The following is entry #3 from the new devotional book for pastors called Shepherds Balm by Richard Earl available from kalosbooks.com in mid August 2010.

It has been said that a good teacher will make the
complex seem simple. This is the task of the pastor
when he is in teaching mode. Making the Word and ways of
God understandable is one of the joys of ministry. CW
Slemming describes that process here.

Having reached the mountaintop the sheep are
hot and thirsty. It may be that there is water in
abundance gushing from a rock, or bounding over
rocks and making its way swiftly down the side of a
mountain: but this would not meet the need of the
sheep, they could perish from thirst while water is
abundant because they cannot drink from fast
running water. It becomes necessary for the
Shepherd to find a hollowed rock or something that
will hold water and then he will bail it from the rich
running stream into the receptacle or, if it be gushing
from a rock with his staff he will scratch a channel in
the earth from the water for a little distance and,
following the earth the water will trickle along the
channel, fill up the hollow, and so he has made a pool
of still waters. From this, and others that he will
make, the sheep drink.

Christ’s love is like torrential waters. His grace is
like a swelling tide. Who can approach the height and
depth, length and breadth of the love of God? It
passes understanding; it is beyond our
comprehension, but from it comes that life-giving
stream from which you and I find refreshment.

God’s Word, too, is like a great torrent. The depths
of its mysteries will never be fathomed, the height of
its glory never attained, the vastness of its wonders
never discovered. It is a mine never to be exhausted,
a spring never to run dry. It is the unsearchable
riches of his grace but, while it remains beyond all
human comprehension, we thank God for the still
waters of that word to which we have been led and
of which we have partaken, and we shall anticipate
the day when we shall be able to eat of the hidden
manna and drink of the fountainhead.
— CW Slemming, Echoes from the Hills of Bethlehem,
pp.39-40

God, my shepherd! I don't need a thing. You have bedded me down in lush meadows, you find me quiet pools to drink from. — Psalm 23:1-2 (The Message)