Christ and His Church in Psalm 23
Andrew Bonar (1810-1892) was a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. Andrew Bonar was the younger brother of Horatius Bonar and contemporary of Robert Murray M’Cheyne. Bonar is still best known for his biographical work, Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray M’Cheyne.
Bonar left behind several other works, including Christ and His Church in the Psalms, a book on the application of the Psalms to the Son of David and His Church.
The Church has so exclusively applied Psalm 23 to herself, as almost to forget that her shepherd once needed it and was glad to use it.
The Church has so exclusively (we might say) applied Psalm 23 to herself, as almost to forget that her shepherd ("that Great Shepherd!") once needed it and was glad to use it. The Lamb (now in the midst of the throne ready to lead us to living fountains of water) was once led along by his Father. He said to his disciples, "And yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me," (John 16:32). Was not the burden of his song: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not lack," (Ver. 1)? When he said, on another occasion, (John 10:14, 15,) "I know my sheep, and am known of mine, as the Father knoweth me," was he not saying, "I lead you as my Father leads me?" But try every clause, and every syllable will be found applicable not to David alone, but to David's Son, to the Church, and to the Church's Head. If verse 1 sings, "I shall not want," it is just a continuance of the testimony of Moses, "The Lord thy God—knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the Lord thy God has been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing" (Deuteronomy 2:7). Christ and his Church together review their wilderness-days and praise the Lord. The song of the Lamb is not less complete than that of Moses.
The occasional retreat to the Sea of Galilee, and desert places, and the Mount of Olives, furnished Christ with many such seasons as verse 2 celebrates. "He maketh me to lie down on pastures of tender grass." His saints know so well that it is his want to do this in their case, that the Song of Songs asks not, "Dost thou make thy flock rest at noon?" but only, "Where?" And as the Lord of the Ark of the covenant (Numb. 10:33) sought out for Israel a place to rest, so did the Father for his true Israel,—that Prince with God,—giving him refreshing hours amid his sorrow; as it is written, "He is at my right hand, that I should not be moved: therefore did my heart rejoice," (Acts 2:25).
The rod and staff that slew the bear and the lion, made David confident against Goliath; so do we obtain confidence from knowing how our Shepherd has already found a safe way through wolves and perils.
In temptation seasons, or after sore conflicts with man's unbelief, the Lord "restored his soul" (ver. 3); that is, revived it with cordials, even as he does his people after such seasons, and after times of battle with their own unbelief. And when in the hour of trouble and darkness he cried, "What shall I say?" the Father "led him in paths of righteousness, for his name's sake," glorifying his own name in his Son, as we read (John 12:27).
It was not once only, (though it was specially as the Garden and the Cross drew near), that his soul was in "the valley of death-shade," (ver. 4). But he passed all in safety; even when he came to that thick gloom of Calvary. And He who led Him through will never leave one of his disciples to faint there. The rod and staff that slew the bear and the lion, made David confident against Goliath; so do we obtain confidence from knowing how our Shepherd has already found a safe way through wolves and perils.
In verse 5, the table, the oil, and the cup, might be illustrated in Christ's case by the day of his baptism, by the shining forth of his glory, by such a miracle as that of Lazarus' resurrection, and by the light of the Transfiguration scene, as well by the "meat to eat which the world knew not of," and the "rejoicing in spirit" as he thought upon the Father's will—in all which blessings the sheep still share from time to time, getting occasional exaltations, and moments of "joy unspeakable and full of glory."
goodness and mercy must follow you all the days of your life, bringing up the rear of the camp, and leaving not a straggler to perish.
Even those scenes of woe, the essence of whose anguish is expressed by "Eli, Eli, lama sabacthani," did not make the Master doubt that "goodness and mercy would follow him," till he reached his home, his Father's house, with its many mansions. And shall any member doubt of his persevering to the end? Loved to the end with the love that first loved him, till he becomes a guest forever in his Father's house?
What is the "House of the Lord," the true Bethel, where the ladder is set between earth and heaven? The Tabernacle was such in type. And of the antitype Christ spoke when, leaving his few sheep in the wilderness and amid wolves, he said, "In my Father's house are many mansions," (John 14:1, 2). It is New Jerusalem; and He is gone to the right hand of the Father to gather in his elect, and then at length to raise up their bodies in glory, that they may enter into the full enjoyment of that House in the "kingdom prepared for the blessed of his Father." Fear not, then, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom—and if so, you must be kept for it; goodness and mercy must follow you all the days of your life, bringing up the rear of the camp, and leaving not a straggler to perish. It will be then that every sheep of his pasture will fully know and use the words of this Psalm, which sets forth with inimitable simplicity, The Righteous One's experience of the leadings of the Shepherd.