psalms:

(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovistic;

(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohistic Psalms;

(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovistic.

2. The Penitential Psalms (Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 )

3. The Pilgrim Psalms (Psalms 120-134)

4. The Alphabetical Psalms (Psa 9 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 37 ; 111:112; Psa 119 ; Psa 145 )

5. The Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 11-113; 115-117; 146-150; to which may be added Psa 135 ) Psalms 113-118 are called “the Egyptian Hallel”

IV. Doctrines of the Psalms

1. The throne of grace and how to approach it by sacrifice, prayer, and praise.

2. The covenant, the basis of worship.

3. The paradoxical assertions of both innocence & guilt.

4. The pardon of sin and justification.

5. The Messiah.

6. The future life, pro and con.

7. The imprecations.

8. Other doctrines.

V. The New Testament use of the Psalms

1. Direct references and quotations in the New Testament.

2. The allusions to the psalms in the New Testament. Certain experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart, such as: (1) his peaceful early life; (2) his persecution by Saul; (3) his being crowned king of the people; (4) the bringing up of the ark; (5) his first great sin; (6) Absalom’s rebellion; (7) his second great sin; (8) the great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 ; (9) the feelings of his old age.

We may classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time, thus:

1. His peaceful early life (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 )

2. His persecution by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 7 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 120 ; Psa 140 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ; Psa 17 ; Psa 18 )

3. Making David King (Psa 27 ; Psa 133 ; Psa 101 )

4. Bringing up the ark (Psa 68 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 15 ; Psa 78 ; Psa 96 )

5. His first great sin (Psa 51 ; Psa 32 )

6. Absalom’s rebellion (Psa 41 ; Psa 6 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 109 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 39 ; Psa 3 ; Psa 4 ; Psa 63 ; Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 5 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 )

7. His second great sin (Psa 69 ; Psa 71 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 103 )

8. The great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 (Psa 2 )

9. Feelings of old age (Psa 37 )

The great doctrines of the psalms may be noted as follows: (1) the being and attributes of God; (3) sin, both original and individual; (3) both covenants; (4) the doctrine of justification; (5) concerning the Messiah.

There is a striking analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms. The Pentateuch contains five books of law; the Psalms contain five books of heart responses to the law.

It is interesting to note the historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms. These were controversies about singing uninspired songs, in the Middle Ages. The church would not allow anything to be used but psalms.

The history in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah is very valuable toward a proper interpretation of the psalms. These books furnish the historical setting for a great many of the psalms which is very indispensable to their proper interpretation.

Professor James Robertson, in the Poetry and Religion of the Psalms constructs a broad and strong argument in favor of the Davidic Psalms, as follows:

1. The age of David furnished promising soil for the growth of poetry.

2. David’s qualifications for composing the psalms make it highly probable that David is the author of the psalms ascribed to him.

3. The arguments against the possibility of ascribing to David any of the hymns in the Hebrew Psalter rests upon assumptions that are thoroughly antibiblical.

The New Testament makes large use of the psalms and we learn much as to their importance in teaching. There are seventy direct quotations in the New Testament from this book, from which we learn that the Scriptures were used extensively in accord with 2Ti 3:16-17 . There are also eleven references to the psalms in the New Testament from which we learn that the New Testament writers were thoroughly imbued with the spirit and teaching of the psalms. Then there are eight allusions ‘to this book in the New Testament from which we gather that the Psalms was one of the divisions of the Old Testament and that they were used in the early church.

QUESTIONS

1. Give a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms.

2. What is the longest title to any of the psalms and what the items of this title?

3. What parts of these superscriptions most concern us now?

4. What is the historic value, or trustworthiness of these titles?

5. State the argument showing David’s relation to the psalms.

6. What have you to say of the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition?

7. What the obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result, if it be just?

8. What other authors are named in the titles?

9. Were all the psalms ascribed to Asaph composed by one person?

10. Give the five general outlines of the whole collection, as follows: I. The outline by books II. The outline according to date and authorship III. The outline by groups IV. The outline of doctrines V. The outline by New Testament quotations or allusions.

