Daily Devotionals

Music For the Soul

Devotional: October 16th

THE SHEPHERD-KING

The Lord is my Shepherd: I shall not want. - Psalms 23:1

The king who had been the shepherd-boy, and had been taken from the quiet sheep-cotes to rule over Israel, sings this little psalm of Him who is the true Shepherd and King of men. We do not know at what period of David’s life it was written, but it sounds as if it were the work of his later years. There is a fulness of experience about it, and a tone of subdued, quiet confidence, which speak of a heart mellowed by years and of a faith made sober by many a trial. A young man would not write so calmly, and a life which was just opening would not afford material for such a record of God’s guardianship in all changing circumstances. If, then, we think of the psalm as the work of David’s later years, is it not very beautiful to see the old king looking back with such vivid and loving remembrance to his childhood’s occupation, and bringing up again to memory in his palace the green valleys, the gentle streams, the dark glens where he had led his flock in the old days; very beautiful to see him traversing all the stormy years of warfare and rebellion, of crime and sorrow, which lay between, and finding in all God’s guardian presence and gracious guidance? The faith which looks back and says, " It is all very good," is not less than that which looks forward and says, " Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." There is nothing difficult of understanding in the psalm. The train of thought is clear and obvious. The experiences which it details are common, the emotions it expresses simple and familiar. The tears that have been dried, the fears that have been dissipated, by this old song; the love and thankfulness which have found in them their best expression, prove the worth of its simple words. It lives in most of our memories. There is a double progress of thought in it. It rises, from memories of the past and experiences of the present care of God, to hope for the future. " The Lord is my Shepherd’’ - "I will fear no evil." Then, besides this progress from what was and is to what will be, there is another string, so to speak, on which the gems are threaded. The various methods of God’s leading of His flock, or, rather, we should say, the various regions into which He leads them, are described in order. These are: Rest, Work, Sorrow; and this series is so combined with the order of time already adverted to, as that the past and the present are considered as the regions of rest and of work, while the future is anticipated as having in it the valley of he shadow of death.