DELIVERED BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Quicken me according to Your Word." Psalm 119:25.
You will frequently find David uttering this petition. It is a favorite
prayer of his, "Quicken me, O Lord!" And, as David was like the rest of
us–indeed, his experience is the mirror of the experience of all
Believers–you may depend upon it, we all have a great need to pray as
he did, "Quicken me, O Lord!" If he felt a coldness and deadness
frequently stealing over him, so do we. Did he find it hard to endure
such a wretched state? So ought we, also, to loathe and abhor it. And
as he cried to the Strong for strength and knew that quickening must
come from God, we ought to know–I trust we know–the same resource
under the same necessity. Therefore, let it be our prayer now and let
the prayer be repeated often–"Quicken me, O Lord, according to Your
Word."
How are we to understand this quickening? It means, of course, making
alive, keeping alive, and giving more life– in a word, enlivening. He
was alive–he was a spiritual man, or else he would not have asked for
life. Dead men never pray, "Quicken me." It is a sign that there is
life, already, when a man is able to say, "Give me life, O Lord!" This
is not the prayer of the unconverted! It is the prayer of a man who is
already regenerate and has the love of God in his soul– "Quicken me, O
Lord, according to Your Word." Quickening, of course, comes to us,
first, by regeneration. It is then that we receive spiritual life. And
as there is no natural life in the world except that of which God is
the Author, so assuredly in the new world there is no spiritual life
except that which God has created.
The first quickening is that which comes upon us when we begin to feel
our need of a Savior, when we begin to perceive the preciousness of
that Savior and when, with a feeble finger, we touch the hem of the
Savior's garment. Then are we quickened into newness of life! But that
spiritual life needs to be kept alive. It is like the life of a fire
which must be fed with fuel and supported with air. It is like our
natural life which needs food to sustain it and needs to breathe the
atmosphere in order to its continuance. We are as much creatures of
God's power in our continuing to live as in our commencing to live!
And, spiritually, we owe as much to Divine Grace that we remain
Believers as that we became Believers. As soon as we get spiritual
life, this prayer is most proper as a sacred instinct, "Lord, continue
this life in my soul, continue to quicken me, for, if You do not, I
have no life in myself apart from You and I would die were I severed
from You, as does a branch when severed from the vine. Continue
therefore, good Lord, to quicken me."
Obviously, too, some special invigoration and excitement of life must
be implied here. The trees, all through the winter, are alive. Their
substance is in them when they cast their leaves. The vitality is not
extinct, though our poet of "The Seasons" does sing–
"How dead the vegetable kingdom lies: How dumb the tuneful choir!"
A Divine act of power secretly maintains the life, hidden away till
spring comes. Then the chains of frost are broken, the genial warmth
begins to light upon the sealed buds, the sap flows and the trees, in
their reviving tints and bursting buds, give such promise of returning
foliage and flower that in a very special sense they may be said to be
quickened. As soon as the sap begins to rise, the buds swell, the
leaves unwrap themselves and the concealed flowers gradually open–a
quickening comes over what was alive and what had been kept alive all
through its dreary, wintry time.
So, Beloved, you see, first of all, God gives us life then He maintains
life. And then, at times and seasons, (would to God they were more
frequent and without intermission!), He gives vigor to that life so
that it becomes more manifest and mighty. And then it is that in a
conspicuous manner the quickening is seen. I would to God that He would
lead some poor sinner to pray in the very first sense of the word,
"Lord, quicken me! Give me life!" It would be a sign that life was
coming! I would that every Christian would incessantly pray the prayer
in the second sense–"Quicken me, Lord"–that is, "Continually keep me
faithful and true to Your Word." And then, thirdly, I would that we
would all go on to the
third sense and say, "Lord, inspirit me, revive me, lift me up unto a
higher life. Fill me with more of Your Holy Spirit and so make me more
truthful and more like Your ever living Son Jesus, who has life in
Himself."