11. What experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart?

12. Classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time.

13. What the great doctrines of the psalms?

14. What analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms?

15. What historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms?

16. Of what value is the history in Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah toward a proper interpretation of the psalms?

17. Give Professor James Robertson’s argument in favor of the Davidic authorship of the psalms.

18. What can you say of the New Testament use of the psalms and what do we learn as to their importance in teaching?

19. What can you say of the New Testament references to the psalms, and from the New Testament references what the impression on the New Testament writers?

20. What can you say of the allusions to the psalms in the New Testament?

XVII

THE MESSIAH IN THE PSALMS

A fine text for this chapter is as follows: “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Psalms concerning me,” Luk 24:44 . I know of no better way to close my brief treatise on the Psalms than to discuss the subject of the Messiah as revealed in this book.

Attention has been called to the threefold division of the Old Testament cited by our Lord, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luk 24:44 ), in all of which were the prophecies relating to himself that “must be fulfilled.” It has been shown just what Old Testament books belong to each of these several divisions. The division called the Psalms included many books, styled Holy Writings, and because the Psalms proper was the first book of the division it gave the name to the whole division.

The object of this discussion is to sketch the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah, or rather, to show how nearly a complete picture of our Lord is foredrawn in this one book. Let us understand however with Paul, that all prophecy is but in part (1Co 13:9 ), and that when we fill in on one canvas all the prophecies concerning the Messiah of all the Old Testament divisions, we are far from having a perfect portrait of our Lord. The present purpose is limited to three things:

1. What the book of the Psalms teaches concerning the Messiah.

2. That the New Testament shall authoritatively specify and expound this teaching.

3. That the many messianic predictions scattered over the book and the specifications thereof over the New Testament may be grouped into an orderly analysis, so that by the adjustment of the scattered parts we may have before us a picture of our Lord as foreseen by the psalmists.

In allowing the New Testament to authoritatively specify and expound the predictive features of the book, I am not unmindful of what the so-called “higher critics” urge against the New Testament quotations from the Old Testament and the use made of them. In this discussion, however, these objections are not considered, for sufficient reasons. There is not space for it. Even at the risk of being misjudged I must just now summarily pass all these objections, dismissing them with a single statement upon which the reader may place his own estimate of value. That statement is that in the days of my own infidelity, before this old method of criticism had its new name, I was quite familiar with the most and certainly the strongest of the objections now classified as higher criticism, and have since patiently re-examined them in their widely conflicting restatements under their modern name, and find my faith in the New Testament method of dealing with the Old Testament in no way shattered, but in every way confirmed. God is his own interpreter. The Old Testament as we now have it was in the hands of our Lord. I understand his apostle to declare, substantially, that “every one of these sacred scriptures is God-inspired and is profitable for teaching us what is right to believe and to do, for convincing us what is wrong in faith or practice, for rectifying the wrong when done, that we may be ready at every point, furnished completely, to do every good work, at the right time, in the right manner, and from the proper motive” (2Ti 3:16-17 ).

This New Testament declares that David was a prophet (Act 2:30 ), that he spake by the Holy Spirit (Act 1:16 ), that when the book speaks the Holy Spirit speaks (Heb 3:7 ), and that all its predictive utterances, as sacred Scripture, “must be fulfilled” (Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:16 ). It is not claimed that David wrote all the psalms, but that all are inspired, and that as he was the chief author, the book goes by his name.

It would be a fine thing to make out two lists, as follows:

1. All of the 150 psalms in order from which the New Testament quotes with messianic application.

2. The New Testament quotations, book by book, i.e., Matthew so many, and then the other books in their order.

We would find in neither of these any order as to time, that is, Psa 1 which forecasts an incident in the coming Messiah’s life does not forecast the first incident of his life. And even the New Testament citations are not in exact order as to time and incident of his life. To get the messianic picture before us, therefore, we must put the scattered parts together in their due relation and order, and so construct our own analysis. That is the prime object of this discussion. It is not claimed that the analysis now presented is perfect. It is too much the result of hasty, offhand work by an exceedingly busy man. It will serve, however, as a temporary working model, which any one may subsequently improve. We come at once to the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah.

