Chapter 5: The Shepherd's Leading
Chapter 5: The Shepherd's Leading
Psalm 23:3 He leadeth me in the path of righteousness For His name's sake.
"HE LEADETH ME." What a wondrous link between those two personal pronouns! The chasm between the Shepherd in glory and His poor sheep might seem to be an infinite one; but it is bridged by this one sweet, tender word, "leadeth." As in the East the shepherd always precedes the flock, to discover the greenest patches of grass, and the least stony path, so does Jesus ever keep in front of the soul that trusts and loves Him. And it is our part to allow as small a space as possible to intervene between His footsteps and our own.
We must be willing to be led. There is so much natural impetuosity in us to shoot on in front and "prospect" for ourselves. Is that not so? And out of this restlessness there arises so much of the fret, and chafe, and disappointment of life. We think we can do so much better for ourselves than Christ can do for us. We doubt whether there is not something outside the limit of His will which it might be worth our while to snatch at. We are inclined to run before, or linger behind, or go off to forage on the right and left. We take a long time ere we learn that the place of usefulness and blessedness is in following the lead of Jesus. We are much more liable to imitate some scheme which our judgment may have passed after a hurried hearing of its claims than to ask where Christ wants us to be, and whither He is leading.
The one ambition of our being should be to be sure that we are resolutely following the Shepherd whithersoever He goeth; according to His own assurance, when He putteth forth His own sheep, "He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him."
These words make a considerable demand upon our faith. Of old, the apostles could see Him in front of them as He went up to Jerusalem, and they followed Him in fear. But that is impossible now. We cannot see that gracious form treading earth's dreary pathways, and casting its shadow upon the sands of time. We love Him whom we have not seen. We follow Him whom we cannot behold. But though He be viewless as the air, or as the attraction by which the sun conducts the worlds through space, yet His leadings are distinctly discernible by the trusting, loving heart.
We detect His leadings in many ways. In the drift of His example and in the direction of His advice contained in the Gospels; in the counsel of a friend, the message of a sermon, the monition of a text flashed into our memories; as well as in those inner promptings of His Spirit which come we know not whence, and bear us we know not whither. Sometimes the way opens up before us quite marvellously where it had seemed closed; as when a vessel, threading her way through a labyrinth of rock, finds a space of shining water beckoning it from the jaws of reef which threatened it. At other times a strange impulse seizes us, which, after due thought and prayer, we are constrained to follow.
This only we would insist upon: if you do not know which way to go, wait till you are sensible of the leadings of the Good Shepherd. Your life is wonderfully interesting to Him; every step of it is the subject of His thought. It will be a sore mistake and wrong for you to act without being sure of what He wishes you to do. And if you are not sure what that is, it is evident that the time has not yet come for you to move. Stay just where you are. If you dare to wait you will be clearly shown your path, and the revelation will not come a moment too late.
Oh, do not say that you are so stupid that you can never know His will. You always were dull of apprehension, and your very nervousness to understand aright has sometimes made you too flurried clearly to apprehend the simplest directions. But obtuseness of the intellect matters little to Christ. He can deal with that, and He will. If He cannot make you understand in one way, He will in another. It is the business of the Shepherd to lead the willing sheep aright. The only thing which obstructs His guidance is the obtuseness of the heart and will; we are frequently too self-willed or too impetuous to await His time.
In the previous verse the psalmist declared that the Shepherd led beside still waters; and the inference might have been that when the feet were cut or the muscles strained by the clamber up the rocky mountain track, or that when the course lay amid deep, damp glens overshadowed by heavy forests and overhanging rocks, that at such times the sheep was following its own wild way, outside the tender guidance of its Lord. And so the psalmist takes up the metaphor again, and tells us that there are other walks by which the Shepherd is leading us to our home. Not always beside the gentle streamlet flow, but sometimes by the foaming torrent. Not always over the delicate grass, but sometimes up the stony mountain track. Not always in the sunshine, but sometimes through the valley of the shadow of death. But whichever way it is, it is the right way, and it is the way home.
Christ's leadings are always along "paths of righteousness." And what are these but right paths? They are not only consistent with the divine rectitude, but they are justified by the review of the spirit, when in after-days, looking back on them from the eminence to which they have led, it confesses that they were right paths.
You hesitate at this. You say that you cannot feel that God's ways with you have been right. You are puzzled by their mystery. You are almost driven to despair by their mazy difficulties, their inexorable demands. Such feelings are not to be marvelled at as you sob them out in the ear of God. And He is very pitiful; "for He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust."
Only do not judge God's ways while they are in progress. Wait till the plan is complete. Wait till the tapestry is finished, and you can see the other side where the pattern will be worked out. Wait till the silver-paper is torn off the worsted-work and the blending of the colours is disclosed. Wait till you have got out of the vale to the mountain brow. Wait till, in the light of eternity, God can call you aside and reveal to you His purposes.
Meanwhile, trust! "All his paths drop fatness." "All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth." If it is true that "His path is in the mighty waters," it is also true that He leads "by a right way to the city of habitation." Let us not judge God by an incomplete or unfinished scheme; let us have patience till the end shall justify the path by which we came. In the breaking dawn of eternity we shall discover that God could not have brought us by another route which would have been as expeditious or as safe as the one by which we have come. Would that we had the faith to look up from every trying circumstance, from every fretting worry, from every annoyance and temptation, into the face of our Guide, and say, "It is the right way, Thou great Shepherd of the sheep; lead Thou me on!"
"Lead Thou me on,
O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone."
But we do not need to plead with Him for this. He is pledged to do it for the sake of His own great name. "He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake." Remember how eager Moses was for the honour of the name of God. From many a saintly lip have the words broken, "What wilt Thou do for Thy great name?" The name denotes the honour and character of God. These are implicated; these are at stake; the right leading of the saint is guaranteed by their immutability.
What is His name? "Wonderful?" Then there is a claim on the marvellous working of His power to overrule everything to our highest good. "Counsellor?" Then there is a claim upon His unerring wisdom to work out a scheme which will fill heaven with admiration. "The mighty God?" Then there is a claim on Him to do nothing inconsistent with divine integrity and glory. "The everlasting Father?" Then there is a claim on Him to deal no less tenderly than a father with his child. "The Prince of Peace?" Then there is a claim on Him in accordance with the sweetness and loveliness of His heart, the memories of His cross, and the tenderness of His benediction of peace.
"For His name's sake." What a plea that, to took right up from the heart of man to the heart of Christ, sure that He will not deny Himself, or belie His character, or do aught inconsistent with His tender love to those for whom He died!
Tell us Thy name, O wondrous Shepherd, going on before, and leading us by way of Gethsemane and Calvary to the garden of the Easter morn, and the sward of the ascension mount! And as we catch Thine answer, melodious with love, we will trust and not be afraid; we will follow thee whithersoever Thou goest; and we believe that we shall find that no step of the path was inconsistent with the leadings of a Love wise and strong and tender as the heart of God.