"Mr. Moody's Text"
(No. 2541)
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, OCTOBER 31, 1897.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JUNE
15, 1884.
"I will trust and not be afraid." Isaiah 12:2.
I saw this text advertised as being printed in colors and it was
called, "Mr. Moody's Text." When I saw him yesterday, I asked him how
it was his text any more than it is mine. He said that he was sure he
did not know–he never called it his text, so far as he knew. Somebody
may have thought it a very proper text for him and so it is, but I lay
claim to the text, too, and I should advise every Christian to say,
"That is my text also." I would be very glad if some who are not
Christians should be brought, by the Grace of God, into the bonds of
the Covenant and should be able to lay hold on this text, and so say,
"I will trust and not be afraid." I told Mr. Moody that if it belonged
to nobody else in particular, it certainly was mine. He said, "How so?"
"Well," I replied, "I told my people the meaning of that text some time
ago." I said to you, dear Friends, that you might get to Heaven by the
Free Grace train if you did but get on board it anywhere, but that it
was always advisable, if you could, to travel first-class. I pointed
out the third-class carriage to you. This is it– "What time I am
afraid, I will trust in the Lord." If you get in there, you will go all
right to the journey's end, but it is much better to be where there are
nice, soft cushions to sit upon. This is the first-class carriage–"I
will trust and not be afraid." You are no safer, I suppose, in one
carriage than in the other, but, certainly, you are much more
comfortable in this first-class carriage! "I will trust and not be
afraid."
Having told that story, I claim the text as being my own. However, it
will be all the more mine by belonging to other people. I count that it
is rather a narrowing of a man's possessions when he cannot permit
others to enjoy them without losing the enjoyment of them, himself. But
it makes your treasure all the richer and the larger when everybody
else may have it and yet you, yourself, may have none the less. So is
it with this delightful text! I may say it. You may say it, my Brother,
and you, my Sister. And you, venerable Sir, and you, juvenile
Believer–you may each one say, by the Grace of God, "I will trust and
not be afraid."
The man, however, who dares to say it, and who ought to say it, is the
man described in this remarkable chapter of Isaiah. "In that day you
shall say, O Lord, I will praise You." The man who can truly say, "I
will trust and not be afraid," is the man who from his heart praises
God–the man who spends his breath and spends his life in magnifying
the Most High. Then the Prophet goes on, "I will praise You: though You
were angry with me." So that the man who can say, "I will trust and not
be afraid," is the man who has felt something of the anger of God, one
who has known what it is to come under the lash of the Law, but also
who has realized what it is to be delivered from its iron grip. He who
has never felt the burden of sin will, I think, never know the joy of
faith. What has he to trust about? What cause is there for his being
afraid when he does not see any sin in himself? But he who is
consciously a sinner is the man who can say, "I will trust and not be
afraid," when the Lord has forgiven him his sin.
Isaiah proceeds, "Though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned
away and You comforted me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust
and not be afraid." When your whole salvation is found in God,
especially in God as He reveals Himself in the Person of the Lord Jesus
Christ–when Christ is your Savior and has saved you from your sin
then, indeed, may you say, "I will trust and not be afraid."
It is in the hope that I am addressing many persons here of this
character that I have taken this text, "I will trust and not be
afraid." If I can, I am going to do four things with the text. First, I
am going to twist the text. Secondly, to untwist it. Thirdly, to press
it. And fourthly, to praise it.
I. First, then, I propose to do what you may think is a very horrible
thing, and what, as a rule, I will not do. That is, I am going to TWIST
THE TEXT.
Mark you, I shall not do this, myself–I only intend to tell you how a
great many persons twist it. They use most of the same words, but they
put them in the wrong position. For instance, one man says, "I will not
trust and yet I will not be afraid."He does not say, "I will trust and
not be afraid," but, "I will not trust and yet I will not be afraid. I
am no Believer in Christ. I do not need any Free Grace Gospel. I need
no mercy, for I am righteous, I have kept the Law. I shall not trust in
Jesus and yet I shall not be afraid." Alas, there are persons who do
not say that in words, but, in effect, that is exactly what they say!
They have no righteousness but their own and that is only filthy
rags–yet they say that they are rich, increased in goods and have need
of nothing. I heard of a man who wrote over his door these words, "Let
no evil person enter here." One of his neighbors remarked that if he
carried out his own orders, he would never be able to go into his own
house!
