"He maketh me to lie down
In green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters."
In this sweet pastoral symphony, the first verse gives the air, when it tells us that there is no want to the man
who lives under the shepherd care of God. In the succeeding verses the harmony is worked out, and the music in
all its completeness is rendered effectively.
The first want which, according to this verse, he who belongs to Christ shall never know, is the want of rest.
This verse breathes the very spirit of rest, as is even more apparent in a more literal rendering of the words.
It may be rendered thus: "He maketh me to lie down in pastures of tender grass: He leadeth me beside the waters
of rest."
What a delightful scene is thus conjured up before our fancy! It is the scorching hour of an Eastern noon. The
air is stifling with fever-heat, and all the landscape is baking in the awful glare. The very stones upon the hills
burn the feet that touch them. At such a time woe be to the flock without a shepherd; and to the shepherd who cannot
find the blue shade of some great rock, the shelter of some bushy dell, or the rich and luscious pasturage of some
lowland vale!
But there is no such failure here. See where the pellucid stream is rolling its tide through the level plain. Higher
upward in its bed, when it was starting on its course, it foamed and fretted over its rocky channel, leaped from
ledge to ledge, chafed against its restraining banks, and dashed itself into a mass of froth and foam. No sheep
would have drank of it then; for the flocks will never drink of turbid or ruffled streams. But now it sweeps quietly
onward, as if it were asleep, there is hardly a ripple on its face; every flower, and tree, and sedge, as well
as the overhanging banks, is clearly mirrored on its surface, and every stone in its bed may be clearly seen; on
its banks the pasture is always green and luxuriant, carpeted in spring by a thousand flowers; the very air is
cooled by its refreshing presence, and the ear is charmed by the music of its purling waters. No drought can come
where that river flows; and the flocks, satisfied by browsing on the tender grass, lie down satisfied and at rest.
We All Need Rest
There must be pauses and parentheses in all our lives. The hand cannot ever be plying its toils. The brain cannot
always be elaborating trains of thought. The faculties and senses cannot always be on the strain. To work without
rest is like over winding a watch; the mainspring snaps, and the machinery stands still. There must be a pause
frequently interposed in life's busy rush wherein we can recuperate exhausted nerves and lowered vitality. There
is more permanence than many think in the commandment which bids us rest one day in seven.
But there is no part of our nature that cries more urgently for rest than our spiritual life. The spirit of man,
like the dove, cannot always be wandering with unresting wing; it must alight. We cannot ever be travelling up
the rugged mountain pass of difficulty, or traversing the burning marl of discontent. We must be able to lie down
in green pastures, or to pass gently along the waters of rest. There are three things needed ere sheep or human
spirits can rest.
1. A consciousness of safety.
The growl of a lion, the bark of a dog, the presence of a little child, will be quite sufficient to spoil the rest
of a flock of sheep, and to drive them trembling and timid into an affrighted group. And how can we rest so long
as we feel ourselves liable to the attack of the roaring lion of the pit? Who can rest so long as eternal destinies
lie uncertainly in the balance?
Against all this our Shepherd Jesus has provided. He has Himself met the great adversary of our souls, and has
for ever broken his power. We can never forget that fearful conflict between the two,- the malice of the one; the
strong cryings and tears, the anguish and bloody sweat, of the other. It was not a time when we could throw the
balance of our weight into one scale or the other; we were rather the prize for which the battle was fought through
the long and weary hours. On the one hand stood cruel hate and bloodthirsty destruction; on the other was mercy
yearning to deliver, although at the cost of bitter agony and wounds, of which the scars shall remain for ever.
In the end, the Good Shepherd gave His life for the sheep. No hireling coward He! His all was at stake. The flock
was His own, given Him by his father; and He laid down His life for it.
But in that death He slew our enemy; as two antlered champions of the woods have sometimes been discovered side
by side in death, because the one, in his own death-throes, had struck the other with a mortal wound. But God "brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant."
