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Psalm 9:18 Good Cheer for the Needy
NO. 2878
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 7TH, 1904,
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON
ON THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 16TH, 1876.
“For the needy shall not alway be forgotten: the expectation of
the poor shall not perish for ever.” — Psalm 9:18.
These words will fall upon different ears with quite different
effects. If any of you are, in the Scriptural sense, “poor and
needy,” God the Holy Spirit will enable you to see much in these
gracious sentences; but if you fancy that you are “rich, and
increased with goods, and have need of nothing,” you will care
nothing whatever for such words as these. You know right well that the
value of a text to any soul depends upon the condition of that soul. I
know not how many stars may be visible at the present moment; I do not
think that I even looked up at them before I came here, and perhaps
you have not; but to the mariner, who wants to know his position when
far out upon the sea, even one lone star gleaming amid the cloud-rack
may to very precious. So, if you are among the poor and needy ones,
the light in this text will be most joyful to your heart, but if you
are not among them, perhaps you will scarcely condescend to look up to
see its light. When Richard I was shut up within the gloomy walls of a
foreign prison, you remember that he heard a song sung by his faithful
friend, who was traversing all Europe, as a troubadour, to try to find
him. There were many ears that heard that strain; and, possibly, some
of the listeners had noticed the sweetness of the music; yet there was
nothing very special in it to them; but the imprisoned king, when he
heard that song, could sing the refrain to it, and, therefore, it had
a peculiar value to him, for it re-opened his intercourse with the
world outside, and ultimately led to his release. So, it may be that
my text has a refrain that you do not know; and if it is so, you will
not care for it; but if your heart is very poor,- — if you are
consciously very needy, — if you are reduced to spiritual destitution,
then these simple words, “The needy shall not always be forgotten:
the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever, will awake
echoes in your soul which will be the means of bringing you great joy.
Here let me remark what a blessed thing it is to be poor in spirit and
down among the lowly in heart. The best things come to those who are
in such a condition. Up there, on the mountain tops, you are in a
conspicuous but very cold position. If there are any storms about,
they will be sure to gather around the mountain’s brow; but if there
be waterproofs, they will be sure to flow down there in the quiet
seclusion of the valley, where the nourishing grass grows for the
feeding of the sheep. He who dwells in the Valley of Humiliation,
lives in a place, where he may delight himself with safety; because he
is certain, while he abides there, to give all the glory for his
delight to his God. It is not a land that every man chooseth; it lies
too low for some men’s tastes. There are those who love the high
places of the, earth, where they can exalt themselves; but he who is
wise will choose to be numbered amongst the hungry whom the Lord
filleth with good things, and not among the rich whom he sendeth away
empty. He will delight to be reckoned among those that are of low
degree, whom God exalteth, even the humble and the meek; and he will
not wish to be gathered with the proud, against whom the Lord has
registered his solemn declaration that he will stain the pride of
their glory.
If you look at our text as it stands, it bears, first of all, the
literal and natural meaning that God will take care of the poor and
needy. As a general rule, they are forgotten. In the regulations of
many kingdoms, no provision whatever has been made for the, poor.
Christianity has done much to cause modern governments to make some
recognition of the rights of the poor and needy, and also to provide
to some extent for them; yet this provision is often handed out to
them with great coldness and sternness. Our poor laws are not, even
with the best intentions, always administered justly; while shore are
lands where everything seems to be done to increase, the riches of the
rich, and to make the poor still poorer. Well, it will not always be
so; there are better days coming for you that are despised, and poor,
and needy. You need not fight, and strive, and be envious, and make
discord; there is One in heaven who is your Helper, and he is coming
down to earth again; and when he cometh, “he shall judge the poor of
the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break
in pieces the oppressor.” The reign of Jesus Christ, though it may
seem to be long in beginning, will assuredly come at the appointed
time; and when it cometh, then all tyranny and oppression and
wrong-doing shall be speedily ended. “In his days shall the righteous
flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.” In
his days shall no man be robbed of his rights, — no man be
down-trodden, — no man be oppressed. Behold, the Lord hath laid help
upon One who is mighty; he hath exalted One chosen out of the people.
His coming is the world’s hope; his appearing will be the signal for
the world’s deliverance from all that is opposed to him and to his
gospel.
But I am going to take our text in a spiritual sense, and refer it to
those who are “poor and needy” in the Scriptural meaning of those
words. This is a description that is very frequently applied to the
people of God. They have been taught, by the, Spirit of God, to
realize their poverty; they know it, and they confess it. They also
feel that they have many needs; indeed, they seem to themselves now to
have more needs than they ever had before; and were it not for the
infinite fullness which is treasured up in Christ, the very thought of
their needs would crush them, and drive them to despair. “Poor and
needy” is a fair and full description of all those who have been
taught of the Lord to see themselves as they really are in his sight.
I want to give some good cheer to the poor and the needy, and my text
seems to me to refer to three pairs of things which concern them.
First, it speaks of two bitter experiences which will come to an end;
then, two sad fears which are removed by the text; and, thirdly, two
precious promises which are given to us in the text.
—————
I. First, there are Two Bitter Experiences, which many of God’s
people — nay, all God’s people have more or less had, especially if
they happen to be poor and needy in temporal things as well as in
spiritual.
The first bitter experience is that they have been forgotten. The text
says, “The needy shall not alway be forgotten,” plainly implying
that they have been forgotten; — forgotten by those who used to know
them, forgotten by those who fed at their table, and who landed and
flattered them in the days of their high estate. They do not know you
now. You are the, same, but your coat is different, your house is
different, your purse is different; and, therefore, though they loved
you, — oh, so fervently! — their love is gone now because the various
adjuncts, which, after all, were the real ground of their love, have
departed. The leaves are, withering, so the swallows, which gathered
in the summer, are all gone before the winter comes. Many friends are
of that sort; their friendship withers like the leaves of autumn; and,
like the swallows, they are gone to find other summers somewhere else.
If you become prosperous again, and get another summer, they will come
back, and seek to ingratiate themselves with you again. Like dogs,
they will follow you as long as you have a bone to give them; but,
unlike many dogs, they will not stay with you even when you have
nothing to bestow upon them. If you are a poor man, who was once
better off, you have passed through this bitter experience, I have no
doubt, and have been forgotten because your circumstances have
changed.
Possibly, you have been forgotten ever since you have been a
Christian. While you were self-righteous, like other men, they knew
and respected you. You helped to keep each other’s self-righteousness
up, just as tradesmen, with their accommodation bills, help to keep
each other financially afloat. But you suddenly became poor in spirit;
you began to see that you needed a better righteousness than your own.
They called you melancholy; and no wonder that they did, for you were
indeed melancholy. You were very uncongenial company for them; you
used to heave a deep sigh when they would rather have heard a noisy
laugh; and now that you have gone right over, as they say, to the
Puritanic party, and left their merry-making, they have forgotten you,
— they do not know you, — they look down upon you, and despise you.
They say, sometimes, “You are a canting hypocrite,” and they have
other equally pretty names that they apply to you. If they remember
you, it is that they may scoff at you; but they say they have
forgotten you, and it is a great mercy if they have; and it will be
another great mercy if you also forget them. There is a message, in
the 45th Psalm, which may be addressed to you: “Forget also thine own
people, and thy father’s house; so shall the King greatly desire thy
beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him. “You are to go
without the camp, bearing Christ’s reproach, and to be forgotten by
your former friends and acquaintances because of your religion. It
will be a painful ordeal to you, but you may go through it without any
very serious loss.
