Green pastures (Ps. 23)
ID
moss003
Sprache
EN
Gesamtlänge
00:42:40
Anzahl
1
Bibelstellen
Psalm 23
Beschreibung
n.a.
Automatisches Transkript:
…
I am in the book of the Psalms, the Psalm 23.
The book of the Psalms, the Psalm 23.
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.
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.
Thou mountest my head with oil, my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
The scripture that we read in the prophecy of Ezekiel is a very solemn one.
And I hesitate to say very much about it this afternoon,
partly because I am in no position to make any kind of accusations against anyone else,
especially those who are older than I am.
But also because it is the Lord who is speaking in the 34th chapter of Ezekiel,
and he is speaking just as much to me as he is to you or to anyone else, old or young.
And I felt it was right to read it,
because I believe it's a message from the Lord to us today in 1958.
And I believe it's a warning to us.
As I go about the country, I talk to many people,
many of the Lord's servants, many who are trying to win others,
many who are trying to serve him in various ways.
And wherever I go, there seems to be the same crying.
What is happening?
Where are all the young people that we used to have years ago in our assemblies, in our churches?
We seem to be getting smaller and smaller.
I know there are glorious exceptions. Praise God for every one.
And I know that in almost every church, in almost every assembly,
there are some young people. Praise God for every one.
But not so many as there used to be, and why?
And there seems to be an air of bewilderment.
Is the Lord's hand upon his people in these days?
What is wrong?
Because I myself am quite convinced that there are just as many young people
being brought to know the Savior as there ever have been.
What's happening to them?
And I wonder whether this message of the Lord through Ezekiel
to some of his people in Israel many, many centuries ago
is not his living message for us today.
God does work like that.
He speaks in the same language as he used on the spot centuries ago.
He speaks to us today.
And I wonder whether it is because we are not feeding the flock as we ought to be.
I say we, I speak of any of us who may not be, who may be able to feed,
but not feeding the flock.
Who are so engrossed in feeding ourselves,
and that's highly necessary,
but we are so engrossed in feeding ourselves and enjoying our own food
that we neglect to feed the young of the flock.
The result of the neglect to feed a flock of sheep is that they wander
and they are scattered.
Those are words that the Lord himself uses in the 34th chapter of Ezekiel.
He says they were scattered because there is no shepherd.
My sheep wandered through all the mountains.
Yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth,
and none did search or seek after them.
Isn't it understandable that if a sheep fails to get the food that he needs,
where he expects to find it,
he'll go somewhere else where he can find food?
Isn't it a judgment upon, or a warning to the so-called shepherds
who are busily engaged in feeding themselves and neglecting to feed the flock?
You know, the Lord doesn't leave them wandering and scattered.
The Lord still has his eye upon them.
The Lord is the good shepherd,
and the Lord doesn't fail them, even if we do.
The Lord goes on to say, I will seek them out.
He said, I will feed them, and so he does, thank God.
He never loses one of his sheep.
They are fed, but maybe not through us.
There's another thing I've noticed going about and talking to people on these lines.
I've noticed how often people of about my age refer to one, two, three names
of older men who've now died, and who've been a terrific blessing to them.
Obviously shepherds of the highest order,
and their names are constantly being mentioned by quite different people in different parts of the country.
What wonderful men of God they must have been.
I wish I knew, but I didn't.
Evidently they were shepherds.
Evidently they are the reason for there being so many kids of my age about today.
What a wonderful thing to be able to look back upon.
But why have we got to look back upon it?
Thank God there are men today who are shepherds.
Would to God there were more.
Because I believe that is the only way to stop sheep from wandering.
It's to feed them.
To feed them with the food they need, the food they must have in their Christian life.
And if we fail, then they will naturally, and who can blame them,
they will naturally wander until they find the food that is provided for them.
Now, the Lord is capable of feeding his sheep directly.
And he very often does.
But I believe normally he prefers to use under-shepherds to do the feeding for him.
Those whom he's trained and those whom he guides to do the feeding.
You may say, why does he do that?
I refuse to question why he does it.
