The Nightingale Song
We thank thee our Heavenly Father that we have the privilege of awaiting before thee for a special blessing out of thy Word. We ask thee that as we are in this service we may see Him of whom this Book speaks, and that we may realize what it is to have him within us.
Hear us in this prayer and answer us, we ask in the name of Jesus our blessed Redeemer. Amen.
SUBJECT — “THE NIGHTINGALE SONG.”
The services of this afternoon and this evening are to bring to a close the special series which we have had the pleasure of enjoying together. If it has been anything of privilege to you, I want to assure you that it has been very much more than a privilege to me. While it is true I have preached in very many places, yet I do not believe that ever in my ministry I have had the same privilege that I have had here, as we have studied together the life of blessing. The service of this afternoon and the One of the evening will not only be the closing ones of the series because it is the last we shall have together, but also because it closes the subject which we have studied. There were times when we seemed to be almost looking into the face of Him of whom we spoke. This afternoon it will be our effort to open up, as God will enable us, something of the experience of him who wrote the psalm which we take as a text, and study what he says about the life of blessing as God gave it to him.
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
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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 anointest 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 for ever” (Ps. 23).
Three thousand years have passed and gone since David wrote this psalm. The harp over which his fingers ran, the Book of the Law which was his diversion day and night, the sling which he had used against the giant of Gath, the palace in which he lived — all these have crumbled into dust, and no trace of them could by any possibility be found, but this psalm is as sweet to-day as when it was first written.
Nothing could be fresher than the truth of it, and as we read it to-day it cornes like a gale straight from heaven. Little children have lisped it at their mother’s knee. It is supposed that the infant Jesus himself must have said it over and over at the knee of Mary, his mother. Happy pilgrims have gone singing it as they have pushed on their journey hard to travel. Prisoners in their cells have forgotten the gloom as they have repeated it again and again, “The Lord is my shepherd.” Martyrs at the stake have been* insensible to the flames as they have whispered it to themselves. Old men with radiant faces have died triumphantly as they have repeated ofttimes, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”
It has been given different names by different people. It has been called a creed, and one who was asked to give his creed hesitated a moment, and then repeated the Twenty- third Psalm, and said: “This is my creed. I need or desire no other. I learned it from my mother’s lips, and I have repeated it every morning for twenty years. I do not half understand it. I am only now beginning to spell out its words. but by the grace of God, holding onto it, it shall lead me at last to glory.”
It has been called “the Minstrel Psalm.” As such it has gone wending its way up and down the world, causing people to forget their sorrow, charming away their grief. It has driven away more sinful thoughts than the sands by the seashore. It has comforted the poor, sent courage into the army of the disappointed, poured consolation into the heart of the sick, visited the prisoner in his cell and snapped his chains, and it will go on wending its way through the generations of time, and it will not fold its wings until the last pilgrim is safe home. Then it will go back to the bosom of God, from whence it came.
It has been called the “Shepherd’s Song.” As such the vision it gives of the “great” and the “good” and the “chief” Shepherd is simply beautiful.
It has sometimes been called the “Nightingale Song,” for this bird ever sings in the night, and the darker the night the sweeter the song. So has this sweet song ever breathed forth its greatest help in the night of sorrow and the dark hour of disappointment.
It has been called the “Psalm of the Lark,” and this is a good name, for this bird sings as it mounts and mounts as it sings, and when it is out of sight its music is the sweetest. A friend of mine in Detroit told me he was called to his home in London to see his mother die, and when they took her out in the early winter to place her in the grave, suddenly from the dead bushes at his feet a little meadow-lark sprang up, and as it rose it began its song, and circling round about the open grave the song increased in sweetness as its flight became higher, until at last, as they stood with voices hushed, a shower of music seemed to fall upon them. And thus, by the side of graves where we have buried our ambitions this Twenty- third Psalm has been sung. By the side of the graves into which we have put our fair hopes its promises have been precious’.
Into the tombs where we have placed our beloved dead the Twenty-third Psalm has come, and death has lost its sting and the grave its victory as we have said it o’er and o’er.
