Comfortable Words › Thou Shepherd of Israel

By Anton Mauve (1838–1888), via the Detroit Institute of Arts and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain. Source

‘Going to Pasture’ by Anton Mauve (1838-1888).

About this picture …

‘Going to Pasture’ by Dutch artist Anton Mauve (1838-1888), to whom his cousin by marriage Vincent van Gogh was greatly indebted at the start of his career. The scene shows a shepherd leading (and not driving) his flock to pasture, accompanied by a woman. The Old Testament image of the Good Shepherd was picked up by Jesus, another of those subtle hints scattered throughout the New Testament that Jesus was more than a man, more than a prophet, more even than an angel. The Shepherd in the Song leads his sheep to wholesome pasture; in Charles Wesley’s hymn, he becomes also the Rock, a place from which to see all that we dare of the blazing sun of God’s glory — for our God is a consuming fire: see Deuteronomy 4:24.

Thou Shepherd of Israel

This hymn is part of a series of poems based on the Song of Songs in the Old Testament. Charles Wesley combines two Biblical images together: the Good Shepherd, which he takes from the Song and from St John’s Gospel; and Christ as the Rock where Moses was enabled to look upon God’s glory without being destroyed by the sight.

Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?

Song of Songs 1:7

THOU Shepherd of Israel, and mine,
The joy and desire of my heart,
For closer communion I pine,
I long to reside where Thou art;
The pasture I languish to find
Where all, who their Shepherd obey,
Are fed, on Thy bosom reclined,
Are screen’d from the heat of the day.

2 Ah, show me that happiest place,
That place of Thy people’s abode,
Where saints in an ecstasy gaze,
And hang on a crucified God:
Thy love for a sinner declare,
Thy passion and death on the tree,
My spirit to Calvary bear,
To suffer, and triumph, with Thee.

3 ’Tis there with the lambs of Thy flock,
There only I covet to rest,
To lie at the foot of the Rock,*
Or rise to be hid in Thy breast;
Tis there I would always abide,
And never a moment depart,
Conceal’d in the cleft of Thy side,*
Eternally held in Thy heart.

Charles Wesley (1707-1788)

* The ‘Rock’ is a name given to Jesus Christ by St Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:4. He speaks of this Rock ‘following’ the Israelites after they had escaped slavery in Egypt. The Israelites were given water drawn miraculously from a rock twice, once near the start of their wanderings at Exodus 17:1-7, and once near the end in Numbers 20:1-11. In this sense, the Rock seemed to be following them.

* To see whether Jesus was dead as he hung on his cross, a Roman soldier cleaved (split open) his side with a spear: see John 19:32-35. Wesley connects this with Moses, who was told to slip into the cleft of a rock so that when God passed by, Moses would see only his back and not be destroyed by the overwhelming sight. See Exodus 33:22: “And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by.”

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