Possibly, too, dear friends, you have often thought that you have been
forgotten in the arrangements of God’s people, since you have come
among them. You are so needy, perhaps in pocket, but certainly in
spirit, that when arrangements have been made for the help and relief
of others, you fancy that you have been overlooked. Do not be quite
certain that it is so, for I have known some poor people, who have
been a little too sensitive on those points, and have suspected
unkindness when everything has been really planned for the best. Do
not be ready to misjudge your fellow Christians if they are better off
than you are. As it would be a sin, on their part, to be proud, it
would be equally a sin, on your part, to be envious. It would be wrong
for them to be unkind to you, but it would be just as wrong for you to
be unkind to them by thinking that they are unkind when they are not.
Still, I should not wonder if it does sometimes happen that you fancy
yourself forgotten even in the arrangements that are made in
connection with the house of God.
So, too, you may have had the experience of seeming to be forgotten in
various regulations which are passed by your fellow-Christians. For
instance, someone has been declaring the proportion that every
Christian should give to the cause, of God out of his substance. It
has been laid down by some, as a hard and fast rule, that nobody
should give less than a tenth, — a good rule, mark you, and a rule
applicable to nearly everybody; but, sometimes, there is a needy
saint, who says, “I could not spare a tenth from my poor pittance; I
can scarcely spare a penny from the little that I have, so this rule
presses hardly upon me.” Well, then, give what you feel to be right,
and do not trouble about the matter. When we speak to various classes,
we cannot always mention the exceptions; you know that there are
exceptions to all rules, and we do not wish any rule to press hardly
upon anyone. The poor widow gave her two mites, and so may you; but do
not fret and worry, though I have no doubt it sometimes pains you
when, in such utterances, you seem to be forgotten.
It is also very painful to a Christian, who is poor and needy in
spirit, when, in the preaching of the Gospel, there seems to be
nothing for the poor lame sheep, for the halting, for those that are
weak-kneed, for those that are ready to perish. I have heard sermons,
which have related to very glorious experiences, in which I have taken
some delight; but I have felt, all the while, “I wonder what the poor
weaklings of the flock think of this, when they hear about this
experience, and are told that they can have it if they like, and that
they must have it, or else they have no real saving faith at all.” At
such a time, my mind always goes to those who can only touch the hem
of the Savior’s garment, or say to him, “Lord, I believe; help thou
mine unbelief.” My witness is that some of the best children in the
whole family of God never have the enjoyment of full assurance; but
they are so careful, so watchful, so sensitive, that their very
sadness of heart drives them close to Christ. They seem to be so
conscious of their own weakness, and so afraid of sinning against God,
that, though in them there is not the perfect love that casteth out
fear, — I wish it were; — yet I would be the last to condemn them.
There is One, who will not condemn them; even he who carries the lambs
in his bosom, and who is tender and pitiful to all the weak ones in
his flock. We must mind, when we are preaching experience, that we do
not so put the experience of the strong as to make it the standard for
the weak. That is almost as wrong as to make the experience of the
weak to be the standard of the strong, as some have done. The fact is,
there, is no experience, that is a real standard of the Christian life
except the experience of a change of heart, and of simple faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Ah, dear heart! I know what you mean when, after
listening to a sermon, you have said, “Alas, I am forgotten! There
seems nothing there for me. There are no crumbs for those who have
lost their teeth, and have only sore gums; there is no bread and milk
for the children. It is all rounds of beef, — strong meat for grown-up
men; but, woe is me, there is nothing, that I can cab.” I should not
wonder if that is what you have felt; but, if so, do not feel it any
longer, “for the needy shall not alway be forgotten.”
And, peradventure, up till now, you have even experienced a
forgetfulness on the part of providence as you have understood the
term. Others of your family have risen in the world, but you have not.
Your friends have set up in business, and have done well; but you have
not. You have sought to obtain a competence, but you have not secured
it yet. You wished, at any rate, to get out of financial trouble; but
you are in it still, and you are apt to fear that, when the Lord
distributes his favors, he forgets you; — at least, so far as his
providential mercies are concerned. Well, now, let this fear be gone,
I pray you; let this bitter experience come to an end. Believe that
you are not forgotten, after all, by him who is in heaven, and who
beholdeth all his people; and if you have experienced, in some
measure, a sort of forgetfulness, real on the part of man, but never
real on the part of God, do believe that it will not last for ever.
The second painful experience is that you, have been disappointed, as
well as fancied that you have been forgotten. Our text says, “The
expectation of the, poor shall not perish for ever,” which implies
that it has perished sometimes.
Now, dear friend, I know that, if you are a Christian, you have had
some of your expectations that have perished, and a good many of them,
too. Why, you expected, at one time, to find your own way to heaven, —
you expected that your own righteousness would make you acceptable to
God, and that you could do everything that was necessary to gain his
favor. That foolish expectation has perished for ever, has it not?
Your self-righteousness is such a mass of filthy rags that you never
mean to try to patch those old rags together; and make them into a
garment to wear in the sight of God.
Then, you thought that you might expect, when you believed in Jesus
Christ, that you would have perfect peace directly. Yet, possibly, you
did not have it. Believer as you were, you had to live by faith,
without much experience of inward joy. And you also expected that you
would never be troubled any more with any sort of bitter experiences,
certainly not with any sins. You had lost your burden at the foot of
the cross, and you meant to go singing all the way to heaven; in fact,
you imagined that you were to ride there, in a carriage, in a most
luxurious and delightful style, having two heavens, — one here, and
another hereafter. That expectation has not been realized, has it? You
have found that the way to heaven is a rough road, that there, are,
many hardships in the pilgrim’s pathway, and that there are giants to
be fought and slain. Alas, also, there are sins within that have to be
contended with from day to day.
Perhaps you had even entertained some very high expectations that you
were going to be one of the brightest stars that ever shone among the
spiritual constellations of God. Oh, what wonders you were going to
do! You were going to be the leader amongst the people of God. There
would be no diminution of zeal in you; no lack of life in you; no
declension from grace in you; no neglected prayer in you. You would be
the very paragon of virtue; you would push the world before you, and
drag the church behind you. I do not know how high your expectations
soared; but I should not wonder if some of them have perished before
now, and you have come down to be, even in your own estimation, a very
ordinary sort of person; in fact, you have continued to grow smaller
and smaller ever since you have known Christ, till now you have come
down to be nothing, and you are on the way to being less than nothing;
and you will be wonderfully near the mark when you get down to that
point.
How many human expectations turn out to be mere wind! As I studied my
text, turning it over and over again, it occurred to me that the
needy, the poor, are generally the people who have the greatest
expectations. I have talked with many poor men, and I have found, over
and over again, that they have a great, great uncle, somewhere or
other, who may leave them a lot of money some day; or else they think
they are entitled to property somewhere, only the lawful owner keeps
them out of it! They have proofs that there was someone in their
family who left- well, I do not know whether it was not- some millions
of money, that now lie in the Bank of England, and they are expecting
to get them! Ah, he that butters his bread with such expectations will
find it very dry; and he who waits till expectations of that kind are
fulfilled will, I am afraid, find that he is waiting in vain. But poor
people generally have plenty of expectations; and, as a rule, those
expectations come to an end. This is a part of the bitter experiences
of life, and always will be; so, let us bear it patiently, for our
text assures us that our disappointment shall only be temporary.