David certainly wrote it, and yet we can understand the expression of John McNeill, the great Scotchman, who said that if David did not write it, he thinks he must have written it himself, for it is a perfect picture of God’s dealing with John McNeill. So can we all say. It may be that he wrote it in his youth, sitting beneath some spreading tree, with his flock grazing at his feet. It may be that he wrote it as he went to charm away the unhappiness from Saul, the king. It would seem to be appropriate for this shepherd-boy, looking into the face of the sad monarch, to sing with special emphasis upon the pronouns, ^‘The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” But he may have written it in his after years. If so, he wrote it in the memory of those happy days when God was as near to him as he was to his sheep.
We are told in history of a Persian monarch who was raised to his position of power from lowly surroundings. He had one room in his palace fitted up to remind him of his shepherd life. The crook, the wallet, the grass, the trees, the water-course were there, and there he spent a part of each day, that he might remember wLat he had been. David could never forget G6d’s nearness to him in the days of his youth.
The position of the Twenty-third Psalm is significant. It follows the twenty-second, which is called “The Psalm of the Cross.” We must come to that before we can have the experience of the twenty-third. We must see Christ upon the cross before we can use the pronoun “my,” and we must have self upon the cross before we can use the expression, “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.” It is followed by the Twenty-fourth Psalm, which is called “The Psalm of the Glory,” and that is beyond — future. That being the case the Twenty-third Psalm is present-day truth. Not for the need of life simply, and not only a
THE NIGHTINGALE SON(J
psalm for dying saints, but a psalm for every-day life, with all its afflictions and struggles.
The following division of this psalm under six heads has been suggested, using the letter to begin each one.
I. POSSESSION.
“The LOKD is my shepherd.’’ You will notice that the word LOKD is here printed in capitals; wherever this is true the name is the name of Jehovah. In ancient time Israel had such respect and deference for this name that only once a year it was pronounced, and then it was spoken by the high priests as they stood in the holy of holies. It is a beautiful truth. The Lord in his might, the Lord in his majesty, the Lord in his glory, “is my shepherd.”
The personal pronouns in the Bible make it a new book to us. To say that the Lord is a shepherd would be interesting; to say that he is my shepherd is inspiring.
A colporteur going through Switzerland saw a little shepherd-boy minding his flock, and, taking out a Bible, tried to teach him to read the Twenty-third Psalm, but he failed. The little fellow could only learn the first sentence, and he learned this on the five fingers of the hand, giving a finger for each word, “The Lord is my shepherd.” The colporteur left him, and four years later came back again. He was interested to know about the child and sought him out in his home. The mother of the boy met him with tears, and when she found that he was the man that had taught him the verse of Scripture, she said, “My little boy is dead, and he left word for you if I should ever see you that he died holding the fourth finger of his hand — The Lord is my shepherd.’”
The word “shepherd” is an interesting word, and the work of the shepherd is more interesting by far. Prom an eminence, as a rule, he overlooks his flock, and so our Shepherd on high at the right hand of God overlooks us. The shepherd stands between the sheep and danger; so does our Shepherd. He is
between Tis and temptation, between us and trouble, between us and death, and none of these things can ever touch us without passing through him first. The shepherd takes in his arms the weak and the wandering sheep, and our Good Shepherd ever bears us in his arms with sympathy and love before God. It is a wonderful thing to me that on the one hand Jehovah in his majesty, on the other hand the Shepherd in his sympathy, are bound together by the little pronoun “my.^’
II. POSITION.
“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.”
It is said that a hungry sheep will never lie down.
The fact that it does so is an indication that it is satisfied. It is likewise stated that the sheep will not drink of turbulent waters, but only of some quiet stream. Thus does God speak to us in the quiet hours of life. He hushes us with the word “peace,” and then breathes upon us the Holy Ghost.
I find five positions for the Christian in the New Testament, and into all of these he leads us: We are in his hands for safety, we are at his feet to be taught, we are between his shoulders for power, we are at his side for fellowship, and we are in his arms for rest. No mother ever held her little babe with tenderer embrace than our Good Shepherd holds us every one.
III. PROMISE.
“He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness.”
