The Blessed Christ
(No. 3427)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1914.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, JULY
21, 1870.
"Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He that comes in the name of
the Lord." Matthew 21:9.
ONE feels very thankful that we have a few Hebrew words in common use
in our Christian assemblies–a kind of link between Israel after the
flesh and Israel after the spirit. "Hallelujah," they sang of old, and
we sing, "Hallelujah," too. "Abba Father," they said. We also say,
"Abba Father." And this word, "Hosanna," is another of the few that
remain to us of which we understand the meaning, though we use them
still in a translated form–Hosanna–"save Lord," "bless Lord."
"Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord." I did not mention
in the reading of the Psalm–(the 118th Psalm)–that both the 25th and
26th verses of that Psalm begin with the word, Hosanna. One is
translated, "Save Lord," and the other is, "Blessed is He that comes in
the name of the Lord." I shall take this common exclamation, then,
constantly used among the Jews, and we shall see as to its use among
ourselves. And our first point will be to–
I. CONSIDER OCCASIONS WHEN THIS EXCLAMATION, "Blessed is He that comes
in the name of the Lord," HAS BEEN, OR WILL BE, SUITABLE.
And, first, in the olden times, the Israelites were accustomed to use
this cry, "Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord," when
their heroes returned victorious from the battlefield. When they went
up to the Temple to give thanks publicly to God for victories over
their enemies, they were met by the people, with this exclamation
ofjoy, "Blessed is he that comes in Jehovah's name." Very unlike the
cries of other nations! Some nations only extolled the heroes, but the
people of God see the hand of God, and they mark that the hero only
comes in the name of the Lord. And while they give him blessings and
wish him every good thing for what he has done, yet the praise is
ascribed to the Master in whose name he comes–even Jehovah. While the
Philistines would be extolling their god and Moab and Ammon would be
lifting up the song to the idols they worshipped, Israel took care, in
the song of triumph with which they saluted the returning victors, to
extol and magnify the glory of the Lord–the Lord God of
Israel–"Blessed is he that comes in the name of Jehovah." So, my dear
Friends, whenever we thank men for kindnesses which they render to
us–(and it is our duty to be grateful to them)–yet let us thank yet
more the Lord our God! Thank God and thank the secondary means, but do
not ascribe the honor to the instrument, alone, lest you set up an idol
in the Presence of God! Always take care to see that God, whom you
worship, makes all things work through your friends for your help and
your deliverance. So to each one who shall bring you good–whether
spiritual or temporal good–"Blessed is he that comes to me with this
mercy. I recognize him as coming in Jehovah's name."
This exclamation might again have been most commonly used of the coming
of our Lord. The Word became Incarnate and stooped from the Throne of
Heaven to the manger of Bethlehem's stable. I know not that these words
precisely were used, but surely in this spirit the angels sang their
midnight carol when the Savior descended–"Glory to God in the highest.
On earth peace, goodwill towards men." What is the spirit of all that
song but this word, "Hosanna"? What is the essence of it all, but this
sentence, "Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord"? The
shepherds could not have used a more significant and suitable
expression–and the Easterners, as they gathered round that little
cradle and offered their gold, their myrrh, and their incense, together
with their grateful homage might have looked at Mary and Joseph, and
the Child, and said of Him, "Blessed is He that comes in the name of
the Lord." And had but the nations known it, had but Israel known it,
had but the kings of the earth recognized it, one universal shout might
have gone up to Heaven–"At last the promised One is come! The Seed of
the woman is born! The Messiah has appeared! The Prince of
Peace has come with innumerable blessings! Blessed is He that comes in
Jehovah's name!" And I think the very sea and land, even the heavens
and the Heaven of heavens, might have caught up the spirit of that
hour, and the sea, with its waves, might have roared out, "Blessed is
He that comes in the name of the Lord." And you forests–every tree
within you–might have burst forth in the same note till all the
nations would have become one mouth for song, "Blessed is He that comes
in the name of the Lord."
And this expression was used, according to my text, further on in our
Savior's life. When He rode in triumph upon a colt, the foal of an ass,
up to the Temple, when He went to take possession of His Father's
House, and drive out the buyers and sellers, who had made it into a den
of thieves–then in that day, when He was proclaimed King of the Jews,
and the crowd of men mounted the trees and broke down the palm
branches, juvenile voices all along the road shouted, "Hosanna." This
was the hour of our Savior's gladness, and Jerusalem for once seemed as
if she would shake off her solid coolness and would acknowledge Him
whom God had sent! It were well for her if it had been so, but the
Truth of God was hidden from her eyes and she became desolate, because
more heartily and truthfully she had not said, "Blessed is He that
comes in the name of the Lord."