—————
II. Now, in the second place, there are Two Sad Fears, Which The
Text Removes.
The first sad fear is that, perhaps, we may be for ever forgotten of
God. Oh, what, a sad day it would be for us if God should ever forget
us! You remember what varied experiences David had. Once he wrote,
“In my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. Lord, by thy favor
thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face,
and I was troubled.” At another time, he wrote, “Hath God forgotten
to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies?” Ah,
that is how the greatest saints have to talk sometimes; but what a
fall in the barometer that indicates! From being up there at “set
fair,” it has gone down to “much rain” and “storms.” “Zion said,
the Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. “This fear
will come to the child of God at certain times, it may take this
shape, “What if God should forget me in my present trouble? None but
he can get me out of it. I am so bowed down and distressed that,
without divine consolation, I know that I shall surely sink in the
deep waters; yet the consolation does not come, the help I need does
not arrive. I cannot see any way of escape, and I am as much in
perplexity now as I was six months ago. I have made it a matter of
prayer, and waiting on the Lord; but I sometimes fear that he has
forgotten me. What, shall I do if he never helps me? If it had not
been the Lord who was on my side, I should long ago have sunk into
despair; but what shall I do if he deserts me now? I can never escape
out of this difficulty without him.”
Possibly, the believer is not so much in temporal trouble as burdened
under a sense of sin. He used to feel joy and peace through believing
in Christ; but he has wandered away from fellowship with his God, and
God is walking contrary to him because he is walking contrary to God.
He is dwelling under his Father’s frown; he is smarting under his
Father’s rod. Now he says within himself, “What will happen to me if
he should never again give me the kiss of reconciliation?” He cries,
“Deal mercifully with thy servant, O Lord, and restore unto me the
joy of thy salvation! “Yet still he walks in darkness, and sees no
light. He is under a cloud, and his cry is, “Oh, that I knew where I
might find him whom my soul loveth!” There comes to his heart the
horrible fear that God has forsaken him. It is a horrible fear, but it
is quite unfounded; there is no real reason for it. God cannot forget
his chosen ones, whom he has graven upon the palms of his hands; and
though a woman may forget her sucking child, God cannot forget any of
his people, sorrowful or sinful though they may be.
Then, too, this thought will come: “I am sick; my health is failing;
I have less strength every day; and, soon, I shall have to go through
the cold river of death; and what if, then, I should be without my
God? It will be hard to suffer, and harder still to die, — to leave
the warm precincts of this house of clay, and, as a disembodied
spirit, to be launched into an unknown world; what if there should be
no guardian angels around my dying bed, and no Savior to receive my
departing spirit? What if, after all, my hope should turn out to be a
delusion, my faith a fiction, and my experience a dream?” I do not
wonder, when such thoughts as these cross your minds, that you should
feel distressed, as hundreds before you have been, “who, through fear
of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” But our text
is a blessed cure for this sad fear: “For the needy shall not alway
be forgotten.”
The other dreadful fear is, lest, after all, your expectation should
perish. Your expectation, beloved, is that, since you have trusted in
God, you shall never be confounded; — and that, because, you have
relied upon the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, you shall be
numbered with his saints in glory everlasting. Yet, sometimes, you
sorrowfully say, “Shall I hold on to the end? Shall I be able to
persevere? I am so weak, so unstable, so apt to slip and slide, that I
fear what will happen to me. Will my hope endure to the end?” Then
you look around, and see the strong temptations that beset your path;
you live, perhaps, where there are few Christians to help you, and
where everything seems to go against your progress in the divine life;
and you say, “I shall surely one day fall by the hand of the enemy.
How can I hope to outlive these many perils and dangers?”
Possibly, your constitutional temperament is a hindrance to you, and
you cry, “Woe is me, because I have such corruptions within, — such a
fierce temper, — such a cold heart, — such a penurious disposition.
Can I ever, after all, be fashioned into the likeness of my Lord? Can
such gritty granite as my soul is made of be ever melted down, and run
into the divine mould, or be turned like wax to the divine seal?” It
does make you fear and tremble; especially when trials come, the like
of which you never saw before; and you say, “My expectation will
perish. I thought that, by God’s grace, I should leap over a wall, and
break through a troop; I hoped that I should continue to trust in the
Lord even though all creature aid should fail; but now I tremble and
fear. I have run with the footmen, and they have wearied me; what
shall I do when I have to contend with horses; and, above all, what
shall I do in the swellings of Jordan?” Well, now, this is the sort
of fear that arises in the hearts of God’s children; yet that fear
need not be entertained for a single moment. It is your duty and
privilege to shut it out of your heart, for thus saith the Lord, “The
expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.”
—————
III. Now I come to our third and last point, — Two Precious
Promises Are Here Given To Us.
The first is given to the needy, and it declares that they shall not
always be forgotten. Possibly, some of you think that you have been
forgotten in the arrangements of providence. Listen, troubled one. If
you can only walt with patience, and stand still, and see the
salvation of God, you will find that the needy shall not always be
forgotten. Have you never noticed how a father carves for a large
family.
You do not expect him, at a single stroke, to carve enough to fill
every plate, do you? There is a little child who is ill, so there must
be a suitable portion sent away for that one; and, likely enough, that
will be the first portion sent from the table. Then the father serves
his other children according to a certain order which he has in his
own mind, and there must be some who come after the others. I have
known carvers keep someone waiting till they have reached the most
juicy part of the meat; they only made him wait till they could give
him something specially choice; so, if you are kept waiting for your
portion, you will not lose anything by waiting a while. Patience is
rewarded in due season. If ships are longer on their voyage, we expect
them to bring home all the richer freight. If the trees are slower
than usual, this year, in putting forth their buds, — if the peach
blossoms or the apricots are not visible so soon as in other seasons,
— let us hope that it will be all the better for the ultimate
fruit-bearing of the trees. Be thou content to come last rather than
first, for sometimes last is best, and “there are last which shall be
first, and there are first which shall be last.” Poor as thou art,
thou shalt not always be forgotten; there is a portion in reserve for
thee, — even for thee.
Thou shalt not be forgotten at the mercy-seat. Thou hast been there
many times without receiving an answer to thy petitions. Perhaps, poor
heavy heart, thou hast prayed seven times, and no reply has yet come.
Possibly, thou hast gone to thy God as often as the poor widow went to
the unjust judge, and thou hast gone as importunately as she went;
but, so far, there has been no sweet relief such as thy soul longed
for. Yet thou shalt not be alway forgotten; so, continue in prayer. If
the promise tarry, wait for it; for, in due season, the answer shall
surely come.
Thou shalt not always be forgotten in the Word. Thou hast been reading
it, yet no promise has seemed to comfort thee. In fact, as thou
turnest over the pages of thy Bible, thou findest bitter things
recorded there, as if they were written against thyself. But read on;
read on; and, one of these days, thou wilt come to a passage that will
seem to leap up out of the Scriptures to meet thee. It will woo thee,
the very sight of it will fascinate thee, and thou wilt say, “The
Lord hath spoken this message to my soul, and I bless and praise his
holy name.”
Thou shalt not always be forgotten from the pulpit. Perhaps there is
someone here, who has long been listening to the gospel, and who
sorrowfully says, “I find that others are comforted, but I am not.
God seems to give a portion to all the rest of his people, but none to
poor me. Alas! I come and I go, but it seems to be all in vain. I love
to go where I see others getting a blessing, yet I find no comfort
there for myself.” Well, thou shalt not always be forgotten, God will
hid his servant drop a handful on purpose for thee. Perhaps this very
text is a message to thy heart just now.
