Meditations on the Twenty-Third Psalm

The Twenty-third Psalm is familiar to many. To some, it recalls the earliest associations of youth, and even of childhood. Scenes, voices, faces, long, long, passed away, and never more to be seen or heard in this world, are vividly brought before the mind, in meditating on this beautiful Psalm. The heart, at times, loves to, recall, and dwell on such early associations. And not infrequently, in mature years, and even in old age, the lessons learned in youth are the best remembered. Hence, the importance of early training and instruction in the things of God, and of the immortal soul.
The following anecdote from the pen of a missionary who labored in India, touchingly illustrates what has just been referred to; but as it is now given from memory, we can only vouch for its being substantially correct. In visiting an hospital he came to the bedside of a dying soldier, and spoke to him about the concerns of his soul, but he gave no heed to what was said. He was evidently dying fast, but utterly careless and hardened through a long course of sin. The earnest missionary could not bear the thought of leaving him to die in his sins, knowing what an eternity of misery his must be were this to be the case; yet every appeal seemed ineffectual. At last the thought crossed his mind — ‘I can hear from his accent that he comes from a country where the Psalm of David are generally committed to memory in youth; I will try if a verse of a Psalm will touch his heart.’ So when he had gained his attention, he calmly repeated to him, Such pity as a father hath Unto his children dear; Like pity shows the Lord to such As worship Him in fear. For He remembers we are dust, And He our frame well knows. Frail man, his days are like the grass, As flower in field he grows.
The dying soldier now looked at the missionary earnestly, he stared as if a voice from afar addressed him. The scenes of home and youth rushed into his mind — a tender chord had been touched. The well-known, though long-forgotten lines of the beautiful hundred and third Psalm, thrilled his soul, and were, we trust, the voice of God in his conscience. He was thoroughly broken down, so that a thousand avenues, we doubt not, might now have been found to his heart.
We are willing to believe that in such a case, we see the happy fruits of the early instruction of the child, and of the parents’ prayer to God for His blessing. For a long time, both the instruction given, and the prayers offered, seemed fruitless and forgotten. But God can never forget. The child may, and alas, often does, but our God, blessed be His name, never can. The prayer that has been laid in faith on His table, can never be overlaid. It may often seem so, and our evil hearts of unbelief arc too prone to fear that it is be; but faith affirms that it never can be overlooked, or unanswered. The prayer that has been thus spread out before Him, is ever beneath His eye. He has a father’s heart, He knows what it is to bring up children; as we read in Isa. 1: 2. “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.” He knows every feeling that exercises a parent’s heart. And the good seed of the word, too, may often seem to have been banished from the mind, and the heart and conscience become so encrusted by the world and sin, that to pierce through it is impossible. But God is faithful, and faith will never yield its hold of Him. It can ever fall back on that broad and blessed word, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things.” And, again, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” Romans 8:32; Acts 16:31.
By means the most simple, and at a moment when we least expect it, our gracious God often works in the hearts of those we love. And when the light of God does shine into the soul, a long life of sin, with its dreadful realities, may startup before the trembling sinner in u moment; and in another moment, by the grace of God, he may see them all blotted out, and his peace made with Him, through the precious blood of Jesus. When God works, who, what, can hinder Him?
Could we conceive of a case more hopeless than the one just described? The Philippian jailor, or the thief on the cross, were not more so. Far from home — no relatives near, and, it may be, without a friend in this world. And now, laid down to die in an hospital at the close of such a life; is he not, we may exclaim, beyond all hope? Who thinks of him now? Who cares for him there? Only ONE. He who had often heard, it may be, the parents’ frequent, fervent prayer — (“O Father of Mercies, keep thine eye on my wandering son — let thy hand of unwearied love be spread over him night and day —, bring him early to Thyself, that He may not so dishonor Thy name,”) —now graciously vouchsafes an answer in peace. The parents may have passed off the scene, and prayer may have long been silent for the careless one; but God forgets not the heart that trusted Him, and in due time will surely fulfill its desires. He sent His servant at the right time —gave him the right word — and all in good time accomplished the blessed work! Glad surprise will often fill our souls in heaven, in meeting those we once feared might never reach that happy land. Oh! that we may count only on God, and never doubt or fear.
Knowing that many hearts are deeply interested in this subject, must he our excuse for saying so much thereon. But we now return to our beautiful Psalm; and it may be we shall find, that however early we were taught to repeat, “The Lord’s my Shepherd,” we have yet to learn its meaning and application.
“THE LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.” This is surely the expression of a heart that is filled avid occupied with the Lord Himself. It may be the expression of one who only knew the Lord as Jehovah, revealed to Israel; or, of one who knows Him as Jehovah-Jesus, who saves His people from their sins; but it is evidently the language of one who is truly godly, whether Jew or Christian, and who makes the Lord his only trust. The soul, under all circumstances, is here viewed, as resting on the unfailing care, and quietly enjoying the varied resources of the well-known Shepherd of the sheep. And that, not only for the present time, but for all times, and forever.
This is precious faith! Mark it well, O my soul, and patiently meditate thereon. It is most practical! “The Lord is my Shepherd.” It rises, observe, above what He gives, what He does, what He promises, blessed as these are, and calmly rests on what He is Himself. As the eye of Abraham rested not on the promises when he put forth his hand to slay his son, but on Him from whom the promises came; so here, the eye of the pilgrim resting on the Lord, he can say, “I shall not want.” When such confidence fills the heart, peace, evenness, and quietness, will characterize the life.
But knowest thou, my soul, the secret spring of such a blessed state? How is it that so few rise to this measure? Hast thou? Hast thou this rejoicing and confidence in the Lord, in the midst of wilderness circumstances? “The Lord is my shepherd,” sounds like the voice of one rejoicing. “I shall not want,” like that of quiet confidence.
When we have learned the deep lessons of the twenty-second Psalm, we shall understand the path of the twenty-third; and further, we shall rejoice in hope of the glory of the twenty-fourth. The three Psalm are linked together. But the twenty-second must be learned first. To know the grace that shines on the pilgrim’s path in the twenty-third, and on the pilgrim resting in glory in the twenty-fourth, we must know the grace that shines in the sufferings of Christ in the twenty-second. The grace and the glory are due to Him who suffered there, and to all who own Him, in the day of His rejection. We must travel, in faith, through the twenty-second, to reach the twenty-third; there is no other path to it; and when there, we find that the next thing is glory. The Christian is thus, in spirit, between the sufferings and the glory — the cross and the crown. He looks back on the one, and onward to the other. Sin, death, judgment, the grave, the world, Satan, are all behind him. Victory over every foe, is stamped on our life in resurrection.
The three grand aspects of the Lord’s Shepherd-character, as revealed in the New Testament, teach the same precious truths. 1. As the “Good Shepherd,” who laid down His life for the sheep. (Comp. John 10, Psalm 22) 2. As the “Great Shepherd,” — risen from the dead, He takes charge of the sheep as they journey through “ that great and terrible wilderness.” (Comp. Heb. 13 Psalm 23) 3. As the “Chief Shepherd,” who will give a crown of glory to all His under shepherds, at His appearing and kingdom. (Comp. 1 Pet. 5, Psalm 24) Surely, if we know the Lord thus, our confidence in Him must be without a question. We shall know His love, care, power, grace, and goodness, as the Shepherd of the sheep. And having gone through the wilderness Himself, He knows all the dangers and difficulties of the way.
The immediate occasion of the blessed Lord taking this place of care and responsibility, is also worthy of special note. In the eighth chapter of John’s Gospel, He is rejected as the light and the truth. In the ninth, He is rejected in His work. Thus rejected by the Jews in His Person and work, He formally takes His place in the tenth chapter, outside the Jewish fold, as the “Good Shepherd.” Now, He gathers “the poor of the flock” around Himself, as the new center. “They shall hear my voice; and there shall be one flock, (flock, it should be, not fold,) and one shepherd.” They are a “little flock” with Himself, outside the Jewish fold. They have been cast out of the synagogue, but they have all blessing in Him. Appearances may be against them, but His word assures them of a present salvation, and happy liberty. “I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture.” How unlike the narrow limits of Israel — the place of bondage! Now they have the full assurance of salvation; and, also, “can go in” to the sanctuary of God’s holy presence to worship, and “out” in service to a perishing world. But this is not all — grace abounds — His heart over flows with deepest interest and tenderness for those who leave all and follow Him-who follow Him in His rejection; or, as the apostle expresses it, who “go forth unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach,”— sharing His rejection. For all such, that wonderful revelation of grace was especially given. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life: and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.” These verses will be read with tenfold more interest when we understand the circumstances in which they were first uttered; and still more, if we are in similar circumstances ourselves.
