Broken Bones
A sermon
(No. 861)
Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, MARCH 21, 1869, by
C.H.SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which You have broken
may rejoice."- Psalm 51:8.
BACKSLIDING is a most common evil, far more common than some of us
suppose. We may ourselves be guilty of it and yet may delude our hearts
with the idea that we are making progress in spiritual life. As the
cunning hunter always makes the passage into his pits most easy and
attractive, but always renders it most difficult for his victim to
escape, so Satan makes the way of apostasy to be very seductive to our
nature, but alas, the path of return from backsliding is very hard to
tread and were it not for Divine Grace, no human feet would ever be
able to make progress in it.
If I should be successful, this morning, in calling attention to
decline in the spiritual life, especially in calling the attention of
those to the matter whom it most concerns–I mean those who are
themselves declining–I shall feel happy, indeed. At the same time, if
I should so speak that those who have backslidden may be encouraged to
hope for restoration and to seek, with earnestness and eagerness, that
they may even now be restored, a second good result will have followed
and unto God shall be double praise!
Dear Friends, we make little enough advance in the spiritual life, as
it is–it were a thousand follies in one to be going back. When I look
at my own standing on the road to Heaven, I am so dissatisfied with
that to which I have attained, that to give up an inch of what I have
gained would be excess of madness! A rich man may lose a thousand
pounds or more and not feel it–but he whose purse is scant cannot
afford to lose a shilling. Those who abound much in Divine Grace,
might, perhaps, be able to bear some spiritual losses–but you and I
cannot afford it! We are too near bankruptcy as it is and so
poverty-stricken in many respects that it well behooves us to look to
every one of the pennies of Grace–to watch our little drains and
expenditures and to neglect no means by which even a little might be
gained in the spiritual life.
May God grant to us, now, that while we are listening to His Word we
may derive a blessing. There are three things to which I shall call
your attention this morning. The first is, the plight in which David
was–he speaks of his bones as having been broken. Secondly, the remedy
which he sought, "Make me to hear joy and gladness." And then, thirdly,
the expectation which he entertained, namely, that the bones which had
once been broken would yet be able to rejoice.
I. In commencing, let us notice THE PLIGHT IN WHICH DAVID WAS. His
bones had been broken. We hear persons speak very flippantly of David's
sin–boldly offering it as an accusation against godliness and as an
excuse for their own inconsistent conversation. I wish they would look,
also, at David's repentance, for if his sin was shameful, his sorrow
for it was of the most bitter kind. And if the crime was glaring,
certainly the afflictions which chastised him were equally remarkable.
From that day forward, the man whose ways had been ways of pleasantness
and whose paths had been paths of peace, limped like a cripple along a
thorny road and traversed a pilgrimage of afflictions almost
unparalleled. Children of God cannot sin cheaply! Sinners may sin and
in this life they may prosper, yes, and sometimes prosper by their
sins. But those whom God loves will always find the way of
transgression to be hard. Their follies will cost them their peace of
mind. It will cost them their present comfort and even cost them all
but their souls, so that they are saved, but so as by fire. David had
sinned and for awhile the sin was pleasurable–all the attendant
circumstances appeared to be favorable to his escape from punishment.
He had managed to conceal his crime from the injured Uriah and then he
had, with horrible craftiness, effected the death of the injured
husband. Every circumstance in Providence seemed to favor the
concealment of the monarch's sin. His conscience slept. His passions
rioted. But his heart was estranged and his Grace was at its lowest
ebb. Perhaps he even persuaded himself that his adultery, which might
have been a great sin in others, was excusable in himself because of
his
position as a despotic sovereign, who, according to Oriental notions,
had almost absolute power over the persons of his subjects. It is so
easy to persuade ourselves that what custom concedes to us, it is right
to take.
But because David was a man after God's own heart, his ease in sin
could not long continue–the Lord would not allow such a disease to
destroy His servant. David's rest was abruptly broken. The stern
Prophet, Nathan, delivers to him a parable with a personal application.
The sense of right in the king is awakened. Conviction of sin, like a
lightning flash, destroys the towers of his joy and lays his peace
prostrate in ruins! He trembles before God, whom in his heart he loved,
but whom he had, for awhile, forgotten.