Thou shalt not always be forgotten at the Lord’s table. You have gone
there hoping that he, who often reveals himself to his servants in the
breaking of bread, will be pleased to manifest himself to you at his
own table; yet you have not had a smile from him. You have sat with
others at the King’s table, but the King himself did not seem to sit
there with you. You ate the bread, but you did not spiritually feed
upon his flesh. You drank the wine, but you did not spiritually drink
his precious blood. Well, you shall not alway be forgotten. If you are
really trusting in Jesus, there are brighter days yet in store for
you. The King shall yet bring you into his banqueting house, and his
banner over you shall be love and you shall see such changes that you
shall sing, —
“My mourning he to dancing
turns,
For sackcloth joy he gives,
A moment, Lord, thine anger burns,
But long thy favor lives.”
And you shall not always be forgotten in the service that you are
rendering unto God. You have not yet seen a soul converted through
your instrumentality, but you shall not always be forgotten in that
respect. And in the sufferings that you are called to bear for
Christ’s sake, you shall not always be forgotten. Patience will yet
have her perfect work, and the suffering will end when it has
accomplished its purpose. You are persecuted and despised, perhaps,
but you shall not always be forgotten; you shall yet learn the
sweetness of being reproached for Christ’s sake. You may seem to be
forgotten for a little while, but you shall not really be so. God, the
Holy Spirit, will not forget you; he will sustain, instruct,
illuminate, and console you. God the Son will not forget you. He paid
too high a price for you, ever to forget you. You are his bride; he
loves you as he loves himself. You are part and parcel of himself, so
he will never forget you. And God the Father will not forget you. You
have been his from all eternity, and he has “begotten you again unto
a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” You
will die soon; but you will not be forgotten, for the holy angels will
convoy you home to heaven. The rich man died, and was buried, with
many waving plumes over his mourning coach. His will was read, his
property was squabbled over, and there was an end of him; everybody
soon forgot him. But the angels carried Lazarus into Abraham’s bosom.
They had not forgotten Lazarus. The dogs had licked his sores, but the
angels had loved him. The dunghill was his couch, but Abraham’s bosom
was his throne. If you are a believer in Jesus, you are not forgotten
up in glory. Rowland Hill, when he was very old, used to like to go
and see aged people when they were dying, and he used to say to them,
“When you get to heaven, give my love to the three glorious Johns up
there, and be sure to tell them that poor old Rowley hopes they have
not forgotten him.” There is no fear that they will forget any of you
who are going there. There is a crown in heaven which will fit
nobody’s head but yours, and that crown must hang as a useless thing
until you get there to wear it.
There is a mansion in glory that nobody but you can inhabit; and you
cannot suppose that it will be allowed to stand empty for ever, can
you? Oh, no; you must be there to occupy it; and you may rest assured
that he who is preparing the place for his people, will bring his
people to it, for he has not gone to heaven to prepare a place for his
people without resolving that his people shall not perish on the way
thither.
“The needy shall not alway be forgotten.” They will be specially
remembered when Christ comes, and he says to them, “Come, ye blessed
of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world.” They will be remembered as they enter into the joy of
their Lord; and then, throughout the eternal ages, they will never be
forgotten of him. They may well bear whatever comes upon them now in
the anticipation of the glory that is yet to be revealed.
The other promise in our text is that “the expectation of the poor
shall not perish for ever.” What is your expectation, — you who have
believed in Jesus, yet who feel very poor and needy, You have been
expecting to get peace, have you not? You shall have it in due time. A
friend said to me, quite recently, “Supposing a person has believed
in Jesus, but does not feel immediate peace, what then? Is that person
to believe that he is saved? What is his evidence that he is? I
replied, “God says that whosoever believeth in his Son is not
condemned, so I need not ask to have peace within my soul in order to
corroborate the declaration of God. I am bound to take the truth of
God as it stands, and believe myself to be saved, whether I feel any
peace or not. If I will do this, then I shall have the peace; but if I
say that I will not believe myself saved till I feel peace, then I am
not really believing God at all; but I am asking him to give me peace
to corroborate his evidence, as if the evidence in the Word were not
strong enough to satisfy me.” Dear friend, it may be that you have
not yet enjoyed peace because your faith is not as simple and as clear
as it should be. But if you are really poor and needy, and cast
yourself on the promises of God you may depend upon it that the
expectation that you have rightly founded upon the gospel shall not be
disappointed. You shall have peace; yes, and you shall have perfect
peace one day. “The peace of God, which passeth all understanding,
shall keep your heart and mind through Christ Jesus.”
You are expecting, too, that you shall triumph over sin. God has
promised that sin shall not have dominion over you. It may struggle
very hard, and, for a while, you may seem to be under its power; nay
more, you may come under its power in a measure, but it never shall
reign over you. Sin may, for a time, conquer a part of Mansoul; but it
can never conquer the citadel of the heart; so rest assured of that.
“The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly,” and
you shall yet feel the power of holiness, and the mighty work of the
Eternal Spirit in your soul. “The expectation of the poor shall not
perish for ever.”
You have been expecting, too, to get out of trouble; well, you shall
get out of trouble. You have been expecting to see good come out of
evil; well, good will come out of evil. I cannot tell you when you
shall be delivered, but delivered you shall be, for thus it is
written, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord
delivereth him out of them all.” One of these days, you will receive
a warrant that will set you free from all trouble for ever and ever.
How soon it may come, I cannot tell; but, till it does, you may
patiently wait and quietly hope, for the salvation of God.
You have also been expecting to enjoy the full assurance of faith; and
your expectation, in that respect, shall not perish for ever. The Lord
will make your faith to grow; every day’s experience will help to
establish it, and even your difficulties and troubles will tend to
strengthen it. If a boy is apprenticed to a blacksmith, I should not
wonder if, for months, his arm aches dreadfully through swinging the
big hammer; but keep on, boy, keep on! Your muscles will grow hard,
your sinews will get braced, and you will become strong just where you
need to be strong. So, dear friend, shall it be with your faith, you
shall become strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
You expected to have very special spiritual joys, did you not? You
expected that your soul would be made like the chariots of Ammi-nadib,
did you not? You expected to be in such a condition that, whether in
the body or out of the body, you could not tell. Well, you shall
realize all that in due season, for God will reveal it unto you when
it seems good in his sight. As for myself, — and I may speak also for
all who love the Lord, — I am expecting to be with him where he is, to
behold his glory. I am expecting to be like him, and to overcome, and
sit with him upon his throne, even as he has overcome, and has sat
down with his Father upon his throne. And, brothers and sisters, if
this is your expectation, it shall not perish for ever, but it shall
be blessedly realized. I have told you before some of- the last words
of my venerable grandfather, but I may venture to repeat them to you.
One of my uncles said to him, “You know, father, that hymn of Dr.
Watts, —
Firm as the earth Thy gospel stands,
My Lord, my hope, my trust
If I am found in Jesus’ hands,
My soul can ne’er be lost
“Ah, James!” he replied, “I do not like the metaphor that Dr. Watts
uses there, ’Firm as the earth.’ Why, the earth is sinking from under
my feet; I want something much firmer than that. I like better what
the Doctor says when he sings, —
Firm as his throne His promise
stands,
And he can well secure
What I’ve committed to His hands,
Till the decisive hour
“That will do for me now, James,” said the dying saint; “that is
divine sovereignty. The Lord is King; and, as surely as he is King,
and sits upon His throne, so surely will He fulfill His promise to a
poor feeble worm like me, so I shall behold His face with joy.” |
|
Psalm 16:1 Christ's Prayer and Plea
NO. 3280
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14TH, 1911,
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
ON THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY 18TH, 1866.
