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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
July, 1840
says they did when He claimed to be the good Shepherd? "There was a divi sion therefore again among the Jews for these sayings. And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?” (John 10:17, 20). Certainly if Jesus were only a man, then He would have been “mad” to make such a stu pendous claim. But He was not mad. He told the truth. He was, and still is, our good Shepherd Jehovah-Jesus. We shall understand Psalm 23 better if we read it thus in accordance with His claim: “Jehoyah-Jesus is my shepherd.” 2. “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters” (v. 2). Here the good Shepherd provides three things for His sheep: food, water, and rest. But the great idea of the verse, I think, is not food or water, but rest. Even while the sheep are eating they are lying down; and they drink from still waters, liter ally “waters of quietness.” And best of all, this rest is the direct gift of the Shepherd-God: “He maketh me to lie down.” One of the strange things about sinful humanity is that it cannot rest. “The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt” (Isa. 57:20). That is why our Lord, Jehovah-Jesus, said, “Come unto me . . . and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). Rest for the soul cannot be had except as the gift of God's grace. Those who reject the gift shall “have no rest day nor night” (Rev. 14:11). 3. “He restoreth my soul” (v. 3). Wheh we go astray from the paths of righteousness, He brings back our souls. This is the plain declaration of the Holy Spirit, and we are to believe, not doubt, ,what He says. Of course, this must be true. What kind of shepherd would he be who took no thought*'for the wander ing sheep but left them to find their way back alone or else perish? “What man of you, having a hundred sheep,” our Lord once said, “if he lose one of
them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? ” Well then, are we to suppose that God will do less thaii a man? Just as in Psalm 23 we find the truths of God as a Shep herd and the faithful Keeper of His peo ple, so in John 10 Christ brought to gether the same truths; “I am the good shepherd,” He says; and then just a few verses later we hear His promise, "My sheep . . . shall never perish” (vs. 27, 28). If it were not so, He' would not be the “good shepherd.” Some years ago, the king of Abyssinia took a British subject prisoner. His cap- tors carried him to the fortress of Mag- dala, and in the heights of the moun tains put him in a dungeon, without cause assigned. Britain demanded his instantaneous release. King Theodore refused, and in less than ten days, ten thousand British soldiers were on ship board and sailing down the coast. They marched seven hundred miles beneath the. burning sun up the mountain to the very dungeon where the prisoner was held, and there they gave battle. The gates were torn open, presently the prisoner was lifted upon their shoulders, carried down the mountain, and placed upon the white-winged ship which sped him in safety to his home. It cost the English government an equivalent of $25,000,000 to release that man. I be long to a better kingdom than that, that is, a heavenly kingdom, and do you sup pose that earthly powers will protect Stjeir Subjects and that God will leave rile without help?—J. Wilbur Chapman. David’s Shepherd Song P salm 23 MEMORY VERSE: “The earth is full of goodness of the Lord” (Psa. 33:5). APPROACH: David was a boy who kept his father’s sheep in far-off Pales tine. Later, he killed the giant with his sling shot and became king. LESSON STORY: In the fields with his sheep, David played his harp and sang, “The Lord is my shepherd.” The Lord Jesus, like a shepherd, feeds His flock and gives rest to the weary ones, Golden Text Illustration P salm 23:1
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and His words are like a drink of cool water to the thirs ty. “He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in t h e paths of righteousness,” sang David, and his song reminds us of how the Lord Jesus came
r\ %a a B 5 Division
into the world to seek and to save the wandering ones who are lost and to lead them into right paths. Though we
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