But it may be said by some, that as David, the writer of this Psalm, lived long before the humiliation and cross of Christ, he could know nothing of these things. True, so far; but he knew what it was to be rejected by man and cast upon God, even after he was the Lord’s anointed. David and his companions in “the cave of Adullam,” typify Christ and those that gather around Him. But we doubt not that “the spirit of Christ,” in David, so guided him in writing the Psalm, that it applies to both Jew and Christian, and may be the truthful expression of the experience of both; only, in a much higher, and more spiritual way with us.
“The Jews’ religion” had its place and day before the cross, Christianity after it. This makes all the difference. We know not Messiah after the flesh, but a risen Christ in heavenly glory. We are associated with Him there. Judaism was earthly in its character; it had “divine service,” and a “worldly sanctuary.” Christianity is heavenly. Christians are seated together in heavenly places in Christ. Our place is to be outside the camp with Christ, as witnesses, and inside the veil with Him, as worshippers. And now, from this heavenly point of view, it is our happy privilege to meditate on the rich experience of this delightful Psalm, in the full light of gospel truth.
My Shepherd is the Lamb,
The living Lord, who died:
With all things good I ever am
By Him supplied.
He richly feeds my soul
With blessings from above;
And leads me where the rivers roll
Of endless love.
Meditations on the Twenty-Third Psalm
Ver. 2. “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters.” The effect of the knowledge of Jesus as the good and great Shepherd, is rest of soul in Himself, and the quiet enjoyment of His love and grace. To know Himself is life — eternal life. To know His work is peace — perfect peace. “He maketh me to lie down,” To sit down is to rest; but to lie down gives the idea of full, perfect, refreshing rest — complete repose. This is what the Shepherd provides — what He leads to; not, alas, what we always accept. We often wander in fields wherein is no pasture, and beside the troubled, not the quiet waters. But this comes from occupation with self and unbelief, not from the Shepherd’s hand and care. He would have the feeblest of His flock to be free from all anxiety as to the future. The Shepherd’s thoughtful love is enough. He has charged Himself with the entire care of all who follow Him. We have only to watch the direction of the Shepherd’s eye, and confide in His unfailing care. “I will guide thee with mine eye” — “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee,” are His own words. His sheep cannot want. They may often be greatly tried in their journeyings through the wilderness, and often be ready to faint and fail because of the way; but we must remember that the Lord’s grace never fails, and that we must ever count on Him, and what we have in Him. He is with us always, even unto the end. We may quietly rest in Him. He maketh us to lie down in “green pastures” — in the midst of plenty — we rest in the abundance of His grace; and He ever leads beside the still waters.
The Lord’s my Shepherd, I’ll not want,
He makes me down to lie
In pastures green; He leadeth me
The quiet waters by.
Peace, plenty, and security, characterize the portion of the Lord’s beloved flock. “They shad hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” This beautiful passage, which so touchingly represents the Lord’s delight in the sealed remnant of the Gentiles, will be literally true during the millennium, of all who are faithful to “the King of Glory.” Comp. Isa. 49, with Rev. 7 But it is also true now, in a spiritual sense, of every sheep and lamb in the highly-favored flock of Christ. But knowest thou this blessed truth, Ο my soul, for thyself — is it thine own experience? It can only be known by the word of God, and enjoyed in the heart by faith. “For we walk by faith not by sight.” Our rest and plenty are not natural and worldly, but spiritual and heavenly.
When the heart is simple, all is plain and easy. We have heard the feeblest sing in the joyous sense of deliverance, and with amazing heart, even before the pangs of the new birth were well over;
“He took me from a fearful pit, And from the miry clay, And on a rock He set my feet, Establishing my way. He put a new song in my mouth, Our God to magnify: Many shall see it, and shall fear, And on the Lord rely.”
Further on we learn, that the measure of our blessing is the Lord’s own measure. “Because as he is, so are we in this world.” “Whosoever drinketh of this water,” pointing to Jacob’s well, “shall thirst again. But whosoever shall drink of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.” The deepest well of human bliss may soon run dry, but the “living fountains of waters” have their spring in the heart of God, which can never fail. And again, “Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life; he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” (John 4:6) And further still, as the foreign shoot that is grafted into the olive-tree drinks of its richness and fatness; or, as the members of the body have nourishment ministered from the head; so are we vitally united to Christ, and we feed on Him, both as to our heavenly and our time-condition.
But in the passage before us, it is rather the Lamb feeding us, than we feeding on Him. “For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters.” Both are blessedly true; but the former agrees more fully with the strains of the twenty-third Psalm. He who laid down His life for the sheep, and washed them from their sins in His own blood, now feeds them and leads them with His own hand. What grace! What gentleness! To be protected and nourished, in our journey through the wilderness, by the very hand that was pierced for our sins, should fill our hearts with perfect confidence in our Shepherd, notwithstanding the manifold trials and difficulties of the way.
The great thing, undoubtedly, is to know Himself, and to know what we are to Him, and what He is to us. What has He done in the past, what is He doing in the present, and what will He do in the future, to manifest His love? May not His great work be all briefly summed up in this? When we had lost all — the soul, holiness, happiness, and God — He not only brings the lost one back to God, but, oh, wondrous truth, — truth fraught with complete blessedness! — He recovers God for the soul! and this is all, for “God is love.” He is the living God, the only source of the soul’s life, holiness, and happiness. Oh! what a truth! Who can estimate its blessedness? Dwell upon it, Ο my soul; only think —the soul recovered for God, and God recovered for the soul! What a recovery! What a reconciliation! Not, observe, that God needed to be reconciled to us; no, God never was man’s enemy; on the contrary, He so loved us when we were in our sins, that He gave His Son to die for us. And it is plainly stated, that “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them.” Nothing was needed to turn God’s heart to us, blessed be His name! But the cross was needed, that by it God might receive the atonement and we the reconciliation. We, alas, were enemies to God in our minds by wicked works; but love triumphed in the cross; for thereby righteous reconciliation was accomplished, and man’s enmity to God was slain. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.” 1 Pet. 3:18.
And now, mark well, my soul, in thy meditations, this inviting aspect of God’s love towards us; it is well fitted to quiet many a fear, and comfort thee in any trouble — to fill thee, even now, with joy unspeakable and full of glory. And mark, too, that word of exquisite tenderness which refers to the wind-up of thy weary journey through this vale of tears; “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” With His own hand He wipes away the last tear that shall ever dim the pilgrim’s eye. May we not call this the privilege of love, which the Father claims for all the children?
“He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name sake.” Though under the faithful care and watchful eye of the Good Shepherd, we have to pass through a world, in which many and powerful foes surround us, and closely beset our path. “The god of this world,” we are sure, hates us, because he knows full well that when he is chained in the bottomless pit, we shall be in the full liberty of the glory with Christ. There is no book in all the Bible he tries to keep people from reading, or dislikes, so much as the book of “The Revelation;” and, why? Because, therein his own complete overthrow, and eternal misery, are plainly foretold. He wants to conceal this from the eyes of men; and, alas, how wonderfully he has succeeded, as to this precious and profitable book. Many think it cannot be understood, and that it is unprofitable to read it; whereas, the Lord has connected a special blessing with the reading and the understanding of this book. “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things that are written therein: for the time is at hand.” (Chap. 1:3.) The Lord’s judicial dealings, not only with Satan, the source of all evil, but with the Jew, the Gentile, and the Church of God, are herein unfolded. He shows us how He will square accounts with each. There can be no millennium until these judgments are past. “Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee?” It is all important to see the final results of the rise and progress of these three great divisions of mankind. Other books show us the failure, “The Revelation” the fall and the setting aside of these bodies, or classes, as the responsible witnesses of God in the earth. But more than that, “The Revelation” shows us the Lord Jesus Christ taking the place of the faithful and true witness, on the failure of all others, and re-establishing all things on a new footing, that God may be fully glorified in the scene wherein He has been dishonored. “These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God......Jesus Christ the faithful witness, and the first begotten from the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.” Rev. 1; 5; 3:14.
But we cannot yet say, in the language of the twenty-fourth Psalm, which is strictly millennial, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein.” No, we are still on the ground of the twenty-third Psalm, as the sheep of Christ in much weakness, and Satan is still “the god of this world” — “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” Hence the many trials and sorrows by the way; and hence the need of the Lord’s refreshing, restoring grace. Satan does all in his power to injure, and terrify the sheep of Christ, as they pass through his territory. He lays many snares for their feet, and he gilds many a scene that he may attract the eye, and take it off the Good Shepherd who goes before them. Well the enemy knows that if they follow closely after Him, all his own snares and attractions are unsuccessful. He who goes before His flock meets the danger or the difficulty, and removes it, before they come up to it, blessed be His name. All difficulties vanish from His presence, and all enemies are powerless before Him. The great lesson to be learned in the wilderness, is entire dependence on the Lord.