I am afraid that there are many people who think all others evil except
themselves, yet if they could but look within, they would discover that
the evil person not only lives in their house, but that his head is
under their hat! They are, in fact, themselves the evil persons, though
they think that they are righteous. Now, dear Friend, if you fancy that
you can live in this world wrapped up in yourself without being afraid.
If you suppose that you can, without fear, die clad only in your own
righteousness, I pray you do not be such a fool as to suppose that you
can wake up in the next world in your own righteousness and not be
afraid. Oh, if you had but a clear view of how defective and how
defiled your righteousness is in the sight of God, you would never dare
to put any confidence in it! Much better men than you, such for
instance as David, have cried, "Enter not into judgment with Your
servant: for in Your sight shall no man living be justified." The
Gospel teaches us that there is no salvation by our own works. If there
were, what need would there be of the work of Christ? What need of
yonder awful tragedy on Calvary if we could save ourselves and could
stand calm and quiet and fearless without a trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ? I do pray you, do not adopt such proud and boastful language as
to say, "I will not trust and yet I will not be afraid."
Are you an utter worldling? Do you say, "Give me plenty to eat and
drink, and I do not care about that faith of which you make so much. I
want ready cash! I want to have my portion now"? If that is the way you
talk, now, there may come a time when you will be quiet and alone, when
fear will steal over you. There may come a time of trouble when the
comforts of this world will vanish from you. There may come a season of
sickness when all your money bags, if they were laid upon your
suffering body, could not heal it, and when all your broad possessions
will only make it the harder to die, and leave them all! Do not try to
twist my text in that way, I do implore you, for it must be a losing
game for you if you say, "I will not trust and yet I win not be
afraid."
Then I have seen the text twisted another way, thus, "I will be afraid
and not trust." There are many people who are doing this. If they are
not saying it in words, they are practically doing it. They are
naturally timorous, they are afraid of many of the ordinary events that
happen in the Providence of God and they also have sufficient
conscience to know that they have done wrong in the sight of God–and
that sin must be punished. So they are afraid and they keep on being
afraid, for they will not trust in Christ Jesus to save them. This is a
very painful condition for anyone to be in–and if it should get still
more painful, I should not wonder–and neither should I particularly
pity the person who is in such a state. If he chooses to be afraid and
refuses to trust, whatever mischief follows upon such mistrust he
richly deserves. O Friend, if you are afraid, I do pray you to trust in
the Lord Jesus Christ! If you do not, I fear that one of these days you
will get to trust in your being afraid!
You ask, "How can I do that?" I have seen scores of persons who,
because they have felt the weight of sin, have begun to trust in their
convictions. They have said, "We are not like some whom we know. We
cannot sin without fearing the price of conscience. We are seeking the
Savior, we are desirous of finding Christ." Yet there they stick. I
heard one say that such a state of mind as that is often the doorstep
to Grace. So I believe it is, but if any of you go to your homes and
sit on the doorstep all night, I think it is highly probable that the
policeman will want to know what you are doing there. I should suspect
that you had taken something that had not done you any good if you sat
there all night! I would not recommend you to attempt it, even
literally. But, spiritually, it is a horrible thing to get to the
doorstep of Grace and sit there–to get to the doorstep of Heaven and
sit there, for outside of Heaven is Hell–even if it is the very
doorstep of Heaven!
If you are not in Christ, you are out of Christ! He that is not alive
is dead. He that is not washed is foul. He that is not regenerate is
unregenerate. There cannot be any space between these two–there is no
neutral border ground. I pray you, therefore, do not trust in your
being afraid! Do not settle down contentedly in that condition. I have
known people go in and out of the House of God for years and never
accept Christ. And they have grown to be confirmed doubters, confirmed
distrusters, confirmed despairers. Oh, I pray you, do not get into that
state! It is a horrible condition of heart! Instead of saying, "I will
be afraid and will not trust," may God the Holy Spirit sweetly incline
you to say, "I will trust and not be afraid."
There is a third class of people who twist my text in this way, "I will
trust and be afraid. " Again I confess that they do not say it, but
they doit, and actions speak louder than words. They trust yet they are
afraid. It looks as if that could not be, yet I have known some, about
whom I have been compelled to think, in the judgment of charity, that
they do trust and, therefore, that they are saved, yet, for all that,
they are very much afraid. Oh, these dear good inconsistent people!