Having thus introduced to you the prayer, I would use the Psalm to
explain it–to explain, rather, the experience which commends the
prayer to our constant use. First, Brothers and Sisters, I would assign
some reasons why you need quickening. Secondly, I would point out some
motives to see it. Thirdly, we shall mention some ways in which it is
worked. And, fourthly, we will suggest pleas such as the Psalmist used,
for obtaining it.
I. THERE ARE MANY REASONS WHY WE SHOULD SEEK QUICKENING. You cannot
overlook that confessed in the text–because of the deadening influence
of this world–"My soul cleaves unto the dust: quicken me according to
Your Word." We are surrounded with dust. We are associated with dust.
The best and brightest things that are in this world are made of dust.
And as for ourselves, although we have within us a new and higher life
that has no fraternity with the dust, there is an old life belonging to
us which is brother to the dust–which says to the worm, "You are my
sister." "Dust you are, and unto dust you shall return," is true of
every one of us.
Yet, Beloved, we cannot feed on the dust–that is the serpent's
meat–it is not ours. The new life in us craves for something higher,
but the old nature tries to be content with dust. It clings to it–the
dust cleaves to it and it cleaves to the dust. You know how the care
and cross, the work and worry of a busy day will often dampen your
ardor in prayer and disqualify your thoughts for devout meditation? You
cannot think much of treasure laid up in Heaven if you think a great
deal of this world's goods.
Riches are often a dangerous encumbrance to those who seek after
righteousness. They steal the heart away from God. Matthew Henry, in
his own sharp style, warns us that the care in getting, the fear in
keeping, the temptation in using, the guilt in abusing, the sorrow in
losing and the responsibility of giving account for gold and silver,
houses and lands, accumulate a heavy burden for him to bear who would
have a conscience void of offense toward God and toward man. And yet if
you have but little of this world's wealth, you will find poverty a
trying ordeal. The cares of poverty, like those of property, often
break the calm repose which our faith ought to enjoy.
If things go smoothly with you in business, then those smooth,
deceitful streams bear you away from God. And, if they go roughly with
you, then in the deep and in the storm you are too apt to forget the
Lord or to murmur against His Providence. There is nothing in this
world to help a Christian–it is all against him! The world holds us to
itself as tightly as it can–it acts like bird-lime to us. When we
would mount on the wings of eagles, we are often like the eagle that
you see in the gardens where they keep such creatures–there is a chain
on our foot and we cannot rise. Our soul cleaves to the dust.
Now, as this is the case and as you cannot get out of the world, pray
that you may rise superior to its influence. You men of business, you
heads of families, you who guide and you who follow, you who are
sociable and you who are solitary–all of you must still be in the
world and mix with men of the world–therefore cry to God, yes, cry
mightily, "Lord, deliver us from the deadening influence of the world
in which we live! Quicken us, we beseech You, from day to
day!"
A second reason for our need of quickening lies in the influence of
vanity–of that which is actually sinful. Refer to the 37th
verse–"Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity, and quicken me in Your
way." As we go about in the world we see a great deal of that which is
injurious to us. The sins of others leave some kind of stain upon the
conscience. I question whether you can read a newspaper and scan the
story of a murder or a robbery, or survey with more distant glance in
any book of history the sin of your fellow men without being, in a
degree, injured. We are compelled to see much of vanity and sin in our
daily callings. We do not merely read of profanity but we hear the
oaths.
You enter into a railway carriage and you cannot always avoid hearing
conversation which is the reverse of pure. You go into your house and,
unless you are happily situated so that all are Christians, there will
be a great deal of which you cannot approve and which can be of no
benefit to your soul. Besides, the whole world runs after its own
idols–men each seek his own, and not the things of Christ–and all
these things are vanity. "Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, all is
vanity."
