| The Christian Life | February 1947 |
Well Fed on His Word
“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.”—Psalm 23:2
“MY SOUL on thy Word is well fed,” wrote the poet, and this agrees fully with David’s inspired testimony concerning God’s care for his people, his “sheep”—when he wrote, “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.” Pastures of the East are vastly different from narrow meadows and fenced hillsides with which we of the West are acquainted, and it is important to keep this in mind when considering the beauty of the Psalmist’s reference to “green pastures.” The pastures of the East are vast, and seemingly boundless. The greater part of these broad expanses of land are barren wastes, or deserts, which rarely are refreshed by rain. But an oasis is to be found here and there, produced by a spring of water, or perhaps a little rivulet draining a ravine, or mountainside. Here the grass is green, luscious, and nourishing.
The trained shepherd knows where in these desert lands the green pastures are to be found, and the sheep which follow the leadings of their shepherd are always assured of an abundance of food. Little does it matter to them how vast and barren is the wilderness with which they are surrounded, for the shepherd knows their needs and always leads them where those needs are bountifully supplied.
What meaningful and important lessons there are in this for the “sheep” of the Lord’s pasture! Surely we are all surrounded by a wilderness of sin and selfishness, barren of spiritual nourishment which is so vital to the Life of new creatures in Christ Jesus. True, just as there are certain forms of life which can live on the desert, so the worldly-minded find in the weeds of worldly pleasure that which gives them some measure of satisfaction. But the gold and treasure, the pomp and beauty, as well as all the various social amenities of the world, are a barren wilderness to the Lord’s sheep, for in them they find no soul-satisfying portion. Jesus said to these, “I have chosen you out of the world,” and in following this call they are led to the green pastures of spiritual nourishment and joy which satisfy their longings as nothing else could do.—John 15:19
The Peace of God
“He maketh me to lie down,” wrote the Psalmist. Here is a beautiful suggestion of rest in the Lord. It does not imply indifference or inactivity, but contentment based upon the assurance that in following the Good Shepherd we have nothing to fear, that all our needs are supplied abundantly according to the riches of his grace. It is a symbol of that rest of faith into which it is the privilege of all the consecrated to enter and therein to abide.
Paul explains that the Israelites under the leadership of Joshua failed to enter into the rest that could have been theirs and that this failure was due to unbelief. (Heb. 4:8,8) Yes, the Israelites lacked the necessary faith in God and in the appointed leader God had set over them. Lacking faith, they could not be content and at rest. They feared their enemies. They were fearful of their food supply, and on occasions they were even fearful of one another. Because they lacked faith in God’s arrangements, they did not conform to them as they should. This exposed them to the many evils visited upon them. That which they feared often came upon them because of their unbelief.
This should serve as a valuable object lesson to us. Jesus, the antitypical Joshua, has been appointed our “Good Shepherd,” our Leader, and if our faith can lay hold firmly upon all the assurances of divine grace given to us in the Word, we should and will have rest of heart and mind. But all the reassuring promises of God, the Chief Shepherd, are conditional upon our following the voice of the Good Shepherd. We often sing, “All the way my Savior leads me,” but if we do not follow his leadings, and instead, seek out by-paths of our own, or those made by other straying sheep, we will not be able to say, “I shall not want.” Nor will we be able to enter fully into rest in the Lord, to “lie down” in the green pastures of his providing.
To “lie down” in green pastures also implies the thought of being satisfied. And how well satisfied all of the Lord’s people today should be! Surely he has provided abundantly for our spiritual nourishment. The truth is our food, the green pastures to which our returned Lord as the Good Shepherd has led us in these closing days of the Gospel age. And how wonderfully satisfying we have found the truth to be. Aptly did the poet write, “It satisfies my longings as nothing else could do.” And because our longings have been satisfied we can picture ourselves with the Psalmist as lying down in green pastures.
Why The Truth Satisfies
There will be no danger of the truth failing to satisfy our hungering after righteousness if we continue to consider it in comparison with the weeds and thistles of human tradition upon which so many are still trying to feed; for it is indeed like a green pasture in the midst of a barren desert. If sheep could reason, they certainly never would be dissatisfied with the luscious grazing to which the shepherd leads them.
And what a wilderness all of us were in before we were led into the truth! There were so many questions for which we had no answer—not foolish questions, but questions which had to do with a true faith in God, in his Word, in his plan, and with our place in that plan. These same questions are still being asked by wanderers in the wilderness. What is man? What is his destiny? What and where is heaven? Where is paradise? What is the judgment day? Do Christians go to heaven when they die? Where are the dead? We might go on and on reminding ourselves of the unanswered questions that worried us.