They seem as if they were resolved to shut themselves out of the
Kingdom of God even while the door of Mercy stands wide open! The sun
is shining brightly, so they pull down all the blinds, and they cannot
be satisfied until they have excluded every ray of light. This is not
right, for, my dear doubting Friend, it brings no glory to God! It is
no recommendation of true religion and it is a stumbling block in the
way of a good many other people. If I am addressing any such persons,
young or old, I pray the Lord to enable them to give up this bad habit
of trusting and yet being afraid.
Be of good courage, you very, very timid ones, and alter your tone. Try
to put a, "Selah," into your life, as David often did in his Psalms.
Frequently he put in a, "Selah," and then he changed the key, directly.
In like manner, change the key of your singing–you are a great deal
too low. Let the harp strings be tightened up a bit and let us have no
more of these flat, mournful notes! Give us some other key, please, and
begin to say with the Prophet Isaiah, "O Lord, I will praise You:
though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away and You
comforted me. Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be
afraid."
II. Now, in the second place, I am going to untwist the text. That is
to say, I will try to spread it out a little, to show you what there is
in it, applying it to different instances in which it will be right and
proper for you to say, "I will trust and not be afraid."
And first, dear Friend, say this about trusting in Christ. "I will
trust and not be afraid." Some dear souls are afraid to trust Jesus. If
they better understood the matter, they would be afraid not to trust
Him. He commands us to trust Him and He has declared very plainly what
are the consequences of disobedience to this command–"He that believes
not shall be damned"–so that faith must be a duty, and unbelief a
terrible offense in the sight of God. Where it becomes a thoroughly
confirmed unbelief which masters the mind and heart, it is a truly
awful state for anyone to be in. Beloved, never be afraid of trusting
Christ! Lean hard on Him–lean your whole weight on Him. Come lay at
His feet your burdens, your sins, your cares, your troubles–nothing
delights our Lord more than being trusted–and the more we trust Him
the more we please Him. "Without faith it is impossible to please Him,"
but when you have faith, then you may lay what you will on the great
Burden-Bearer, "casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you,"
saying, as you do so, "I will trust and never be afraid of trusting
Jesus; but I will be afraid of distrusting Him."
O dear Friends, never be afraid of Jesus! Do you fear Immanuel, or
dread the Lamb of God? The Lamb is a beautiful emblem of Christ–what
little child is afraid of a lamb? He might be afraid of a young lion,
but even an infant will put its hand on a lamb and play with it without
the slightest fear. Never be afraid of coming to Christ! As I have
often told you, you need a Mediator between yourselves and God, but you
need no Mediator between yourselves and the Mediator, the Man Christ
Jesus! That were to make the Mediator of no use to you. Come to Him
just as you are and say, "I will not be afraid of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I will trust Him and not be afraid."
Go on to say, "I will trust and not be afraid concerning all my past
sinfulness. It is enough to make me afraid, but I have read in the
Scriptures that, 'the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from
all sin.' And that, 'all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven
unto men.' So then, I, red-handed, black as Hell's most profound night,
am not afraid to come and wash in the Fountain filled with blood,
crying to the Lord as I do it, 'Wash me and I shall be whiter than
snow–yes, whiter than snow.'" O Beloved, trust in Jesus and be not
afraid, whatever your iniquity and transgression may have been in the
past, for He shall blot out as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and
as a cloud your sins!
As for present sinfulness, your heart is very sinful, "deceitful above
all things, and desperately wicked," but you may say, even concerning
that, "I will trust and not be afraid," for the Lord has said, "A new
heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you." He
can make you pure and holy! He can give you a heart of flesh, tender
and sensitive to the movements of His Divine Spirit. You shall have a
new nature, having within it a living and incorruptible seed which
lives and abides forever!
Now I want you to go a stage further, if you can, and say, "I will
trust and not be afraid about anything concerning which I dare trust."
There are some things about which you cannot trust God. If you go into
evil company, you may not say, "I will trust God that I shall not be
injured." If you begin to frequent places of questionable amusement,
you may not say, "I trust God that I may go in and out of this place
and yet not take any disease." That is presumption, not faith! But
whenever you trust God about your cares, your troubles, or whatever it
may be, say to yourself concerning this, also, "I will trust and not be
afraid." Is it not a blessed thing that all the needs of God's people
can be readily supplied by their God? It has been calculated that to
feed the children of Israel in the wilderness, it must have required a
hundred thousand bushels of manna every day. Now, you young people, set
to work and calculate how much that makes in 40 years! From where did
it all come? Well, as far as the eye could see, it came from
nowhere–yet it fell everywhere! If you were in need of a hundred
thousand bushels of wheat tomorrow–I mean, if you, as a Child of God,
really needed it, God could get that where he got the hundred thousand
bushels of manna every morning–that is, out of His own
All-Sufficiency. He can certainly supply all your needs–therefore say,
"I will trust and not be afraid about anything and about everything
that is a lawful subject of trust. Whatever God calls me to be, to do,
or to suffer, I will trust in Him and not be afraid."