Our eyes are often fascinated by the glitter and the glare of these
vanities. The world puts on a very beauteous complexion. She attires
her head and paints her face like Jezebel. And it is not always easy,
like Jehu, to detest her, and to say, "Fling her down, and let the dogs
consume her." We have nothing to do with this vain world! We are not
citizens of
this land! But, truly, Madam Bubble, as Bunyan calls her, with her
purse and her person, continually presenting herself, is enough to make
even Standfast, himself, to stagger and even he needs to fall on his
knees, and cry, "Quicken Me, O Lord, and turn away my eyes from
beholding vanity."
There is thus a second good reason why we should seek for quickening.
Sometimes we shall have need to cry for quickening because we are
surrounded by deceivers. Turn to the 87th and 88th verses–"They had
almost consumed me upon earth; but I forsook not Your Precepts. Quicken
me after Your loving kindness; so shall I keep the testimony of Your
mouth." If you are often assailed by foes and if those foes happen to
be the men of your own household–if they jeer at your faith, if they
make a jest of holiness on purpose to pain you–you will need a great
deal of Divine Grace not to be ruffled.
To always be a dove–to be a dove in the midst of ravens. To always be
a lamb–to be a lamb in the midst of wolves–is not so easy. He must
have much spiritual life who shall be able, wisely and discreetly, to
behave himself in the midst of those who lie in wait to entrap him in
every word that he says. Remember how David acted in the court of Saul,
when Saul eyed him. Unsullied purity is the safest policy. Though Saul
eyed David, he could not see any fault or rake up any charge that he
could bring against him. Oh, that all of you young people, especially
those of you who are subjected to scorn and contempt because of your
fidelity to Christ, may be doubly blessed with Grace–may you be,
indeed, quickened to the full spiritual life that you may stand the
test of persecution and reproach, of suspicion and disparagement, of
misrepresentation and slander which is sure to come upon you!
Do not pray to be rid of the grievance–rather rejoice that you are
counted worthy to suffer shame for your Savior's sake! You may pray, if
you like, that the distress may be lightened because your strength is
small. You may pray that your flight is not in the winter–but do not
make that the special object of your petition. Rather pray for Grace to
endure it! Pray for life, spiritual life, that you may throw it off. I
suppose that, in order to prevent disease, it is a good thing to remove
the cause of the disease and take away everything that produces ill
savors in the air. But the sure thing is for the man himself to be
vigorous as to his own life.
I have no doubt many die in moderately healthy localities because they
have no stamina. They are constitutionally weak, while the young man
who is in robust health may even pass through a pestiferous district
and be for hours in the midst of malaria without falling a prey to its
deadly influence. And this simply because the life that is in him
resists the disease. Your business, dear Friend, if you live in the
midst of those that are set on fire by Hell–those who pour out venom
against you, is to pray– "Lord, quicken me that I may have so much
spiritual life that these evil influences may not be ruinous to me.
Deliver me from them when it is Your will, but meanwhile let me have
such a full tide of life that I may be able to endure what I must
encounter without being injured."
Another reason for seeking quickening will be found in the 107th verse:
"I am afflicted very much: quicken me, O Lord, according unto Your
Word." In seasons of affliction we are very apt to fall into a dark,
cold, dead state of mind. We have known many persons in poverty. I have
often been sorely pained by it–when members of this Church, who have
much, become very poor–and have given up attendance at the House of
God. I could understand their reasons far better than I could
appreciate them. Their pride was doubtless wounded, because they could
not dress as they used to do, though I am sure nobody here thinks any
better of you for dressing yourselves in fine clothes. I do not think
so much of you, myself.
As they could not dress quite so well they felt they could not mix as
they did with some with whom they were once equal in circumstances. So
they have gone out by the wayside. It is a sad thing when they do so. I
am much saddened by it. I hope none of you ever will. You ought to
think that you will be more welcome at the House of God when you are in
trouble than you ever were before! And if you lose your earthly
possessions, it is all the more reason why you should seek to hold
faster to the riches which are above.