But the time came when we heard the voice of the Good Shepherd, the voice of truth. We followed it, and were led into the green pastures of satisfaction. Our questions were all answered, and we could feed contentedly upon all the gracious promises of God which are centered in Christ Jesus, promises which nourish and strengthen us according to our daily needs. Surely we should be satisfied!
But there may be a tendency at times to forget the barrenness of the wilderness from which we have been delivered. Satisfied with respect to all the vital questions which troubled us, we may after awhile wander out to the edge of the green pastures, and cast our eyes around in search for other food. Or we may imagine that truly rich and soul-satisfying spiritual food consists of speculation and hair-splitting. But brethren, we cannot live and prosper spiritually on speculation, guesses, and unproved theories. Such things, although they may be entertaining for awhile, inevitably leave the Lord’s sheep with an aching void in their hearts. Nothing but the plan of God, and all the rich promises associated with that plan, can continue to satisfy. In no other pasture can the Lord’s sheep “lie down” in contentment, conscious that they have been well fed with the spiritual food best suited to their needs.
“Green” Pastures
There is a significance, we think, in the fact that the pastures into which the Lord leads his sheep are “green.” Grass often turns brown and dry, but not so the “grass” in the pastures the Lord provides. It is always fresh and green and luscious as well as luxuriant. So is the truth to those who learn to know and appreciate its value. It is new every morning and fresh every night. This is so because it is God’s truth, and like himself, it abides forever.
“Oh, I learned that twenty-five years ago,” some one might say, and with the thought that now it is time we had something new. All we can say of such is that their spiritual appetites have become impaired, probably by mixing food from other sources with that which the Lord provides in the green pastures of his Word and plan. With the natural man, when the stomach becomes upset by poisonous food, or by wrong combinations of food, even pure, wholesome food loses its appeal. So it is with new creatures. There is a danger that in feeding upon food other than the pure doctrines of the divine plan we may become poisoned to the extent that the simple truths of the Gospel will no longer appeal to us. For a time we may imagine we have found something better than the Lord provided, but sooner or later we will discover our mistake, for our souls will become spiritually impoverished.
What wonderful food has been provided in the green pastures to which the Good Shepherd has led us! As the natural man eats to live, so the “food” of the new creature is that which provides life. Jesus said that unless we eat his flesh and drink his blood we will have no life in us. (John 6:53) Here, then, is the very essence of all our spiritual food. We partake of Christ, not by eating his literal flesh, but by accepting the great fact of his redemptive work on our behalf and conforming our lives fully to the doing of his will.
Jesus said, “The flesh profiteth nothing”—that is, it will do you no good to eat my flesh. (John 6:63) Then he added, “The words which I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are life.” The correct thought here is apparent. The teachings of Jesus were the reiteration of God’s plan as it centered in him. By accepting and obeying these teachings we receive the life provided for us in the Redeemer. It is thus that we feed upon him and thereby receive life.
Jesus, quoting from Moses, said to the Adversary, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” (Matt. 4:4) The truth, then, is the Word of God—the entire plan of God. It is likened to bread, and also to refreshing water because both of these are necessary to life. The thought is the same when we think of the truth as the green and nourishing grass to which our Good Shepherd leads us. In this illustration we are likened to sheep, and, of course, grass, the food of sheep, is the natural and proper illustration to use.
And oh, how soul-satisfying is the pasture of present truth into which the Good Shepherd has led his people in this end of the age! How we should appreciate the nourishing food he has so abundantly provided for us! And it is fitting that we should appreciate and use all of this food, and not just wander around nibbling a blade of grass here and there.
Turning again from the pasture metaphor, and thinking of the Word of God alone, we are reminded of the statement that “every” word that comes from God is essential to life. How great is our loss if we feed only upon certain portions of the Word! And yet human weaknesses and limitations often cause a tendency along this line. We may be particularly interested in prophecy and every time we go to the Bible search out only those portions which foretell events of our times or of the immediate future. Feeding our minds thus merely upon prophecy, in our fellowship with the brethren this subject will always be uppermost in our minds. All the while, however, we would be getting lean spiritually.
God has given us the prophecies to stimulate our faith and to enlighten us as to the times in which we are living in order that we may know our part in his plan, but as new creatures we cannot thrive spiritually on an exclusive diet of prophecy. There is other food in the green pastures to which our Good Shepherd has led us and we need that too.
“Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” the apostle wrote. (Rom. 5:1) Justification is one of the basic doctrines of the Scriptures. By it we are assured of our acceptableness with God, that he deals with us favorably as his children. This knowledge is indeed strengthening to our faith and encourages us to go boldly to the throne of heavenly grace to obtain mercy and find help in every time of need. But we should not attempt to live on justification alone. The doctrine of justification is to assure us of our standing with God, not to argue over. Nor did the Lord give us this doctrine to ride as a hobby.
