1 Ruskin, Modern Painters ( Works, \y. 113). * Life and Letters of F. W. Robertson, 204.
PSALM XXIII. 2, 3 407
The universal instinct of repose, The longing for confirmed tranquillity, Inward and outward; humble, yet sublime: The life where hope and memory are as one; "Where earth is quiet and her face unchanged Save by the simplest toil of human hands Or season's difference ; the immortal Soul Consistent in self-rule ; and heaven revealed To meditation in that quietness ! ^
3. "He maketh me to lie down." The first thing that the shepherd does with the sheep in the morning is to make them " lie down in green pastures." How does he do it ? Not by walking them and wearing them out, but by feeding them until they are satisfied. For sheep will go on walking long after they are weary, but the moment they are satisfied they will lie down. It may seem unlikely that early in the morning, as the very first thing in the day, the shepherd should be able to feed his flock so well that they will lie down satisfied. But that depends upon the pastures. If he gets them at once to green pastures, they will of their own accord — their appetites being sharpened by the morning air — eat and be satisfied, and lie down in a great content.
Now a day with the shepherd and his sheep in the uplands is the life of the believer with God. Its first act is the satisfaction of the soul with tlie things which He has provided. For the believer of to-day the great provision is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And no one who has tasted and seen how gracious the Lord is will deny that the very first experience of the goodness and mercy of God is well described in the first act of tlie Eastern shepherd's working-day, — " He maketli me to lie down in green pastures."
Where dost Thou feed Thy favoured sheep ?
0 my Beloved, tell me where; My soul within Thy pastures keep,
And guard me with Thy tender care. Too prone, alas ! to turn aside.
Too prone with alien flocks to stray ; Be Thou my shepherd. Thou my guide,
And lead me in Thy heavenly way.
* Wordsworth, Tlie Excursion.
4o8 REST, REFRESHMENT. RESTORATION
If thou wouldst know, thou favoured one,
Where soul-refreshing pastures be ; Feed on My words of truth alone,
And walk with those who walk with Me. I with the contrite spirit dwell;
The broken heart is Mine abode; Such spikenard yields a fragrant smell,
And such are all the saints of God.^
^ " Lie down and look at it," a friend once said to me when we were out together for a trip on the Grampians. The scenery around us, I need not say, was strikingly beautiful. There were mountain-tops tipped with snow, hillsides covered with purple heath, green valleys througli which flowed the Earn with its tributaries, waving cornfields, and rich pasture lands on which the sheep and deer were feeding in the distance, making a picture which, when once seen, was not to be forgotten. Here and there, too, were ruins of ancient castles, dismantled and dilapidated, carrying one's thoughts back to the realm of history, and reminding one of times when might was right and those quiet glens were the scenes of war and bloodshed.
But my companion kept on calling my attention to shades of green in the fields, shades of purple on the moors, shades of blue in the sky. He was evidently absorbed in the picturesque- ness of the scenery. At last I said to him, " You have got the painter's eye, and I have not; you can see a beauty in this landscape which altogether escapes me." " Well, perhaps so," he said, " but at all events I want to give you the painter's eye ; just lie down and look at it." And never till that moment had I been conscious of the amazing difference which a slight change of atti- tude can effect in viewing the fields of Nature. Everything changed with the posture and the standpoint. I now under- stood, for the first time, the mystic charm which mountain scenery has for the poet's and the painter's eye ; the ever-chang- ing tints and shades of colour, in earth and sea and sky, trans- ferred with such subtle power to the canvas, and fixed there, " a thing of beauty " and " a joy for ever." All this I had learnt by following my comrade's injunction — he made me to lie down in green pastures.^
(1) The first essential of this rest is an assurance of safety. —
The stranger startles the flock, the watch-dog frightens it, the
how] of the wild beast scatters it in panting terror. The confidence
of the first line is the key to all the gladness of the Psalm —
1 R. T. P. Pope. 2 g, Balgarnie.
PSALM XXIII. 2, 3 409
" The Lord is my shepherd." The whole song is born of assurance. Fear strikes all dumb, as when the hawk wheels overhead in the blue heavens and hushes instantly the music of the groves. Doubt spoils it all — " the little rift within the lute." Confidence, steadfast, unwavering confidence, is the very heart of this rest. There must be a great, deep, abiding conviction wrought into me that He is mine, and I am His.