“He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”
—(Ps. xxiii: 3.)
Preached at Winnipeg, Canada, on Sabbath morning, February 10, 1952
By REV. A. F. MACKAY.
THIS psalm was evidently composed by David at a time when the thoughts and pastoral scenes described in the psalm were fresh in his mind, perhaps in his youth while he tended the flocks of his father. The psalmist had many opportunities of observing the ways of the sheep under his care, and it was natural for the “Sweet Psalmist of Israel” to think of the Lord’s care of himself and to express his thankfulness to Him for tending his wants and watching over his ways. He says, “The Lord is my shepherd”—the Lord, the Shepherd of Israel, who bears this relationship to His own people of a shepherd to his flock. As a shepherd tends his flock, waters, feeds, pastures and preserves them, so the Lord takes upon His own care the lambs and sheep of His flock.
First of all he alludes to the provision that the shepherd makes for the flock—“I shall not want; he makes me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.” The shepherd, in putting forth his flock to the hillside in the very early morning, went before them, and when the sun rose at midday, brought them back into a place of shade and pasture, where they might lie down during the heat of the day in cool pastures to rest and quench their thirst from the still waters or sheep pools. The Lord provides likewise for His people. They will never want, for the provision God has made is rich and abundant and suitable. There are the green pastures, the wide fields and rich feeding places of His own Word. “Tell me,” says the Church, “where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon,” and the answer the Shepherd gives is, “Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock and feed thy kids beside the shepherds’ tents.” He leads them by the still waters of His promises in the Word of Life where they may refresh themselves, for the Lord takes upon His care those who belong to His flock and tends each one of them. He waters and refreshes them with His own presence. “He restoreth my soul.” The flock exposed to the heat of the sun need protection. God refreshes and restores the parched souls of His people. “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” The shepherd brought forth his flock by the well-known paths which led to the pastures, and those paths were well-worn and well-defined and familiar so that the flock might not wander or be cut down by foxes or fall by the wayside. “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.” The Lord will lead him in a sure path. He will keep him in the time of danger, even in the valley of the shadow of death. He will fear no evil for He is with him. His presence will go with him. His rod of defence and His staff of protection will be given him. They who belong to the flock of Christ are delivered from all fears—from the fear of death, the fear of judgment, the fear of reprobation, because the presence of God surrounds them, promising them defence from all enemies and deliverance from all evils.
The psalmist then speaks of the shepherd providing defence for his flock even in the very presence of their enemies as he leads them into the pastures. The shepherd preserves his flock from their natural enemies by surrounding them with his own protecting care, so that the wolf or fox will not break through to destroy them. They will be pastured beside quiet resting places even in the presence of their enemies. “Thou anointest my head with oil.” Here is evidently an allusion to the healing of bruises or sores upon the head. The inward work of the Spirit will make the face to shine as with fresh oil and do good like a medicine. “My cup runneth over.” The psalmist had experienced much of the Lord’s goodness in protecting him from his enemies. How often he was surrounded by enemies and how often the Lord’s presence was with him and preserved him and blessed him, healing his diseases and strengthening him in his weakness. The Lord’s goodness was poured out upon him until he was weighed down with a sense of the richness and greatness of the divine goodness towards him.
The psalm concludes with a firm and confident hope for the future. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.” As the Lord has been with His people in the past, He will be with them in the future. The world has not this promise, but those who belong to the flock of Christ have received at some time in their lives some special marks of the Lord’s kindness to them and these indicate that the Lord will keep them as long as they are here, and receive them into His kingdom and presence at last. He will follow them with goodness and mercy all their days and at last they will have their dwelling in the house of God.
Let us turn now for a short time to the words of the third verse of this psalm: “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” There are three things I would like to notice as we meditate with the Lord’s help upon these words: The Person spoken of in the psalm; the guidance given the flock; and the purpose the shepherd has in view.
The shepherd to whom the psalmist refers in these words is the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ stands in this relationship to his people—that of the shepherd to the flock. The Lord is spoken of in the Old Testament as the Shepherd of Israel. The Lord Jesus Christ has taken up this name and declared that he is the Shepherd and his people the flock. In the 10th chapter of the Gospel according to John we have a clear New Testament commentary upon this psalm. There the Saviour speaks of himself as the shepherd, not an hireling to whom the sheep will not listen, but the true shepherd who stays by his flock, leads them and preserves them. The Lord Jesus Christ is the good shepherd who blesses His people, and under His protecting care the psalmist felt secure and safe, for he was under His staff and preserved by His rod, and His presence delivered him from every fear. The psalmist could claim that the Lord was his shepherd.