The king goes into his chamber mourning and lamenting before the Lord,
followed by the chastising rod which drives the word home upon his
conscience! The Holy Spirit becomes the spirit of bondage to him and
makes him again to fear. By the rough north wind of conviction all his
joys are withered and his delights cut off. He becomes one of the most
wretched of mortals. His sighs and groans resound through his palace,
and where once his harp had poured forth melodies of pleasant praise,
nothing is heard but dolorous notes of plaintive penitence! Alas, for
you, O conscience-stricken monarch! Your couch is watered with your
tears and your bread made bitter with your grief. Well do you compare
your sorrow to the pain of broken bones!
Brothers and Sisters, let us open up that poetical metaphor before us.
We may gather from this that David's plight was very painful. "His
bones," he says, "were broken." A flesh wound is painful–and who would
not wish to escape from it? But here was a more serious injury, for the
bone was reached and completely crushed. No punishment was probably
more cruel than that of breaking poor wretches, alive, upon the wheel
when a heavy bar of iron smashed the great bones of the arms and of the
legs–the pain must have been excruciating to the last degree! And
David declares that the mental anguish which he endured was comparable
to such extreme agony.
You are on your way home today and in affecting a passage across one of
our most perilous roads, you are startled by a fearful cry, for some
poor unwary passenger has been dashed down by a huge and impetuous
vehicle! You rush to the rescue, but it is too late–the unhappy victim
is pale and death-like–and the word sounds terribly on your
compassionate ears when you are informed that his bones are broken. We
think comparatively little of wounds which only tear the curtains of
flesh–but when the solid pillars of the house of manhood are snapped
in two and the supports of the body are broken–then every man
confesses that the pain is great, indeed.
David declares that such was his pain of mind. His soul was racked and
tortured, anguished and tormented. The pain of a broken bone is as
constant as it is excruciating. It prevents sleep by night and ease by
day. The mind cannot be diverted from it. Men cannot shake off the
remembrance that this, their frame, is so seriously injured. O beware,
you Believers who are just now tempted by the sweets of sin and
remember the wormwood and gall which will be found in the dregs
afterwards! You who feel the soft blandishments of sin to be so
pleasing to your flesh and are ready to yield to its gentle
fascinations, remember that when it reveals itself, the softness of its
touch will all be gone and it will be towards you as a huge hammer, or
like the crushing wheels of the chariot of Juggernaut, crushing your
spirit with anguish! The velvet paw of the tiger of sin conceals a
lacerating claw!
The metaphor also signifies that the result of his sin and of his
repentance was exceedingly serious. A trifling thing is superficial.
That which is merely on the surface is not a matter which may cause us
deep anxiety–but a broken bone is not a thing to laugh at! Such an
injury compels a man to change his lightheartedness for apprehension.
Had it been but a skin wound, he might have wrapped his handkerchief
about it and have gone his way and have said, "It will heal in due
time." But in the case of a broken bone he anxiously sends for the
surgeon and knows that he must lie by awhile–he feels the accident is
no mere trifle.
Believe me, dear Friends, genuine sorrow for sin is not as some suppose
it–mere sentimentalism. Under sorrow for sin I have seen men driven
almost out of their senses–until it seemed as if their minds would
fail them under their apprehensions of guilt and its heinousness. Yes,
some of us have personally felt it, and we bear witness that if all
forms of bodily pain could be heaped upon us at once, we had sooner
bear them all than the burden of sin! O believe me, as I am sure you
will who have felt the same–guilt upon the conscience is worse than
the body on the rack. Even the flames of the stake may be cheerfully
endured–but the burnings of a conscience tormented of God are beyond
all measure unendurable. Many have felt this soul-anguish and have
endured this month after month, but have at last found rest, so
that there is comfort in this misery, for it ends well and profitably.
May you who now feel your bones to be broken, now plead, as David did,
"Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which You have broken
may rejoice."
The plight into which David fell was more than serious and painful–it
was complicated. The setting of one broken bone may puzzle the surgeon,
but what is his task when many bones are broken? In one bone a compound
fracture will involve great difficulty in bringing the divided pieces
together, in the hope that yet new bone may be formed and so the member
may be spared. But if it should come to a broken arm, and leg, and
rib–if in many places the poor human frame has become injured–how
exceedingly careful must the surgeon be! Often the very treatment which
may be useful to one member may be injurious to the other–disease in
one limb may act upon another. The cure of the whole, where all the
bones are broken, must be a miracle! If a mass of misery–a man full of
broken bones–shall yet become healthy and strong, great credit must be
given to the surgeon's skill. Brothers and Sisters, you see the case of
a man, then, who has sinned against God by backsliding from his ways
and who is heavily struck by his conscience and by the Holy Spirit! It
is a complicated sorrow which he endures.
