The sheep hear His voice, and they know His voice. How wonderfully simple this is, and it not only establishes the soul, but it also keeps it from all danger.
We follow the Lord here on earth, though His voice comes from heaven. This is blessed. You cannot mix it with anything else; it excludes all human wisdom. You could not allow anything to intrude on the voice of God, and the ear that is accustomed to it is on the lookout for it. If our ear is open we are sure to hear it.
Everybody has a path in this world, and though this is a pathless place, yet there is a path. The Lord Jesus did not require a path down here; He was Himself "the way.”
By Eastern custom, sheep follow the shepherd. He goes before them (they are not driven with a dog); they hear his voice; they know it and follow him; a stranger they will not follow. They do not doubt the voice of the shepherd; they yield themselves to the voice they know. All that is not of Christ is of another.
The shepherd marks the way, and you have nothing to do but to follow; it is the simplest thing possible; a little child can do it. Christ did not have the way tracked out for Him, but He became flesh, became a man, and that is the reason He had all thrown upon Him by man that He had. Think of all the scorn He endured which would never have happened if He had not become a man. He was the perfect Man, a contrast to ruined man on the earth, and He suffered for the ruin.
People travel miles to see a ruin, but man is a ruin, a magnificent ruin. We tend to forget this. He decks himself out, and it only draws attention to his sad state. What a strange thing it would be if we went to the furniture store to furnish a ruin!
“Preserve Me, O God: for in Thee do I put My trust." We see here the Lord Himself was dependent- as man He trusted in God.
It is a wondrous thing that we are allowed to stand with this Man; God sets us along with this Man, so that we are associated with God, and hence this Psalm can be also applied to us.
God and man are together on this earth. He puts us to stand together here against Satan. The place the Lord takes is being preserved.
Do you love the saints because you see this or that in them that you like, or because they are God's? Do not be afraid to be found with the saints, for it is in them He takes His delights. "In whom is all My delight." As for the saints, their life exists in resurrection where, in His presence. they have fullness of joy for evermore. May the Lord give us to know more and more of these blessed things. that we may enjoy them more for our own souls.
W.F.B.