I think it's wonderfully gracious of him, the good shepherd, the chief shepherd, as he's also called,
to deign to use men and women for whom he's died, sinners,
who have been brought to himself and cleansed by his precious blood to use them as his under-shepherds.
What a wonderful privilege to be used by him like that.
I think that's the way he likes to work, through under-shepherds.
I wonder, some of you younger ones particularly, is it your ambition to be a shepherd?
And there seems to be an air of bewilderment.
Is the Lord's hand upon his people in these days?
No.
Because I myself am quite convinced that there are just as many young people being brought to know the Saviour
as there ever have been.
What's happening to them?
And I wonder whether this message of the Lord, through Ezekiel,
to some of his people in Israel many, many centuries ago,
is not his living message for us today.
God does work like that.
He speaks in the same language as he used on the spot centuries ago,
he speaks to us today.
And I wonder whether it is because we are not feeding the flock as we ought to be.
I say we, I speak of any of us who may not be, who may be able to feed,
but not feeding the flock, who are so engrossed in feeding ourselves,
and that's highly necessary, but we are so engrossed in feeding ourselves
and enjoying our own food that we neglect to feed the young of the flock.
The result of the neglect to feed a flock of sheep is that they wander and they are scattered.
Those are words that the Lord himself uses in the 34th chapter of Ezekiel.
He says, they were scattered because there is no shepherd.
My sheep wandered through all the mountains.
Yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth,
and none did search or seek after them.
Isn't it understandable that if a sheep fails to get the food that he needs,
where he expects to find it, he'll go somewhere else where he can find food?
Isn't it a judgment upon, or a warning to the so-called shepherds
who are busily engaged in feeding themselves and neglecting to feed the flock?
You know, the Lord doesn't leave them wandering and scattered.
The Lord still has his eye upon them.
The Lord is the good shepherd, and the Lord doesn't fail them, even if we do.
The Lord goes on to say, I will seek them out.
He said, I will feed them, and so he does, thank God.
He never loses one of his sheep.
They are fed, but maybe not through us.
There's another thing I've noticed going about and talking to people on these lines.
I've noticed how often people about my age refer to one, two, three names
of older men who've now died, and who've been a terrific blessing to them.
Obviously shepherds of the highest order,
and their names are constantly being mentioned by quite different people
in different parts of the country.
What wonderful men of God they must have been.
I wish I knew, but I didn't.
Evidently they were shepherds.
Evidently they are the reason for there being so many kings of my age about today.
What a wonderful thing to be able to look back upon.
But why have we got to look back upon it?
Thank God there are men today who are shepherds.
Would to God there were more.
Because I believe that is the only way to stop sheep from wandering,
is to feed them.
To feed them with the food they need, the food they must have in their Christian life.
And if we fail, then they will naturally, and who can blame them,
they will naturally wander until they find the food that is provided for them.
Now, the Lord is capable of feeding his sheep directly.
And he very often does.
But I believe normally he prefers to use other shepherds to do the feeding for him.
Those whom he's trained, and those whom he guides to do the feeding.
You may say, why does he do that?
I refuse to question why he does it.
I think it's wonderfully gracious of him, the good shepherd, the chief shepherd,
as he's also called, to deign to use men and women for whom he's died,
sinners, who've been brought to himself and cleansed by his precious blood,
to use them as his under-shepherds.
What a wonderful privilege to be used by him like that.
I think that's the way he likes to work, through under-shepherds.
I wonder, some of you younger ones particularly,
is it your ambition to be a shepherd one day?
An under-shepherd to the great and chief shepherd?
To be able to be used by him to help others, to feed others,
to look after others younger than yourself?
It's a lovely ambition, it's one of my ambitions.
I remember when one of my boys went for an interview,
he was going to a new school, and he went to see the headmaster,
who talked to him about all sorts of things.
And when he came out, we said to him, what did he ask you?
And he told us a number of things, amongst which was,
what do you hope to be when you grow up?
We said, well, what did you say to that?
And he said, well, I said a shepherd.