“Preserve me, O God: for in thee
do I put my trust.”-Psalm 16:1
I Believe that we have in this
verse a prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some portions of this Psalm
cannot apply to anyone but the Savior; and we have the examples of
Peter and Paul to warrant us in saying that, in this Psalm, David
spoke of Jesus Christ. There is no apparent division in the Psalm,
so that, as one part of it refers most distinctly the Christ, we are
justified in concluding that the whole of it referee to him, and
belongs to him! But we knew that whatever belongs to Christ belongs
also to all his people because of their vital union with him, so we
shall treat the text, first, as our Savior’s own prayer; and then,
secondly, we shall regard it also so the prayer of the followers of
the Lamb.
—————
I. So, first, we will take
these words as Our Savior’s Own Prayer: “Preserve me, O God:
for in thee do I put my trust;” and we will divide the text, at
once into two parts,-the prayer itself: “ Preserve me, O God: “
and the argument or plea: “ for in thee do I put my trust.”
In considering these words as
Christ’s prayer, does it not immediately strike you as a very
singular thing that Christ should pray at all? It is most certain
that he was “very God of very God,” that “Word” who was in the
beginning with God, and who was himself God, the great Creator
“without whom was not anything made that was made.” But, without
in any degree taking away his glory and dignity as God, we must,
never forget that he was just as truly man, one of the great family
of mankind, and “as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
he also himself likewise took part of the same.” Though he remained
sinless, he “was in all points tempted like as we are.” Being,
therefore, man, and intending to make himself not only the atoning
sacrifice far his people, but also a perfect example that they might
imitate, it became needful that he should pray. What would a
Christian be without prayer, and how could a Christ who never prayed
be an example to a Christian? Yet notwithstanding the fact that it
was necessary, it was marvelously condescending on our Savior’s
part. The Son of God, with strong crying and tears making known, his
requests unto his Father, is one of the greatest marvels in all the
ages. What a wondrous stoop it was that Jesus, the unsinning Son of
God, the thrice-holy One, the Anointed, the Christ, for whom prayer
is to be made continually, should himself have prayed to his Father!
Yet, while there is much
condescension in this fact, there is also much comfort in it. When I
kneel in prayer, it is a great consolation to me to know that where
I bow before the Lord, there is the print of my Savior’s knees. When
my cry goes up to heaven, it goes along the road which Chris’s cry
once traveled. He cleared away all impediments so that now my prayer
may follow in the track of his. Be comforted, Christian, if you
have; to pray in dark and stormy nights, with the thought that your
Master did the same.
“Cold mountains and the midnight
air
Witness’d the fervor of his prayer;
The decent his temptation knew,
His conflict and his victory too.”
If you have to pray in sore agony
of spirit fearing that God has forsaken you, remember that Christ
has gone further even than that into the depths of anguish in
prayer, for he cried in Gethsemane, My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?”
In addition to being
condescending and comforting, this fact of our Savior praying shows
the intimable communion there is between Christ and all the members
of his mystical body. It is not only we who have to pray, but he who
is our Head bowed in august majesty before the throne of grace.
Throughout the narratives of the four evangelists, one is struck
with the many times that mention is made of Christ’s prayers. At his
baptism, it was while he was praying that “the heaven was opened,
and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape, like a dove upon
him, and a voice come from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved
Son; in thee I am well pleased.” On another occasion, we read that,
“as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his
disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught
his disciples.” On the mount of transfiguration, “as he prayed,
the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was
white and glistering.” Jesus was emphatically “a man of prayer.”
After a long day of teaching the people and healing the sick,
instead of seeking repose, he would spend the whole night in prayer
to God; or, at another time, rising up a great while before day, he
would depart into a solitary place, and there pray for the needed
strength for the new day’s duties.
Having thus noticed the fact of
Christ’s praying, I want now to call your attention to the
particular prayer in our text, and I ask you first to observe that
it is addressed to God in a peculiar aspect. You do not see this in
our translation, but in, the Hebrew it is, “ Preserve me, O El.”
That is one of the names of God, and the same name that the Savior
used when he cried, “Eloi, Eloi, lame sabachthani?” “My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Many Christians seem to have only
one name for God, but the Hebrew saints had many titles for the one
living and true God. Worldlings generally talk of “The Almighty”
as though his only characteristic was the omnipotent might which is
displayed in great storms on the sea or terrible calamities on the
land. But our Savior, whose knowledge of God was perfect, here
selects a name of God peculiarly suitable to the condition in which
he was when he offered this prayer; for, according to most
commentators, the word “El” means “The strong One.” So it is
weakness crying to the Strong for strength: “Preserve me, O thou
who art so strong, so mighty, that thou upholdest all things by the
word of thy power!” Others say that “El” means “The Ever-present
One.” This is a delightful name for God, and one that is most
appropriate for a believer to was when he is in peril on land or
sea, in the den of lions or in the burning fiery furnace: “ O thou
ever-present One preserve me!” Jehovah is indeed “a very present
help in trouble.” I wish we could acquire a more intimate knowledge
of the divine character so, that, in calling upon him in prayer, we
could seek the aid of that special attribute which we need to have
exercised on our behalf. What a blessed title is that of Shaddai
which Bunyan uses in his Holy War,-El Shaddai, God-all sufficient
or, as some render it, “The many-breasted God,” the God with a
great abundance of heart, full of mercy and grace, and supplying the
needs of all his children out of his own fullness! Then take the
other names or titles of God, Jehovah-Nissi, Jehovah-Shammah,
Jehovah-Shalom, Jehovah-Tsidkenu, and any others that you can find,
and think how much better we could pray if, instead of always
saying, “O Lord!” or “O God!” we appealed to Him under some
title which indicates the attribute which we desired to be exerted
on our behalf.
Next notice that this is a prayer
produced by an evident sense of weakness. The suppliant feels that
he cannot preserve himself. We believe that the human nature of
Christ was altogether free from any tendency to sin, and that it
never did sin in any sense whatsoever; yet, still, the Savior here
appears not to rely upon the natural purity of his nature but he
turns away from that which might seem to us for be a good subject
for reliance in order to show that he would have nothing to do with
self-righteousness, just as he wishes to have nothing to do with it.
The perfect Savior prays, “Preserve me, O God;” so, beloved, let
us also pray this prayer for ourselves. Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, who was without any tendency to sin, put himself under the
shadow of the almighty wings; then shall I wickedly and
presumptuously dare to go into danger trusting to my own integrity,
and relying upon my own strength of will? God forbid that you or I
should ever act thus. Jesus was only weak because he had assumed our
nature, yet in his weakness there was no tendency to sin; but our
weakness is linked with a continual liability to evil; so, if Jesus
prayed, “Preserve me, O God,” with what earnestness should each
one of us cry unto the Lord, “ Hold thou me up, and I shall be
safe.”