Rich indeed is the spiritual food provided in the Book of Revelation, but the Good Shepherd doesn’t want us to remain in the Revelation corner of the pasture all the time! To concentrate solely on one thing to the neglect of everything else leads to an unhealthy spiritual condition which sooner or later will manifest itself in our lives as new creatures.
Equally erroneous is the viewpoint that a Christian should feed almost exclusively on the devotional truths of the Bible; to study and meditate merely upon faith and hope and love and prayer. Indeed, all the Lord’s sheep should endeavor to keep close to the Good Shepherd, but to do this we must follow his voice, which is the voice of truth. The plan of God for us, and for the world, is outlined in the doctrines, and it is essential that we know that plan in order to take our proper place in it. Our hearts may be filled with love for God, but if we are not doing what he wants us to do we are not living close to him; and it is by the doctrines that his will is revealed.
Grazing Together
Following the Good Shepherd into the green pastures provided by his love means giving attention to the manner in which our spiritual food is provided by him. Sheep keep together in a flock as they graze. The shepherd doesn’t provide an isolated patch of grass for each individual sheep, nor for little groups of them who may prefer to remain separate from the others. This is an important Lesson for all of us to remember. If we have heard the voice of the Good Shepherd—the voice of present truth—and have followed that voice into the green pastures of spiritual food now so abundantly available for his flock, we will find ourselves in association with other sheep who have heard that same voice. If we have the right viewpoint this association should be a blessed and a happy one.
But we should keep close to the Good Shepherd and remember the sound of his voice. To the extent that all the sheep do this they will remain together in one flock. But disturbing elements may arise. One of the sheep may decide that he knows where better food can be found, and start off in that direction. Seldom does an individual sheep do this but what a few others will follow for a time—at least until they realize they are being led away from the flock and from the sound of the Good Shepherd’s voice. To speak plainly, observation through the years has shown that whenever a brother feels that he has something better in the way of truth, or a better plan for serving the truth than that enjoyed by the Lord’s people generally, and decides to work independently, there are always some ready to follow him.
Sooner or later most of these realize their mistake and rejoin the flock, but all of us as the Lord’s sheep could save ourselves many painful hours of uncertainty if we daily hearken a little more carefully to the voice of the Good Shepherd. It is possible for one to be led away from the flock through too much sympathy for the straying sheep, or through sympathy manifested in a wrong way. We should not permit ourselves to be carried away by our emotions in matters of this kind.
The voice of truth comprehends not only the doctrines, but God’s arrangements for his sheep, his instructions concerning under-shepherds, their qualifications, the manner of their appointment, etc. The voice of the Good Shepherd warns us against novices and others who are not qualified to be under-shepherds. If we do not heed these warnings and instructions we are sure to suffer spiritual loss and find ourselves separated from the flock, at least in spirit, and possibly making a nuisance of ourselves among other sheep.
The Good Shepherd keeps his sheep together. He does not separate them. It is certain, then, that any who are truly serving him as under-shepherds will use their influence to keep the sheep together. This is one of the surest ways of detecting the voice of the Good Shepherd in the services of others. If, for example, you are associated with an ecclesia which as a group has heard and is following the voice of present truth, and one from the outside visits the class, note the effect of his influence. If he serves, has that service contributed to the solidarity of the ecclesia? Or has it raised doubts in the minds of some? Has he given the impression that he has a special point of truth, or an exclusive form of service that the true sheep should heed? Has he planted a seed of doubt in the minds of one or two, or more, so that after he leaves there is a controversy in the ecclesia?
If, dear ones, you observe something of this nature occurring in your ecclesia you can be certain that the one who is responsible is not acting as should a true under-shepherd of the Lord. There will be divisions among the sheep, but woe be to those who are responsible for, or sponsor them. As we have said, the Good Shepherd wants his sheep to feed together. Those who have the spirit of the Good Shepherd will exert their influence toward this end. To do otherwise is to lend our support to a spirit which is not of God.
And surely we are well fed! The Good Shepherd, acting under the direction of the Chief Shepherd, Jehovah, has in these last days led us into the pasture of present truth. And how refreshing is the food, and how bountiful. The poisonous weeds of error have been removed, and we are rejoicing in the pure doctrines of the divine plan. There is nothing lacking in the pasture. Not only do we have the truth itself—all the truth, from creation to restoration—but we have the Good Shepherd’s arrangements whereby the food is made available to the sheep.
In Studies in the Scriptures we have the truth, properly balanced, and we have set forth God’s ecclesia arrangements for the proper co-operation of his people that they might build one another up in the most holy faith. Yes, the Good Shepherd is caring for all our needs. He is withholding no good thing from us, and we can “lie down” in contentment and in peace, putting our complete trust in him knowing that no evil will befall us as long as we follow his voice and remain together in the pasture which he has provided.—Psa. 84:11