The metaphor of broken bones also seems to indicate that the greater
powers of the soul are grieved and afflicted. The bones are the more
important part of the structure of the body. In our spirits there are
certain Graces which are, so to speak, the bones of the spiritual
man–to these David refers. Our heavenly Father is pleased, sometimes,
when we have sinned, to allow our faith to become weak like a broken
bone. We cannot grasp the promises we once delighted in. We cannot
voice the encouraging Word as we did in happier days. Our faith brings
us pain rather than rest. He suffers our hope to lose its joy-creating
power, and like a broken bone, our very hope for a better land where
rest remains, becomes a pining disquietude at our present forlorn
condition.
Even love, that notable limb of strength which makes the soul to run so
nimbly, is full of weakness and anguish and makes us cry, "Do I love my
Lord at all, and if so, how could I have offended Him so greatly? When
I have backslidden so far, surely for me to talk about love to God
would be to take a holy word upon polluted lips!" At that time the
great master Graces within our spirit seem, each of them, to minister
to our woe. And though they are there–as the broken bone is still in
the man's body–they are so injured and weakened, and all but powerless
that their only vitality is the sad vitality of pain!
Our faith in the Scriptures leads us to tremble at their threats. Our
hope shocks us because, though we have hope for others, we cannot
rejoice for ourselves. And our very love to God, yet alive within us,
makes us hate and despise ourselves to think we should have acted thus
towards One so good and kind. O Brethren, you who are lingering on the
brink of sin and are beginning to slip with your feet, may the thought
of these broken bones awaken you from your dangerous lethargy as with a
thunderclap! And may you fly at once to the Cross and to the fountain
filled from Jesus' blood and begin your spiritual career anew with more
earnestness and watchfulness than you have ever shown before! The case
was painful, serious and complicated.
In the fourth place, it was extremely dangerous, for when several bones
are broken, every surgeon perceives how very likely it is that the case
will end fatally. Around each shattered bone there lingers the danger
of gangrene and if that grievous ill should intervene, the healing is
in vain. When a heart is broken with repentance, the gangrene of
remorse is most urgent to enter it. When the spirit is humbled, the
gangrene of unbelief covets the opportunity to take possession of the
man. When the heart is really emptied and made to feel its own
nothingness, then the demon, Despair, beholds a dark cavern in which to
fix his horrible abode. It is a dreadful thing to have faith broken,
hope broken and love broken–and the entire man, as it were–reduced to
a palpitating mass of pain. It is a dreadfully dangerous condition to
be in, for, alas, my Brothers and Sisters, when men have sinned and
have been made to suffer afterwards, how often have they turned to
their sins again with greater hardness of heart than ever!
With many, the more they are struck the more they revolt. When the
whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint and they seem to be
nothing but "wounds and bruises and putrefying sores" through the
afflictions they have suffered– yet they still return to their
idols–and the more they are chastened the more they revolt! Think, I
pray you, how many professors have backslidden and have been chastened
but have continued in their backsliding until they have gone down to
Hell! I did not say children of God–I said professors–and how do you
know but what you may be a mere professor yourself?
Ah, my Friend, if you are living in known sin at this time and are
happy in it, you have great cause to tremble! If you can go on from day
to day and from week to week in neglected prayer and neglected reading
of the Word. If you can live without the means of Grace in the week
days. If you are cold and indifferent towards our Lord and Master. If
you are altogether becoming worldly and covetous and vain–fond of
levity and the things of this world and yet are at ease– you have
grave cause to suspect that you are a bastard in the family and not one
of the true children of the living God! I use that hard expression,
remembering how the poet puts it–
"Bastards may escape the rod, Plunged in sensual, vain delight. But the
trueborn child of God, Must not, would not, if he might" Ah, indeed, he
would not if he might! Great God, never let us sin without a smart!
Never suffer us to turn to the right or to the left without receiving
at once a reproof for it, that we may be driven back into the strait
and narrow path and may so walk all our lives with You! The danger is,
when the bones get broken, the gangrene of despair, or the
mortification of indifference may set in and the man becomes a
castaway. How this ought to keep any of you who know the Lord from
indulging in the beginnings of declension! How jealous should you be
lest you run these frightful risks!