Well, I'm afraid we laughed, and we said,
that's not the way to get into a public school, believe me.
They don't train people to be shepherds.
They train them to be businessmen or scientists or professors or teachers,
but not shepherds.
Whether he got in or not is not the point.
The point is, just at that moment, for some reason or other,
it was his ambition to be a shepherd.
We found out why it was.
He'd been talking to a man who was digging the garden for us,
who had been a Welsh shepherd on the hills and had told him all about the sheep
and rather fired his imagination for the time being.
But I wonder if we were right to laugh when we looked more deeply into it.
I've often thought since then, it's my ambition to be a shepherd too.
Not on the Welsh hills necessarily, but perhaps on the Bumley hills
or the Catford hills.
A shepherd for the Lord, an under-shepherd for him.
Is it your ambition?
I wonder, what are the qualifications for an under-shepherd?
What are the qualifications for a shepherd of the Lord's sheep?
I think in the 23rd Psalm, we get an idea of what those qualifications might be.
I'm not going right through the psalm, because my subject, as you know, is green pastures.
And I'm only going to talk about the first two verses.
It's a wonderful thing to me how often the Lord, in his dealings with Israel,
his people right down the ages, chose men who were shepherds.
Literally shepherds, who looked after four-legged sheep.
How often he chose men who were shepherds.
Moses, for many, many years, kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, in Midian.
The whore of the mount of God.
Remember Amos, one of the prophets, was a shepherd.
I think I'm right in saying that.
There were many others through the scriptures who were shepherds, and God chose them.
David himself, who wrote this psalm, we believe, was a shepherd.
And I believe the Lord had a purpose in that.
He didn't use the simile or metaphor of shepherd and sheep when speaking about his people without reason.
And I believe God saw that there were many qualifications for looking after ordinary four-legged sheep,
which could be useful to him in looking after his own people.
And I think one of the chief qualifications for being a shepherd is to know what it is to be a sheep.
You may think that's double-dutch, but it isn't.
To know what it is to be a sheep and have a shepherd of your own is, I think,
one of the essential qualifications of being a shepherd yourself.
David began his psalm by saying,
The Lord is my shepherd.
He could have said, I am a shepherd in my own right.
I have all the training, I'm skilled, I flew a lion and a bear.
He told King Saul on the occasion, demanded it, all about it,
about when he was in the presence of the Lord.
He said, The Lord is my shepherd.
I myself am a sheep.
And David knew something about sheep.
He knew something about their wanderings and their foolishness.
And he knew something about the duties of a shepherd
and the love which a shepherd has, a real shepherd has for his sheep.
He knew something about those, and I believe he turned it the other way around
and applied them to his own Lord.
The Lord is my shepherd.
David needed a shepherd of his own.
And so today, shepherds, the Lord's shepherds, and would-be shepherds,
need him.
And we can't do anything about it
unless we realize from the other side
of the qualifications of the shepherd.
The tenth of John, the Lord Jesus himself,
speaking about the good shepherd,
he said, He leadeth them out.
David was conscious of being led by his shepherd.
He goeth before them.
And David was conscious that the Lord was opening up his pathway before him.
And he needed to be conscious of that too.
The Lord Jesus said, And they shall go in and out and find pasture.
And that really brings us to our second verse, doesn't it?
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
There are various ways of looking at the idea of green pastures.
Some people seem to think that if you're in green pastures,
everything's plain sailing, everything's going beautifully,
all's right with the world, nothing to worry about.
Green pastures.
Well, I don't think it means that at all in this connection.
I don't think it means plain sailing.
I don't think it means merely an easy life.
I do believe it means life,
a life with the shepherd,
constantly with the shepherd.
It's the shepherd who seeks out the green pastures.
It's the shepherd who leads his sheep there.
And if we are to be constantly in the green pastures,
we've got to be constantly with the shepherd.
And there's the whole point.
Oh, there are many people today who,
plenty of material blessings, well off,
nothing to worry about financially,
nice house,
lovely family,
business thriving,
everything to thank God about,
materially,
but they forget the Lord.