1. The necessity for a Saviour. This foreseen necessity is a background of the psalmists’ portrait of the Messiah. The necessity consists in (1) man’s sinfulness; (2) his sin; (3) his inability of wisdom and power to recover himself; (4) the insufficiency of legal, typical sacrifices in securing atonement.

The predicate of Paul’s great argument on justification by faith is the universal depravity and guilt of man. He is everywhere corrupt in nature; everywhere an actual transgressor; everywhere under condemnation. But the scriptural proofs of this depravity and sin the apostle draws mainly from the book of the Psalms. In one paragraph of the letter to the Romans (Rom 3:4-18 ), he cites and groups six passages from six divisions of the Psalms (Psa 5:9 ; Psa 10:7 ; Psa 14:1-3 ; Psa 36:1 ; Psa 51:4-6 ; Psa 140:3 ). These passages abundantly prove man’s sinfulness, or natural depravity, and his universal practice of sin.

The predicate also of the same apostle’s great argument for revelation and salvation by a Redeemer is man’s inability of wisdom and power to re-establish communion with God. In one of his letters to the Corinthians he thus commences his argument: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? -For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preach-ing to save them that believe.” He closes this discussion with the broad proposition: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,” and proves it by a citation from Psa 94:11 : “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”

In like manner our Lord himself pours scorn on human wisdom and strength by twice citing Psa 8 : “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Mat 11:25-26 ). “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Mat 21:15-16 ).

But the necessity for a Saviour as foreseen by the psalmist did not stop at man’s depravity, sin, and helplessness. The Jews were trusting in the sacrifices of their law offered on the smoking altar. The inherent weakness of these offerings, their lack of intrinsic merit, their ultimate abolition, their complete fulfilment and supercession by a glorious antitype were foreseen and foreshown in this wonderful prophetic book: I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; And thy burnt offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he-goat out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all of the birds of the mountains; And the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Psa 50:8-13 .

Yet again it speaks in that more striking passage cited in the letter to the Hebrews: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers, once purged should have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, But a body didst thou prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) To do thy will, O God. Saying above, Sacrifice and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, (the which are offered according to the law), then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb 10:1-9 ).

This keen foresight of the temporary character and intrinsic worthlessness of animal sacrifices anticipated similar utterances by the later prophets (Isa 1:10-17 ; Jer 6:20 ; Jer 7:21-23 ; Hos 6:6 ; Amo 5:21 ; Mic 6:6-8 ). Indeed, I may as well state in passing that when the apostle declares, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins,” he lays down a broad principle, just as applicable to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. With reverence I state the principle: Not even God himself by mere appointment can vest in any ordinance, itself lacking intrinsic merit, the power to take away sin. There can be, therefore, in the nature of the case, no sacramental salvation. This would destroy the justice of God in order to exalt his mercy. Clearly the psalmist foresaw that “truth and mercy must meet together” before “righteousness and peace could kiss each other” (Psa 85:10 ). Thus we find as the dark background of the psalmists’ luminous portrait of the Messiah, the necessity for a Saviour.

2. The nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah. In no other prophetic book are the nature, fullness, and blessedness of salvation so clearly seen and so vividly portrayed. Besides others not now enumerated, certainly the psalmists clearly forecast four great elements of salvation:

(1) An atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit offered once for all (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:4-10 ).

(2) Regeneration itself consisting of cleansing, renewal, and justification. We hear his impassioned statement of the necessity of regeneration: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” followed by his earnest prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” and his equally fervent petition: “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psa 51 ). And we hear him again as Paul describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin Psa 32:1 ; Rom 4:6-8 .

(3) Introduction into the heavenly rest (Psa 95:7-11 ; Heb 3:7-19 ; Heb 4:1-11 ). Here is the antitypical Joshua leading spiritual Israel across the Jordan of death into the heavenly Canaan, the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God. Here we find creation’s original sabbath eclipsed by redemption’s greater sabbath when the Redeemer “entered his rest, ceasing from his own works as God did from his.”

(4) The recovery of all the universal dominion lost by the first Adam and the securement of all possible dominion which the first Adam never attained (Psa 8:5-6 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 ; 1Co 15:24-28 ).