When Israel had safely passed through the deep, and stood in triumph as the Lord’s redeemed on the margin of the desert, their redemption was complete, but Canaan was not reached. The wilderness, with all its temptations and difficulties, lay between. The Lord had many lessons to teach His people there. But before they were called to this character of experience, God had made Himself known to them in His grace and power — as the great “I AM.” In their glorious deliverance out of the land of Egypt, He had acted for them, in pure grace, through the blood of the lamb. Thus far, it was grace without rebuke, so that they ought to have known Him as worthy of ail their trust.
As characteristic of the wilderness, the first thing that meets them is a difficulty. “In which direction does our way to Canaan lie?” they might say to each other. There were no roads to be seen — nothing but a trackless desert lay before them. What was now to be done? Just what they were always to do, and what the Lord’s redeemed should ever do — LOOK UP. There they would see Jehovah Himself, the true Shepherd of Israel, in His cloudy chariot, moving on before them. They were only safe in following Him; having no will, no wish, no way of their own, only to follow Him, in the full assurance that He would lead them by the best way, to the promised land. Oh! how happy for Israel had this been the case then; and how happy for us now, were we always content thus closely to follow the Lord — “the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls.”
But another, and a deeper trial for Israel soon came. The knowledge of accomplished redemption, the full assurance of forgiveness, and the enjoyment of God’s favor, never exempt us from trials and disappointments in this world. We have many profitable though painful lessons to learn in the wilderness. But if we never knew want, we could never know relief; and the value of a divine restorative, is best known to a fainting soul. “So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; and they went out into the wilderness of Shur: and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter.” What a disappointment! At the end of a three days’ journey in the wilderness to find no water, and when they did find it, it was bitter! What a trial! But Jehovah, the great “I AM,” was there: and faith could say, even in these circumstances, “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.” His grace never fails. If I grow faint and weary, “He restoreth my soul.” If I forget and fail, “He restoreth my soul.” Yes, and more, “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” Gracious Lord! He maintains my soul in spite of my weakness, in the paths of true holiness. Such is the language of a calm and patient faith. But on the other hand, the natural heart would reason within itself and say, can this be love? Does the Lord not care for His people after redeeming them out of the hand of the enemy? Most surely He does; only have patience. He is about to teach them a lesson, which is of present, future, and eternal value: a lesson, which when learned, is worth all the disappointments of the desert to know. This is the object of His perfect love, in the present trial.
“And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?” And what, we may ask, could the man Moses do in such a state of things? Only, as before said, —look up. “And he cried unto the Lord; and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet.” Thus, the Lord sweetens the bitter waters. It was not their murmurings that sweetened them, nor any means of their own devising, but the Lord’s own remedy, and applied according to His own directions! He only can sweeten the bitter cup, but He always can, and He always does; blessed be His name! Better have a bitter cup, and the Lord to sweeten it, than have no bitter cup at all — better far be cast, bound hand and foot into the fiery furnace, and have the honor and blessing of walking there in perfect liberty with “the Son of God,” than be saved from going into the furnace. Oh! what a field, my soul, for meditation, is the rich field of experience! Like the hind let loose, roam through it, and feed in it. Shepherds tell us that “variety of pasture is good for the flocks;” and sure thou art that to be occupied with only a part of God’s word, and not with the whole, is to see only one side of truth, and not the truth of God generally. It is thus that many become narrow and confused in their views, and faulty in their faith and practice. In our beautiful, and highly instructive Psalm, we have the wide, wide field of wilderness-life spread out before us.
But we will return to our lesson. What kind of a tree, we may ask, can this be, that changes the bitter waters into sweet? In all the forests of the universe, there is but one tree to be found that can do this. But this tree is a divine specific — it never fails. It is enough to sweeten the bitterest cup that ever was pressed to human lips, and to turn all the bitterness of wilderness-experience into the most delectable cup of heavenly blessedness. It was on that tree that Jesus died — that divine love triumphed over human hatred — that God was fully glorified — that sin was utterly abolished — that Satan was completely overthrown— that death was made stingless — that the grave was made powerless — that eternal peace was made for the feeblest of the flock — that the gloomy gates of hell were forever shut— and the glorious gates of heaven thrown wide open, for all who believe in Him who died upon the tree. This tree, rooted in Calvary, sends its boughs of rich blessing into all the earth, and fills the highest heavens with its ripened fruits. It stands as the moral center of the universe, and is the brightest display of God’s moral glories, that can ever be seen or known. Oh! who would not accept the wilderness-cup, to be taught thereby, the many glories of the Savior’s cross?
“We are by Christ redeemed:
The cost — His precious blood;
Be nothing by our souls esteem’d
Like this great good.
To God our weakness clings
Through tribulation sore,
And seeks the covert of His wings
Till all be o’er.”
Meditations on the Twenty-Third Psalm
It is always true — true at all times, and true of all saints —that when the Good Shepherd “putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.” This is a truth — a divine principle — of immense value; it has a deep and wide practical bearing. It assures our hearts that whatever betide, He is at hand —always near; within sight, as we may say, and within the sound of His voice. Yes, and the believer finds in the scene, through which the Lord has passed before him, such a fragrance of His presence, as not only strengthens, but enriches the soul therein. When — at what time soever, He putteth forth His own sheep, HE goeth before them. See that thou understandest well this precious truth, Ο my soul; it is the great truth for the sheep of Christ. It affects everything as to thy path through this world. It is thy safeguard in danger — thy victory in conflict — thy light in darkness — thy strength in weakness — thy comfort in sorrow— thy fellowship in solitude — thy brightest hope amidst the deepest gloom. He who is with thee and before thee, has tasted the bitterest sorrows of the wilderness, and has passed through the darkest night into the brightest day: and so shalt thou, only follow Him.
This truth, so blessed to the pilgrim, assures us of the Shepherd’s care in every step, rough or smooth, of our wilderness journey. He is ever present — He never leaves nor forsakes. And through His perfect knowledge of the way, He confounds the enemy, turning all his hostility to the account of our blessing, and His own glory. Blessed fruit, through His grace, of all that befalls poor human nature, when traveling through the deep sand of the desert.
“The shepherd’s bosom bears each lamb
O’er rock, and waste, and wild;
The object of that love I am —
And carried like a child.”
“If any man serve me,” says the Lord, “let him follow me.” He does not say, observe, “let him do this for me, or do that for me,” but “let him follow me.” Quietly to wait on the Lord that we may know His will, and faithfully to follow Him, hearkening to the voice of His word, is the most pleasing service we can render to the Lord. Some He may lead into more public, others into more private paths of service, but closely to follow the directions of His word, while looking by faith to Himself, is our most acceptable service. And for all such He has left His richest promise. “And where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me him will my Father honor.” John 12.
These weighty and solemn truths were uttered, when the dark shadows of Gethsemane and Calvary were crossing His path. It is comparatively easy to be active for the Lord, and, as it were, to be doing some great thing for Him, in a bright and sunny day; but, oh, how difficult to follow Him through the solitudes of His rejection in a homeless world! Who of us can endure, it may be, to be separated from our dearest friends on earth, and to be thought weak and unstable? — who can endure to be in the outside place for the reproach of Christ? These waters are often very bitter. But His love desires that we should know something experimentally of His own path through this world, and the fellowship of His sufferings. It was not enough for the Lord’s great love to Abel that he should bear testimony by his slain lamb to the truth that death had come by sin; but he was honored to bear witness in a more solemn way in his own death. Not only was the blood of his lamb shed, but his own blood, as God’s witness on the earth. How much more Abel had to do with death in this world than Cain! How significant, and solemnly instructive to all who follow with Abel! But after all, it was the Lord’s love to Abel, and the Lord’s honor conferred on him.