Sometimes even Christians
can be led away by material blessings.
Thank God many with them use them for the Lord,
as I believe he intended them to do as his stewards.
Thank God for everyone who does that.
But it's so very easy when life is going on sweetly
to forget the Lord.
That's what happened to Israel.
Lest when thou hast eaten but not full,
thou forget the Lord thy God,
and it's exactly what they did.
When things were going easily and well for them,
they tended to forget the Lord their God
who brought them their blessings.
So material blessings don't mean green pastures.
On the other hand,
one knows many, many people
who were having a very hard life,
in one way or another,
hard financially maybe,
or perhaps they're subject to some illness,
things have gone wrong in various ways
in their family life,
and they're going through what we might call
very deep waters,
yet many, many a time
those people are really in the green pastures
and beside the still waters.
I was talking to our beloved Mr. Beatty
only two or three days ago in Carlisle,
and I thought, well, here,
I will mention his name,
here is a man
who has been through waters
deeper than any of us have ever been through probably
in some ways,
physically,
and yet,
to be with him for a day or two
is a real uplift.
You've met men of God like that
and women of God like that
who have had terrible trials,
terrible difficulties,
and they've lived so near to the Lord through them
that they're still able to be shepherds
to those with whom they come into contact,
and what a blessing he has been to so many of us,
and certainly to me.
Up there also,
we met a man for the first time
who'd had a very easy life up to a point,
a prudent man,
export manager for cars,
the biscuit works up there,
very good job,
traveling all over the world for them,
speaks five languages fluently
and can make himself understood in three or four hours,
a most valuable man with a fine job,
everything going sweetly,
lovely wife,
everything going nicely,
attached to Montgomery's staff during the war
because of his brilliance at languages,
wasn't at the trials in Germany as an interpreter
because of his brilliance,
came back, was sent to South America for his firm,
and came back a helpless cripple
with no use whatever in either of his legs,
staggering around painfully and very slowly,
difficult to sit down,
difficult to stand up,
has to be helped and carried by car now everywhere,
lost his job, of course.
Well, there was a man who for a time
was right down at the bottom of things
and right down in the dumps,
a Christian man who'd been a preacher in his time
and just couldn't understand it
and got right under things
until God, by his grace,
sent him a shepherd
who was able to
remind him of the goodness of God
in so many ways to him.
And thank God now he's bright,
he's, I was going to say, full of fun.
I think I'm right in saying full of fun now.
He's preaching again.
I don't know how he gets to the places where he preaches.
Somebody takes him there.
He's preaching the gospel.
Well, now, there's a man, surely,
in terrible circumstances,
terrible trial,
with little or no hope
of ever getting better,
who's living in the green pastures
and beside the still waters.
It isn't material blessings
that are the green pastures.
I came across a little verse of poetry today.
Some murmur when their sky is clear
and wholly bright to view,
if but one speck of dark appear
in their great heaven of blue.
And some with thankful love are filled
if but one streak of light,
one ray of God's great mercy
gilds the darkness of their light.
That's the other way of looking at things, isn't it?
Those who are annoyed
when some little black cloud
comes across their easy life,
others who are thankful to God
for one little ray of light
in the darkness
and the difficulty of their pathway.
Well, that gives us some idea, I think,
of what are the green pastures.
But now, what are they?
What are these green pastures?
Well, I believe it's not so much our blessings—
I've just disproved that, I think,
by the illustrations I've given—
not so much our blessings,
but I believe it's where we learn
about our blessings.
And above all, where we learn
about the greatest blessing of all,
where we learn about Christ himself,
the Lord Jesus Christ,
the one who went to the cross
and died for us,
the one who shed his blood
in order to bring us to God,
the one who is the Good Shepherd,
the Great Shepherd,
the Chief Shepherd,
all in one,
where we learn about him.
And he is our greatest blessing,
the greatest blessing of all.
Through him all the other blessings come.
I think it's about him
that we learn in the green pastures,
where we feed.