If you are in pain, too, that kind of affliction has a great tendency
to distract the mind. Who can think when the brow is throbbing? Who can
be calm when every vein becomes a road for the hot feet of pain to
travel on? It is not easy. Well now, we have reason, when we feel weak,
when we feel that the mind is suffering in sympathy with the body, to
cry, "Lord, let Grace triumph over nature. Let Your Spirit have
power–Your blessed comforting Spirit–to lift me up above the weight
which now is laid upon me, that I may glory in tribulation because Your
power rests upon me."
You look upon a weight as a heavy matter which keeps you down, but
mechanics know how to make a weight raise you. A little adjustment of
ropes and pulleys and such-like contrivances, and the weight shall lift
you up! And the Lord knows how to make our afflictions minister to our
quickening, as we shall have to show you directly. But in themselves
they deaden us. They do not assist, but rather hinder and so, whenever
they come, then is the time for us to pray with special emphasis,
"Quicken me, O Lord, according to Your Word." Thus have I endeavored to
show you from the Psalm itself some of the reasons why we need
quickening.
II. Now, let us pass on to describe SOME OF THE MOTIVES FOR SEEKING
QUICKENING. There are very
many. Seek it because of what you are. You are a Christian and,
therefore, already alive unto God. Life seeks more life– it is its
natural tendency. If there is life in a tree, it seeks to put forth its
branches. And when it has had its spring growth spurt, you will notice
that it then begins to seek for its midsummer spurt. And when the
midsummer growth is over, the tree always has an eye to the growth of
the next spring! And before the old leaves go there is every
preparation made for the new leaves. Life is always aiming at more
life. It a law of Nature. There is a propagation continually
progressing in which life develops and multiplies itself. Now, if you
have the life implanted by the Holy Spirit, you will long for more. If
you do not long to have more life, it surely must be because you have
no life. The living man will be sure to cry to God that he may have
life more abundantly.
The next motive is not only because of what you are, but because of
what you ought to be. Here is a question for you which I will leave you
to answer–"What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy
conversation and godliness?" We like, sometimes, to work out a problem.
There is one to solve. Draw a picture, if you can, of what you ought to
be. I will tell you, if you draw that picture accurately, what it will
be like. It will be like Jesus Christ! That is the answer to this
question–"What manner of persons ought we to be?"
Now Christ was full of life. Although He did not strive or cry, or lift
up His voice, or cause it to be heard in the streets by way of seeking
after popular notoriety, yet what life was in Him! He was brimful of
life! There was nothing stagnant, indifferent, or purposeless in any of
His actions or in all His career. Why, the life of Christ was so full
that it seemed to flow out even onto His garments, so that when they
touched His garments, virtue went out of Him! How full must He have
been of the living force–the inward power! O Beloved, we ought to be
so! As we are redeemed, as we are quickened by Christ–as we are
members of His body, as we belong to Him–we ought to reckon ourselves
dead unto sin, but alive unto God by Jesus Christ!
Above all men that live, the Christian ought to live at the most
vigorous rate. We have a race to run! We must not creep and crawl, or
we shall not win the prize. We have a battle to fight! If we should
sheath our sword, put off our armor and go to sleep, how can we
overcome our enemies? We have an agony to endure, according to His
power that works in us mightily, and there cannot be this resisting
unto blood–striving against sin–unless all our passions are awakened
and all our powers are stirred for the wondrous inward strife. We ought
to ask for quickening because of what we ought to be.
Then, we ought to ask for quickening because of what we shall be. "It
does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall
appear we shall be like He, for we shall see Him as He is." Brothers
and Sisters, you are to be a pure spirit in Heaven! Be spiritual now!
Brothers and Sisters, you are to sing among the angels! Rehearse the
music now! Brothers and Sisters, you are to see His face that is as the
sun that shines in its strength! Let not your eyes be now sealed with
dust! Let them be clear, as clear as they can be in this misty
atmosphere of earth. Brothers and Sisters, you are to sit upon the
Throne with Christ, for He says, "As I have overcome, and have sat down
with My Father upon His Throne, so, also, shall you sit with Me upon My
Throne." Remember where you are to be and behave yourself accordingly!
