Thou Shepherd of Israel
A short hymn inspired by some words from the Song of Songs, asking the Good Shepherd to lead his straying lamb back to the flock.
A short hymn inspired by some words from the Song of Songs, asking the Good Shepherd to lead his straying lamb back to the flock.
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?
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.
* 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.”