Christ has a special right and claim to those who are His sheep. They are His because He has redeemed them. Not only do the sheep confess that He is their Lord, that He is their shepherd, but they regard Him as their saviour and He looks upon them and says, “They are mine.” They are the people of His pasture, the sheep of His hand, the right He exercises over them being that of redemption. “I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” Those who belong to the flock of Christ have been redeemed from their sins and have been made His by the love and mercy and pity He showed them when, by His almighty power, He delivered them from destruction. He bought them at a great price—the price of His own sufferings and blood, the price of redemption—and they became His. Over them He claims the right of possession. “Ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price.” They are, however, not entirely His in this life. To some extent they continue to give service to sin, for corruption is still strong within them, but they have been delivered from the ruling power of sin and will yet finally be saved. They are the sheep of Christ, for they have tokens and indications of the grace of Christ within them that they belong to Him. They may take to themselves these marks and tokens by which the Lord’s people are distinguished in scripture, and with boldness and confidence may claim Christ as their saviour and confess that they are His sheep.
He guides them. Christ Himself says, “My sheep hear My voice and they follow Me.” They hear the voice of the Shepherd and follow his guidance. They pasture in the fields He has appointed them. They are fed with food convenient for them. Their thirst is satisfied with the waters from the fountain. “He that drinketh of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.” This, said the Shepherd, in speaking of the Spirit that He would pour out upon them—the Spirit who would be within them a fountain, a spring of living water flowing out unto eternal life.
He cleanses them daily from iniquity and however sin may cleave to them, they have a hunger and thirst for righteousness for which the Lord calls them blessed, and promises that they will be filled. They cannot, my friends, enjoy fully in this life what they seek. They cannot be satisfied in this world, but they have the hunger and thirst that will one day be fully satisfied in the presence of Christ in heaven. They complain that the cause is indwelling sin. Often they feel that they can see nothing in themselves to lead them to think that they are Christ’s, but when Christ Himself appears and says to them: “Fear not for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine”—then they can rejoice in Him.
He protects them from their enemies. He will hedge them round as a vineyard that is fenced, as a garden enclosed, or a fountain sealed. They are prepared and made meet for the master’s use, not for the service of this world. As they become His servants, He preserves and watches over them in time of danger. How often did the Lord do this for David. Though an army of thousands sought his life, David was safe in their very midst. Not only so, but King Saul was shamed into confessing, “Is that thy voice, my son David? I have sinned; return my son David; for I will no more do thee harm.”
But lastly, just as He has redeemed them from sin and made them His people, He acts towards them the part of the good shepherd. He makes provision for their needs. Not only does He redeem them from sin, from the dominion of lust and corruption, but He meets all their needs in this life—temporal and spiritual. The covenant provision He has made for them will satisfy them. He gives them a spiritual foretaste of the blessings of heaven till they say that they are abundantly satisfied with the goodness of His house.
The good shepherd of the sheep, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the psalmist says of Him, “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness.”
Let us notice that these are the paths—the Lord’s paths—in which the divine righteousness is revealed and made known. All the ways of the Lord are uprightness and truth, the paths which He treads Himself. The ways of the Lord are from everlasting, for the counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations. The changeless and unchanging ways of Jehovah are revealed to us in the word of truth, in the revelation He has given of Himself. “I know the way that I take.”
He knows the paths that He treads, the ways that He takes, and these we can be assured are paths of righteousness, those ways in which the Lord is to be found, the paths that He pursues which are revealed to us in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. We need the unction from the Holy One to discern these paths for His ways are past finding out. Clouds and darkness are round about Him, yet righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne. Although we are ignorant of Him and cannot understand His ways, yet He is light and in Him is no darkness at all. No evil can come from His presence. No sin is tolerated in His sight. He is the glorious God who inhabits eternity itself. He is to-day the same unchanging God He has been from the beginning of the creation and no change can overtake Him. He is still the same God pursuing the same paths of righteousness from which He will never turn aside, nor will He depart from the holiness of His judgments. How great therefore is our need to ponder our steps, for the just God will weigh the path of the just. He will give His enemies the wages of sin, but to the righteous the expected reward. The ways of the Lord are revealed in His own Word. Here is the perfect standard of righteousness by which our thoughts and words and characters will be judged. “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” His word is a bright light that shines in darkness, revealing the righteousness and justice and truth and holiness of Jehovah, and exposing our sin and shortcomings as well.