Somebody once said that
in the glory,
all the blessings that we—
most of the blessings that we now know
and for which we thank God, I trust,
every day,
our material blessings
and even many of our spiritual blessings,
won't be ours then.
We shall no longer need them
because we shall have
the greatest blessing of all,
the blessing through whom
all the other blessings come,
the Lord himself.
We shall be there with him
in the glory
and we shan't need the others.
We've got the best.
Well now,
what is the—
what are the green pastures then?
Well you say to me,
isn't it the study of the scriptures?
Well, yes and no.
In many ways, of course,
the green pastures
can be regarded as
the study of the scriptures.
But not that alone.
There are many people today
who study the scriptures
for hours and hours
and don't seem to find
the green pastures there.
I believe we may say
that it's the study of the scriptures
to find Christ in them.
And it's only as we find
the Lord Jesus Christ
in the scriptures
that we know
what is meant by the green pastures.
I expect some of you here
are members of the Scripture Union
as I am.
We have been reading a portion
of the scripture every day.
If you are,
then you'll know
what is the first question
that we're expected
to ask ourselves afterwards.
When we've read our portion,
we're expected to
look through our portion
and say to ourselves,
now, what have I read
about the Lord today?
There are other questions,
but that's the first,
and I think it's
the most important.
What have I read
about the Lord today?
I've heard young people
sometimes say,
well, I haven't read
anything about him.
It's all about David,
or it's all about
the bishops,
or all about Absalom
or something.
There's nothing about
the Lord there, isn't there?
You'll very soon,
if you look,
you will very soon
find him
in almost every,
if not absolutely every,
portion of the scriptures
that you like to read.
If you look for Christ,
you will find him.
And the more you get
into the habit
of looking for him,
I believe the easier
it is to find him.
And I believe
that gives us some idea
of what is the
green pastures
that David spoke about.
Occupation with Christ.
Thinking about
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Talking to the Lord Jesus.
And perhaps above all,
listening to the Lord Jesus.
Because he speaks to us
through the scriptures,
and he speaks to us
in other ways.
And only if we are
listening for his voice
shall we hear it.
Only if we are listening
anxiously to hear
what he has to say to us,
determined to take notice of it
and act upon it,
shall we hear
what he has to say.
Occupation with him.
Listening to him.
Somebody wrote
that the inwardly exercised man
has a greater blessing
than the outwardly blessed man.
Think of that.
The one who has
an inward exercise
about his soul,
about the Lord Jesus Christ,
is more greatly blessed
than the one who's
outwardly blessed
with material blessings.
Or even perhaps
with spiritual blessings.
So it's important
to get to know him.
My shepherd.
Oh you say,
I do know him as my saviour.
Yes, thank God for that.
And you'll praise God
for eternity for it,
and so shall I.
But do you know him
as your shepherd?
As the one who leads you?
And with whom you want to be
as often as you possibly can,
all the time,
in the green pastures
to which he'll lead you.
To know him
is life eternal.
And I think that goes far beyond
the salvation of the soul.
When you come to know him,
then you have, of course,
eternal life.
Because the life is in his son,
the scripture tells us.
When we have him,
we have eternal life.
Same time.
But I think the scripture
goes beyond that
when it says that to know him
is life eternal.
To know him,
to live with him,
that really is life.
God's life.
Eternal life.
And the living of that eternal life.
So it's important
to get to know him too
as our shepherd,
my shepherd.
As David did
when he said,
the Lord is my shepherd.
Think for a moment of
some of the men of God
recorded in the scriptures
as having been alone with God.
I believe the Lord used it
as their training.
There was Moses himself
to whom I've already referred.
Moses, who spent
what we would call
the 40 best years of his life
as a shepherd
in the desert.
From the time he was 40
when he left the court in Egypt
where he'd been trained
in the Egyptian university,
I suppose.
He must have been
a brilliant man academically
at the age of 40.
And he left that
and spent the next 40 years
when he could have been
using his training
to further his own interests
and become one of the leading men
in the country.
He spent the next 40 years
as a shepherd in the desert.
Why?
Because God wanted him to learn
what being a shepherd was.