And now He lives to guarantee our safety. He has suffered all that there is to suffer. He has mastered all the
opposition that there is to encounter. He has secured us everlasting deliverance from the slaughter-knife, from
the demands of the divine law, and from the consequences of our own sins. "Who is He that condemneth? It is
Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again."
And now, O timid soul, be at rest! The blood-red brand which is upon thee is a sure token that thou art safe. He
cannot have done so much for thee to lose thee now. In all moments of peril or dread softly murmur his name, Jesus!
Jesus! and He will at once comfort thee by His presence and by His voice, which all the sheep know; and this shall
be His assurance: "My sheep shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."
"The Lord is thy Keeper." "We know that whosoever is begotten of God sinneth not; but He that was
begotten of God keepeth him, and the evil one toucheth him not" (1 Joh 5:18, R. V.).
2. Sufficiency of food.
A hungry sheep will not lie down. Main force will fail in making it do so. But the shepherd who can provide it
with plenty of good pasturage will soon bring the most restless animal to lie contentedly among the fragrant herbage,
while birds may settle on its woolly back and bees murmur drowsily around.
We can never rest so long as the hunger of the spirit is unappeased and its thirst unslaked. Strange that men are
so slow to realise this! Yet the whole drift of human life seems impelled by the aching void within. Conscious
of their hunger, men try to satisfy it with the husks that the swine eat; but they try in vain. And there is no
answer to the unrest of the inward man until the voice of Jesus is heard, saying, "He that cometh to me shall
never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst."
Oh, to eat of the flesh of the Son of man, and to drink His blood, in hours of devout reverie, in moments of rapt
and intimate communion! This is life. This is eternal satisfaction. Here are pasture-lands indeed, and the rivers
of His pleasures.
The Word of God may fitly be compared to green pastures. There is nourishment there for all hungry hearts,- "enough
and to spare." Nor do these pastures ever become barren or sear. They are as green and fresh to-day as when
they were first issued by the Holy Spirit. Though multitudes of commentators have considered them, and myriads
of Christians have studied and conned them, they cannot be pondered by a loving and obedient heart without yielding
nutriment and strength.
There are many spiritual realities corresponding to the waters of rest. What is the Lord's day but a water of rest;
or the hour of worship; or the long period of illness and convalescence; or the summer holiday; or the long halcyon
period of spiritual prosperity, when it would almost seem as though Satan had forgotten to tempt? At such times
it is sweet to know that He who anon led to war or work is now leading to rest.
And in some cases, in the midst of life's rush and pleasure, He beckons us aside to rest with Him awhile, that
we may have leisure to eat. He causes our hearts to keep Sabbath and be at peace. He makes us drink of the brook
by the way, and at noon we rest with His flock in the blue shade of the Rock in the weary land.
3. Obedience to the Shepherd's lead.
The tenderest shepherd cannot bring a flock of sheep to rest unless they follow him. If they lag far behind him,
if they go astray from him, if they take their own several ways, then, however good the shepherd's intentions,
they cannot but be thwarted and frustrated. "My sheep," said Christ, "hear my voice, and I know
them, and they follow me."
This test of following the Shepherd's lead is most important. It is by no means wonderful that we lose our rest
when we run hither and thither, following the devices and desires of our own evil hearts. We substitute our plans
for His. We insist on our schemes and stratagems. We crowd our days with much of our own, in addition to something
of His. We do not look up often enough to see which way He is going and what He would have us to do. And so our
rest is broken and lost. We must follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth if we would be led to the living fountains
of waters, which are fed from heavenly springs.
Oh, sigh not for the rest of God as if it were impossible for thee! The Good Shepherd waits to make thee lie down,
and to give thee to drink long, deep draughts of rest. Only trust Him! Hand over to Him all that breaks the stillness
of thy spirit, though it be but a gnat-sting; and take from Him His own deep, sweet rest. Claim that He should
make thee lie down by the arts of His gentle compulsion.