Four Psalms

Four Psalms

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Title: Four Psalms
Author: George Adam Smith
Release Date: September 2, 2004 [EBook #13353]
Language: English
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PSALMS ***

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LITTLE BOOKS ON RELIGION
Edited by
The Rev. W. Robertson Nicoll, LL.D.
Elegantly bound in cloth, price _1s. 6d._ each.
Christ and the Future Life. By R.W. Dale, LL.D.
The Seven Words from the Cross. By the Rev. W. Robertson Nicoll,
LL.D.
The Visions of a Prophet. By the Rev. Professor Marcus Dods, D.D.
Why be a Christian? Addresses to Young Men. By the same Author.
The Four Temperaments. By the Rev. Alexander Whyte, D.D.

The Upper Room. By the Rev. John Watson, M.A., D.D.
Four Psalms. By the Rev. Professor George Adam Smith, D.D., LL.D.
Gospel Questions and Answers. By the Rev. James Denney, D.D.
The Unity and Symmetry of the Bible. By the Rev. John Monro Gibson,
D.D.
_HODDER & STOUGHTON_
FOUR PSALMS
XXIII. XXXVI. LII. CXXI.
INTERPRETED FOR PRACTICAL USE
BY
GEORGE ADAM SMITH
HODDER AND STOUGHTON
TO
M.S. AND H.A.S.

CONTENTS
I PSALM XXIII: GOD OUR SHEPHERD
II PSALM XXXVI: THE GREATER REALISM
III PSALM LII: RELIGION THE OPEN AIR OF THE SOUL
IV PSALM CXXI: THE MINISTRY OF THE HILLS AND ALL
GREAT THINGS PSALM XXIII
GOD OUR SHEPHERD
The twenty-third Psalm seems to break in two at the end of the fourth
verse. The first four verses clearly reflect a pastoral scene; the fifth
appears to carry us off, without warning, to very different associations.
This, however, is only in appearance. The last two verses are as
pastoral as the first four. If these show us the shepherd with his sheep
upon the pasture, those follow him, shepherd still, to where in his tent
he dispenses the desert's hospitality to some poor fugitive from blood.
The Psalm is thus a unity, even of metaphor. We shall see afterwards
that it is also a spiritual unity; but at present let us summon up the
landscape on which both of these features--the shepherd on his pasture
and the shepherd in his tent--lie side by side, equal sacraments of the
grace and shelter of our God.
A Syrian or an Arabian pasture is very different from the narrow
meadows and fenced hill-sides with which we are familiar. It is vast,
and often virtually boundless. By far the greater part of it is desert--that

is, land not absolutely barren, but refreshed by rain for only a few
months, and through the rest of the year abandoned to the pitiless sun
that sucks all life from the soil. The landscape is nearly all glare:
monotonous levels or low ranges of hillocks, with as little character
upon them as the waves of the sea, and shimmering in mirage under a
cloudless heaven. This bewildering monotony is broken by only two
exceptions. Here and there the ground is cleft to a deep ravine, which
gapes in black contrast to the glare, and by its sudden darkness blinds
the men and sheep that enter it to the beasts of prey which have their
lairs in the recesses. But there are also hollows as gentle and lovely as
those ravines are terrible, where water bubbles up and runs quietly
between grassy banks through the open shade of trees.
On such a wilderness, it is evident that the person and character of the
shepherd must mean a great deal more to the sheep than they can
possibly mean in this country. With us, sheep left to themselves may be
seen any day--in a field or on a hill-side with a far-travelling fence to
keep them from straying. But I do not remember ever to have seen in
the East a flock of sheep without a shepherd.
On such a landscape as I have described he is obviously indispensable.
When you meet him there, 'alone of all his reasoning kind,' armed,
weather-beaten, and looking out with eyes of care upon his scattered
flock, their sole provision and defence, your heart leaps up to ask: Is
there in all the world so dear a sacrament of life and peace as he?
There is, and very near himself. As prominent a feature in the
wilderness as the shepherd is the shepherd's tent. To Western eyes a
cluster of desert homes looks ugly enough--brown and black lumps,
often cast down anyhow, with a few loutish men lolling on the