I desire always to do this as God's minister. I have not always done
it, I am sorry to say, yet I wish to do it. Did you ever notice this
one thing about Christian ministers, that they need even more mercy
than other people? Possibly someone asks, "How do you know that?" Well,
I feel quite safe when I am following the Apostle Paul. And if you look
through his Epistles to the Romans, to the Corinthians, to the
Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalo-nians and to
Philemon, you will see what blessings he wishes to the people at the
beginning of each letter. Or if it is not quite at the beginning, it is
a few verses down–"Grace unto you, and peace." You remember that Paul
also wrote three Epistles to ministers–there are two to Timothy and
one to Titus. What does he say to them? He says, "Grace, mercy, and
peace, from God our Father, and Jesus Christ our Lord," as if he
thought that, although everybody needs mercy, ministers need it more
than anybody else!
And so we do, for if we are not faithful, we shall be greater sinners,
even, than our hearers, and it needs much Grace for us always to be
faithful–and much mercy will be required to cover our shortcomings. So
I shall take those three things to myself–"Grace, mercy, and peace."
You may have the two, "Grace and peace," but I need mercy more than any
of you. So I take it from my Lord's loving hands and I will trust and
not be afraid, despite all my shortcomings, and feebleness, and
blunders, and mistakes in the course of my whole ministry. I will still
cast all my burden upon my blessed Lord and will still go on trusting
and not being afraid. But, dear Friends, you may do the same–let us
all do it! God help us to do it, from this time forth, and He shall
have all the glory!
III. I shall only occupy a very few minutes over the other two points.
I have twisted the text and untwisted it. Now I have to PRESS IT HOME
UPON YOUR HEARTS.
"I will trust and not be afraid," because, if I am afraid, it will
dishonor God. If I trust God and then am afraid, it will bring disgrace
upon His name. What am I afraid of? If He has given me a promise and I
trust it, why should I be afraid? Am I afraid that He cannot fulfill
it? Let not any of us get like Moses when he said, "The people, among
whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen; and You have said, I will
give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month. Shall the flocks and
the herds be slain for them to suffice them? Or shall all the fish of
the sea be gathered together for them to suffice them?" Moses had got
into a questioning state of mind, but God said to him, "Is the Lord's
hand waxed short? You shall see, now, whether My word shall come to
pass unto you or not." God can certainly fulfill His promise, whatever
the promise may be. Why be afraid, then? Are you afraid that He will
not fulfill His promise? That is a slur upon His honor, upon His Truth,
upon His faithfulness!
"Oh, but I cannot think that He would fulfill His promise to me!" You
must have a very strange code of morality, I should think, to talk like
that! Do you imagine that a man may break his promise to another if
that other happens to turn out badly? Why, if I made a promise to the
devil, and it were a proper promise for me to make, I would keep it! I
should not consider that I had any right to run back from my pledged
word because the person to whom I promised to give something was not
what he should be! And depend upon it, God will keep His promise
whatever youmay be. "If we believe not, He abides faithful: He cannot
deny Himself." Do not, therefore, doubt either God's power or His
willingness to fulfill His promise to you.
"Ah," you say, "I know that He used to keep His promise, and that He
blessed Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Joseph, and David, and
Daniel, and many more." And has God changed since then? Has He become a
fickle God? Oh, you slander Him by the very thought! It verges upon
blasphemy! He who was true to Abraham will be true to all who trust
Him. He has never been false to anyone yet and He never will be. He is
the same yesterday, and today, and forever– an Immutable God, keeping
His Word from generation to generation and departing not from the
Covenant which He has made with the sons of men. Oh, trust Him and be
not afraid, or else you will dishonor His holy name! You would not wish
to do that, I am sure.
Again, trust Him, and be not afraid, or else you will greatly plague
yourself Do you not think that by not trusting God we often make rods
for our own backs? We think we can foresee a great trouble which very
likely will never come. I knew one good old soul who used to worry
herself about whether she would have enough money left to bury her.
