Prayer for the Church
(No. 2788)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JULY 20, 1902.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, JUNE
20, 1878.
"Cause Your face to shine upon Your sanctuary." Daniel 9:17.
A TRUE-HEARTED Believer does not live for himself. Where there is
abundance of Grace and great strength of mind in the service of God,
there is sure to be a spirit of unselfishness. It was so with Daniel,
who was a model man in the matter of decision of character and a holy,
believing walk before the Lord. That "man greatly beloved" was, in all
respects, faithful to his convictions. No lion's den could silence his
courageous prayer. No presence of mighty monarch or of his festive
guests could turn him aside from delivering his fateful message.
Yet Daniel was not satisfied. Whatever might be his own condition, he
remembered what Jerusalem was and what the people to whom he belonged
were and, in the depths of his soul he sorrowed, notwithstanding all
that God's Grace had worked within him. I firmly believe that the
better a man's own character becomes and the more joy in the Lord he
has in his own heart, the more capable is he of sympathetic sorrow and,
probably, the more of it he will have. If you have room in your soul
for sacred joy, you have equal room for holy grief and, depend upon it,
you will have both of these emotions if the Lord has perfectly
consecrated you and purposes to use you for His Glory.
Daniel was also a man of many visions. With the exception of John, whom
Daniel greatly resembles, it has scarcely fallen to the lot of any man,
unless it is Ezekiel, to have so many wondrous visions of God. Yet his
visions did not make him visionary. There are many persons who could
not be trusted to see the tip of an angel's wing–for they would become
so proud, afterwards, that there would be no holding them. But he who
is fully consecrated to God may see vision after vision and he will
make a practical use of what he sees–and try to find out something to
be done, something to be repented of, something to be prayed
for–something that shall be for the good of the Church of God.
Daniel had also been studying the prophecies, and he knew, by what he
had discovered, when certain predictions would be fulfilled. But he was
not, like some students of prophecy in our day, utterly unpractical.
They seem to be so taken up with the future that they do nothing in the
present! They are so fully occupied in looking up to the sky, with
their mouths wide open, waiting for the coming of the Lord, that they
forget that the very best way to wait for the coming of the Master is
to be found doing His will! "Blessed is that servant whom his Lord,
when He comes, shall find so doing." What Daniel learned from the study
of the Sacred Books, he turned to practical account and, finding that a
certain time was near, of which good things were foretold, he set his
face toward the Lord and began to pray–not for himself, but for his
people, many of whom were at Jerusalem, hundreds of miles away from
him, or scattered in various places all over the face of the earth. For
them he used those bright and sparkling eyes which had looked up into
the celestial fires. For them he used that thoughtful and enlightened
mind which had studied the Oracles of God. For them he used those knees
which were so familiar with the attitude of prayer and, getting alone
by himself, he wrestled mightily–as Jacob had done of old–only
Daniel's pleading was for a far greater number of people who were in a
still direr trouble–and he, too, wrestled until he came off more than
a conqueror!
I am anxious, dear Friends, that Daniel's prayer should, by the
blessing of God's Spirit, inspire us with the spirit of prayer–and
that his example, in forgetting himself and remembering his people,
would help us to be unselfish and lead us to care for our people–even
God's people–to whom we have the honor and privilege to belong.
Patriotism is an
instinct which is found, I think, in every true Englishman. And most of
the other nations of the earth can also boast of their patriots. Let it
never be said that the Church of God has no feeling of patriotism for
the Holy City, for the Heavenly Land and for her glorious King
enthroned above. To us, Christian patriotism means love to the Church
of God, for–
"There our best friends, our kindred dwell, There God our Savior
reigns."
Let us have loyalty, by all means, but, chiefly, loyalty to Christ! Let
us have true patriotism, but, especially that patriotism which consists
in love to "the land of the living" of which Christ is the one King and
Ruler.
In meditating upon Daniel's prayer, "Cause Your face to shine upon Your
sanctuary," I shall, first of all, speak upon the holy place–"Your
sanctuary." Then, secondly, we will consider the earnest prayer itself.
