The Project Gutenberg EBook of Four Psalms, by George Adam Smith

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Title: Four Psalms

Author: George Adam Smith

Release Date: September 2, 2004 [EBook #13353]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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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 past