From these righteous ways of Jehovah we have been closed out by sin. Yet Christ in mercy and grace has reopened these paths in which to lead His people. Let us notice that although God is a God of uprightness, of justice, of righteousness, and holiness, yet He has revealed Himself as the God of all grace in whom compassion flows, who will have mercy upon the unworthy. But still He is, above all, righteous and just and no blessing, my friends, can come to us, no gift can be bestowed upon us, no mercy shown us but as they are consistent with the righteousness of God. He is righteous in all that He does, in all the ways that He takes, and He is righteous when He shows mercy and does saving good to poor, perishing sinners. This is the mystery of the Lord’s ways to us—that God, the glorious God of eternity, can forgive sin and be just when He justifies the ungodly. Although He is the God who is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look upon iniquity, yet at the same time He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is He who sent forth His only begotten son in His own great name to save. Christ came into this world to seek and to save that which was lost. He came as the Messenger of the Covenant and the Servant of Jehovah, and in suffering and laying down His life, He did so in accordance with the just and upright ways of God, that the righteousness of God might be revealed in the Gospel even more clearly than in the law. He is still the same God of infinite righteousness and justice, even while He is showing mercy to the unrighteous and forgiving sin and receiving the unworthy and the undone. That is the hope of the gospel. That is the only way in which we can expect forgiveness and acceptance. God will never change, but He has revealed that He does not need to change in order to forgive sin and to receive poor, perishing sinners into His favour and presence and fellowship. He has not changed, but He has condescended to show mercy and to bestow grace upon sinners, and He has done this in His dear Son. Christ has suffered at the hands of divine justice in order that He might open once again these paths of righteousness in which to guide His people into the favour of God and into the rest that remaineth to the people of God. He has opened these paths, my friends, by his sufferings and death in order that the Lord’s mercy and favour may be shown to us. Christ has made it possible for His people to walk once more in these paths of righteousness.
These paths, as revealed in the gospel, are well appointed, clearly defined, and safe. Let us notice that Christ brings His people into these paths by the work of His Spirit in their souls. “Ye were as sheep going astray but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls.” When Christ looked upon the Israelites who came to hear His words, and saw them steeped in ignorance and wandering and straying under the doctrine of the Scribes and Pharisees, He pitied them; when He saw them falling by the wayside, scattered as sheep having no shepherd, without any to pity them or have compassion upon them, or bring them refreshment, or provide for their needs, or bless them, He longed to gather them to Himself. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!” Christ, in the gospel, will gather together in one the children of God who are scattered abroad. The great mark and the essential mark of those in whom Christ has begun a gracious work is that they believe in Him. To those who receive Him will He give power to become the sons of God, even to those who believe on His name. All that have learned of the Father will come to Christ, and none of these who come to him will He cast out. A sight of Christ bearing away the sins of the world, and especially a faith’s view of our own interest in Him and in His redeeming work, will persuade us to forsake all, to deny ourselves and take up the cross and follow Him. All that the Father gave Him will come to Him and these He will guide in the ways of holiness till He bring them to the heavenly country. Oh, that we could claim the right to be numbered among the pilgrims and strangers who are following the good shepherd in the path that leads to the city!
In these paths of righteousness the sheep need the guidance of Christ. They cannot follow these paths of themselves. They rely upon the guidance of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Great Prophet of the Church, and this guidance the shepherd provides by putting His fear within them that they may not depart from His ways, and by the indwelling of His Spirit. From the moment they are brought under His care, from the time they enter these paths of righteousness, Christ will lead them and guide them until He brings them at last into the Father’s house above. He will never leave them nor forsake them. They need this guidance. They need a guide who is infinite in wisdom, almighty in power and unsearchable in His love. He has infinite wisdom; he knows sin; he knows the wiles of the devil; He knows the saving purpose of God; He knows the weakness and inconsistency of the human heart; He knows the ways of the world and He applies his wide knowledge to the preservation and guidance of His people. He is the God of almighty power. All the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in Christ. In their weakness He makes them strong; in their defencelessness he surrounds them with His own presence; in their helplessness He bestows His grace upon them; in their nakedness He clothes them with His righteousness; in their thirst He waters them. He is able to subdue them to Himself and make them submissive to His gracious will. He has unsearchable love. He showed this when He laid down His life for His people. His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him. “Blessed be the Lord; for He hath shewed me His marvellous kindness in a strong city.” This is the guide they need. This is the promise: “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake,” and this is the experience the psalmist enjoyed. He could say that the Lord guided him along this path all his life.
In the last place, there is the purpose for which Christ will guide His people in the paths of righteousness—for His name’s sake. That is to say, it is not primarily for their sakes that Christ guides His flocks in these paths, but for His own name’s sake. The glory of the divine name, the glory of God, will be seen in the final salvation of the Lord’s people. Now in all that the Lord does He has His own glory in view; in the good of the church, and in the salvation of His people; it is His own glory He has in view, the display of the divine attributes, the revelation of His being and ways. God will be glorified in all His dealings with His creatures, in their salvation or their destruction. There are countless multitudes who will go down to an undone eternity because they will not consent to the Lord having all the praise of their salvation. In the destruction of these enemies the Lord will be exalted, but in the salvation of His people He will be especially glorified. In this He delights. The flock of Christ will be to the praise of the glory of His grace throughout eternity.