And, lastly, we will think of the conduct consistent with such a prayer
as this.
I. First, then, Daniel speaks of THE HOLY PLACE. "Your sanctuary." Of
course, he refers to the Temple at Jerusalem, which was then in utter
ruin. It had been broken down and burned by the Chaldeans and Daniel,
therefore, rightly calls it desolate–but fervently prays that God
would cause His face to shine even upon its ruins!
My first remark is that the Temple at Jerusalem was typical of the
Church of God. We are never to regard any building now upon earth as a
sanctuary, a holy place. We do, very incorrectly, speak of places as
being consecrated to Divine worship, but it is utterly impossible that
there should be any more holiness in any one building than in another.
Holiness is not an attribute of material substances–it does not
appertain to iron, stone, mortar, brick, or timber. It is something
which belongs to the mind and to the spirit of man and, from the time
of our Lord, there has been no building which was even typically holy.
Sitting on the well at Sychar, he said to the woman of Samaria, "The
hour comes when you shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at
Jerusalem, worship the Father…The hour comes and now is, when the
true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for
the Father seeks such to worship Him." Stephen declared to the Jewish
Sanhedrim, "The Most High dwells not in temples made with hands," and
proved the truth of his statement by quoting the Lord's own declaration
by the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah, "Heaven is My throne, and earth is
My footstool: what house will you build Me? says the Lord." Talk of
holy buildings–can anything that man has made be as holy as yon bright
blue sky which the Lord has spread out like a curtain, and as a tent to
dwell in? Talk of hlywater–can any water be holier than that which
drops in blessed showers straight from Heaven?
"But," says someone, "if the Temple was typical, of what was it a type?
Why, of the Church of God! There is still a Temple upon the earth, but
it is a Temple not made with hands–a Temple reared not by human
masons, and hewers of stone, and carpenters, and other artificers, but
built by God Himself! This Temple is the Church of God. "Which church?"
asks someone. There never was more than one–that is, the Church which
Christ has redeemed with His own blood. The living stones, which
compose this living Temple, were all chosen by God from before the
foundation of the world! They are, one by one, being quarried by
effectual Grace and built up by the power of the Divine Spirit, so as
to grow unto a holy Temple in the Lord!
So we learn that as the Temple was typical, so also was it unique.
There were never two temples at one time. True, there was a second,
which was built upon the foundations of the first. Still, there was
only one at a time–the second was the continuation of the former one
with less of splendor. All through the land of Canaan there was only
one spot where sacrifice might be lawfully offered–only one shrine
where, on high occasions, the multitudes met together for worship. And,
in like manner, there is only one Church of our Lord Jesus Christ.
"Which church is that?" someone again asks. None of them all–but there
are some people, in all the visible churches, who belong to the one
sanctuary of God. We may hope that even in those churches which have
most departed from primitive simplicity, there is a remnant according
to the election of Grace! And that there is a still larger proportion
among those who keep more closely to the Word of God and to the Truth
of God as it is in Jesus. You cannot say of any part, or of the whole
of what is called the visible church, that it is the sanctuary of
God–it is a sort of shell in which the real Church of God is encased
and which it helps, perhaps, to preserve–but which it also certainly
disfigures.
There is an elect people to be found on earth. Do you ask, "Who are
they?" I answer, "The Lord knows them that are His." They are a people
redeemed from among men by a special and peculiar purchase of our
Lord–a people quickened with one life, in whom there is but one living
and incorruptible seed, which lives and abides forever–a people in
mystical, real, spiritual, indissoluble union with their great Covenant
Head, the Lord Jesus Christ–a people who are,
some of them, very poor and quite unknown. Some of them, however, are
in the high places of the earth–a few may be found even there. They
are scattered up and down in the world and some of them do not know one
another, but the Lord knows them all. And whether they know it or not,
there is a communion between them all.