You cannot maintain the dignity of your high calling, or your heavenly
destiny unless you have an abundance of spiritual life–so pray,
"Quicken me, O Lord."
Now, to come back to the Psalmist's own confessions and reflections. He
gives us another motive for seeking this in the 88th verse: "Quicken me
after Your loving kindness; so shall I keep the testimony of Your
mouth." We need quickening in order to obedience. If our life decays,
then the power of sin will get the mastery over us. We cannot go in the
way of obedience and punctuality and scrupulous care and inward
heartiness unless we are daily quickened. I am sure you want to be
holy, Brothers and Sisters. I am sure you do! Well, then, pray,
"Quicken me." There is no such thing as dead holiness–it must be
living holiness and you must be made alive in order to be obedient–for
there is no such thing
as dead obedience. Up to the altar of God they brought birds and they
brought beasts, but they never brought fish! Why? Because they could
not bring live fish and there must be no sacrifice presented to God but
that which has life! Ask for life, that you may have obedience!
Look at the 107th verse and you have another reason for seeking
quickening, because it will be your comfort. "I am afflicted very much:
quicken me, O Lord, according to Your Word." Or, better still, at the
50th verse, "This is my comfort in my affliction: for Your Word has
quickened me." Do you need comforting? Get quickening! Do not so much
ask the Lord to give you sweet promises, as to give you inward life,
for in life there is always light. "In Him was life, and the life was
the light of men." As the light is the life, the life is the light–and
when you get the life of God within your soul, you will get the comfort
of God. I urge you to seek quickening, then, if you are under any
distress, because it will be the quickest means of your finding
consolation in your trouble.
Look, also, at the 87th and the 88th verses, to which we have already
referred, and you will see that we ought to seek quickening as the best
security against attacks of enemies. We need not examine how we can
meet the foe, or with what argument we can refute his sophistries, or
with what weapons we can overthrow him. "Quicken me, O Lord," is still
the prayer, even though they threaten to consume us from off the face
of the earth! We have but to keep close to the precepts of God and pray
for quickening, and we shall be "more than conquerors through Him that
loved us." The use of the word, "quicken," will be seen in the 93rd
verse. "I will never forget Your Precepts: for with them you have
quickened
me."
We are always in danger of forgetting God's precepts. So, to invigorate
our memories and to fortify our hearts, we must get quickening. Nothing
can make a man so secure of walking rightly and defying all the attacks
of his enemies as the reception of spiritual life. The young man can
only cleanse his way by taking heed to it according to God's Word. But
he cannot take heed to his way if he is not alive in the way. Life is
the great thing. Look at a pool of water when it stands still–how it
becomes mantled over with weeds–how stagnant and defiled it is. But
give it vent and let it run down yonder brook among the stones–let it
leap in little cascades on its way down to the river. It is alive and
see how pure it gets, refining as it goes, dropping all the filthiness
it had accumulated before! It become sweeter and clearer because of
life! So it must be with us. We must have life!
We shall forget God's precepts, also, and lose the purity of life
unless quickening is abundantly given to us. If I needed some one
thrilling motive to awaken the reluctant, I would resort to this–the
terrible consequences of losing spiritual life. I do not mean the
effect of losing it, altogether, but of lacking it in its manifest
display. Alas that it should be so easy to give obvious illustrations!
But I could tell you of many congregations and Churches where there is
no evidence of vitality, growth or increase. It is as if they were all
dead. I do not say that there is no spiritual life, but there is none
in the sense in which I am using the term. They have fallen into a dead
sleep and the members of the Church are cold, apathetic, spiritless.
Life among them is at the lowest ebb. You cannot be sure they breathe.