We have the same great principle, in type, at the waters of Marah. The people knew the value of the blood of the lamb in Egypt, as their safeguard from judgment, and their complete redemption in virtue of that blood. And now the Lord would have them further to know in their own experience, the unfailing power of the blood for all the vicissitudes of the wilderness. In this way they had to do with death in all their journeyings. They were marching through the wilderness, under the shelter of the blood — the expressive symbol of death. It was on this ground alone that Jehovah could say to Balaam, “I have not seen iniquity in Jacob, nor perverseness in Israel.” He does not say “there is none there,” but, “I have not seen it.” True, it was all in type, but we can easily see what was always uppermost in the Lord’s mind. “When I see the blood I will pass over you.” As if the Lord had said, “When I see the blood of the lamb I see that which glorified me — blotted out sin — destroyed the power of the enemy, and obtained eternal redemption for my beloved people.” It left Jehovah free, in all circumstances, to act in pure grace towards the people. They had only to look up, however naughty they had been, or however sorely they were distressed, and grace flowed — the need was met — the bitter cup was sweetened, and they were freely forgiven.
The blood of the Lamb was their divine passport from Egypt to Canaan. Nothing could stand before it, everything yields to its power. If the hosts of Egypt attempt to stop the journeyings of the blood-sprinkled people, they are cast into the depths of the sea; and if all the nations of the earth had sided with them, they must have shared the same fate. “I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Sheba for thee.” The deep waters of the lied Sea must make a way for the ransomed of the Lord to pass over; not an hoof was left behind. The manna, the cloud, and the living stream from the flinty rack are supplied, all enemies are subdued, and every need is met in virtue of the same precious blood. And though the river of death, at the end of their journeyings, overflowed all its banks, and Jericho walled to heaven, as the threatening rage of the enemy, and the tokens of his power, they present no barrier to the infinite power of the blood. But where is its power not felt and owned, willingly or unwillingly? It rent the veil of heaven, and unlocked the portals of the grave. What is higher than heaven? What is deeper than hell? Matt, 27. 50-53.
But we are all prone to forget, like Israel of old, what the Lord has done for us — what bitter cup He drank for us — and that we carry through the wilderness with us, the same “token” of His unchanging love. Hence, we often need to get a taste of the bitter, in order to remind us of that which alone can sweeten; and that all the difficulties, trials, and temptations of this life, are to be borne in fellowship with Him. This His love desires. He has gone through them all for us, and that with infinite patience, meekness, and wisdom, as an example to us. And, oh! wondrous grace, He allows to us in our afflictions, a ministry of love, sympathy, and kindness, which He allowed not Himself. He was forsaken of God in His sore distress — He was surrounded by the violence and rage of His shameless enemies, who gaped upon Him with their mouths like ravening and roaring lions. All refuge failed Him, comforters there were none. Psalm 22:1-21.
This was for us; there he drank the bitter cup of God’s wrath against sin. And He will have us to know Him there, in love for us. And we have to learn by experience, however painful the lesson, that nothing but the bitter cup of Calvary can sweeten the bitter cup of Marah. In other words, the sympathies of His heart who died there, are alone sufficient to soothe the sorrows of ours. But glory be to God who gave His Son, we find all in Jesus. His cross is ours — His heart is ours. The full value of the cross is ours — the tender, boundless sympathies of His heart are ours — ours now — ours forever. Oh! wonderful, precious, blessed truth! What more do we need? The cross and heart of Jesus — ours. Eternal springs of all blessing! The blest, though bitter waters of Marah lead to a deeper knowledge of Calvary; and the deep, and painful need of a broken heart to deeper fellowship with His. He could say, and in truth, as none else ever could, “Reproach hath broken my heart.” Yes, and more, in place of the tender sympathies of fellow pilgrims, which. His people so abundantly enjoy, He had to add— “And I am full of heaviness; and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.” (Psalm 69) Oh! what a refuge we have in the once broken and desolate heart of Jesus!
“Jesus, my All in all Thou art,
My rest in toil, my ease in pain;
The medicine of my broken heart;
Mid storms, my peace; in loss, my gain;
My smile beneath the tyrant’s frown,
In shame, my glory and my crown.

“In want, my plentiful supply;
In weakness, my almighty power;
In bonds, my perfect liberty;
My refuge in temptation’s hour;
My comfort ‘midst all grief and thrall,
My life in death, my All in all.”

When the Lord has thus brought us down to a true sense of our own weakness, and to more real dependence on His unfailing strength and constant care, the purposes of His tender love are answered. The deeper the trial, the stronger the expression of His love. And now we can say in the rich experience of our souls, “HE restoreth my soul.” Not the green pastures and the still waters, pleasant and excellent as these are — No; but the Lord Himself. The path becomes more and more individualized; there must be greater nearness to the Lord as our shepherd, and more direct fellowship with Himself. “HE restoreth my soul: HE leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”
Meditations on the Twenty-Third Psalm
Before passing on to the fourth verse, which gives a still deeper shade of wilderness trials and sorrows, we would turn for a moment to another use and application of “a tree,” which may be for our edification.
In 2 Kings 6:1-7, we have an account of “the sons of the prophets” going to the banks of the Jordan, to cut down beams of trees, for the purpose of enlarging their dwelling place. “And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us. Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell And he answered, Go ye.” The young prophets, very wisely, secure the presence of Elisha with them. He consents to go; and works a miracle there, which saves them from the loss of the head of the borrowed ax. “And one said, Be content, I pray thee, to go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go. So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan they cut down wood. But as one was felling a beam, the ax head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas, master! for it was borrowed. And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he showed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim. Therefore said he, Take it up to thee. And he put out his hand and took it.”
Some have thought that there is a deep typical meaning in this apparently unimportant incident; others have been afraid to press it as such. But surely, at any rate, it is a striking illustration of resurrection life and power. As to the typical meaning of Jordan, all are agreed. It is the type of death. And as for “the ax head,” it lay as lost and dead in its depths. And what is deeply interesting, and instructive too, in connection with, this miracle, Elisha was, typically, the resurrection-life prophet. He passed through the river of death in company with Elijah, and started on his ministry of grace and resurrection power from the point of the ascended prophet. (2 Kings 2) Elijah’s ministry, on the contrary, was judicial in its character. He started, we may say, from Sinai, which stamped its character on his miracles. He shut the heavens over a rebellious people, “and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.” And he called down fire from heaven on the captains of the idolatrous king of Israel. At Horeb he became linked up with the broken law, and the responsibility of the people, so that his ministry called for judgment.
But Elisha starts from resurrection ground, and with his eye, as it were, on the ascended man. This is the place of God’s measureless grace—the place of the risen Christ Himself, and the saved myriads that joyfully cluster around Him. Scarcely had the two prophets crossed the Jordan, when Elijah proposed blessing to Elisha, according to the desires of his heart. Not now, observe, according to law, or earthly promise, but according to his heart’s desire. “ And it came to pass, when they had gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.” They had left the land of law and earthly promise behind them; and death, the judgment of God against sin, was past, so that He was free to bless. This is grace, and most significant as to the character of Elisha’s mission, and of God’s ways in grace, through the death and resurrection of Christ, down to the present time.
Here pause for a moment, my soul, and meditate on this instructive scene. God begins His work, where sin, Satan, and all evil, cease from theirs. He quickens the dead. No evil can ever cross the grave of Christ.
The path of life, and holy, happy liberty, is beyond the domain of death. Elisha, observe, now returns to Israel.’ but all is changed. He acts in grace, according to the new condition of things. Sweet foreshadowing of the risen Jesus who died for us, and for God’s glory, so that His grace flows forth freely to the children of men now, and will do so abundantly to Israel in the latter day. Elisha tarries at Jericho, the place of the curse; but he brings in the power of God in blessing, and removes the curse, and heals the spring of waters, so that there would be no more death or barren land. “ And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught, and the ground is barren. And he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. And he went forth into the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land. So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake.”
Salt is a well-known symbol in Scripture. Here it represents the healing power of grace, as flowing through the death and resurrection of Christ. The whole scene is richly and permanently blessed. Evil is overcome; the curse is removed from the ground—the world — and especially from His people Israel; and the spring of waters— the fountain of blessing — secured forever. The “new cruse” may shadow forth the renewed condition of all things under Christ in the latter day. The prophet next proceeds to Bethel, which, we know, speaks of God’s unchangeable faithfulness to Jacob and to his seed forever. Now he links the people with the sovereign counsels of God’s love and grace towards them. From thence the prophet goes to Carmel, which tells us of the fruitful land, thus connecting the people with the faithfulness of Jehovah, and the abundance of the land. What grace!
The curse removed — evil put away — the scene purified —the spring of waters healed — the God of Bethel known and enjoyed; and the blessings of Carmel covering the land like a fruitful field. Nevertheless — oh! most solemn and weighty warning for the present moment, as well as for all time! — if the testimony of the grace of God be despised, and His messengers mocked, judgment must take its course. Verses 20, 21.