That is a trouble which, I confess, will never occur to me–I think
that people will be quite willing to bury me, whether I provide for it
or not–sooner or later, they will attend to that! [Brother Spurgeon
went Home almost six years before this sermon was published.] But it
did trouble the poor old lady very much. She said that if she lived to
be 80, all her money would be spent. She was then just about 70, and
she died that year–so she had worried about 10 years which she
afterwards spent in Heaven! What was the good of all that fretting?
"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof?" Do not import from
tomorrow the sorrow which belongs to it, but leave all your cares and
anxieties in the hands of God, or else you may worry, and trouble, and
fret, and vex, and grieve yourself and, worse still, you will also
grieve the Spirit of God!
Permit me to also add that I would earnestly entreat you to trust and
not be afraid, or else you will be a worry to other people. It is our
duty to bear with sad people and I hope we do, but when there are
people who have nothing to be sad about, it is an extraordinary tax
upon patience which ought not to be levied! There is enough misery in
this world without you and me making an unnecessary pennyworth of it–
"Oyou banished seed, be glad!" You are the children of the happy God.
Rouse yourselves up and spread all around you an atmosphere of
cheerfulness and joy, as you sing, "I will trust and not be afraid."
If you do not trust, you will get more and more afraid. If you do not
strive against your fear, and pray against it, you will, at last, get
to be afraid to be indoors for fear a stack of chimneys should fall
upon the house. You will be afraid to go into the street lest a tile
should be blown from the roof. You will be afraid to go to sleep lest
you should die before you awake–and you will be afraid to keep awake
for fear you should meet any new trouble. You will get to be like an
aspen leaf, forever trembling! Instead of being in this wretched state,
the Christian should ask God that he may be courageous–and faith is a
grand support to courage and steadfastness. Nothing can occur to us but
what God ordains! Nothing can happen to the Believer but what God has
prepared or permitted for him. Put on the whole armor of God and you
shall be, from head to foot, covered against all the fiery darts of the
Wicked One.
Then, indeed, you may trust and not be afraid! God grant that our text
may be so pressed home upon our hearts that we may at once begin to be
more cheerful if we have been dull and sad in the past!
IV. Now, lastly, I am going to praise the text and then I shall have
done. O Brothers and Sisters, if you can say, "I will trust and not be
afraid," how bold you will be! You will go forward in duty. You will go
forward in service. You will go forward in the confession of Christ
before men, not asking whether men like it or dislike it, for while you
trust in God you will not be afraid of men! I daresay you have heard
the story of a certain boy who went to sea. On his first voyage, the
captain said to him, "Can you climb?" He answered, "Oh, yes!" He
thought he could climb, for he had been up an old tree at home after a
raven's nest. So, after a time, the captain told him to climb the mast
to attend to something up aloft. As the ship plunged into the trough of
the sea and then rose, again, to the crest of the waves, and the poor
boy felt the mast swaying to and fro as the tree in the garden had
never done, he began to feel very strange and he feared that he would
fall.
The good captain, who was watching him and who thought it very likely
that he wouldfall, shouted out to him, "Boy, look up! Look up!" He did
look up and that saved him! He had been growing dizzy and would have
fallen if he had continued looking at the waves–and then he would have
been killed. But when he looked up, everything above was all right. The
sun does not reel to and fro! So looking up, the lad forgot his fears,
performed his duty and descended in safety. You will find that the best
thing for you to do, also, my dear Brothers and Sisters, is to look up!
When you have been looking down and all around you, and you have begun
to tremble and to fear that you will fall, look up, look up! Say, "I
will trust and not be afraid"–and that looking up will make you bold
in your Master's service!
Then, again, I press this text upon you because it will make you wise.
I am sure that many a man has done a wrong thing through being afraid.
It is the man on board the boat who gets to worrying and moving
about–who causes confusion and upsets the craft. But the person who
knows that he cannot do anything by worrying or leaping from one side
to the other, who just keeps his place and does the proper thing–then
the boat goes on all right. Here is a man in the market. He is dealing
in certain goods and, somehow, everything seems to go against him. Now,
if he frets, and worries, and says, "I shall get into The Gazette, I
know that I shall," it is very likely that he will. But if he is wise
enough just to step aside into some quiet comer and there stand still
and pray–all will be well. No one but the Lord heard what he said, but
that did not matter. Just speaking to God in that fashion quiets his
mind and calms his spirit. And when he comes back, he seems to say to
himself, "Now I am ready for anything. I am cool and restful and I can
see what I ought to do because I am not afraid. I am trusting in God."