Some friends talk about exclusive communion, but it is impossible to
practice such a thing, for all true communion is with Christ the Head,
and also with all the rest of the members, just as, in the body, every
member communicates with every other member and, unless it should cut
itself off, and kill itself, it must commune with all the rest. It may
tie little pieces of red tape around itself and try to stop the
circulation of the blood, but, as long as there is life, the heart
beats through the whole body. Every pulse has its effect upon the
whole, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot– and so is
it with the communion of saints. We are all one body! One life pulsates
through all the living Church of the living God. There was but one
Temple and there is but one Church.
People try to get a visible form of that one Church, but I believe that
is utterly impossible. The Church of Rome claims to be that one
Church–and we know what sort of a church it is! And, on the other
hand, there are certain brethren who profess to be the one assembly of
God. Well, I will not say what kind of church they have made, but I
believe that all schemes for comprehending all the saints in one
visible church must fail. Adam never saw Eve until God had perfectly
fashioned her–and you will never see the Church, the Bride of Christ,
till she is perfect and complete! And when she is, you will clap your
hands with joy at the sight of the exquisite beauty which God shall
have given to her before she is presented to her Heavenly Bridegroom.
The process of perfecting her is going on now–and Christ's Bride is
being "curiously worked" out of material taken from Christ's own side.
And she will be able to say to Him, "Your eyes did see my substance,
yet being unperfected." Yes, He sees and He knows it all.
There was but one Temple, then, and there is but one Church, the
sanctuary of God, and for that Church we ought to pray. This should
correct the idea of some who, when they pray for God to bless His
sanctuary, mean, "Lord, bless little Bethel! or, "Lord, bless the
parish church!" or, "Lord, bless the extremely orthodox community to
which I belong!" or "Lord, bless the select few that gather to hear our
dear minister!" I say, "The Lord bless all who love our Lord Jesus
Christ in sincerity and, wherever there lives upon the face of the
earth a man who has anything of the Grace of God in him, the Lord lift
up His Countenance upon him! May He deliver him from all errors and
mistakes into which even God's children fall in a measure, and may He
bring them all to the one Lord, the one faith and the one baptism!" If
there is good evidence that anyone is, indeed, a living one in God's
one true, spiritual Temple, shall we not all wish every blessing to
such an one in the name of the Most High?
The Temple at Jerusalem was, further, the fabric of wisdom. It could
only have been built by a Solomon. And Solomon found a band of men whom
God had prepared to carry out the extraordinary work of the Temple,
for, from its marvelous foundations, which have been lately uncovered,
even to its topmost pinnacle, it excelled all the architecture which
the world had ever seen! But the Church which God is erecting is a far
more wonderful work of wisdom infinitely superior to that of Solomon!
Wisdom planned it in election. Wisdom has worked marvelously and
continues to work in the calling out of the saints. Wisdom fits each
living stone for its proper place and puts each one into its right
position. When it shall be all finished, it will be the marvel of all
intelligence as they see what a matchless sanctuary God, and not man,
has reared, and note how, in every single detail, His Infinite Wisdom
is manifest!
The Temple that Solomon built was also the result of great cost.
Immense wealth was lavished upon it and you do not need that I should
try to tell you at what cost the Lord is building up His true sanctuary
here among men. The cost of any one of us, if we are, indeed, living
stones, no arithmetic can ever calculate! Nowhere but in the heart of
Christ could our ransom price be found–and even that heart had to be
pierced to find it. Well does Peter say, "You were not redeemed with
corruptible things, as silver and gold…but with the precious blood of
Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." How marvelous,
then, is that Temple which is erected at such a cost! Everything about
it is according to God's riches in Glory by Christ Jesus. Solomon's
Temple, glorious though it was, had not about the whole edifice so much
of splendor as God displays in even the least of the living stones
which He builds upon the one foundation, Jesus Christ our Lord!