Actually the whole work of Christ in saving His people, in guiding them in the paths of righteousness, and finally delivering them, will glorify the name of God. “I have glorified Thee on the earth, I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.” That is the objective work of the atonement, but Christ still has to finish the work of sanctifying His people in heart and life, and when this work is finished they will stand as lasting monuments of the grace and righteousness and goodness of God. It will be seen then how Christ exercised over them His wisdom and power and love.
As the Shepherd leads His flock in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake, His sheep are brought to seek the glory of God in their own salvation—not perhaps so much at first, but they will do so more and more as they become more perfectly acquainted with divine things. The more they are changed into the image of Christ, the more they tend to seek the glory of the divine name in all that they do. They love the name of God. As they feel their own weakness, their sin and corruption within, and are emptied of everything that savours of the creature, so they are filled with zeal for the glory of God and love to His name. When Christ redeemed them, He made of them a peculiar people zealous of good works. Their good works are intended not to justify themselves, but, as seen in the light of God’s Word, to glorify the Father’s name Who is in heaven. What gives them infinite rejoicing and gladness is to see the name of Christ magnified, although their own name should be written in the dust.
The Lord’s name is made great in the salvation wrought by Christ. The praise of the believer in heaven will be “unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” The praises of Him who loved them and washed them from their sins in His own blood—that is the purpose that moved the Father to send His Son into the world; the end Christ had in view in submitting to the divine will; and the Spirit in sanctifying the believer; and this is the end the believer sets before him through life—the glory of the divine name.
In conclusion, there are two or three remarks that might be made upon these words.
These paths are made pleasant to believers because they are the paths of righteousness.
God was just when He forgave them their sins and God remains just and upright in all His dealings with them through life. They know that they do not receive what they deserve, but they also know that what they do receive is according to the infinite righteousness and justice of God, and that God will save them from all their sins without casting a stain upon His great name. They have been saved from sin that they might become the servants of righteousness and followers of the Lamb. They have cast all their care upon Him for He careth for them. Do you belong to the flock of Christ? Can you say that you have been delivered from your sins, that you are walking in these ways of righteousness and that Christ is leading you through life? Ah, friend, if you are still doing your own will, following your own counsels, living to yourself, then you are none of Christ’s. You will surely be cast off at last if you persist in following your own ways. All that are Christ’s are found in these paths, in the paths laid down and appointed in the scriptures. They will never be found following the ways of the world, enjoying the pleasures of life, or the companionship of the ungodly. He will be to them a leader in a plain path.
These paths are pleasant to the believer because in them they meet with Christ.
As their saviour, He has redeemed them from sin and undertaken to preserve and guide them through life. Christ’s presence is given to them in these paths and His presence makes pleasant to them the love and ways of God. In them they seek the presence and fellowship of the Father, and enjoy fellowship and communion with the saviour. He will lead them into living fountains of water. He has promised to wipe away the tears from their eyes and remove their reproach from off the face of the earth. He will do all this for them because He has set his love upon them and chosen them to be with himself at last. His presence is promised to them only in these paths of righteousness. What can we say, then, of the man of the world? What can we say even of those who profess the name of Christ, and maintain they are free to go where they please, to mingle with the world, its pleasures, its ways? We can say with conviction that they have not the presence of the Lord. His presence is not given to those who walk in the ways of the world, but only to those who walk in these ways of righteousness and peace. Let us put away our sins, cleanse ourselves of all filthiness of flesh and spirit, and perfect holiness in the fear of God, and then Christ’s presence will be given to us.
Lastly, these ways are pleasant to the believer because in them he beholds the glory of the divine name.
This is a worthy end to seek. It is the end God had in view in creating the world; He had this end before Him in sending His son into the world to redeem the world; and the Spirit in His work seeks the divine glory in all He does. It is the end the believer sets before him—that God might be magnified in life or death. That is a worthy end. We seek our own honour, our own glory. That is the end the creature has in view when left to himself. He cannot rise above the creature but seeks only his own honour and happiness and comfort. He is self-centred, wrapped up in himself. He can think of nothing but as it refers to himself. We need to be emptied of this self-centred spirit, and have everything that belongs to the flesh taken away in order that we may seek the glory of the divine name in all things. This is a worthy end, the most honourable, the highest that we can pursue in this life. “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” Some may say, “If that is the case, then it is not a life that can bring us much happiness or enjoyment,” but it is only by the transforming of our minds that we can prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
May the Lord grant that we may, each one of us, entrust ourselves to the care of the good shepherd, that we may follow Him in these pleasant paths and at last meet together with Christ in the Father’s house.