By breathe I mean–a breath of prayer. Some of them have not been to a
Prayer Meeting, they could not tell when. Some do not know if they ever
were. And when they attend Lord's-Day services, not a few of them
literally sleep–and the rest of them sleep with their eyes open. The
minister is dozing, dreaming, snoring, talking in his sleep–that is
what his preaching is like. There is plenty of preaching like that–an
inarticulate snoring of the everlasting Gospel! The preacher, perhaps,
reads, or else he repeats what he has laboriously committed to memory
and says it as a school boy does his lesson–and he is glad when it is
over–for he considers that preaching twice on Sunday wears him out,
dear man!
And well it may, as he does it. It wears his people out as well. They
have no evangelical spirit. The surrounding neighborhood is not
evangelized by them. They do not increase–they do not think of
increasing. In fact, they get fewer as the good people go home to
Heaven. Any attempt to do anything there would be looked upon as "an
innovation." Yet they do something–they have a disturbance every now
and then. They hold what they call a, "Church meeting," which means, in
their case, a spiritual bear-garden in which they show their life. And
one minister after another is driven away–not that it is a fit place
for anybody to desire to go, you know, for there is very little to be
had except abuse. But still, that is the style of the thing–and there
are hundreds of churches in England in that condition.
O that the Lord would quicken them! May this place be reduced to ashes
and may the congregation be scattered to the four winds of Heaven
sooner than it should become a huge mausoleum, a catacomb of which it
may be said, "the dead
are there"! Ah, it is ill to have "the means of Grace" without the
Grace of the means–to have a name to live and to be dead! God save us
from it! Take heed to yourselves! Some of the members of this Church, I
fear, are getting into that condition! Yet not, I know, you that are
present this evening. You would not, most likely, have been here on
such a wet night as this if you had not some care for the things of
God.
I refer to those that are not here. When you get home tell them
so–tell them what I have said about it–and then perhaps they will
say, "Well, if the pastor always speaks severely of those who are not
there we had better go, so as to escape his censures."
III. Now let us mention briefly SOME OF THE WAYS BY WHICH THIS
QUICKENING MAY BE WORKED IN
US. Of course the Lord, Himself, must do it. In prayer it must be
sought because by His power it must be worked. The prayer is, "Quicken
me, O Lord, according to Your Word." He does not expect the quickening
from any but a Divine source. From where can life come but from the
ever living God? How can we expect that we should get life if, while we
seek the gratuity, we totally forget the Divine energy of Him who alone
can bestow it? In the 37th verse we are told how the Lord often
quickens His people, namely, by turning off their eyes from beholding
vanity. "Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken me in
Your way."
The Lord sometimes takes the vanity away of which we made our idol–or
else He takes us away from the idol and does not permit us to find any
contentment in it. Oh, it is half the battle to be weaned from the
creature! It is half the battle, I say, to get the eyes off vanity, for
then you are likely to get your eyes turned upon God! May He be
graciously pleased to quicken some of you in that way. In the 50th
verse we find that God quickens His people by His Word. "Your Word has
quickened me." And the part of the Word which He often blesses to this
end is remarkable, for, in the 93rd verse it is written, "I will never
forget Your Precepts; for with them You have quickened me."
Promises are quickening, doctrines are quickening, but David says,
"Your Precepts–with them you have quickened me." If we preach
frequently and earnestly the precepts of our Lord there are hearers who
will complain and say, "The minister is getting legal." No, Brothers
and Sisters, it is you that are getting dead, for when you are alive
you will love God's Laws and those precepts will quicken you. "But they
pain me," says one. That is often how people are quickened! While a
person is drowning, we have heard that his sensations are often really
delightful–but when he is fished out of the water, as soon as he
begins to recover life, the blood begins to tingle in the veins and the
pain is intense. The pain of returning life is something terrible.
Well, so it is with God's precepts when He quickens us with them. These
Laws pain us because they show us our shortcomings, expose to us our
faultiness and humble us. Brothers and Sisters–that is the way to be
quickened! When you are numbed, you know that is next door to being
dead. But when that numbed flesh of yours begins to come to life
again–you have felt it, you must have felt it–when the blood begins
to circulate by rubbing, a sharp pain is excited in the part that,
before, was numbed and painless. Be thankful for the pain–that is an
index of life. "I love Your Precepts, for with them you have quickened
me."