Thus, in my meditations, have my thoughts traced, and retraced, the mystic path of these two great servants of God in this wonderful second chapter, though professedly meditating on the miracle in the sixth. But the ground we have gone over sheds wondrous light on the miracle. It now looks more like a passage in Ephesians or in 1 Peter. “And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.” “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
There is no power to save the lost, or to quicken the dead soul, but the cross of Christ. When the tree is cast into the waters, the iron swims. The moment the cross is seen by faith, and applied by the Holy Spirit, the soul is quickened together with Christ, raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. All this takes place in virtue of our union with Christ, when we believe in His name, and trust in His cross. But, alas, till then, the soul, however light, gay, and active, or otherwise, is morally and spiritually in the place of death. O, that poor, thoughtless, Christless souls would think of that now! What a condition to be in! The place of death — the cold depths of the river of death! What a lowering—what a sinking of an immortal soul—a soul that grace can render capable of enjoying God, and His Son, and the full glories of heavenly blessedness forever!
Where, Ο where, let me ask, is my reader at this moment? In the depths, or on the heights? It must be either the one or the other. There is no middle place. To die in the former state is to be there forever — in the depths of anguish and despair. There can be no change after death. And wilt thou, Ο thoughtless one, sell thy eternal happiness for a moment’s present gratification? Why be so unreasonable — so cruel to thine own soul? Was it wise in Esau to sell the whole land of Canaan for a mess of pottage, because he could enjoy the latter at the moment? Wouldst thou call this manly, noble, or high spirited? And is it wise in thee to sell the heavenly Canaan for that which can be enjoyed only for a moment in this world? Do think of all this, my dear fellow sinner. Thy present life is most uncertain; and what an agony to those left behind, were there no hope in thy death! And what an eternity - thine! What could sweeten such a bitter cup as this, or change its wormwood and its gall? Ο then, from every consideration, look to Jesus now — just now — before laying down this paper. Let thine eyes and thine heart be up to Him. “Look unto me,” He says, “and be ye saved,” The great work of redemption teas finished on the cross; there is nothing for thee to wait for. “It is finished!” Only look to Him, believing this, and thou art surely and forever saved.
But some, I know, are ready to say, by way of excusing themselves, that if they are as dead as the iron at the bottom of the stream, they must be entirely passive in the work of conversion. There is some truth in this remark, but it is far from being the whole truth. The soul is dead as regards God and spiritual things, but it is all alive as regards this world. There is no heart or energy for Christ, and His salvation, but there is plenty of both for present things; and Scripture presses in innumerable places the responsibility of the sinner. It assures him that the work by which alone he can be saved is finished, and that he has only to believe it on the sure testimony of God Himself, and, thus believing it, he is saved, and finds his present and eternal rest in Jesus.
“Wilt thou go with this man?” is a plain question. And where is the sinner—active and intelligent as to present things — who cannot answer, Yes, or No?
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” “If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness (or testimony) in himself; he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.” “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Acts 16:31; John 3:19 John 5:9, 10; Rom. 10:13.
Thus we find in types and shadows, truths and substance, that there is no virtue for the soul apart from Christ — from Christ crucified. The knowledge of Jesus — His love—His cross, quickens the dead sinner, and gives him a place with the risen Jesus. It strengthens the weak saint — upholds the fainting spirit — comforts those that are in trouble and bowed down. It destroys the power of the waters of Jordan, and sweetens the waters of Marah.
Ver. 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.” This verse of our beautiful Psalm, is generally spoken of as descriptive of the believer’s experience in the passage of death - the death of the body. “The valley,” is generally viewed as the path that lies between the two regions of life, and though dark and dismal, the saint of God, having the Shepherd’s rod to guide, and His staff to comfort him, need fear no evil.
Most truly, there is every reason for the departing soul, calmly to trust the Lord at that solemn moment, and during that brief, but mysterious, passage; but we do not think the text refers, merely, to the believer’s experience in his own death, but rather to the dark shadow which the death of another may cast on his path. To the departing one, all shadows flee away. To those left behind, they may be dark and heavy. For example: —A dear and loved fellow-pilgrim has been called up higher. His, or her, place is empty. The broken circle is overwhelmed in sorrow. The whole scene below is clouded. The pallor of death shades everything to the eye, and in the felt loneliness of the bereaved heart, the path, once so bright and joyous, has been turned into “the valley of the shadow of death.” But the happy soul of the dear departed rests in the pure light of God, and in the unmingled blessedness of His presence.
“No shadows yonder — all light and song;
Each day I wonder; and say, How long
Shall time me sunder from that dear throng?”
In the text, we doubt not, it is the shadow of death that the pilgrim speaks of walking through, and of his experience therein; not of death itself. Were it his own death, surely it would not be called a shadow. To go through death, and to go mourning through its shadows, are widely different things.
Here pause for a moment, Ο my soul. Such experience demands thy calm and deep meditation. In the whole realm of creation, no event is more solemn. The sanctuary is thy proper place. God’s eye, His word and Spirit, alone can guide.
The experience of the believer is changed, though still under the Shepherd’s tender care and mighty hand. Yes — everything is changed — changed as from light to darkness— as from joy to sorrow — as from strength to weakness. What a change! In the third verse, the pilgrim tastes the waters of Marah; in the fourth, he is plunged into them.
But the Lord Himself has done it. It must be well, and wise, and good; it must be the strongest expression of His love, and of His shepherd care. “Thou art with me” —Thou, Ο Lord, who knowest the taste of the waters, and the depths of the waters too, as none of thy people ever can know.
A loved one may be ill, very ill; all hope of recovery may be gone; still the soul is present in the body, and thoughts may be exchanged. But the moment the soul has passed into the unseen world, this ceases — absolutely — irretrievably ceases. The dear departed one may love as ever, nay, infinitely more than ever, for “ God is love,” and heaven is its home. The love of the bereaved may be quickened into a burning flame, and the desire to express it may be intensified a thousand fold, but there is no more communication of thought — no exchange of affection. The dark, impenetrable veil that separates the two states of being must not be passed. Faith alone may cross the threshold, and see the departed one resting — at home — with Jesus — in the Paradise of God. For a moment, the eye is bright —something like gladness passes through the mind; but a tender recollection touches the heart — the eye is dimmed —and sadness presses down the weary soul. Everything, save the blessed Lord Himself, seems gone; but He is near, very near, blessed be His name. “ Thou art with me: thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”
“Be still, my soul! — when dearest friends depart,
And all is darkened in the vale of tears,
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.
Be still, my soul! — thy Jesus can repay
From His own fullness all He takes away.”
Could there be, however far apart, only the means of exchanging our thoughts and affections, it would no longer be death. We may often be parted from each other in this life, without the thought ever crossing the mind that we have suffered loss. Letters go and come; the path of the absent one may be traced, and the joys of reunion anticipated. This is life—the object of affection is possessed. It is neither death, nor its dark shadow. But from the moment that the Lord has taken the soul to Himself, all such communion is at an end. The awful fact of separation is felt. The heart may burn with the purest affection, for love never faileth—the whole soul may long to say something to, and to hear something from, the loved departed, but all is in vain. The body may be there still, and every feature may only seem in calm repose; but that which thought, loved, intended, remembered, is gone. Stillness reigns-the stillness that is indescribable. You cannot awaken the sleeping one. The heart that would have been moved to its depths by a sigh, or melted by a tear, hears not the deepest wail, and sees not the flowing tears. This is death — the death of the mortal body. And, to those that are left behind, it is “the valley of the shadow of death.” And so dense is that shadow sometimes in this weary wilderness, that even the heavenly orbs seem changed, and shine differently.
At such a time, the enemy is sure to assail the distressed soul, from all points, with his fiery darts. A thousand thoughts may be suggested from the past. A lifetime may be reviewed in a moment by a mind in agony. Time misspent — precious opportunities allowed to pass unimproved, may be amongst the accusations of the foe. In such overwhelming circumstances, nothing but the firm footing of God’s own plain statements of truth could bear up the stricken soul. But the Good and Great Shepherd is near. He causeth His voice to be heard. The eye is turned to Him. He lifts the fainting soul, folds it in His bosom, and bears it far above its mere human feelings, and spiritual foes. What would such trials and conflicts be, could we not say in truth, “Thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me?”
Nothing can now be known of the condition and occupation of the loved departed, save that which holy scripture reveals. But, oh, blessed be the God of all grace! the light of a cloudless sky rests on the whole scene — the beams of divine light break through the darkness of these darkest of earthly days — we can see behind the veil. From the chamber of death to the house of many mansions, a bright pathway has been consecrated for the believer by the risen and victorious Christ. The light of the glory “is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” 2 Tim. 1:10.