What vast extent then and what blessedness in the salvation foreseen by the psalmists, and to be wrought by the Messiah. Atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit; regeneration by the Holy Spirit; heavenly rest as an eternal inheritance; and universal dominion shared with Christ!

3. The wondrous person of the Messiah in his dual nature, divine and human.

(1) His divinity,

(a) as God: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Psa 45:6 and Heb 1:8 ) ;

(b) as creator of the heavens and earth, immutable and eternal: Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end Psa 102:25-27 quoted with slight changes in Heb 1:10-12 .

(c) As owner of the earth: The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein, Psa 24:1 quoted in 1Co 10:26 .

(d) As the Son of God: “Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten thee” Psa 2:7 ; Heb 1:5 .

(e) As David’s Lord: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool, Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:41-46 .

(f) As the object of angelic worship: “And let all the angels of God worship him” Psa 97:7 ; Heb 1:6 .

(g) As the Bread of life: And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven Psa 78:24 ; interpreted in Joh 6:31-58 . These are but samples which ascribe deity to the Messiah of the psalmists.

(2) His humanity, (a) As the Son of man, or Son of Adam: Psa 8:4-6 , cited in 1Co 15:24-28 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Compare Luke’s genealogy, Luk 3:23-38 . This is the ideal man, or Second Adam, who regains Paradise Lost, who recovers race dominion, in whose image all his spiritual lineage is begotten. 1Co 15:45-49 . (b) As the Son of David: Psa 18:50 ; Psa 89:4 ; Psa 89:29 ; Psa 89:36 ; Psa 132:11 , cited in Luk 1:32 ; Act 13:22-23 ; Rom 1:3 ; 2Ti 2:8 . Perhaps a better statement of the psalmists’ vision of the wonderful person of the Messiah would be: He saw the uncreated Son, the second person of the trinity, in counsel and compact with the Father, arranging in eternity for the salvation of men: Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 . Then he saw this Holy One stoop to be the Son of man: Psa 8:4-6 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Then he was the son of David, and then he saw him rise again to be the Son of God: Psa 2:7 ; Rom 1:3-4 .

4. His offices.

(1) As the one atoning sacrifice (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 ).

(2) As the great Prophet, or Preacher (Psa 40:9-10 ; Psa 22:22 ; Heb 2:12 ). Even the method of his teaching by parable was foreseen (Psa 78:2 ; Mat 13:35 ). Equally also the grace, wisdom, and power of his teaching. When the psalmist declares that “Grace is poured into thy lips” (Psa 45:2 ), we need not be startled when we read that all the doctors in the Temple who heard him when only a boy “were astonished at his understanding and answers” (Luk 2:47 ); nor that his home people at Nazareth “all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luk 4:22 ); nor that those of his own country were astonished, and said, “Whence hath this man this wisdom?” (Mat 13:54 ); nor that the Jews in the Temple marveled, saying, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (Joh 7:15 ) ; nor that the stern officers of the law found their justification in failure to arrest him in the declaration, “Never man spake like this man” (Joh 7:46 ).

(3) As the king (Psa 2:6 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 45:1-17 ; Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:42-46 ; Act 2:33-36 ; 1Co 15:25 ; Eph 1:20 ; Heb 1:13 ).

(4) As the priest (Psa 110:4 ; Heb 5:5-10 ; Heb 7:1-21 ; Heb 10:12-14 ).

(5) As the final judge. The very sentence of expulsion pronounced upon the finally impenitent by the great judge (Mat 25:41 ) is borrowed from the psalmist’s prophetic words (Psa 6:8 ).

5. Incidents of life. The psalmists not only foresaw the necessity for a Saviour; the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation; the wonderful human-divine person of the Saviour; the offices to be filled by him in the work of salvation, but also many thrilling details of his work in life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. It is not assumed to cite all these details, but some of the most important are enumerated in order, thus:

(1) The visit, adoration, and gifts of the Magi recorded in Mat 2 are but partial fulfilment of Psa 72:9-10 .

(2) The scripture employed by Satan in the temptation of our Lord (Luk 4:10-11 ) was cited from Psa 91:11-12 and its pertinency not denied.