Because God wanted him
to be a shepherd for his sheep,
the people of Israel.
And so that he might come
in those 40 years
really to know God.
When he'd learned
all of the Egyptian universities
and there were
brilliant professors there,
when he'd learned
all that they had to teach him,
he still had to learn the alphabet
in God's school.
And he learned that
in the desert
with the sheep.
Then there were others.
There was Elijah.
What was he doing
by the book Jireth?
He wasn't prophesying,
wasn't talking to the people,
he wasn't preaching.
No.
He was alone with God.
And God was teaching him.
I think he was
in the green pastures there,
very near to God.
There was Ezekiel.
Chiba.
There was the Apostle Paul
who spent,
we don't know how long,
in Arabia.
Remember Paul said
in the epistle to the Galatians,
I think it was,
that when he,
the Lord was gracious to him
and the Lord sent him
to preach the gospel,
he said,
I didn't go up to Jerusalem
to ask the other apostles,
those who were apostles before me.
I went into Arabia.
What did he go there for?
No doubt whatever,
to ask God.
To ask for his instructions
from God.
To get near to him.
To study the scriptures,
no doubt for himself,
in the light of the wonderful key
that he'd come to know,
the Lord Jesus.
To study them there,
in Arabia,
alone with God,
in the green pastures,
coming to know him.
And then there was John
in the Isle of Patmos
and how wonderfully
God used him
and revealed things
that we,
the most brilliant brains
have failed completely
to understand,
though no doubt we shall one day
in the revelation.
And then,
there was David himself.
How long did he spend
in the cave of Adullam
with those who were discontented,
exiled,
and outcast.
Saul hunting him.
It wasn't a very easy part
of David's life.
But he was very near
to the Lord there.
I believe the Lord was teaching him
a lot of things
during that period
of difficulty and trial.
Green pastures don't always look like
green pastures.
Believe me.
They're very often desert.
But,
if they're with the Lord,
then they really are
spiritual green pastures.
The Lord Jesus himself,
here we must speak
very reverently,
but the Lord Jesus himself
become man
that he might die
for you and for me.
Spent some 30 years
of his life
in private prayer
and communion
with his father.
Before he engaged
on three and a half years
of ministry.
Ten times as long almost.
Ten times as long
in private communion
with his father
that he might engage
in that short period
of ministry.
What a lesson to us.
And there's no doubt whatever
that Moses learned
far more in the desert
than he learned
at the court of Pharaoh.
And Paul learned
far more in Arabia
and so on
than he learned
at the feet of Gamaliel.
You know,
nothing,
I believe,
nothing
replaces
being alone with God
in the green pastures.
Where there's food
for our souls,
where there's no drought.
It's interesting that
David couples the green pastures
with the still waters.
David may decide
the still waters.
Where there's still water
in a field,
the grass around that
is pretty lush
and plentiful.
It doesn't dry up
and get brown
where there's water around.
And there's still waters
where the proverb says
still waters run deep.
And so do the waters
with which we may be refreshed
run deep.
Oh, what depths there are
in the scriptures for us
when we meditate upon them
looking for Christ there.
What depths there are.
And there's no drought there
because we're feeding on
what?
No, we're not feeding on something.
We're feeding on somebody.
We're feeding on him.
We're feeding on the Lord Jesus Christ.
I believe the whole of the 23rd Psalm
really is pointing to the Lord.
We use it and we can use it
and we use it properly
in comfort in various ways
to those who are dying,
to those who are in difficulties
and in trouble.
You say the Lord's my shepherd.
He's there.
He'll be with you.
Everything really points to the Lord,
the shepherd.
Not to the blessings so much
but to the one who gives them.
To the Lord himself.
Well, may we all learn
to feed more regularly
in the green pastures.
To learn more of his gracious dealings with us
as a shepherd for his sheep.
And then, well, we shall go out with
Christ in our hearts
and Christ in our lives.
And then we shall be of some use to him.
And then the sheep will be fed
to the praise and glory of the Lord Jesus
and our great God and Father.
Amen. …