We do need restoring, for we are so constantly wandering away from God. Three things may be mentioned as the cause of spiritual declension: First, unconfessed sin; second, neglect of the Bible; third, disobedience to God’s commands. The signs of declension are very apparent: First, a spirit of restlessness; nothing seems to satisfy and nothing gives contentment. Second, a lack of interest in the things that pertain to
THE NIGHTlxNGAEE SONG the kingdom. Third, a spirit of impatience with those whom we know to be right. From all of these things he waits to restore us. But, just as when Peter was restored and the Master said, ‘‘Feed my sheep’’ and “my lambs,” so he restores every one of us that we may do his will. To be restored, and then to sit idly by with folded hands is to slip away again, and the last state of the man will be worse than the first.
IV. PROGRESS.
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.”
There are two applications of this expression. The first makes it applicable to death, and if this be true, it is a sweet message. The message says that he walks at that time; he does not run as if he were afraid, but walks with all the quietness and confidence that a child has by its father’s side. From this psalm death is evidently not a state, for one does not tarry in the valley, but walks through. The valley is not a place of gloom, for it is not the dark valley, as it is so frequently called, but the valley of shadows, and shadows presuppose the light.
The other application makes it a psalm for the life we live here. This is a world of death. “Dying, thou shalt die,” has been spoken since the beginning. When one reaches the place where he counts that about him as dead, and therefore not worth his notice, when he ranks even himself among the dead, he reaches a place where all the blessings of the rest of this psalm become his.
V. PROVISION.
“Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.”
As soon as one reaches this appreciation of death the scene is changed to one of feasting. It is the feasting which comes as a result of a surrendered life, and the result of the feasting is perfect satisfaction.
“There is a jewel which no Indian mine can buy,
No chemic art can counterfeit.
It makes men rich in greatest poverty,
Makes water wine, turns wooden cups to gold,
The homely whistle to sweet music strain.
Seldom it comes, to few, from heaven sent —
That much in little, all in naught — content.”
And he perfectly satisfies us. This feasting at the table reminds us of the old Roman custom of binding one’s enemies to the pillars in the feasting-hall and making the conqueror to sit down in quietness and eat. When one has reached the place where self is really counted dead he has come to the place where God binds his enemies, and, keeping them back, makes the one who was once a prisoner himself to sit down and feast.
“Thou anointest my head with oil.” This is the touch of the Holy Ghost with power for service.
“My cup runneth over.” This is the life thus surrendered, and feasted and anointed, running over with blessing to the world. It is only the overfiow of our lips that helps those round about us.
VI. PROSPECT.
“Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”
The shepherd always goes before his sheep, and the shepherd-dogs, as a rule, always follow after the sheep. Rev. F. B. Meyer says that “goodness and mercy” are the shepherd-dogs. They are ever after us; we are ever the recipients of the blessings of their presence. And as for “dwelling in the house of the Lord forever,” it simply means that all the tastes we have had of glory and the visions we have had of heavenly things may be multiplied by infinity, and may become life forevermore.
John Robertson, the great Scotch preacher, tells a story about a little fellow wounded in the War of the Rebellion. The surgeon examined him, and said it was a hopeless case. A message went to the mother, and she hastened to the hospital. She reached the door, and the doctor said the boy was asleep and would sleep away into eternity. To disturb him would cause death instantly. But you cannot bind a mothers heart with physicians rules, and so she said, Well, doctor, if you will let me go in, I promise you I will not speak to him, but I want to be with him when he dies.’’ So they led her to the bedside. She kept her word to the doctor, and did not speak, but as she saw that her boy was in pain she reached out her hand and laid it on his brow.
There is something in the touch of a mother’s hand that is different from other hands. I can shut my eyes now, and look away to Richmond, when my mother in her dying hour put her hand to this side of my face, and all the years that have passed have not brushed away that touch of my mother’s hand. And so this mother touched her boy’s brow. He did not open his eyes. She bent down and heard him as he whispered, “I knew you would come.”
O thou blessed Christ of God, I know thou wilt come! In every hour of trial or disappointment thou wilt come.
Our Father, make us very sensitive of the presence of our Good Shepherd, and when we walk through the valley of shadows may we hear him say, will never leave thee nor forsake thee.”
And do thou teach us all the lessons thou hast for us to learn in the sweet valley between the two mountain peaks, that we may walk on and on, and as the shadows come, we will fear no evil, for thou art with us. Hear us in this prayer, and answer us. In Jesus’ name we ask it. Amen.