May the Lord apply a text of Scripture to your soul with power, or let
Him send a Word from the minister as he speaks in Jehovah's name with a
Divine force, and you will soon feel the effect. Though you appeared to
be dead, you will start up and begin to live again! Have you not often
found it so? Have you not often found great reviving come to your
sinking spirit? Pray the Lord to make His Word always thus vivifying
and inspiriting to you. In the 107th verse we have another means of
quickening which God frequently uses, namely, affliction. "I am
afflicted very much: quicken me, O Lord, according to Your Word." God
frequently employs adversity as a black poker to stir us up that the
flame of devotion may be brighter.
When you observe the fire in your sitting room getting dull and going
out, you do not always put more coals on, but you stir it–and
sometimes affliction does that for us. It stirs us and makes the life
which was languishing to briskly burst forth. Be thankful if God stirs
your fire. Then, again, this quickening is sometimes worked in us by
means of Divine comfort, as in the 50th verse–"This is my comfort, for
Your Word has quickened me." The great flush of comfort, the sudden
inflow of supreme joy when you were much depressed–this has greatly
cheered and invigorated you. At least I know it has often been so with
me.
When very despondent and sad at heart, I have felt a soft stream, as
though it were the Gulf Stream with its warm, genial temperature,
flowing into my soul, melting all the icebergs that had gathered round
my heart. and I have wondered what it was. How has my gratitude turned
to my gracious God and found sweet expression in that hymn–
"Your mercy is more than a match for my heart, Which wonders to feel
its own hardness depart, Dissolved by Your goodness, I fall to the
ground, And weep to the praise of the mercy I've found." You will often
have proved, I doubt not, how God uses the comfort of His Spirit to
quicken His children.
IV. Our last point is to enquire WHAT ARE OUR PLEAS WHEN WE COME BEFORE
GOD TO ASK FOR
QUICKENING? What arguments shall we use? Well, Brothers and Sisters,
use first the argument of your necessity. Whatever that necessity is,
particularize it, as David does in the 107th verse–"I am afflicted
very much; quicken me." Or take our text, "My soul cleaves to the dust,
quicken me." Plead your necessities! Your needs shall be the argument
for the oil and wine. Your emaciation and your hunger shall be the
argument for a festival. Show the Lord what you are and where you are.
Confess it before Him and this shall be good pleading.
Also plead, if it is in your power to do so, the earnest desire that
God has kindled in you. Read the 40th verse– "Behold I have longed for
Your Precepts; quicken me in Your righteousness." This is as much as to
say, "Lord, You have given me great longings after You. You gave me
these cravings–will You not satisfy them? Do You torture me with the
miseries of Tantalus? Do You grieve me with a thirst which You will not
gratify? Have You given me a hunger for the Bread of Heaven only for
the sake of torturing me?" Beloved, if you have a desire, you may
depend upon it, the desire of the righteous shall be granted. God does
not excite the appetite without providing the nourishment.
If He makes you hunger and thirst after righteousness, remember the
promise, "Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after
righteousness, for they shall be filled." They shall not have merely a
little, a crumb or two to stay their stomachs, but they shall be
filled! Go and plead that before God. "I have longed after Your
Precepts; quicken me in Your righteousness." There is the second plea.
And then you may find a third in the very righteousness of God, as we
have seen in the 40th verse. Appeal to His righteousness! Do I see you
start back abashed? Do I hear you say, "Oh no! I could not appeal to
that, for the righteousness of God must condemn me."
Stop a minute. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins." Why, the Justice of God is on the side of the man
who has received God's promise because it were unjust of God to break
it! He will not alter the thing that has gone out of His mouth! The
Lord has given His Word that He will give His people life. The very
fact of His having made them live at all is the proof that He means to
continue to make them live! Go and plead it, then. Say–"In Your
righteousness, oh Lord, quicken me." David is very often harping upon
that string. As I showed you in the reading, he twice appeals to God's
judgment, or His Justice, that He would quicken him.