Yet again, David's case was most damaging. Supposing the danger to be
over, yet a broken bone is never a gain, but must always a loss. Poor
man! While his bone is broken he is quite unable to help himself, much
less to help others! His being unable to help himself makes a draft
upon the strength of the Church of God. Power which might otherwise be
employed has to be turned into the channel of succoring him, so that
there is a clear demand upon the Christian power of the Church which
ought to be expended mainly in seeking after lost souls–there is a
damage to the whole Church in the declension of one backsliding
Believer.
Moreover, while the man is in this state he can do no good to others.
Of what service can he be who does not know his own salvation? How can
he point others to a Savior when he cannot see the Cross himself? How
shall he comfort another man's faith while his own faith can scarcely
touch the hem of your garment? By what energy and power shall he help
the weak when he, himself, is the weakest of all? Yes, and let me say
even after God, in His mercy, has healed every broken bone, it is a sad
detriment to a man to have had his bones broken at all! Somehow or
other there is never the freedom of action and degree of energy in the
healed arm that there is in the one that was never broken. It is a
great blessing for the cripple to be helped to walk with a crutch–but
it is a greater blessing never to have been a cripple.
It is an unspeakable blessing to have been able always to run without
weariness and walk without fainting. When a man's bone has been broken
in his boyhood, if it is ever so well set, yet, I have heard say, it
will feel the changes of the weather and will feel starts and shocks
unknown before–unpleasant reminders that it was once broken. So it is
with us–if we have fallen into a sin, even though we have recovered
from it–there is a weakness left and a tendency to pain. We never are
the men, after backsliding, that we were before. And we never make,
altogether, a recovery from great spiritual decline, so as to be, all
things considered, quite what we were before.
I grant that in some points we may become superior, as, for instance,
in knowledge of self and in experience of the spiritual life. We may
have made an advance, but still, in holy agility, in sacred vivacity,
in consecrated exultation, we are not what we were. I will defy David
to dance before the Ark of God with all his might after the sin with
Bathsheba had crippled him. Yes, and there is no giant killing. There
is no slaying his ten thousands. There is very little of high and
mighty exploit in Israel's cause after the sin, even though succeeded
by a gracious recovery. I grant you, David exhibited virtues of another
class and excellences of another kind–but even these are not such as
to tempt us to risk the experiment for ourselves!
God grant that our bones may not be broken, lest our soul be damaged
for life. May we never be like a ship which has been all but wrecked
and just escaped the rocks–tugged into harbor with extreme difficulty,
her hull all but waterlogged, her cargo spoiled, her masts gone by the
board, her streamers gone, her crew and passengers all wet and saved as
by the skin of their teeth–a mere hulk dragged into haven by infinite
mercy! God grant, instead of that, that we may have an abundant
entrance into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, sails
all filled, with a goodly cargo on board to the praise of the glory of
His Grace who has made us accepted in the Beloved!
One more reflection on this point and that is, although David's case
was very painful, very serious, very complicated, very dangerous and
very damaging, yet it was still hopeful. The saving clause lies
here–"The bones which You have
broken." What? Did God break those bones? Then the breaking was not
done by accident, but by design! Did God, in chastisement, deal with
David's spirit and bring him into this killing sorrow? Then He who
wounds can bind up! Infinite power rests in God, and if He has, in
wisdom, been pleased to break, He will, in mercy, be pleased to reset
the bones. O you wounded spirits, far be it from Me to wound you yet
more! Far rather would I help to bind on the splints and the strapping.
Let this, then, be your consolation, like a piece of heavenly plaster
may this be to you–"The Lord kills and makes alive. The Lord wounds
and He makes whole."
None but He can do it! If your sorrow is a hatred for sin, depend upon
it, the devil did not give you that sorrow and your own nature did not
breed it–it is a Heaven-given sorrow! Those bones of yours shall yet
be healed! Yes, and they shall yet rejoice! The lesson for this first
part of the subject, then, is, let as many as are now possessing any
spiritual health and enjoyment be careful that they do not lose it. Let
such as have lost their nearness to God be anxious to regain it before
worse evils shall come. Let those who are almost in despair take heart,
for they cannot be in a worse plight than David was and the God who
rescued David can rescue them! Let them not sit down in despair, but,
with the Psalmist, let them rise up with humble hope and address
themselves, as we do now, in the second place, to the remedy.