I remark, next, that this prayer
in the lips of Christ, appeals for a promised blessing. “What!”
says someone, “is there anywhere in God’s Word a promise that
Christ shall be preserved?” Oh, yes! Turn to the prophecy of
Isaiah, the forty-ninth chapter, and the seventh and following
verses, and there read, “Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of
Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him, whom
the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and
arise, princes also shall worship, because of the Lord that is
faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee. Thus
saith the lord, in an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a
day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and
give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to
cause to inherit the desolate heritages.” When the Savior prayed
this prayer, he could remind his Father of the promise given through
Isaiah, and say to him, “Thou hast said, ’I will preserve thee’ do
as thou hast said, O my Father!”
Beloved brethren and sisters in
Christ, let us learn, from our Savior’s example, to plead the
promises of God when we go to him in prayer. Praying without a
promise is like going to war without a weapon. God is, so gracious
that he may yield to our entreaties even when he has not given a
definite promise concerning what we are asking at his hands; but
going to him with one, of his own promises is like going to a bank
with a cheque, he must honor his own promise. We speak reverently,
yet very confidently upon this point. To be consistent with, his own
character, he must fulfill his own word which he hath spoken; so,
when you approach the throne of grace, search out the promise, that
applies to your case, and plead it with your heavenly Father, and
then expect that he will do as he has said.
Observe, next, that this prayer
of Christ obtained an abundant answer. You recollect the many
preservations which he experienced, how he was preserved, while yet
a child, from the envy and malice of Herod, and how again and again
he was delivered from those who sought his life. He was also
preserved many times from falling into the snares set for him by
scribes and Pharisees and others who sought to entrap him in his
talk. How wisely he answered the lawyer who came to him tempting
him, and those who sought to catch him over the matter of paying
tribute to Caesar! He was never taken as a bird ensnared by the
fowler; he was always preserved in every emergency. He was like a
physician in a hospital full of lepers, yet he was always preserved
from the contagion.
Then, to close this part of the
subject, notice that this prayer most deeply concerns the whole
company of believers in Christ, for it strikes me that, when our
Savior prayed to his Father, “ Preserve me,” he was thinking of
the whole of his mystical body, and pleading for all who were
vitally united to him. You remember how, in his great intercessory
supplication, he pleaded for his disciples, “Holy Father, keep
through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may
be one, as we are.” This is the same prayer as “Preserve me” if
we understand the “me” to include all who are one with Christ. We
also are included in that supplication, for he further said,
“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall
believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou,
Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us:
that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” Yes, dear
friend, though you may seem to yours if to be the meanest of the
Lord’s people, even though you are in your own apprehension but as
his feet that glow in the furnace of affliction, even you are among
those whom Christ entreated his Father to keep, and you may rest
assured that he will certainly do so. Christ will never lose one of
the members of his mystical body; if he could do so, his body would
be imperfect and incomplete, but that it never can be. Paul tells us
that Christ’s Church “is his body, the fullness of him that filleth
all in all;” so that, if he were left without his fullness, he
would have suffered an irreparable loss. That can never be the case,
so this prayer will be answered concerning the whole body of
believers in Jesus, who shall be presented “faultless before the
presence of his glory with exceeding joy,” blessed be his holy
name!
Let us now turn to the plea which
Christ urged in support of his prayer: “Preserve me, O God: for in
thee do I put my trust.” Did Christ put his trust in his Father? We
surely need to ask the question, and we know at once what the answer
must be. In the matter of faith, as in everything else, he is a
perfect example to his people, and we cannot imagine a Christian
without faith. Faith is the very life of a true believer in Jesus;
indeed, without faith he is not a believer, so Christ was his model
in this respect as well as in every other.
The words “in thee do I put not trust” may be translated “in thee
do I shelter” There is in them an allusion to running under
something for shelter; in fact, the best figure I can use to give
you the meaning of this sentence is that, of the chicken running
under the wings of the hen for shelter. Just so do we hide ourselves
under the overshadowing wings of the Eternal. As a man, Christ used
this plea with God, that he was sheltering from all evil under the
divine wings of power, and wisdom, and goodness, and truth. This is
an accurate interpretation of the passage, and there are many
instances recorded in Scripture in which Christ really did this.
Take, for instance that remarkable declaration in Psalm 22:9:
“Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts,” as
though very early in life, probably far earlier than any of us were
brought to know the Lord, Jesus Christ was exercising hope in the
Most High. Then again, in the fiftieth chapter of the prophecy of
Isaiah, we have these words, which must refer to the Lord Jesus
Christ, “I gave my back to the smilers, and my cheeks to them, that
plucked oh the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.”
“That verse is immediately followed by this one; “For the Lord God
will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I
set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.”
These words were peculiarly appropriate from the lips of Christ, yet
each one, of his followers may also say, “The Lord God will help
me.”
Even in his last agonies Christ
uttered words which plainly prove that he had put his trust in God,
“ Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” There is more faith
in that, final commendation of his soul to his Father than some of
you might imagine, for it takes great faith to be able to speak thus
in the circumstance in which Christ was then placed. Not only was he
suffering the terrible pangs that were inseparable from death by
crucifixion, but he had to bear the still greater grief that was his
portion when his Father’s face was withdrawn from, him because he
was in the place of sinners and therefore had to endure the
separation from God which was their due. Job said, “Though he slay
me, yet will I trust in him;” and this was what Jesus actually did.
What wondrous faith it was that trusted in God even when he said,
“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is
my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts!” Yet even then Jesus turned to
his Father, and said, “Father into thy hands I commend my spirit; I
commit myself into the hand that wields the sword of infallible
justice, into the hand that has crushed me, and broken me in
pieces.” Talk of faith, did you ever hear of such sublime
confidence as that having been displayed by anyone, else? When, a
martyr had to lay down his life for the truth, his faith is
sustained by the comforting presence of God; he believes in the God
who is smiling upon him even while he is in the midst of the fire.
But Christ, on the cross trusted in the God who had forsaken him. O
beloved, imitate this faith so far as it is possible in your case!
What a glorious height of confidence Jesus reached; oh, that we may
have grace to follow where he has so blessedly led the way!
I want you carefully to notice,
the argument, that is contained in Christ’s plea: “Preserve me, O
God: for in thee do I put my trust.” Christ, as God, had felt the
power of that plea, so he know that his Father would also feel the
power of it. You remember that Jesus said be the woman of Canaan, “
O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wills.”
Her faith prevailed with him, and he felt that his faith would
prevail with his Father; so that, when he said, “ In thee do I put
my trust,” he knew that he would obtain the preservation for which
he pleaded. Jesus never forgot that the rule of the kingdom is
“According to your faith be it done unto you.” He knew that we
must “ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like
a wave: of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. Let, not that
man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.” So Jesus
came to his Father with this plea, “I do trust in thee, I have,
absolute confidence in thee, therefore, I pray thee to preserve
me.” My dear bother or sister in Christ, can you say the same? Can
you look up to God, and say, “In thee do I put my trust”? If so,
you may use it as Christ used it in pleading with his Father.
Perhaps you have gazed upon a weapon that has been wielded by some
great warrior. If you had that weapon in your hand, and were going
forth to fight, you would feel, “I must not be a coward while I am
grasping a brave man’s sword, but I must play the man with it as he
did.” Well, you have in your grasp the very weapon which Christ
used when he gained the victory. You can go before God with the very
same argument that Christ used with his Father, and he, will hear
your plea even as he heard Christ’s: “Preserve me, O God: for in
thee do I put my trust.”
—————
II. I had intended, in the second
place, to speak of my text as The Prayer Of Christ’s Followers; but,
instead of preaching upon it as I would have done had time
permitted, I will merely give, you a few notes upon it, and then you
can preach the second sermon yourselves by practicing it as you go
your several ways to your homes.