Again, the Temple of old was the shrine of God's indwelling. It was the
one place under the old dispensation of types, now done away with,
where God dwelt in visible manifestation among His ancient people. We
are told that a peculiar light shone between the wings of the cherubim
over the Ark of the Covenant and that pillar, which looked like a
cloud by day, flamed like a mighty beacon by night! It was there that
men must go, or, at least, to that spot that they must look if they
sought the Lord. And therefore it was that Daniel worshipped and prayed
with his windows open toward Jerusalem. At the present time, the one
place in all the world, where God dwells, is His Church. You can find
Him anywhere upon the earth as the Creator, but the Glory of the
Godhead comes out most brilliantly in Redemption, for it is of His
redeemed people that it is written, "I will dwell in them, and walk in
them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people." God has
not said, of any one country, "England, America, Russia, Spain, shall
be Mine." But Moses truly said, "the Lord's portion is His people;
Jacob is the lot of His inheritance."
It is in His Church that God dwells. Sometimes men take us into some
gorgeous building with ornamental roof and wondrous architecture and,
as we are led up to a brass railing, we are told that, inside that
barrier, it is peculiarly holy. And then we are pointed to some steps
and we are told that at the top of those step, it is much holier than
it is anywhere else. To my mind, it is an amazing thing that men should
entertain such absurd notions for which there is not the slightest
shadow of a foundation! But you get where there is a true child of
God–and there the place is holy. I declare that I have often stood on
holy ground, but it has been by the bedside of some poor, expiring
saint with whom the Lord has been dwelling and through whom He has
manifested the wonders of His Grace. That is where God dwells–in that
godly woman dying in the workhouse! That is where He dwells–in that
humble-minded man plodding at the plow tail to earn his bread by the
sweat of his brow! That is where He dwells–in that saintly woman who
endures a daily martyrdom for Christ's sake–and in that man whose holy
life adorns the Doctrine of God, his Savior, in all things! These are
the true holy places–the sacred shrines of God wherein the Holy Spirit
delights to dwell!
The Temple at Jerusalem was also the place of God's peculiar
worship–and where is God worshipped now, Beloved, but in His living
Church? A number of us may meet together and call ourselves Christians,
and think that we are worshipping God, but, unless we are really
regenerate and the Spirit of God is in us, there is no true worship.
You cannot offer acceptable worship to God by forms, or ceremonies, or
the sweetest music, or even in the simplest style of worship in the
most plain meeting house, or by sitting still, and saying nothing, as
the members of the Society of Friends do, unless you worship God, who
is a Spirit, in spirit and in truth! It is heart-work, soul-work, the
work of the Spirit of God drawing us near to God which alone is
acceptable to Him. I dare say it yet again–there is no worship under
Heaven that can be pleasing to God except the worship of the one true
Church, the sanctuary of God–and that Church is composed of believers
in Jesus, whose hearts are knit together into one in Christ!
The Temple at Jerusalem was also the throne of Jehovah's power. It was
out of Zion that He sent forth His rod and from that sacred shrine that
He spoke, by His ancient Prophets, the Word that was full of power. Who
could stand against Him when He was angry and spoke in His fury out of
His Holy Place? And Christ's power, through the Holy Spirit, still goes
forth from His Church. The man who is to preach with power, must be one
of those who are quickened by the Holy Spirit and through whom the
Spirit speaks with Divine energy. Mere human eloquence is nothing in
this matter! Nor is learning, by itself, of any account! Though you may
have gone to 20 universities and received from them all the degrees
with which men delight to bedizen them, all is in vain without the
Spirit of God! It is the life of Christ in a man, the Holy Spirit being
with him, that enables him to speak with power! It is the work of the
Church of God to evangelize the world. It cannot be evangelized from
any other source. God will not send angels to do that which He has
committed unto men and, certainly, He will not employ the wicked to
declare His statutes–so His Church must do it. The living waters
flowed forth from Jerusalem. Light, instruction and the Oracles of God
went forth from Jerusalem of old. And now they must go forth from the
Church of God, which is among men to this day. Let us, each one, take
care that we have our share in this blessed employment!
