The Pearl of Psalms - Psalm 23 - CCS by George Henderson and published by Classics.
Dr Barton has said that the Twenty-Third is the sweetest of all the Psalms: first learned, oftenest repeated, longest remembered. The simple words of which it is composed “touch, inspire, comfort us, not as an echo from three thousand years ago, but as the voice of a living friend. The child repeats them at his mother’s knees; the scholar expends on them his choicest learning; the church lifts them to heaven in the many-voiced chorus. They fall like music on the sick man’s ear and heart; they cheer and encourage the dying Christian as he enters the shadow of death.”
It speaks of the Shepherd Who gave His life for the sheep; of the green pastures into which He leads us for our own sake; and of the paths of righteousness into which He leads us for His name’s sake. It tells us that the valley of the shadow, although full of deadly peril, is nevertheless an avenue to God; of the fact that it is possible to have festivity in the midst of conflict; and of the two shining ones - Goodness and Mercy - who have come from the upper sanctuary to conduct the flock of God to the heavenly land. In the other words we have in this brief section of the Word: the Person; the provision; the pathway; the peril; the preparation; and the prospect. May we all search more and more into its marvellous depths enjoy increasingly its matchless beauty, and experience, trough all life’s future days, its perennial power.