First, what does this prayer mean
to a believer? It means that you put yourself and all belonging to
you under divine protection. Before you close your eyes, pray this
prayer: “’Preserve me, O God!’ Preserve my body, my family, my
house, from fire, from famine, from hurt or harm of every kind.”
Specially present the prayer in a spiritual sense. Preserve me from
the world; let me not be carried away with its excitements; suffer
me not to be before its blandishments, nor to fear its frowns.
Preserve me, from the devil; let him not tempt me above what I am
able to bear. Preserve me from myself; keep me from growing envious,
selfish, high-minded, proud, slothful. Preserve me from those evils
into which I see others run, and preserve me, from those evils into
which I am myself most apt to run; keep me, from evils, known and
from evils unknown. ’Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back
thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion
over me.’“
This is a prayer which is more
comprehensive in the original than it is in our version. It may be
translated, “ Save me,” and this is a prayer that is suitable for
many here. Those of you who have never prayed before can begin with
this prayer, “Save me, O strong One! It will indeed need a strong
One to save me, for I am so far gone that nothing but omnipotence
can save me.” It may also be rendered, “Keep me,” or “Guard
me.” It is the word which we should use in speaking of the
body-guard of a king or of shepherds protecting their flocks. It is
a prayer which you may keep on using from the time you begin to know
the Lord until you get to heaven and then you will only need to
alter Jude’s Doxology very slightly, and to say, “Unto him who has
kept us from falling, and presented us faultless before the presence
of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be
glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”
Next, when is this prayer
suitable? Well, it is suitable at this moment; you do not know what
dangers you will meet with before you go to your bed tonight. Take,
special care when you come to what you consider the safe parts of
the road, for you will probably be most in danger when you think you
are in no danger at all. It is often a greater peril not to be
tempted than to be tempted. This prayer is suitable to some of you
who are going into new situation, where you will have new
responsibilities, new duties, and probably new trials and
difficulties. In the old days of superstition, people were foolish
enough to wear charms of various kinds to guard them from, evil; but
such a prayer as this is better than all their charms. If your
pathway should lie, through the enchanted fields or even through the
valley of death-shade, you need not be afraid, but may march boldly
on with this prayer on your lips, “ Preserve me, O God: for in thee
do I put my trust.”
Then, in what spirit ought this
prayer to be offered? It should be offered in a spirit of deep
humility. Do not pray, “Preserve me, O God,” as though you felt
that you were a very precious person; it is true that God regards
you as one of his jewels if you are a believer in Jesus, but you are
not to regard yourself as a jewel. Think of yourself as a brand
plucked from the burning, and then you will pray with due humility.
Pray as a poor feeble creature who must be destroyed unless God
shall preserve you. Pray as if you were a sheep that had been shorn,
and that needed to have the wind tempered to it. Pray as a drowning
man might pray, “Preserve me, O God.” Pray as sinking Peter
prayed, “Lord, save me,” for so you shall be preserved even as he
was.
With what motive ought you to
pray this prayer? Pray it specially out of hatred to sin. Whenever
you think of sin, the best thing you can do is to pray, “Preserve
me, O God.” Whenever you hear or read of others doing wrong, do not
begin to plume yourself upon your own excellence, but cry at once,
“Preserve me, O God, or it may be that I shall sin even as those
others have done” If this night you are a Christian, the praise for
this is not to be given to yourself, but to the Lord who has made
you to differ from others. You are only what his grace has made you,
so straw how highly you value that grace by asking for more and more
of it.
This must suffice concerning the
prayer off the text, for I must, in closing, remind you of the plea,
and ask if each one here is able to use it: “Preserve me, O God:
for in thee do I put my trust.” Can you, my friend, urge this plea
with God to-night? Perhaps you say that you could do so years ago,
then why not put your trust in the Lord now? It is present faith
that you need in your present perils, and you, cannot pray
acceptably without faith “for he that cometh to God must believe
that he is, and that he is a rewarder off them that diligently seek
him.” You know what it is to trust a friend, and perhaps to be
deceived, but do you know what it is to trust in God, and not be,
deceived? Are you trusting for salvation only to Christ? Do you
sing,-
“Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
More than all in thee I find,”?
Is this your plea continually;
are you always trusting in God, in the dark as well as in the light?
Many a man thinks he is strong until he begins to put forth his
strength, and then he finds that it is utter weakness. There are
many who fancy they are full of faith until they try to exercise it,
and then they realize how little they have. They are fine soldiers
when there is no fighting, and splendid sailors as long as they are
on dry land; but such faith as that is of little service when some
great emergency arises. The faith we used is that firm confidence
which sings,-
“His love in time past
forbids me to think
He’ll leave me at last in trouble to sink;
Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review
Confirms his good pleasure to help me quite through.”
If that is the kind of faith you
have, you need not fear to pray, “Preserve me, O God,” for he will
be as a wall of fire round about you to guard you from all evil; and
though you are now in the midst of those who would drag you down to
their level if they could, or turn you aside from, the paths of
righteousness, the Lord, in whom you have put your trust, will never
leave you, nor forsake you, but will bring you in his own good time
to that blessed place of which he has told you in his Word, and
there,-
“Far from a world of grief and
sin,
With God eternally shut in,”-
you shall be preserved from all
evil for ever, and faith shall be blessedly exchanged for sight. God
grant that every one of us may be able to pray the prayer of our
text, and to use the plea, “Preserve me, O God: for in thee have I
put my trust,” for Jesus; sake! Amen. |
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Psalm 19:11 David Warned and Rewarded
NO.
2775
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD’S-DAY, APRIL 20TH, 1902.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON,
ON THURSDAY EVENING, SEPT. 29TH, 1881.
“Moreover by them is thy
servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great
reward.”-Psalm 19:11.
DAVID was constantly singing
the praises of God’s Word, although, as I have often reminded you,
he had only a small portion of the Scriptures compared with the
complete Bible which we possess. If, then, it had pleased God that
the Canon of Revelation should have been closed in David’s day, it
would, by the aid of his Spirit, have been even then a sufficient
light to lead the saints of God into the way of holiness. You would
be very sorry if the Pentateuch and the earliest Historical Books,
should be all that you had of the Scriptures; yet they are,
evidently, so rich, so full, so instructive, that they were all that
David needed for the practical purposes of a holy life. Never allow
anybody to make you depreciate the Old Testament. No part of the
Bible is to be set up above the rest, or to be treated as of
secondary importance. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of
God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness.”
So I gather, from what David
says, that, if we had no more Books of the Bible than he had, we
should still possess all inestimable treasure for which we ought
daily to bless and praise the name of the Lord. But now that we have
the’ complete Revelation of the will of God, as contained in the Old
and the New Testaments, we ought to rejoice with exceeding great
joy. We have a Bible which is large enough to be a perfect library,
and which is also so compact that we can carry it about with us
wherever we go. It is exactly the right size, and it is just right
in all ether respects. It is just adapted to every individual in the
world, and it is also the fittest book for any nation to use as an
every-day guide as to its morals, its laws, and its conduct in
relation to both God and men.
There are two things,
mentioned in the text, which made the Scriptures very dear to David.
The first is, that they had warned him against evil: “by them is
thy servant warned;” and the second is, that obedience to the
Scriptures had brought him a great reward: “and in keeping of them
there is great reward.”