See, then, what the sanctuary of God is. Our Lord Jesus Christ,
speaking of the Temple of His body, said to the unbelieving Jews,
"Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up." But now He
is gone from us and we know Him no more after the flesh–but we still
have God among us! That God is the sacred third Person of the
ever-blessed Trinity in Unity–the Holy Spirit–and though we may not
say that He is Incarnate among men, yet we can truly say that He dwells
among men. There is still a Divine indwelling, the Holy Spirit is here
on earth right now, dwelling in His people, as Paul wrote to the
Corinthians, "Know you not that your body is the Temple of the Holy
Spirit which is in you?" The whole body of Believers put together makes
up the one great spiritual Temple, which is the sanctuary of the living
God!
II. Now, secondly, I must speak more briefly upon THE EARNEST
PRAYER–"Cause Your face to shine upon Your sanctuary."
And, first, I note that it is a prayer quite free from selfishness.
Daniel does not even say to the Lord, "Cause Your face to shine upon
me." Have you not, Beloved, sometimes felt that you could almost forego
the Light of God's Countenance, yourself, if He would but bless His
Church? O Souls, if God will but save some of you–if God will but make
you into pillars in His eternal Temple, some of His saints will be well
pleased even if they themselves have to go mourning on their own
account!
Further, Daniel's prayer was the child of thought. He had thought over
the condition of the Temple at Jerusalem and, thinking it over, he had
become troubled in his mind. It was lying desolate, but he knew that
there was a promise that it should be rebuilt. He thought over these
two things–he let his soul lie soaked in the Truth of God about His
sanctuary–and then he prayed. It often happens that there is very
little power in those prayers that leap out of our lips without
premeditation–born in a minute, like gnats, and dying just as soon.
But the prayer that lies in the soul, like eggs in a nest, and that has
to be sat upon, as it were, and hatched, and brought forth–there is
life in such supplication as that and that is the kind of prayer which
prevails with God! Such was the prayer of Daniel.
It was also a prayer which cast itself entirely upon God–"Cause Your
face to shine upon Your sanctuary." He does not say, "Lord, send more
Prophets." Or, "Raise up new kings." Or, "Do this or that," but only,
"Cause Your face to shine upon Your sanctuary." Oh, that we might learn
how to pray so that God would be the Subject as well as the Object of
our supplications! O God, Your Church needs You above everything else!
A poor, little, sick, neglected child needs 50 things, but you can put
all those needs into one if you say that the child needs its mother.
So, the Church of God needs a thousand things, but you can put them all
into one if you say, "The Church of God needs her God."
There was also great faith in this prayer–"Cause Your face to shine
upon Your sanctuary." Daniel seems to say, "Lord, it scarcely needs
Your command, it only needs You to smile upon Your sanctuary and all
shall be well!" But, Daniel, the Temple is all in ruins! There was
scarcely a column standing upon its proper pedestal–and hardly one
stone left upon another. "Ah," he says, "that is true. But, Lord, cause
Your face to shine upon Your sanctuary." The face of God is as the sun
when it shines in its strength. The favor of God is not merely
something to His Church, but it is everything! The revelation of His
love to His people is not simply a blessing, but it is all the
blessings of the Covenant in one! Cause Your face, O infinitely
glorious Jehovah, to shine upon Your Church here below! Will you not,
Beloved, all join in that prayer?
It was, however, a very comprehensive prayer because wherever God's
face shines upon His Church, note what happens. First, her walls are
rebuilt. Desolations, when God shines upon them, glow into perfection!
We shall soon see our church members multiplied and all things in
proper order if the Lord will but shine upon us! Then shall you see
each one of the Lord's servants in his right place, ministering before
the Lord. I hope we all pray for ministers, but I am afraid we do not
pray for them as often and as earnestly as we ought. But, Lord, if You
will cause Your face to shine upon Your sanctuary, we shall have
ministers enough and of the best sort, too! If Your face is but turned
Zionward, You will find the man who will tell of the love of Jesus.
