VERSE 3
"He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake." Though under the faithful care and watchful eye of the Good Shepherd, we have to pass through a world in which many powerful foes surround us and closely beset our path. "The god of this world" (2 Cor. 4:4), we are sure, hates us, because he knows full well that when he is chained in the bottomless pit we shall be in the full liberty of the glory with Christ. There is no book in all the Bible he tries to keep people from reading, or dislikes so much, as the book of Revelation. And why? Because therein his own complete overthrow and eternal misery are plainly foretold. He wants to conceal this from the eyes of men; and, alas, how wonderfully he has succeeded as to this precious and profitable book! Many think it cannot be understood and that it is unprofitable to read it; whereas the Lord has connected a special blessing with the reading and the understanding of this book. "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand." Rev. 1:3. The Lord's judicial dealings, not only with Satan, the source of all evil, but with the Jew, the Gentile and the Church of God, are herein unfolded. He shows us how He will square accounts with each. There can be no millennium until these judgments are past. "Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with Thee?" Psa. 94:20. It is all important to see the final results of the rise and progress of these three great divisions of mankind. Other books show us the failure; Revelation, the fall and the setting aside of these bodies, or classes, as the responsible witnesses of God in the earth. But more than that, Revelation shows us the Lord Jesus Christ taking the place of the faithful and true witness on the failure of all others, and re-establishing all things on a new footing, that God may be fully glorified in the scene wherein He has been dishonored. "These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God." Rev. 3:14. "Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first-begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth." Rev. 1:5.
But we cannot yet say, in the language of the twenty-fourth Psalm, which is strictly millennial, "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein." v.1. No; we are still on the ground of the twenty-third Psalm, as the sheep of Christ, in much weakness; and Satan still is "the god of this world" (2 Cor. 4:4), "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." Eph. 2:2. Hence the many trials and sorrows by the way, and hence the need of the Lord's refreshing, restoring grace. Satan does all in his power to injure and terrify the sheep of Christ as they pass through his territory. He lays many snares for their feet, and he gilds many a scene that he may attract the eye and take it off the Good Shepherd who goes before them. Well the enemy knows that if they follow closely after Him, all his own snares and attractions are unsuccessful. He who goes before His flock meets the danger or the difficulty and removes it before they come up to it, blessed be His name. All difficulties vanish from His presence, and all enemies are powerless before Him. The great lesson to be learned in the wilderness is entire dependence on the Lord.
When Israel had safely passed through the deep and stood in triumph, as the Lord's redeemed, on the margin of the desert, their redemption was complete but Canaan was not reached. The wilderness, with all its temptations and difficulties, lay between. The Lord had many lessons to teach His people there. But before they were called to this character of experience, God had made Himself known to them in His grace and power as the great "I AM." Ex. 3:14. In their glorious deliverance out of the land of Egypt, He had acted for them, in pure grace, through the blood of the Lamb. Thus far it was grace, without rebuke; so that they ought to have known Him worthy of all their trust.
As characteristic of the wilderness, the first thing that meets them is a difficulty. "In which direction does our way to Canaan lie?" they might say to each other. There were no roads to be seen; nothing but a trackless desert lay before them. What was now to be done? Just what they were always to do and what the Lord's redeemed should ever do—LOOK UP. There they would see Jehovah Himself, the true Shepherd of Israel, in His cloudy chariot, moving on before them. They were only safe in following Him; having no will, no wish, no way of their own, only to follow Him in the full assurance that He would lead them by the best way to the promised land. Oh, how happy for Israel had this been the case then! And how happy for us now were we always content thus closely to follow the Lord, "the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls"! 1 Peter 2:25.
But another and deeper trial for Israel soon came. The knowledge of accomplished redemption, the full assurance of forgiveness and the enjoyment of God's favor never exempt us from trials and disappointments in this world. We have many profitable though painful lessons to learn in the wilderness. But if we never knew want, we could never know relief; and the value of a divine restorative is best known to a fainting soul. "So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter." Ex. 15:22-23. What a disappointment! At the end of a three days' journey in the wilderness to find no water, and when they did find it, it was bitter. What a trial! But Jehovah, the great "I AM," was there; and faith could say, even in these circumstances, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul." If I forget and fail, "He restoreth my soul." Yes, and more, "He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake." Gracious Lord! He maintains my soul, in spite of my weakness, in the paths of true holiness. Such is the language of a calm and patient faith. But, on the other hand, the natural heart would reason within itself and say, Can this be love? Does the Lord not care for His people, after redeeming them out of the hand of the enemy? Most assuredly He does: only have patience. He is about to teach them a lesson, which is of present, future and eternal value—a lesson which, when learned, is worth all the disappointments of the desert to know. This is the object of His perfect love in the present trial.
“And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?" Ex. 15:24. And what. we may ask, could the man Moses do in such a state of things? Only, as before said, LOOK UP. "And he cried unto the Lord; and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet." Ex. 15:25. Thus the Lord sweetens the bitter waters. It was not their murmurings that sweetened them, nor any means of their own devising, but the Lord's own remedy and applied according to His own directions. He only can sweeten the bitter cup, but He always can and He always does— blessed be His name. Better have a bitter cup and the Lord to sweeten it, than have no bitter cup at all; better far be cast, bound hand and foot, into the fiery furnace and have the honor and blessing of walking there, in perfect liberty, with "the Son of God" (Dan. 3:25), than be saved from going into the furnace. Oh, what a field, my soul, for meditation, is the rich field of experience! Like the hind let loose, roam through it and feed in it. Shepherds tell us that "variety of pasture is good for the flocks"! And sure thou art that to be occupied with only a part of God's Word, and not with the whole, is to see only one side of the truth and not the truth of God generally. It is thus that many become narrow and confused in their views, and faulty in their faith and practice. In our beautiful and highly instructive Psalm we have the wide, wide field of wilderness life spread out before us.