—————
I. First, then, The
Scriptures Had Warned David Against Evil.
We are so dull and so foolish
that, unless we are taught of God the Holy Spirit, we really know
nothing as we ought to know it; yet we are so headstrong and so
obstinate that, if we are not divinely checked, we run with heedless
impetuosity into all manner of evil. We need to be goaded on to
everything that is good; but we need to be held in with a tight
rein, or we shall plunge into many things that are evil. Even when
we do not willfully choose the wrong, we seem to run into it by a
sort of natural tendency, and we find ourselves bemired before we
know where we are. If, however, the Scripture is made to be our
constant companion and guide, we shall be saved from many mistakes
into which, otherwise, we are sure to fall. Where we should have
rushed on madly to our destruction, we shall find ourselves suddenly
stopped, and we shall bear a voice behind us saying, “This is the
way; walk ye in it;” and, through giving heed to that warning
voice, we shall turn back from the broad road of our own choosing to
the narrow way of God’s choice.
God’s Word warned us, first,
concerning our soul’s disease and its remedy. To some of us, our
first warning concerning the evil of our nature came from the
Scriptures. There are some persons, who must, very early in life,
have been made aware of the evil of their nature; I mean, persons
with a hot, impetuous, passionate temperament, or those with a
strong animal tendency, and others who were brought up in the midst
of vice, and who themselves eagerly plunged into it. One would think
that such people ought to be able to see that they are not what they
should be; but there have been others with a gentle nature, who have
been trained up in the midst of piety; even without the grace of
God, they would not be likely to become vicious, like those to whom
I have referred. They have also, through helpful training, become
honest, and upright, and amiable; there is everything about them
that are pleasing and beautiful. They go to church, or to the
meeting-house, and they join with others in making confession of
sin; yet, somehow, they do not seem to realize that the confession
applies to themselves exactly as it stands, for they are not openly
as sinful as others are. There are some people, in such a condition
of natural excellence, that, if it had not been for the Word of God,
they would not have known what evil was sleeping within their
hearts. A leopard may have been kept under restraint from the time
when it was a cub, and it may appear to be perfectly harmless; but
if it should taste blood, its real fierceness will soon be seen. You
may walk over a grassy hill, and think yourself perfectly secure;
yet, underneath, there may be a slumbering volcano, liable to break
out at any moment. Everywhere about us there is that which flatters
us, and make us think that we are better than we are; but, by the
Word of God, we are faithfully warned that there is a sink of
iniquity within our soul,-a black and fetid spring,-a foul generator
of everything that is evil in the very fountain of our nature. What
a blessing it is for us to be warned of that evil, lest we should go
on dreaming that all was right, and never find out the truth till we
were past conversion-past the possibility of being renewed because
we should have entered that other world where hope and mercy never
can come! What a blessing it is that God’s Word warns us concerning
the disease, and tells us of the remedy for it,-warns us that we are
lost, and reveals to us the glorious truth concerning the Savior who
has come to seek and to save that which was lost!
Then, next, God’s Word warned
us concerning our danger, and the way of escape from it. Did you
never find yourself, dear friend, forming associations with ungodly
persons, and gradually becoming more and more pleased with them;
and, then, did the Word of God come to you with power, saying, “Be
ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers”? Did you also
hear this command applied to you, “Come out from among them, and be
ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing”? If
so, I am sure that, as you tore yourself away from the fatal embrace
of the ungodly, and escaped for your life out of the Sodom of which
you had almost become a citizen, you could not help prizing and
praising the Book by which you had been warned to flee from the
peril which threatened to destroy you.
Did you ever find yourself
thinking that all was well within,-that you were really getting to
be somebody of importance,-that you might hang out your streamers,
and did the Word of the Lord then come home to you, saying, “Thou
sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of
nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and
poor, and blind, and naked”? Did you haul down your flags? Did you
hide your face for shame? Did you get away alone, and confess to God
the proud mistake that you had made, and not feel safe again until
you were lying at the cross-foot, looking up to your Savior for
mercy and forgiveness? If so, I feel sure that you took your Bible
in your hand, and you said, “By this blessed Book is thy servant
warned to escape from self-delusion and from being puffed up with
the conceit that he was something when he was nothing.”
How many, many dangers there
are in this life against which the Word of God warns us! I recollect
being on board a steamboat going up the Thames, early in the
morning, when the fog had not cleared away, and when a man, in the
bows of the vessel, shouted out as loudly as ever he could for us to
go astern, for we were out of our track, and should soon have been
ashore. As I heard that shrill cry of warning, I could not but be
grateful for it; and you and I, dear friends, would long ago have
gone aground if the Word of the Lord had not called out to us,
sometimes in sharp, stern tones, “Stop! There is danger just
ahead;” and we have been compelled to alter our course, and go
where our natural inclination would never have induced us to go.
Blessed be God that we were not only warned, at the first,
concerning our spiritual disease, and directed to him who could cure
it; but, many a time since then, have we been warned of unseen
dangers in our holy pilgrimage; so let us prize and bless the Book
that has been our Mentor and our Monitor, ever seeking to keep us in
the right path, or to draw us off from the wrong.
God’s Word has also been a
warning to us, oftentimes, concerning our duty and our obligation.
Many a professing Christian man is not living as he should live; but
if he would diligently read his Bible, and obey its injunctions,
there would soon be a great alteration in him. Hundreds of
believers, while searching the Scriptures, have been powerfully
affected by some one text, and have been led not only to see their
shortcomings, but also to perceive the way to a nobler and better
life. “I must do something,” says one, to prove my hove, to him
who has done so much for me. I have fallen short even of the
standard that I set up for myself, and that standard is far below
what I find in the. Word of God;” and, it may be, under the
influence of a single verse, the man has become generous,
self-sacrificing, earnest, fervent, and has glowed with a zeal for
God which he never knew before. Many of us can testify how often
the. Word of the Lord has quickened us, so let us be wise enough to
go to it whenever we become lethargic and dull; that, under the
inspiration of its sacred pages, we may be again aroused and
revived. O Spirit of God, we bless thy holy name that, when duties
lay neglected, and precepts had been entirely forgotten, thou didst
bring them up again before our minds in this precious Book, and then
we made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments, because thy
Word has warned us concerning our duty and our obligation!
Brothers and sisters, God’s
Word warns us concerning the whole of our life, and even concerning
some things to come which, otherwise, we could never have known. If
any brother is impressed with the thought that Jesus Christ may come
at any moment, and call him to account, that is an admirable reason
why he should every day watch unto prayer, and get himself ready for
his Lord’s coming; but, sometimes, when I read the Word of God, and
when I travel through this great city, I am led to contemplation’s
of another sort. I think that, whether the Lord comes soon, or not,
does not affect my re possibility and yours concerning the people
now living, and the generations that may yet come. If this great
London is to go on increasing, if the population shall still keep
multiplying, what will be said of us if we allow street after street
to be built, houses by thousands to be erected, and hardly any new
houses for the worship of God, while public-houses may be measured
by the mile? It seems to me a dreadful thing to live at this
particular time in which, if the gospel seed be not plentifully
sown, the waste ground of centuries, if the world lasts so long,
will cry out because of our indolence. But if the seed were
scattered broadcast, then the harvests that shall be reaped in the
centuries that may yet come shall redound to the glory of God, and
also to the credit of those who faithfully served their Lord. I
believe that, if ever men stood in a place where they could have
power over a vast trem | | |