II. THE REMEDY WHICH THE PSALMIST RESORTED TO. Observe, negatively, he
did not lie down sullenly or in despondency–he turned to his
chastening God in prayer! He did not offer sacrifices, nor attempt good
works of his own. He turned not to himself in any measure, but to God
alone. He did not cast away his confidence in God. He believed, still,
that there was power in Heaven to save him and therefore, by humble
faith, he lifted up the voice of his cry to the Most High in these
words–"Make me to hear joy and gladness."
Now notice, Brothers and Sisters, in this, first of all, David believed
that there was joy and gladness even for such as he was. Notice the
verse which comes before this text, "Purge me with hyssop and I shall
be clean: wash me and I shall be whiter than snow." Yes, there is the
key to his meaning. He believed that there was pardon and that pardon
would restore his joy and gladness to him! He was confident that God
could pardon–that He could pardon completely–that He had already
provided the means of pardon. David alludes to that in the hyssop–that
God could thoroughly pardon even him, "Wash me and I shall be whiter
than snow."
Now, beloved Mourner, I pray you believe the same precious fact. There
is forgiveness with God, that He may be feared! Great as your sin may
be, whether as a sinner or as a fallen Christian, yet still it cannot
exceed the boundless extent of Jehovah's compassion! He is able to
forgive the greatest sins through the blood of His dear Son. There
cannot be so much enormity in your sin as there is merit in the
Savior's Atonement. What? Though you should have sinned against light
and knowledge and so far as you could do so, have crucified the Lord
afresh and put Him to an open shame, yet, without injury to His justice
or taint upon His holiness, God can stretch out the silver scepter and
forgive you, even you! And He can do that at this instant! Believe
that! Believe that, now, for it is most certainly true!
In the next place, David knew that this joy and gladness must come to
him by hearing. Observe, "Make me to hear joy and gladness." He did not
expect it by doing–he did not look for it merely by praying–he
certainly did not expect it by feeling! He expected it by hearing. Oh,
those fops and fools, what good is it, in all they do, who attempt to
preach the Gospel, as they say (which gospel is no Gospel), through the
eyes–by their vestments and pantomimes! Why, the gate of mercy is the
ear! Salvation comes to no man through what he sees, but through what
he hears! As says the Scripture, "Incline your ear and come unto Me:
hear and your soul shall live."
As it was well observed this week by an eminent Brother in Christ,
there are some who despise sermons and imagine that public prayer is
everything. But these should remember that nowhere in the New Testament
did Jesus commission special men to go forth and celebrate public
prayer! Nowhere did He give even a hint of a ritual! Nowhere did He
prescribe a liturgy. He did not ordain morning prayer and vespers, or
so much as a formal prayer for the day! But He did say to His
disciples–"Go you into all the world and preach the Gospel." Far are
we from undervaluing the assembling of ourselves together for public
prayer! But yet it is suggested that so little should be said of that
which we call public worship in the New Testament–while the same Book
teems with references to the preaching of the Word–and plainly
declares that, by the foolishness ofpreaching God will save them that
believe!
Our Lord Himself was, throughout His whole life, a Preacher–and among
the greatest signs of His Messiahship He mentioned that the poor had
the Gospel preached unto them! The fact is, the sermon reverently heard
and earnestly delivered, is the highest act of worship! And the
preaching of the Gospel is, in the hands of the Holy Spirit, the
greatest
instrumentality for the salvation of men! Though all the liturgies that
were ever said or sung had remained unwritten. Though all the notes of
pealing organs had been silent. Though every morning celebration and
evening chant had been unknown. Though every "performing of service"
had been foresworn–the world might have been all the better for the
loss!
The Gospel faithfully proclaimed is God's gate of mercy–the preaching
of His Word by earnest lips, touched with the consecrating fire–is the
power of God unto salvation! The hearing of the Word is the great
horror alike of papists and infidels–but it is the greatest of all
means of Divine Grace! Let those who are disconsolate and cast down
remember the Master's precept and be diligent in listening to the
preaching of the Gospel of Jesus. God asks no sacraments of you–"You
desire not sacrifice, else would I give it." David turned away from
ceremonies and his truly evangelical prayer was, "Make me to hear," for
there is the point of healing.