Another, and a very sweet plea is that of God's loving kindness. Read
the 88th verse–"Quicken me after Your loving kindness." Look at the
149th verse–"Hear my voice according unto Your loving kindness: O
Lord, quicken me according to Your judgment." And so again in the 156th
verse–"Great are Your tender mercies, O Lord: quicken me according to
Your judgments." "You pitying God, give me more life. O You who wills
not the death of any, give me more life. O You that loves as a father
loves, give me more life! O You who have engraved me upon the palms of
Your hands, quicken me! Quicken me, I beseech You." Are they not
blessed pledges to lay hold on–His loving kindness and His tender
mercies? With such promises you will be sure to prevail!
And then what a comprehensive plea is that of our text–"Quicken me
according to Your Word." You have it in the 25th verse and you have it
in the hundred and seventh. He pleads the Word of God. What that Word
was that David had to appeal to, it would rather puzzle me to tell you.
His Bible was not so large nor near so full as ours. I do not find any
promise of quickening before David's time. Perhaps a special promise
had been given to him, or, at any rate, the promise is virtually in the
Pentateuch. But certainly, to us, there is abundant testimony to be
found in the Word of God, for our Lord Jesus Christ Himself has told
us–"Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never
thirst, but it shall be in him a well of water springing up into
everlasting life." "I give unto My sheep eternal life." The Son of man
has come not only that we might have life, but that we might have it
more abundantly!
Plead the promises, Brothers and Sisters! Plead the promises and, as
you plead them before the Lord, you may rest quite certain that God
will be as good as His Word and, if you can plead the promise, the
promise will be surely fulfilled
to you. Beloved in Christ, do tenderly watch over your spiritual life,
or otherwise you are hypocrites when you pray "quicken me." Take heed
lest you neglect the food of your souls! Do not go where your life
would be in danger! Do not seek worldly company, do not indulge in
worldly amusements. Keep out of all the deadening influences of the
world as much as you can.
Have you ever seen the Grotto del Cane near Naples? It has a deadly gas
at the bottom of it. They take a dog and throw him in and when they
drag him up the dog looks as if he were dead. But by the aid of a fresh
water bath he comes round again. As they thus kill the poor dog half a
dozen times a day, I do not envy him his experience. Indeed, I rather
think if I were that dog I would lose no time in seeking another
master! Yet there are some professing Christians that will go into bad
company–get into the bad gas of temptation–and then they go and hear
a sermon and get back their spiritual life. I would advise you not to
be like that poor dog, but to keep out of harm's way.
If you have life, do your best to maintain it and do not run the risk
of suspended animation. Knowing the worth and joy of life, yourself,
pray very earnestly that God would give it to others. Look on the dead
in sin, but not with stony eyes. Look on them with tears. Even if I
knew that my hearers must be lost, I would pray God to help me to weep
over them, because our Savior's tears over Jerusalem, you remember,
were accompanied with a distinct indication that Jerusalem would be
destroyed. "Oh, that you had known, even you, in this your day, the
things which make for your peace! But now are they hid from your eyes."
Still He wept.
We have no such terrible knowledge about the destiny of any man. We
look hopefully upon you unconverted people and we exhort you because we
expect you to believe in Jesus! We sincerely trust that you will be
saved and, therefore, we pray for you in hope. May the Lord in infinite
mercy lead you to feel for yourselves and pray for yourselves–
"Quicken me, O Lord!" Do you feel that prayer welling up from your
soul? Does it rise from your heart? Then, already there is something of
spiritual life there! Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall
have life, for He who said, "He that lives and believes in Me shall
never die," said also, "He that believes in Me, though He were dead,
yet shall He live."
God give you that living faith which is the token of the Divine life.
To Him be glory forever and ever! Amen.
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