Glorious truth! precious certainty for the believer — for every believer in Christ Jesus — death was abolished on the cross, and triumphed over in the resurrection of Jesus; and by the gospel, eternal life to the soul, and incorruptibility to the body, have been brought into the clearest, fullest light. There may be great feebleness, on the part of many Christians, in apprehending these all-precious truths, but the blessed facts remain the same. They are all connected with the Person of Christ; and from the moment that He is received and trusted, the believer is associated with Him beyond the power of death and the grave. “I know,” says the apostle, “whom I have believed, (trusted, margin) and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” (Ver. 12.) Christ, personally, was his one object. All that was dear to the apostle, right on to the glory, was committed to Him.
What truths — what comfort for the soul that is passing through the dark valley. Death annulled — the eternal life of the soul possessed — the incorruptibility of the body secured. Such is the sure portion of all who have fallen asleep in Jesus — of all who can say with the apostle, “I know whom I have trusted” — of all who are simply looking by faith to Jesus, and resting on Him alone for salvation.
Meditations on the Twenty-Third Psalm
Here, meditate, Ο my soul, on this wondrous revelation —this bursting forth of light, and living strength from the dark and, hitherto, unknown regions of the tomb. The victory is complete! Christ has, personally, gone through the straits of death, and cleared the passage for all His followers, of every difficulty and danger. He who was in the lowest parts of the earth, is now in glory. And from that glory — the glory of God in the risen Man —divine light now shines into these low and lonely depths. The gloom of death is dissipated — the darkness of the grave illuminated — the shadows of death are only on the human side, and felt by our poor human hearts.
Death itself, by man, the justly styled King of Terrors, is completely vanquished! Every circumstance of death and the grave is mastered forever. The Lord is risen from among the dead, and associates us with Himself in resurrection life, power, and glory. What a blessed position to be brought into! We stand on the same triumphant ground as the Conqueror Himself, and enjoy, with Him, the spoils of His victories.
What is death? What is the passage of death? What are the issues of death? are questions that had never been fully answered in Scripture until now. Up till the time that the blessed Lord appeared, died, rose again, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, comparatively little was known on these solemn subjects. No doubt, godly souls in Old Testament times, who had been taught of the Spirit to trust God through all their pilgrim days, could quietly trust Him in the hour of their departure. The last glimpse we have of Jacob is truly beautiful. We see him as an aged pilgrim, leaning on his staff, worshipping the living God. And the picture of Joseph is that of peace and victory. “By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.” Heb. 11:21, 22.
But to the Jew, as such, the subject of death was necessarily a more gloomy one than it is to the Christian; consequently, the application of verse 4 (Psalm 23) would be somewhat different to the latter. It is of the Jews that the apostle speaks when he says, “who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Christians may get into this state of mind, and some may never have been in any other, but it is certainly contrary to the cheering light, and happy liberty of the gospel. Such, we fear, have never seen, or understood, the death and resurrection of Christ, as God’s great principle of blessing to the Christian. This is the alone ground of peace with God, oneness with Christ, and of full liberty from the fear of death.
Again, to the Jew, as such, this world was the land of the living. It was the place of his blessing; and the great promise to obedience was, “That thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” “I had fainted,” says the Psalmist, “unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” (Psalm 20: 7,13.) But to the Christian, we may say, it is the land of the dying. “I protest,” says Paul,........
“I die daily.” It is also the land of death — the death of the Lord Jesus Christ; consequently, it is the valley of the shadow of death. The cross has thrown its dark shadow over the whole scene. And where, it may be asked, is the place of the Christian’s joy and blessing? In heavenly places in Christ.
Heaven is the Christian’s home; he is from home in this world. As men, we speak of the place where we were born as our natural place; then is the Christian entitled to speak of heaven as his natural place. He is born of God — born from above. And the place, circumstances, and company, that are suited and proper to his nature as a child of God, are on high. And never, never, until he reaches the shores of his father-land, shall he breathe his native air, or know what the feeling of home means. Hence, the instinctive longings and desires of the heart to reach his Father’s house are only natural,
“My cheerful soul now all the day
Sits waiting here and sings;
Looks through the ruin of her clay,
And practices her wings.
Faith almost changes into sight,
While from afar she spies
Her fair inheritance in light,
Above created skies.
Some rays of heaven break sweetly in
At all the opening flaws;
Visions of endless bliss are seen,
And native air she draws.”
Here, in this body of sin and death, and sojourning in a world of evil, where Christ was crucified, we may have much, and most blessed fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Ghost. But this is the effect of grace in the midst of evil, and of the Holy Ghost’s presence in the believer. The Father cares for the children — the Shepherd cares for the sheep, and the Holy Ghost’s presence on the earth is the power by which we enjoy our inheritance on high.
This is a great truth, my soul; the truth, I mean, as to thy new birth — thy new life — that thou art born of God — born from above — quickened together with Christ! What then? What flows therefrom? That thou art a child of God — an heir of God — a joint-heir with Christ, and placed in Him, far, far above the power of death and the grave. Meditate, I repeat, Ο meditate, deeply, patiently, on what is involved in this most marvelous truth. The knowledge thereof will go far to explain thy wilderness experience, relieve thee of thy wilderness burdens, and shed a flood of light over the dark valley.
Beyond all question, all who have been quickened since death entered by sin, have received their new life, through Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. The apostle, referring to Old Testament saints, speaks of “the Spirit of Christ which was in them.” He is that eternal life which was with the Father, and was, in due time, manifested unto us. There is no other life — no life anywhere else, for the soul dead in sin. “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (1 John 5:11, 12; John 3:36.) But although, from the beginning, life could only be found in and by Christ; still, it appears quite evident, that the condition of the life enjoyed by the Christian, is quite different to that of the Old Testament saint. “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.’’ (John 10:10.) This abundant life, we doubt not, is life in resurrection. John 20:22.
Not only is the Christian a child of God, but he is said to be quickened together with Christ, raised up together, and seated together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now, only mark, into what scenes of blessedness this great truth—this union with Christ, introduces the believer? United to Him, the risen Head, He communicates to us the privileges of His own position before God. He is the well-spring of the believer’s new life; it is fed by Him every moment. Neither sin, Satan, nor death can ever touch it. The Christian, by faith, has begun his eternity with Christ. He needs not to wait till death, or the coming of the Lord, relieve him.
The foundation of all this great truth for the soul, is the death and resurrection of Christ. He who knew no sin, was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. In the greatness of His love, He bore the burden of our sins in His own body on the tree. Death in all its bitterness He tasted for us, and put away sin, the source and sting of death, by the sacrifice of Himself. But God raised up that blessed One, and quickened us together with Him. And now, blessed be His name, we know of a truth, that our evil nature has been judged, our sin and sins all blotted out — that righteousness has been divinely accomplished — that our peace with God is made — and that we are one with the risen Jesus, in an entirely new sphere, where no evil can ever come, and where the light of God’s countenance shines on us perfectly, and forever. 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 2:24; Heb. 2:9; 9:26; Col. 2:12, 13; Eph. 2; 1 Cor. 15.
This is the only position from which death can be fairly and calmly viewed. Like Joshua of old, who, from Canaan’s side of Jordan, returned to its center, and there planted his twelve stones of victory. From the heavenly side he could calmly contemplate the river of death, and go down into its depths. But the priests were there before him with the ark of the covenant, and, with “the Lord of the whole earth,” it was as easy to pass the Jordan as the Red Sea.
But to the merely natural man, who knows he is un-pardoned — unsaved — death must be a fearful thing. If he thinks at all about it, and is intelligent and honest, the very thought of it must be dreadful. Death and judgment, the fruit of sin, are the two great objects of men’s fears. And so they may. Terrible indeed, to an immortal soul, must be the consequences of death and judgment. And how humbling, too, is death to the natural man. He must succumb. The strong man must bow to it — the proud man must humble himself to it. The wise and the rich are alike unable to avoid it, or resist it. It is an implacable enemy that cannot be appeased or turned aside —that cannot be guarded against-that will not be sent away — that is relentless — rapacious — insatiable.
Can I prevail on my reader, if this be his, or her, state, to give this subject a serious thought? And, oh, let it be now — just now. Delay not! Time is on the wing — thy days are flying fast — already they may be few. And what then? The eternal ages — an eternity of unmingled blessedness, or unutterable woe.