When the Lord shines upon a Church, then its worship will be acceptable
to Him–even the most humble form of it will be acceptable in His
sight. We know, Beloved, what it is to have God's face shining upon us,
do we not? How sweet the service is then! How intense the prayers! How
fervent the praise! How you feel fed! How glad your souls are! In this
land of weeping skies and gathering clouds, we know what it is to have
a long time of dullness–but how different is the prospect when the sun
shines forth in its glory–and how different is our worship when the
Lord lifts upon us the Light of His reconciled Countenance!
Then, too, truth will be proclaimed in all its clearness. We shall not
have to complain of the cloudy preaching of which we hear so much
nowadays, or of the men whose cleverness consists in confusing the
minds of their hearers, or, to speak in plain language, in inventing
lies to contradict the blessed Word of God and to seek to undermine
everything for which we have ever had respect and regard! They have
tried to quench Hell, and to pull down Heaven! There is nothing that
their unholy fingers have not sought to pollute! But if God shall cause
His face to shine upon us, we shall have the old Truth of God declared
once again in all its clearness.
Then, too, we shall see the beauty of holiness in all the members of
God's spiritual Church. We may well pray for that, for there are many
professors, in the present day, who are the enemies of the Cross of
Christ–enemies because they
manage to get into the Church and then dishonor it by their ungodly
conduct. O Lord, cause Your face to shine upon Your Church, that all
Your people may walk in the beauty of holiness!
Then, also, there will be delightful fellowship. In the sunlight of
God's Presence, we have fellowship with one another, and with the Lord
Jesus Christ, and our hearts are exceedingly glad.
And then there will be power in the testimony. With God's face shining
upon His sanctuary, His Word goes forth from His servants with energy
and force which none can resist. Join, then, Beloved, in this prayer of
Daniel, "Cause Your face to shine upon Your sanctuary." Do it for the
Church's own sake. What a sad thing it is when the Church is like
Samson after the Lord had departed from him–when she shakes herself,
as at other times, but can perform none of her former feats! What
wretched Sabbaths some of our Brothers and Sisters have to spend when
they go and listen to a profitless ministry and mingle with Brethren as
dull, and cold, and dissatisfied as themselves! Join also in this
prayer for the world's sake. If the Church has not the Lord to shine
upon her, what is the poor world to do? What hope, what light, what
knowledge of the Truth of God, what salvation can come to a perishing
world of sinners except through a living Church? What are your own
children to do without this shining of God's Countenance? If you take
them to a place where the worship is dull and lifeless–if they are
compelled to listen to something that never interests them at all, and
to go where there is no one to care about their souls, you may live to
see them grow up to break your hearts. Therefore pray God to bless His
Church for your dear children's sake.
And, then, for God's sake, for Christ's sake, for the Holy Spirit's
sake–for a lifeless Church is a dishonor to God– and the better a
Church has been, the more of a nuisance does it become when the
Presence of God is gone from it. May the Lord grant that we may never
know what this means in our own case and, for all these reasons, let us
pray to God to cause His face to shine upon His sanctuary.
III. Now I am to conclude by briefly reminding you of THE CONDUCT THAT
IS CONSISTENT WITH THIS PRAYER. If you and I have been praying this
prayer–and I hope we have–what kind of conduct will be consistent
with it?
Well, first, we shall consider the state of the Church. Some professing
Christians do not seem to me as if they ever thought of the Church at
all. Some do not think much about the church with which they are
connected. Do all of you, who are members of this church, know whether
the Sunday school is getting on well or not? Now, speak the truth–do
you? Did you ever make any enquiry about it? Then there are various
Societies for the spread of the Gospel connected with this church–do
all of you know that there are such Societies and do you help them all
you can? Come, now, put the matter to your own consciences! Then there
are numbers of people who are members of various little churches, but
who never care anything about other churches. They are like the mouse
that lived in a box and when the lid was opened, one day, it came out
into the cupboard and said that it had no idea that the world was so
big! Yet it was only then looking at the inside of a cupboard! And
there are many professing Christians who have not a much wider range of
vision than that mouse had in the cupboard–they have no idea of the
size of the Church of Christ, or of its various interests. That should
not be the case with any of us who are members of the Church of the
living God! Let us look over all that is in our Master's house! Let us
count His flocks and His herds, and see how everything that is His
flourishes and increases.