Notice that the hearing which David intended was an inward and
spiritual hearing with his whole soul. One is struck with the
expression, "Make me to hear." What? David, have you no ears? Does he
mean, "Lord, send me a Prophet"? No, there was Nathan, there was
Gad–Israel was not without her Prophets in those days. He does not ask
for a preacher. What, then, did he seek? What? Had the man's ear become
deaf? Spiritually that was the case. He heard the Word of comfort, but
he did not hear it aright. He was distracted. His soul was
tempest-tossed. His conscience tormented him. The threats of the Law
thundered in his ears, so that when the good Word came, "The Lord has
put away your sin, you shall not die," he did not hear it as being his
own. He took it with him into his prayer closet and he remembered the
words, but he could not feel the inward sense to be true to himself.
Therefore does he ask for the hearing ear. "Lord," he seems to say,
"Cleanse these ears of mine! O give my poor heart the power to grasp
these absolving words lest I should be like those who, having ears,
hear not. And having eyes, see not, and do not understand." Believe me,
I can make some of you hear well enough with your outward ear–but one
of my most earnest prayers is that God would make you all hear
within–and especially those who are desponding–and those who refuse
to be comforted. I suggest this prayer to mourners, today, to take home
with them and I beg God's people to join in supplication for them.
"Make me to hear! Make me to hear that precious Gospel! Make me to hear
and to receive Your own true Word! It has comforted so many, Lord, let
it comfort me!
"I know Your blood has pardoned others, O help Your poor broken-hearted
servant to get pardon as well as they! I do not doubt Your power or
Your willingness to save others, but, Lord, there are such obstacles
and difficulties about my case! I beseech You, roll away the stone from
the sepulcher of my poor dead hopes and make me to live in Your sight.
It is really a making, Lord–a creation, a work of Omnipotence–a work
in which the attributes of Your power and Your Grace will be
resplendent. Make me to hear! You who have made the ear at first can
make it new. O make me to hear joy and gladness!"
Do you catch the meaning of the Psalmist? He knows that the comfort
must come by hearing, but he knows it must be a spiritual hearing and
therefore he asks for it of the Lord.
III. And now, as time fails us, though we might have enlarged here, we
shall turn in the last place to THE HOPE
WHICH THE PSALMIST ENTERTAINED. What was it? "That the bones which You
have broken may rejoice."
Notice–not, "that the bones which You have broken may grow quiet and
be calm and at rest"–that was not enough. Not, "that the bones which
You have broken may become callous, indifferent, painless." No, no!
That he would have vehemently disapproved–but, "that the bones which
You have broken may rejoice." He dares to ask for great mercy! Yes, the
greatest mercy!
When a great sinner comes to a great God, if he pleads at all, he will
do well to plead for great things. For since he deserves nothing at
all, all that comes to him must come of Grace and, therefore, the same
mercy which freely gives the little may as well give the much!
Therefore, seeking Sinners, make bold to open your mouths wide, for He
will fill them! Let us look at these words more closely–"that the
bones which You have broken may rejoice." He means, then, that if he is
enabled by faith to look to Christ, whose blood is sprinkled by the
hyssop upon the soul. If he receives perfect pardon through the atoning
Sacrifice which makes sinners white as snow, then he will possess a
deeper and truer joy than before.
In times past his tongue rejoiced, but now his bones will rejoice!
Before, his flesh rejoiced, now his bones and marrow will rejoice! The
deep pain which he had felt within the inmost depths of his nature
would now be exchanged for an
equally deep content, which, like an artesian well, gushes up from the
very heart of the earth all clear and fresh! It would rise in continual
flood from the heart of his nature, all fresh with holy exultation! He
would now know what sin meant as he never knew before! He would know
what chastisement for sin was as he could not have dreamed before! He
would know what mercy meant as he had not before understood! And
therefore his inmost nature shall praise and bless God in a way in
which he had never done until that hour!
That deeply experimental, painful, and yet blessed experience of his
weakness and of God's power to save, taught him a heart-music which
only broken bones could learn. You know, Brothers and Sisters, there is
a great deal of flash about many of our spiritual joys. They are, in
the grosser parts, very near akin to carnal excitement–and especially
with young beginners the gladness is too apt to trail in the mire of
mere mental pleasure. Our gladness is frequently far from being deep as
we could wish–but after the bone-breaking everything is solid–after
the bone-healing everything is true! What our joy lacks in vividness it
makes up in stability and depth. So David means, "the innermost core of
my nature. The very essentials of my spiritual being shall sing and
rejoice."