In the whole field of fallen human nature, there is nothing to be found more awful than death. For as in the forest, so in this field, “as the tree falls, so it lies.” How solemn — how eternally solemn! As death finds the soul, so will the judgment-seat, and so will a long, long eternity. Beyond death there is no repentance. As the breath leaves the body, the state is unalterably fixed. This is man’s last change — a change which admits of no succeeding one forever. Oh, then, my dear reader, listen to the affectionate entreaties of one who loves thy soul, and would earnestly warn thee against neglecting its salvation! “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? “The whole material world, in the Savior’s estimation, is of less value than one human soul. And, it may be, that the well-being of thy precious soul has never cost thee a serious thought. The most ordinary things of this life, or some ornament for thy person, may have cost thee more thought than thy soul’s eternal destinies, or the sufferings and death of Christ, by which alone it can be saved.
Do think, I pray thee, my fellow sinner, on this all-important subject! At all costs yield to its pressing claims. If it should involve the breaking of many engagements as to this life, and the blasting of all thy prospects therein, care not — suffer not such considerations to detain thee on the world’s enchanted ground, or hinder thy decision for Christ. Remember this, and this is plain; that he who sides not with Christ, sides with Satan, and must share with him the lake of fire. This is the second death. Oh, dreadful thought! What shall I say unto thee? How shall I plead with thee? Shall 1 fall down at thy feet and shed the beseeching tear? Shall I be as a fool in thy sight? Shall my loud and bitter cry be to thee as the noise of some fanatic — or of one who is righteous over much? Well, be it so; all these and more. I speak from feeling, not by rule. I am content if only thou wilt bethink thyself, and flee at once to Jesus, who has paid the ransom price of the sinner’s redemption. To see thee at last as a jewel in the Savior’s crown, or as a monument of grace on the plains of eternal glory, would be a rich compensation for being reckoned fool or madman in this world. But, soberly, tears of blood, could I shed them, would not be too much to shed over a soul that refuses the provision God has made, for His own glory in our eternal happiness.
Jesus, God’s blessed Son, “was made a little lower than the angels......that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” (Heb. 2:9.) Here all is plain. Scripture never exaggerates, if preachers do. What does this text teach us? This truth, plainly, that sin, unrepented of, brings the sinner to the place, that the grace of God brought Christ. In grace and love, He took the sinner’s place — the place of the curse — the forsaken place, where it Was not possible that the cup of wrath should pass from him. Now we see, in the cross, where sin leads to — what sin deserves — and how God deals with it. Doubtless, sin was measured and dealt with in the holy Person of Jesus, in a way that can never be done even in the lake of fire. God’s hatred of sin was perfectly expressed on the cross. One drop of that cup which He drained — one stroke of that judgment which He exhausted, would sink a world of rebellious sinners in the depths of woe. But there, alas, the cup will never be drained — the judgment never exhausted.
Truly, may we not say, — If such things were done in the green tree, what must it be in the dry? If the true and living tree so felt the fires of holy justice, what must become of the dry and rotten tree? If He, who had not a particle of sin in Himself, was thus dealt with, when sin was imputed to Him, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? What, my friend, would the rotten branch of thy good deeds avail thee, in the swellings of Jordan? One thing seems perfectly plain — he who rejects God’s green tree now, can have nothing to say at last, when God rejects the dry.
But, oh, the Lord grant that this may never be the case with thee, my reader, or with any soul who has ever read, or heard, that beautiful text, “Jesus was made a little lower than the angels.....that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” What a revelation of the heart of God for us! “By the grace of God;” and what a blessed work by the Son! He tasted death that we might never taste it. Oh, believe it — rest in Jesus —trust all to His finished work! Glory in the fact, that the God of all grace loves thee — that He spared from His bosom His well-beloved Son, that He might taste death for thee a sinner. And now, can I hear thee saying? — ‘Bless the Lord — He has tasted death for me a sinner. Now I believe it-the bitterness of death is past-had I a hundred hearts He should have them all.’
Descending from glory on high,
With men Thy delight was to dwell,
Contented our Surety to die,
By dying to save us from hell;
Enduring the grief and the shame,
And bearing our sin on the cross,
Oh! who would not boast of this love,
And count the world’s glory but loss?
It is well for thee, my soul, to plead, and to plead earnestly, with sinners who are unprepared for death. “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord,” as the apostle says, “we persuade men.” But now, for a little while, let thy contemplations be confined to the triumphs of the saint in that solemn hour. Thou hast spoken of the human side — the dark valley; now look at the heavenly side — the way of glory. Suppose then —The messenger of peace is come — come to close, in quiet sleep, the pilgrim days of one who has been something like forty years in the wilderness. Of one, we shall still suppose, who had become foot-weary, but whose sympathies were all with Christ and His people, and who cared for the testimony of Jesus on the earth. But the Lord’s appointed time has come. The tie is dissolved; the body is left behind; the happy soul is liberated — it is present with the Lord.
Here pause, one moment, my soul. Pray what tie is it that is dissolved? The tie that binds the divine life in the earthen vessel. “For we know, that if the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” Here the apostle speaks on behalf of all Christians. “We know.” There is no thought whatever, in such a case, of death being “the wages of sin.” Christ, our Surety, paid the penalty in full — so full, we may say, that it is not necessary the Christian should die at all. And certain it is, that all Christians shall not die. “We shall not all sleep,” says the apostle plainly, “but we shall all be changed.” And again, “then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (1 Cor. 15:51; 1 Thess. 4:17) The dissolving of the tabernacle, gently or roughly, touches not our eternal life in the risen Jesus. It simply dissolves its connection with the earthen vessel. The new man in Christ can never taste of death.
Meditations on the Twenty-Third Psalm
But here it may be profitable to dwell a little on the blessed and comforting truth just alluded to, namely, that all Christians shall not die — that many shall be changed, and caught up with the quickened dead to meet the Lord in the air. It is quite evident from the passages already quoted, that those who are alive on the earth when the Lord comes, shall not pass through death at all. In their case, as the apostle says, “Mortality shall be swallowed up of life.” Such will be the power of life in the Son of the living God, that every trace of mortality, in their human nature, shall instantly disappear from His presence. It will be swallowed up — annihilated. And, observe, it is mortality, not death, that is here said to be swallowed up of life. Death, too, we know, shall be swallowed up in victory. In the one case, the apostle refers to those who have fallen asleep in Jesus; in the other, to those who are alive on the earth at His coming. How beautiful and interesting is the perfect accuracy of Scripture! If a word is changed, there is an important reason for the change. The same truths, and their distinctiveness, are taught by the Lord, when speaking of Himself as the resurrection and the life. “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” John 11: 25, 26.
But need we wonder at this manifestation of the power of life in the coming Lord? Sin, we may say, is an accidental thing. It is no part of the divine arrangements. It was introduced by an enemy. But every particle of the poison of sin, with all its baneful effects, shall be completely expelled from the living saints when the Lord comes for them. There is no need that they should die: Christ has died for them. And, oh! how sweet the thought, it will be the same body still, but without the sin and its effects. Then shall our bodies of humiliation be fashioned like unto His body of glory; yet the perfect identity of each shall be preserved. And all this, observe, shall be accomplished by the power of a life, which we now see in the risen Jesus; and, O, wondrous truth! this life is ours — ours now — ours in Him where all is victory!
It is most interesting to observe, what we may call the four-fold state, in which our divine life, is here contemplated in the reasonings of the apostle. (2 Cor. 4:6-18; 5:1-9.) But although it is viewed in four different aspects or conditions, the life itself remains unchanged and unchangeably the same. It is eternal life — the life of the risen and glorified Christ.
He had spoken, in the third chapter, of the gospel in contrast with law — of the ministration of righteousness and the Spirit, in contrast with the ministration of death and condemnation. The law, as presenting God’s claims on man, condemns him, because he breaks it. But the gospel reveals a righteousness on God’s part, in place of requiring it from man. Christ Himself is this righteousness. When He is received by faith, we are made the righteousness of God in Him, and sealed with the Holy Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty — liberty from the pressure of law, and from the fear of death.
Christ glorified, is the foundation of the whole argument. “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” The man Christ Jesus, who was on the cross for us, as our sin-bearer, is now on the throne. Blessed proof to the heart, of the perfect and eternal settlement of the whole question of sin. Humanity has been carried to the throne of God. The divine glory is fully displayed in the risen Man. He is also the blessed manifestation of our place and portion in the same glory. And, O, precious truth, in meditating on this glory, as it shines in the face of Jesus, we are changed into His likeness through the power of the Holy Ghost. Lord, grant me this grace, that I may indeed meditate, with delight and intelligence, on Thy glory, and become here, on earth, its true reflection.
