This wonderful little book proves that good things often come in small packages. In just 180 pages, the late David Calhoun, of whom I confess I had never heard, packs more truth and content than many books three times the size manage to do.
A Sheep Remembers is a delightful and God-glorifying devotional book about Psalm 23. I was going to call it a commentary, but it so much more than that. Calhoun does several things in this treasure of a book. Each chapter contains four elements – a different English translation of the 23rd psalm, a word of personal testimony, often drawing on the author’s long battle with cancer, a helpful commentary and a selection of prayers, quotes and illustrations that throw light on the verse or section being expounded.
At the end of the book is a selection of 17 versions of the psalm, including a few hymns based on it and often with an accompanying word of explanation about the author or poem. The book is completed by an enormously informative bibliography that reminded me of Spurgeon’s Commenting and Commentaries, where he makes some pithy comments on different works and their authors; comments like, “Some helpful ideas but discursive and confusingly organised”, “he goes too far in trying to derive spiritual truths”, and “solid, devout scholarship”.
Over the past year I have read many books that have richly fed my mind and led me deeper into a knowledge of God, but none that have fed my soul and warmed my heart more than this little volume.
If you care for your soul, please get a copy of this book. Even better – get two copies and give one away. I cannot think of a single person who would not greatly benefit from reading this book.
Now, I must go and find other books by this godly author and devour them as well.
Banner of Truth Review written in 2023
Note: I was given a copy of this book to review