(3) In accounting for his intense earnestness and the apparently extreme measures adopted by our Lord in his first purification of the Temple (Joh 2:17 ), he cites the messianic zeal predicted in Psa 69:9 .

(4) Alienation from his own family was one of the saddest trials of our Lord’s earthly life. They are slow to understand his mission and to enter into sympathy with him. His self-abnegation and exhaustive toil were regarded by them as evidences of mental aberration, and it seems at one time they were ready to resort to forcible restraint of his freedom) virtually what in our time would be called arrest under a writ of lunacy. While at the last his half-brothers became distinguished preachers of his gospel, for a long while they do not believe on him. And the evidence forces us to the conclusion that his own mother shared with her other sons, in kind though not in degree, the misunderstanding of the supremacy of his mission over family relations. The New Testament record speaks for itself:

Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them. How is it that ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them Luk 2:48-51 (R.V.).

And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Joh 2:3-5 (R.V.).

And there come his mother and his brethren; and standing without; they sent unto him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him. Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on them that sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren) For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother Mar 3:31-35 (R.V.).

Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest. For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world. For even his brethren did not believe on him. Jesus therefore saith unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil. Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; because my time is not fulfilled. Joh 7:2-9 (R.V.).

These citations from the Revised Version tell their own story. But all that sad story is foreshown in the prophetic psalms. For example: I am become a stranger unto my brethren, And an alien unto my mother’s children. Psa 69:8 .

(5) The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was welcomed by a joyous people shouting a benediction from Psa 118:26 : “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mat 21:9 ); and the Lord’s lamentation over Jerusalem predicts continued desolation and banishment from his sight until the Jews are ready to repeat that benediction (Mat 23:39 ).

(6) The children’s hosanna in the Temple after its second purgation is declared by our Lord to be a fulfilment of that perfect praise forecast in Psa 8:2 .

(7) The final rejection of our Lord by his own people was also clear in the psalmist’s vision (Psa 118:22 ; Mat 21:42-44 ).

(8) Gethsemane’s baptism of suffering, with its strong crying and tears and prayers was as clear to the psalmist’s prophetic vision as to the evangelist and apostle after it became history (Psa 69:1-4 ; Psa 69:13-20 ; and Mat 26:36-44 ; Heb 5:7 ).

(9) In life-size also before the psalmist was the betrayer of Christ and his doom (Psa 41:9 ; Psa 69:25 ; Psa 109:6-8 ; Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:20 ).

(10) The rage of the people, Jew and Gentile, and the conspiracy of Pilate and Herod are clearly outlined (Psa 2:1-3 ; Act 4:25-27 ).

(11) All the farce of his trial the false accusation, his own marvelous silence; and the inhuman maltreatment to which he was subjected, is foreshown in the prophecy as dramatically as in the history (Mat 26:57-68 ; Mat 27:26-31 ; Psa 27:12 ; Psa 35:15-16 ; Psa 38:3 ; Psa 69:19 ).

The circumstances of his death, many and clear, are distinctly foreseen. He died in the prime of life (Psa 89:45 ; Psa 102:23-24 ). He died by crucifixion (Psa 22:14-17 ; Luk 23 ; 33; Joh 19:23-37 ; Joh 20:27 ). But yet not a bone of his body was broken (Psa 34:20 ; Joh 19:36 ).

The persecution, hatred without a cause, the mockery and insults, are all vividly and dramatically foretold (Psa 22:6-13 ; Psa 35:7 ; Psa 35:12 ; Psa 35:15 ; Psa 35:21 ; Psa 109:25 ).

The parting of his garments and the gambling for his vesture (Psa 22:18 ; Mat 27:35 ).

His intense thirst and the gall and vinegar offered for his drink (Psa 69:21 ; Mat 27:34 ).

In the psalms, too, we hear his prayers for his enemies so remarkably fulfilled in fact (Psa 109:4 ; Luk 23:34 ).

His spiritual death was also before the eye of the psalmist, and the very words which expressed it the psalmist heard. Separation from the Father is spiritual death. The sinner’s substitute must die the sinner’s death, death physical, i.e., separation of soul from body; death spiritual, i.e., separation of the soul from God. The latter is the real death and must precede the former. This death the substitute died when he cried out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” (Psa 22:1 ; Mat 27:46 ).