The apostle preached to the world, the good news of Christ in glory. “We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord.” He preached Christ victorious over sin and Satan, death and the grave. He invited and entreated sinners to believe on a glorified Christ - to come to Him in faith, and enjoy the love, and share the blessings and glories of the Savior. Christ has established righteousness for the sinner in the presence of God, so that there need be no doubting and fearing. The full blessing is promised to all who trust in Him. “Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.” What an immense power there is in such a gospel; but what weakness must characterize every other! All who believe the gospel Paul preached, are introduced into the pure light of the glory, as it is revealed in Christ. Those who reject the light, are, alas, blinded by Satan, the god of this world. What a thought! Refusing the glorified Savior, alas, alas, they fall into the hands of the enemy.
The sixth verse gives the explanation of what we call the first state, “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” The heart is the vessel of the light. A light from the glory is kindled in the human heart. Divine life, through faith in a glorified Christ, being thus communicated, we are responsible for its manifestation, as a light shining in a dark place. It is the light of life. It comes direct from God. He who at first commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts. Christ is our life, our light, our glory. In this dark world, before the eyes of man, we are called to be the reflection of our absent Lord. This is the first state of the new life. And how important! What a place it gives us here! The men of this world, who will neither read the Bible nor religious books, will surely read the lives of Christians. Ο to be an epistle of Christ, known and read of all men! As the Jew could read the ten commandments when he looked on the tables of stone, so may the eyes of those that are around us, be able to read Christ, in our daily walk and conversation.
“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” This is the second state. The divine life is viewed in near contact with the mortal body, and with all the infirmities and evils connected therewith. But no evil can ever touch the life of Christ in the soul. The more the vessel was troubled on every side, the more evident it became that the power of God was there. It rose above the working of death in the apostle, and triumphed over all the difficulties of his thorny path. “For we which live,” he says, “are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal body.” This “dying daily,” caused the life of Jesus to shine forth more brightly. Like Gideon’s pitchers, the light was manifested when the vessel was broken. But what experience! What conflict! What service! His many and heavy afflictions he calls light, and but for a moment, in the view of that eternal weight of glory, which he saw before him. Encourage, Lord, and strengthen the hearts of thy weak and sorrowing ones now, who come so far short of the example of thy servant Paul.
We now come to the third state. The “unclothed” state — the one more immediately under our meditation. Paul was “willing rather” to be in this state; although, at the same time, he saw in the Man Christ, glorified in heaven, the perfect, or resurrection state. This is the fourth state, when the person, complete, shall be glorified, after the image of Christ in glory. This was the grand object before the apostle’s mind. “For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.” See also Phil. 3.
The fourth state being connected with the Lord’s coming, we have much more light and definite teaching on it. than on the intermediate state. Comparatively little is said on the third, or separate state of the soul. A veil, we doubt not, has been purposely drawn over it, so that it might not come between our hearts and our Lord’s return. Had the soul’s blessedness with Jesus, during the present period, been fully revealed, we might have been selfish enough to have thought so much about it, and to have longed so much after it, that the hope of His coming might have lost its proper place and power in our hearts. The Holy Ghost guards the hope of the Church on all sides, and with special care. But enough is revealed to satisfy the heart of faith, as to our dear departed ones. Further light is, in love, withheld. Meditate deeply, my soul, on what is revealed, and be subject thereto. And knowing the love of Jesus, and the unchangeableness of our divine life amidst all changes, the interpretation thereof will be easy.
“For me to live is Christ,” says the apostle, “and to die is gain.” This is a contrast. To live is Christ—to die would be a gain upon that. And, further, he adds, “For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ; which is far better.” “With Christ,” would be his “gain.” This would be “far better.” But first of all, carefully note the blessedness of the state with which he contrasts departing “to be with Christ.”
“For me to live is Christ.” What nearness to Christ, what communion with Him, the servant must have that can say this! It includes the idea, first of all, of having Christ for his object, his motive, his joy, his strength; and, also, of great love for the Church, a deep and tender interest in all that concerned the name and glory of Christ, and the well-being of His people. “ For me to live is Christ,” — is like the condensed energy of the Spirit, that would sum up all of that mighty heart, that bright light, that noble servant, in these few words. And now comes the important question — How much would such an one “gain” by death? He would be “with Christ” —in the enjoyment of Christ, personally, in heaven. And this is like the condensed energy of the Spirit as to the other side — the consummation of all blessedness — “with Christ.” But would the soul not lose much of its interest in all these lower things, now that it has reached the higher? Most assuredly not! It has the higher things in addition. This is the point of great interest as to the “unclothed” state. We can never lose anything that we now have, in fellowship with Christ; because, He is already risen and glorified. He is our life — that life has no trial to go through. It only loses, in death, the poor, cumbersome body in which it groaned, being burdened.
All that we now know, and enter into, through the teaching of the Spirit, must abide forever. We only lose that which belongs to the first Adam, but nothing of that which belongs to the last Adam. There is immense force in the apostle’s words of contrast, far better — Even better! This would be true as to everything touching the soul’s connection with the blessed Lord, both as to the higher and lower things.
It is no longer in our power to communicate to the dear departed soul, that which we know would have given it joy here; but being present with the Lord, everything that is worthy of His love, and fitted to deepen the joy, and elevate the worship of the loved departed, we can happily trust Him to communicate. All is well! How well! “Absent from the body, present with the Lord.” How far the soul, apart from the body, (its own proper instrument of expression) can express itself, we venture not to say, but in its bright consciousness, it remembers and loves. It thinks of the past and present; it anticipates the future. It waits in patience, with Christ, for the morning of the first resurrection; but its present and blessed feast is His unchanging, never-ending love.
“There are our loved ones in their rest:
They’ve crossed time’s river — now no more
They heed the troubles on its breast,
Nor feel the storms that sweep its shore.
But ‘there’ pure love can live, can last —
They look for us their home to share:
When we in turn, away have passed,
What joyful greetings wait us there —
Across the river!”
There is only one other passage I would refer to on this point. It has always been a favorite with the weary pilgrim. I mean the Lord’s own word to the penitent thief, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” The sweetness, the comfort, the rest of heart, which this assurance gives, is beyond all expression. There, “with the Lord” and with loved ones who have gone before, the soul rests, clothed in light, and breathing the air of heaven. The mother has found her first-born, long, long, gone before her, but never forgotten. And, oh! what a fresh spring to her worship! “Ο magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together,” will now be their joyous song. And there, too, the husband meets the wife of his youth, who was early called, but whose hearts were formed to love, not only for time, but for eternity. True, human relationships will be unknown there, but hearts and loves remain forever.
But lest we should anticipate the resurrection-state, we leave, Ο most contentedly leave, our dear, our loved, our cherished, departed ones, “with the Lord,” and with each other, in that blooming garden of heaven’s choicest delights. Now, we often travel by faith, between the dark valley and that bright Eden above; but soon, soon, the Lord will come. Lord, Lord of that happy land, how soon? — when, Ο when, shall the cloudless morning come? “A little while,” is the Master’s own measure of His absence. Then, when that happy morning dawns, we, too, shall say farewell to this vale of tears. Faith’s work shall then be done; “for we shall see him as he is.” Hope, too, shall then be realized in the Person of the Lord, as it is written, “And they shall see his face.” These all-important companions of the valley are no more needed. Faith, so long accustomed to the flight, shall then, and forever, “fold her wings.” Farewell, “precious faith,” but, oh, how much I owe thee! Hope, “blessed hope” — soul-sustaining hope, shall then be lost amidst the glories of the Jerusalem above; but love remains; yes, love, eternal love prevails through all the ransomed throng.
But what, my soul, what of the poor body, that lies moldering in the grave? The now humbled body, shall, ere long, share eternal glory with the soul. Scripture is plain on this point. But I will do little more than quote two or three passages.
“What! know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you.” (1 Cor. 6:19.) Here, observe, the Holy Ghost has taken possession of the body. He has thus appropriated the body to God. Had the text said, “your heart is the temple of the Holy Ghost” — the question of affection might have been raised; but it is your body — which plainly assures us that the body, living or dead, is in the custody of the Holy Ghost — that, henceforward, He is the Custodian of the believer’s body. Again, “But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” (Rom. 8:11.) Here it is said not merely “your bodies,” but “your mortal bodies,” which meets the heart in sweetest grace. But what a volume of truth we have on this subject in 1 Cor. 15 “It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body......And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”
Need we anything more, Ο my soul, to set the heart of strongest affection at rest forever! Let patience have her perfect work — the “little while” will soon be past. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”
“The resurrection-morn will break,
And every sleeping saint awake,
Brought forth in light again;
Ο morn, too bright for mortal eyes!
When all the ransomed Church shall rise,
And wing their way to yonder skies —
Called up with Christ to reign.”