Note again, he means that his joy would be more than ever a matter of
his whole soul. "My bones which were broken shall all of them," in the
plural, "rejoice." He had been a mass of misery–mercy shall make him a
mass of music! It is not easy to get the whole man to praise God. You
can bless God, sometimes, in His House with your heart and with your
voice, too, but your thoughts will wander after the sick child, or
after the bad debt. Some faculty or other is unstrung– the 10 strings
are not all in tune. But when the bone-breaking process has been
suffered. When the man feels himself thoroughly crushed before God–all
his thoughts are concentrated, then, upon his misery–and when he
obtains relief, then all his thoughts are concentrated upon the mercy.
And he blesses God with a unanimity of all his powers never before
reached!
The bones which God has broken, without discord, every one of them
praise Him! That rejoicing expected was peculiar to the brokenness
which would be apparent in it. Every broken bone would then become a
mouth with which to bless God! But there would always be a humility,
gentleness, softness and tenderness in such praise. I must confess I
like to listen to the high sounding cymbals and I can shout as loudly
as any, "Praise the Lord with the harp. Blow upon the trumpet in the
new moon." I can cry with ardor, "O for a shout, a sacred shout, to
God, the Sovereign King." But the dulcimer's soft notes often have the
most music in them to my weary ears. Trumpet notes of triumph may be
too much like the noise of those who go forth to the battles of earth
or make merry in the feast.
But the soft music of broken bones is peculiarly sacred and reminds one
of the Master's sacred joy–the soft and solemn music of His soul when
He said, "My praise shall be of You in the great congregation. I will
pay My vows before them that fear Him," when He blessed God on the
Cross, that a seed should serve Him–that it should be unto the Lord
for a generation, His joy was true and deep. "Still waters run deep."
The brokenness of heart has not in it the roaring as when the sea roars
and the fullness thereof, but it has the gentle flow of that silver
river, "the streams which make glad the city of God."
Once again, the joy which the Psalmist expected would have much of God
in it, for you observe that the Lord appears in this verse twice–"He
breaks the bones and He makes the ear to hear joy and gladness." God is
appealed to as the Breaker and the Healer. After having been sorely
struck and having at last found comfort, we always think more of our
Lord Jesus than we did before. If I have grown in anything since I have
known the Lord, I think it is in this one thing– in having more
frequent and realizing thoughts of God the Father, Son and Spirit
personally considered. There was a day when I thought doctrine the
first thing and all-important. And there was a time when I conceived
inward experience to be most exceedingly worthy of my regard.
I think the same now, but over and above all that my soul possesses a
deep sense of God and a longing to be in daily personal fellowship with
the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. Surely this being filled with
God is a more excellent way, for doctrine may be but food untasted and
experience may turn out to be but fancy. To live upon God by faith and
to serve Christ with the heart–and to feel the Holy Spirit's
indwelling–this is reality and truth! When a man has had such dealings
with God as David had and received such mercy from Him, then his joy
will be fuller of God than it ever was before.
You will notice in the verse, too, that David sets no end whatever to
his joy. "The bones which You have broken may rejoice," but how long?
Ok, as long as ever they please! Once let the bone be set, the ground
of joy is constant and
continuous! A pardoned sinner never needs to pause in his sacred
gratitude! Let the Lord visit the most broken-hearted among His people
and light their candle and the devil cannot blow it out. And Death
itself, that last of foes, shall not quench the sacred flame! O see, my
Brethren, how blessed a remedy Christ has provided for all the evils of
your backsliding! See how to get at it, by an earnest prayer to God
through Christ! Go to your chambers and breathe out a prayer, you
daughters of sorrow, and you sons of woe, for–
"The Mercy Seat is open still–
There let your souls retreat."
God waits to be gracious! He comes today in the Gospel to meet His poor
prodigal and to receive him with arms of love! Christ, this morning, by
our ministry, is sweeping the house to search for His lost piece of
money! The Good Shepherd is seeking His wandering sheep! O be joyful
and thankful that you are in the land of mercy, in the place where the
heart of God yearns over His dear wandering ones! Come to Jesus now! O
come, now, by faith and let your prayer be the words of the text, "Make
me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which You have broken may
rejoice."