The next thing for us to do is to lay to heart the evil or the good of
Zion. Consider it well and then be grieved if you see sin triumphant,
or error rampant–and do not perceive that the cause of God is
advancing in the world! I am afraid there are many nominally Christian
people who look, every morning, to check the price of eggs, who have
not examined the last Missionary Society's Report, nor have they any
clear idea as to the increase or decrease of the work of the Lord. This
ought not to be true of any professed follower of Christ! How can we
expect the Lord to cause His face to shine upon His sanctuary when His
people have little or no care about that sanctuary?
Then, if we begin to think, and begin to care, we shall try to do what
we can for God's Church. It is all very well for a man to pray, but the
value of his prayer very much depends upon its sincerity, and that
sincerity will be proven by his doing something that will help to
answer his own prayer. What are you doing, my Brother? What are you
doing, my Sister, to promote the Glory of God in His sanctuary? All the
living members of the body of Christ contribute something to the
general welfare of the whole body. The little finger would be missed if
it were cut off and there is not a tiny valve near the heart, nor a
minute vessel anywhere in the human system which could be taken away
without inflicting an injury upon the whole body. Just so is it in the
Church of Christ–we cannot afford to spare any part of the mystical
body of
Christ. But what use are you, Brother, in that body? What are you
doing, Sister, for the well-being of your fellow members? There is
something which you should be doing, or else you would not have any
portion in the Lord's spiritual sanctuary.
But when we have done all that we can, let us pray much more than we
ever have done. Oh, for a praying Church! I rejoice that ever since I
have been with you, the spirit of prayer has never died out among us
and I earnestly entreat you never to let it do so. May our Prayer
Meetings be sustained in fervor and increased in number! Praying is,
after all, the chief matter. Praying is the end of preaching! Preaching
has its right use, and must never be neglected, but real heart devotion
is worth more than anything else. Prayer is the power which brings
God's blessing down upon all our work. I beg you, day by day, as you
walk the streets, to have this petition in your hearts and in your
mouths, "'Cause Your face to shine upon Your sanctuary.' O God, bless
Your Church all over the world–in Europe, in America, in Asia, in
Africa, in Australia! Everywhere prosper Your work among the heathen,
and in our own highly-favored land, too, cause Your face to shine upon
Your sanctuary.'" And do not cease to present that prayer until, to the
fullest possible extent, it shall be answered. And when will that be?
When He comes, for whose coming we look with joyful expectation! The
Lord blesses you for Christ's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALMS 114; 48.
Psalm 114. When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a
people of strange language; Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his
dominion. The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back. The
mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. What
ailed you, O you sea, that you fled? You Jordan, that you were driven
back? You mountains, that you skipped like rams; and you little hills,
like lambs? Tremble, you earth, at the Presence of the Lord, at the
Presence of the God of Jacob; who turned the rock into a standing
water, the flint into a fountain of waters.
I did not interrupt the reading of the Psalm by any exposition. It is a
perfect whole and could not well be divided without spoiling it. We may
admire the poetry as well as the Inspiration of this Psalm. It begins
with rugged abruptness–"When Israel went out of Egypt." It only gives
just a hint of the discomfort of the Israelites while in Egypt, arising
from the fact that they did not understand the Egyptians–"strange
language." No doubt they were often beaten by their taskmasters for not
obeying orders, when they really did not understand what must have
seemed to them the barbarous speech of their Egyptian oppressors. But
God led them up out of the house of bondage, the tribe of Judah leading
the van, and all the people following in due order.
