325 if we would ask for them in God’s way (Jas. 4:2, 3). v. 2. "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters.’’ Here the Psalmist leads us on from the general statement that we shall not want to specific wants supplied. Four specific wants supplied are mentioned, Rest, and Food, and Drink, and Leading. “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside the still waters,” lit erally translated would read, “He maketh me tq lie down in pastures of tender grass; He leadeth me beside the waters of rest.” There is a two-fold rest in this verse, the passive rest of the sheep lying down on the soft young spring grass; the active rest, walking beside the waters of rest. There is a two-fold rest in the Christian life, passive rest, just lying on Jesus’ bosom; active rest' in serving the Lord, “without fear in holiness and righteous ness before Him all the days of our lives” (Luke 1 :74, 75).. This two-fold rest comes out also in Matt. 11:28, 29. The Shepherd Himself it is who best knows when we would better lie down in the tender grass and when we would better be led on be side the waters of rest, and it is He who makes us lie down and it is He who leads. But there is food as well as rest, “tender grass,” the sweet, juicy grass of springtime such as sheep love. Where do we find it? Is there any food so easy to eat, so juicy, so delicious, so nutritious as that we find in the Word of God? There is nothing one of the Lord’s sheep enjoys like this. Perhaps a goat enjoys tin cans and bill posters and old boots better than tender grass, and so there are worldlings who call themselves Christians who enjoy the latest novel or the daily paper hetter than the Bible, but the sheep prefer the tender grass of God’s Word. But there is drink as well as food, Jehovah leads His sheep right beside “the waters of rest.” There- is al ways water at hand for Jehovah’s sheep to drink, refreshing, tranquil waters, not turbulent, turbid waters, “the waters of rest.” What are these waters of rest that
T H E K ING ’S BUS INESS
He will secure my safety and my welfare, even if it takes the sacrifice of Himself, as indeed it did. How tender the _shep herd’s care for the flock is appears in Gen. 33:13, and in the same way our infinitely wise Shepherd, who never makes mistakes, shapes all His dealings with us in regard to our weakness. He never overdrives us. As Jehovah is my Shepherd, He will pro tect me and therefore I need not fear the lion, or the bear, or the wolf, the Devil and all his hosts; for my Shepherd is ever at hand and is ever mighty and will deliver me out of their mouth and their paw (cf. 1 Sam. 17:34-37). All I need to see to is that I am one of His sheep, and can rightly say, “Jehovah is my Shepherd.” To say, Jehovah is my Shepherd is to say, Jehovah will provide for me, that He will find me good and sufficient pasturage (that is the shepherd’s business, to feed the sheep and the lambs, and by making Himself my Shepherd, Jehovah has undertaken to make it His business to provide me pasture). Who has a right to say, Jehovah is my Shepherd ? The question is answered in John 10:3, 4, 5, 27. No one has a right to repeat this 23rd Psalm and say, “The Lord is my Shepherd,” except the one who has met the conditions laid down in the verses mentioned. "I shall not want." These words are the logical outcome of those which precede. If Jehovah is my Shepherd, of course, “I shall, not want.” How can I ? There will be no lack of any kind in the life of the one who makes Jehovah his Shepherd. But what shall I not want? The Bible is full of answers to this question (Ps. 84:11; 34:9, 10; Phil. 4:19; Matt. 6:33; Rom. 8:32; Heb. 13:5, 6). Not one of Jehovah’s sheep will ever lack anything that it is for his real good to have. I would rather have that sure promise of God than all the money and lands and friends and honors in the world. We may seem sometimes to “want,” there are things we desire and do not get, but it is not good for us to get them. Per haps it would be good for us to get them
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