If you are afraid, you cannot win the battle of life. You must have
courage, and courage can only come to you through faith. Therefore,
again I press the text upon you–say from your heart, "I will trust and
not be afraid"–and you will do the wisest thing that can possibly be
done.
Then, how strong you will be–so strong that you will be able to
communicate your strength to others! When that ship, Castor and Pollux,
was tossed about on the sea, everybody on board was in a tremble except
one man–a little Jew whom they all despised, at first, but whom they
all came to honor. You know the story–"And when neither sun nor stars
in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we
should be saved was then taken away. But after long abstinence Paul
stood forth in the midst of them and said, Sirs, you should have
hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained
this harm and loss. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there
shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship. For
there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I
serve, saying, Fear not, Paul; you must be brought before Caesar: and,
lo, God has given you all them that sail with you. Therefore, Sirs, be
of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told
me."
Then later on, Paul said, "This day is the fourteenth day that you have
tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing. Therefore I pray
you to take some meat: for this is for your health: for there shall not
an hair fall from the head of any of you. And when he had thus spoken,
he took bread, and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all: and
when he had broken it, he began to eat. Then were they all of good
cheer, and they also took some meat." That was the very best thing for
them all–what can a sailor do when he has not had anything to eat?
What can any of us do when we get starved? So they all ate and were
strengthened, and when the time came for action, they were ready for
it. It was Paul's calm confidence in God that was the means of saving
all who were in that vessel.
O dear child of God, if you can be like that brave man, you will be a
great blessing wherever you are! And then, lastly, how happy you will
be! If you can say, "I will trust and not be afraid," you will be as
happy as the days are long at mid-summer and your heart shall sing as
do the birds in the early morning! And your soul shall be like a
watered garden in the flowery month of June and you, yourself, shall
have two heavens–a Heaven on earth and then the eternal Heaven above!
You shall go from glory unto glory, God Himself being with you. I pray
the Holy Spirit, Himself, to write this message on your hearts, "I will
trust and not be afraid."
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM27.
Verse 1. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?f a
man has a light that can never go out, a sun which will never set and a
salvation which must always save–and God is all that and more to
everyone who trusts him–then what ground has he for fear?
1. The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? If I
live in Him and He lives in me, who can kill me? Who can hurt me? If He
is my strength, what duty will be impossible? What suffering will crush
me? "Of whom shall I be afraid?"
2. When the wicked, even my enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up
my flesh, they stumbled and fell They were both wicked in character and
fierce in disposition, for they had resolved to eat him right up, as
wild beasts might have done. They were successful as far as they were
permitted to go, for he says, "They came upon me." Yet he needed not to
lift either sword or spear against them, for "they stumbled and fell"
of themselves. Such is the power of God that He soon discovers the
weakness of the adversaries of His people.
3. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear It
is then that we mostly do fear, before the fight begins, when the enemy
lies encamped against us. We do not know how strong is the foe, nor
what mischief he is going to do to us–and the uncertainty often brings
a dread with it. Yet, says the Psalmist, "though an host should encamp
against me, my heart shall not fear."
3. Though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident Let
my enemies begin the battle, let the noise and the smoke and the dust
of the fight surround me, I will still be–
"Calm 'mid the bewildering cry, Confident of victory."
4. One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after It is a
grand thing to get your heart so focused that it has but one
desire–and then to be aroused to the practical pursuit of that one
object.
4. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in His temple. Is it
possible for a man to live in God's house all his days? Oh, yes Good
men do not desire impossibilities. "But," you say, "we cannot always be
in the Church or the Meeting House." No, and even if you were, you
might not be in God's house any the more for that! But to be like a
child at home with God wherever you may be. To live in Him and with Him
wherever you are, this is to dwell in the house of the Lord all the
days of your life! You may begin dwelling in the lower rooms of that
house even now and, by-and-by, He will call to you and say, "Friend,
come up higher," and you will ascend to the Upper Room where the
glorified dwell forever with their God. It is my one desire always to
be–
"No more a stranger or a guest, But like a child at home,"
at home with my God all the days of my life, that I may behold His
unutterable beauty and that I may enquire in His temple what is His
will and what are the exceedingly great and precious promises which He
has made to me in His Word.
5. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion. If you
live in God, it matters little whether you have trouble or delight, for
you shall be hidden in His pavilion!
5. In the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me up
upon a rock There is the pavilion of Sovereignty. There is the
tabernacle of Sacrifice. There is the Rock of Immutability and he who
can get in or on those three places is the safest man under Heaven!
Hidden in God's royal tent, secreted in the innermost shrine of
Deity–the Holy of Holies–and set up by the Lord, Himself, upon an
uncrumbling rock, what more can he desire?
6. And now shall my head be lifted up above my enemies round about me.
Therefore will I offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I will
sing, yes, I will sing praises unto the LORD. David always comes back
to his God. No, he never goes away from Him. Trusting Him, praising
Him, adoring Him–this is the very life of this Psalm, as it ought to
be of our whole life. The Psalmist says, "I will sing." But the next
verse is–
7. Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice–have mercy also upon me and
answer me. One moment he praises and the next moment he prays! That is
quite right. I have often said to you that we live by breathing in and
breathing out. We breathe in the atmosphere of Heaven by prayer and we
breathe it out again by praise. Prayer and praise make up the
essentials of the Christian's life. Oh, for more of them–not prayer
without praise, nor praise without prayer! Prayer and praise, like the
two horses in Pharaoh's chariot, make our Christian life to run
smoothly and swiftly to God's honor and glory.
8. When You said, Seek you My face; my heart said unto You, Your face,
Lord, wiil I seek As if it were an echo, "Your face, Lord, will I
seek." And he did seek it and seek it at once. But, oh, there are many
who have long been called to seek God's face who have never obeyed the
summons! Are you among that number? If so, the Lord have mercy upon you
and call you, yet again! When He says, "Seek you My face," answer,
"Your face, Lord, will I seek."
9. Hide not Your face far from me; put not Your servant away in anger:
You have been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my
salvation. This is grand praying on the part of David! He pleads the
past as a reason for mercy in the present–"You have been my help;
leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation." It is a very
bad thing to live on past experiences, alone. We need fresh visitations
from God. Old manna and old experiences soon become corrupt, but you
can make some use of your past experience. As you may have seen the
bargeman down on the canal, you may push backward to send your boat
forward. Sometimes, when you have but little hope within you, you may
recollect what God did for you in the past–and then you can plead with
Him to do the same again–"You have been my help; leave me not, neither
forsake me, O God of my salvation."
10. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me
up. "My father and my mother are the last to forsake me. They were the
first to love me, and they will be the last to leave me, but if they do
leave me, then Jehovah will take me up and He will be both father and
mother to me." Just as it was said to Naomi concerning Ruth, "Your
daughter-in-law, which loves you, is better to you than seven sons," so
may the Lord say to His bereaved people, "Am I not better unto you than
father, or mother, or sister, or children, or wife, or husband? Am I
not better than all beside? Can you not find all in Me?" "The Lord will
take me up." What a beautiful figure this is! The child seems deserted,
but God takes it up and carries it in His bosom. "Oh, I am no child!"
says one. But do you not recollect that precious text, "Even to your
old age I am He; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you"–you old ones
as well as young ones–"I have made, and I will bear; even I will
carry, and will deliver you." It is well to be bereft of every earthly
confidence that we may be taken up by God alone.
11. Teach me Your way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of
my enemies. ' 'Make it clear what I ought to do. Make it so clear that
I shall do it. Let me not try to excuse myself, but may my way be so
plainly upright and true that even my enemies cannot say anything
against me! 'Lead me in a plain path, because of my enemies.'"
12. Deliver me not over unto the will of my enemies: for false
witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.
"Cruelty is their very breath. Lord, save me from their cruelty!"
13. I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.' 'I had fainted, unless I had believed." You
have the choice between these two things–you must either faint or have
faith. Faith is the blessed smelling salts that will often prevent a
fainting fit. Get but a sniff of the promises, do but know how strong
they are, and your poor flagging spirit will revive! "I had fainted,
unless I had believed to see." What? "Believed to see? "That is David's
way of putting it. Many want to see to believe–that is our carnal way,
but the faith way, the gracious way is, "I had fainted, unless I had
believed to see the goodness of Jehovah in the land of the living."
14. Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your
heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. He is worth waiting upon! God help us
all to wait on Him, for His dear name's sake! Amen.