Emerging from the darkness of that death, which was the hour of the prince of darkness, the psalmist heard him commend his spirit to the Father (Psa_31:35; Luk 23:46 ) showing that while he died the spiritual death, his soul was not permanently abandoned unto hell (Psa 16:8-10 ; Act 2:25 ) so that while he “tasted death” for every man it was not permanent death (Heb 2:9 ).

With equal clearness the psalmist foresaw his resurrection, his triumph over death and hell, his glorious ascension into heaven, and his exaltation at the right hand of God as King of kings and Lord of lords, as a high Driest forever, as invested with universal sovereignty (Psa 16:8-11 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 68:18 ; Psa 2:6 ; Psa 111:1-4 ; Psa 8:4-6 ; Act 2:25-36 ; Eph 1:19-23 ; Eph 4:8-10 ).

We see, therefore, brethren, when the scattered parts are put together and adjusted, how nearly complete a portrait of our Lord is put upon the prophetic canvas by this inspired limner, the sweet singer of Israel.

QUESTIONS

1. What is a good text for this chapter?

2. What is the threefold division of the Old Testament as cited by our Lord?

3. What is the last division called and why?

4. What is the object of the discussion in this chapter?

5. To what three things is the purpose limited?

6. What especially qualifies the author to meet the objections of the higher critics to allowing the New Testament usage of the Old Testament to determine its meaning and application?

7. What is the author’s conviction relative to the Scriptures?

8. What is the New Testament testimony on the question of inspiration?

9. What is the author’s suggested plan of approach to the study of the Messiah in the Psalms?

10. What the background of the Psalmist’s portrait of the Messiah and of what does it consist?

11. Give the substance of Paul’s discussion of man’s sinfulness.

12. What is the teaching of Jesus on this point?

13. What is the teaching relative to sacrifices?

14. What the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah and what the four great elements of it as forecast by the psalmist?

15. What is the teaching of the psalms relative to the wondrous person of the Messiah? Discuss.

16. What are the offices of the Messiah according to psalms? Discuss each.

17. Cite the more important events of the Messiah’s life according to the vision of the psalmist.

18. What the circumstances of the Messiah’s death and resurrection as foreseen by the psalmist?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Psa 23:1 A Psalm of David. The LORD [is] my shepherd; I shall not want.

Ver. 1. The Lord is my shepherd ] This psalm may well be called David’s Bucolicon, or pastoral; so daintily hath he struck upon the whole string, through the whole hymn. Est Psalmus honorahilis, saith Aben Ezra; it is a noble psalm written and sung by David; not when he fled into the forest of Hareth, 1Sa 22:5 , as some Hebrews will have it (R. Kimchi, R. Solom.); but when, as having overcome all his enemies and settled his kingdom, he enjoyed great peace and quiet, and had one foot as it were upon the battlements of heaven. The Jews at this day use for the most part to repeat this psalm after they are set down to meat (Leo. Modena). God is often in Scripture called the Shepherd of his people, Psa 80:1 Eze 34:12 ; Eze 34:14-15 Isa 40:11 Joh 10:11 1Pe 2:25 , although non est ofiicium magis contemptibile quam opilionis, saith R. Jos. Bar. Haman, there is not a more contemptible office than that of a shepherd. Every shepherd was an abomination to the Egyptians. But God disdaineth not to feed his flock, to guide, to govern, to defend them, to handle and heal them, to tend and take care of them; and all this he hath tied himself by covenant to do, Eze 34:25 : well therefore might David confidently conclude,

I shall not want ] Non deficiam, iudigebo, destituar. The wicked in the fulness of his sufficiency is in straits, Job 20:22 . Tantalus-like, he is ever wanting; content he hath none. Contrarily, true piety brings true plenty, and a saint is never to seek of well contenting sufficiency, 1Ti 6:6 , for to him, Parva seges satis est. A small crop is enough, And he saith,

Discite quam parvo liceat producers vitam,

Et quantum natura petat, &c.

(Lucan. Pharsi. l. 4).

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)