How beautifully the Psalmist describes the dividing of the Red Sea! He
represents the waters as perceiving the Presence of God and fleeing
away, not because Israel came to the bank, but because God was in the
midst of His people– "The sea saw it and fled"–as if abashed at the
Presence of its Maker, alarmed at the terror of Jehovah's might. So was
it with the Jordan, that swiftly-flowing river was "driven back" by a
very special miracle. The dividing of the Red Sea was a marvelous act
of God's power, but the driving back of that rushing river has some
extraordinary points about it peculiar to itself. And all this happened
because God was there. The sea flees before Him, the river is driven
back by Him. In like manner, my Brothers and Sisters, if God is in the
midst of our church, nothing can withstand its onward march! If the
Lord is in any man, that man need not even think or talk of
difficulties, for, with God nothing is impossible!
So mighty was the influence of God's Presence that the mountains
themselves began to move and even to skip like rams, and to leap like
lambs. There was some fear there, for they trembled in their solid
sockets, "at the Presence of the God of Jacob." There was joy, too. We
speak of "the everlasting hills," yet the Psalmist depicts them as
moving as easily as the lambs frisk in the meadows in the
springtime–"The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like
lambs." How grand is the poetic utterance! "What ailed you, O you sea,
that you fled? You Jordan, that you were driven back?" "You could no
longer rush in your accustomed channel, but must needs return to the
source from where you came. What ailed you, O you mountains, that you
trembled as if a palsy had seized upon you? 'What ailed you, O you
little hills?'"
Now comes the answer, which yet is not given in the form of an answer.
The Inspired poet, in order to heighten the grandeur of his language,
kept the name of God out of the Psalm until he came to the end, when he
thus answered his own riddle–"Tremble, you earth, at the Presence of
the Lord, at the Presence of the God of Jacob; which turned the
rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of
waters"–another miracle, for God multiplied His marvels. Having
brought His people out of Egypt and led them through the wilderness,
and made the hills to move at His majestic Presence, now He performs a
converting work–changing the rock into a lake, so plenteous was the
effusion of water– and making the flint to gush into a veritable river
which followed the children of Israel through the wilderness, for, as
Paul says, "they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, (the
margin is, "that went with them,") and that Rock was Christ."
Psalm 48:1-3. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city
of our God, in the mountain of His holiness. Beautiful for situation,
the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north,
the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge.
It was so with the literal Jerusalem and it is so now with the Church
of Christ, of which, "the city of the great King" was a type. God still
dwells among men. His Spirit abides with His people and His Church
stands securely upon the rock of His eternal purposes, evermore the
same.
4. For, lo, the kings were assembled. The adversaries who boasted that
they would destroy Jerusalem–"the kings were assembled,"
4-7. They passed by together. They saw it, and so they marveled; they
were troubled, and hasted away. Fear took hold upon them there, and
pain, as of a woman in travail. You broke the ships of Tarshish with an
east wind. The adversaries of Zion looked up at the city set on that
high hill and they despaired of being able to capture it. And, in like
manner, those who attack the Truth of God as it is in Jesus–if they
did but know how well it is garrisoned by the Omnipotence of Jehovah,
they, also, would faint with fear and give up the assault. If they do
not, the Lord can break them in pieces as He broke the ships of
Tarshish with His strong east wind.
8-14. As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD
ofHosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it forever. Selah.
We have thought of Your loving kindness, O God, in the midst of Your
Temple. According to Your name, O God, so is Your praise unto the ends
of the earth: Your right hand is full of righteousness. Let Mount Zion
rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad because of Your judgments.
Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark
you well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that you may tell it to
the generation following. For this God is our God forever and ever: He
will be our Guide even unto death. According to Alexander and Bonar,
this last clause should be read, "He will be our Guide at death and
over death." He will lead us across the Jordan, and be our God and our
Guide in the land that flows with milk and honey, wherever we are
bound. So, glory be unto the God of Abraham–Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, forever and ever! Amen.