Nay, further; what Psalm succeeds the 22d? Is it mere accidental arrangement which has given the beautiful 23d (the best known and loved of all David's Psalms) the immediate sequence? Is it a mere devout imagination which leads us to regard it (from the place it occupies in the Psalter) as the next his hand penned and his lips sung, after these plaintive elegies? This Song of the chosen flock is not, as many think, the Psalm of his boyhood, written in the days of his innocence, with his shepherd's crook and harp, in the Valleys of Bethlehem. The imagery of the Psalm _may_ indeed have been taken from this sunny season of his youth. But, as it has been suggested,[101] the emblem may as likely have been borrowed from seeing a flock of sheep in these grassy regions reposing by "green pastures" and "still waters"--or, at other times, wending their way out of some "dark valley;"--one, perhaps a timid wanderer, clenched in the arms of the shepherd, on his way with it back to the fold! [101] See these references to the 22d and 23d Psalms well stated in Blaikie's "David, King of Israel," pp. 322, 323. We have witnessed, after a day of gloomy fog and rain and thunder, the dense curtain that overhung the landscape rolling away.--The clouds break, gleaming vistas appear through their golden linings; and the rays of the long-imprisoned sun shine down upon ten thousand sparkling pearls on grass and flower. The choristers of wood and grove had till then been silent; but now are they seen brushing the rain-drops from the branches, and filling the air with their music, and all nature is glad again. So it is with the Great Singer of Israel; so long as God's face is withdrawn, his wings are folded--his melody hushed--his harp unstrung. But when the thunder-cloud has passed,--when, as the clear shining after rain, the longed-for countenance again breaks forth,--when, in answer to those prayers that were mightier than the armies of Joab close by, his enemies are dispersed, and the way again open to a peaceful return to his capital,--may we not imagine the triumphant conqueror--strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might--making the Gilead valleys resound with the hymn of praise?--"_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!_"[102] As he thought of all the trying discipline to which he had been subjected to test his faith, drive him to prayer, and lead him to thirst more ardently for "the living God," he could say in the retrospect, what he was unable to do at the time--"_He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake._"[103] That path was a rugged one--that trial a severe one--when he was found setting out barefoot, and dim with tears, across Mount Olivet, compelled to take refuge beyond Jordan amid the wilds of Bashan. But he acknowledges now that these were "_paths of