And shall I be thought to be fanciful if I suppose that this
exclamation would have been most appropriate among the bands of angels
and choirs of the blood-washed, when our Savior, having finished His
lifework, ascended to His Throne? When they brought His chariot from on
high to bear Him to His last place of rest, when He ascended on high,
leading captivity captive, and the pearly gates were set open that He
might enter, did not all those bright celestial spirits throng the
streets of gold and cry "Hosanna: Blessed is He that comes in the name
of the Lord"? I can scarcely think they could refrain from the
expressions of their delight when they saw Him come with His garments
dyed red, fresh from the slaughter of all His foes, triumphant over all
that came against Him, the great Conqueror, the Hero who had routed,
once and for all, all Israel's enemies and put them all beneath His
feet! Surely they must have said, "Hosanna," yet again and again,
"Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord"!
And surely, to close the list of occasions, I may mention when He who
went up from Olivet shall come a second time, in like manner as He went
up into Heaven, that is to say, in very Person as He mounted to the
skies, He will be saluted, will He not–by all His waiting people, with
this grand exclamation, "Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is He
that comes in the name of the Lord"? The coming of the Son of God is no
joy to the ungodly world–the day of the Lord to them will be darkness,
and not light–the earth will burn as an oven! "The day comes that
shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, and yes, and all that do
wickedly, shall be stubble." To the righteous the coming of Christ is
their grandest expectation–it is the day of the manifestation of the
sons of God, the day for which the whole creation groans and travails,
for it will be the day of our resurrection, when our souls that may
have been a long while divorced from our bodies shall be re-married,
and the body shall be raised again like unto His glorious body! "For we
know that when He shall appear, we shall be like He, for we shall see
Him as He is." The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come," and that same
Spirit and Bride shall say, "Welcome, welcome, King of Kings!" when He
shall come. Those who have watched most, and longed most, and hungered
and thirsted most after that glorious Advent shall be they who most
joyfully shall go forth to meet King Solomon with the crown wherewith
his mother crowned him in the day of his espousal, and this shall be
the note of their triumphant greeting, "Hosanna: Blessed is He that
comes in Jehovah's name." Thus I have very briefly run through the
occasions when this exclamation would seem to be exceedingly suitable.
Now let us for a while consider–
II. THE SUITABILITY OF THIS CRY FOR CONSTANT USE–not now and then, but
always! And it may be viewed in two lights. First, as an exultation.
"Blessed is He that comes." He is blessed. It is a blessed thing that
He has come. It may be viewed, in the next place, as a prayer, let Him
be blessed, let Him prosper and so on. First, then, as an exultation, a
note of triumph, He is blessed that He has come in the name of the
Lord, and ought we not to be always saying this, "Blessed is He that He
should condescend to tabernacle among men! Blessed is He that it should
be true that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, that we might
behold His Glory, the Glory as of the Only-Begotten of the Father, full
of Grace and Truth"? He is blessed, for He came to earth fully
qualified for all His work, endowed with all the wisdom, the knowledge,
the unction, the anointing from on high that He could wish. He was
blessed in His coming, blessed while He carried on the work. Though His
the pain and sorrow, yet it was all blessing to us, from the first act
He did as a Man until He said, "It is finished." When I think of Him
coming down as a Man, coming down as a Servant, coming to take upon
Himself to die for our sins, I can indeed say, "Blessed is He that
comes to all this in the name of the
Lord"–comes as our Brother, comes as our Priest, comes as our
Substitute, comes as our Scapegoat, comes as our great Deliverer and
propitiatory Sacrifice that we might be cleansed from sin! He is
blessed–all blessings are in Him, all blessings come through Him, all
blessings belong to Him! God has given all blessings to Him because of
this. He is blessed. And, Brothers and Sisters, if He is blessed in the
work and the carrying of it on, is He not, and shall He not be blessed
in our esteem, now that He has mounted to the skies and taken the
precious blood within the veil and sprinkled it there– and stands
there now pleading as a prevalent High Priest for us? Blessed is He
that came in Jehovah's name–the great Ambassador of Peace between
offended Deity and revolted man. He is our Peace and let His name
forever be blessed! He is our Prince–let us adore Him! He is all our
salvation, all our desire! We ask nothing more than to be like He and
be with Him. Blessings in Him! He is blessed! God has blessed Him!
Forever and forever shall all generations call Him blessed! It is an
exultation, then. We shout to His triumph, "Blessed is He that comes!"
But it is a prayer. My dear Friends, we desire to do all we can for the
Lord Jesus Christ, but how very limited are our capacities! If we were
to give Him all we have, and give our bodies to be burned, it would be
very little for us to give to such a Savior. But what a mercy it is
that there is no limit to what we may wish. We can bless Him with our
wishes, if we cannot with our acts. I was about to say we may bless Him
infinitely with our desires. At any rate, there is no limit to our
capacity to desire. And those desires may take the very acceptable and
prevalent form of prayer. What I cannot do for Christ, I can pray God
to be done. What if I cannot preach His Gospel in every land, yet where
I can, I will preach it and pray God to raise up many to proclaim it.
And if I cannot crown His head with many crowns, yet would I lay at His
feet such as I have, and then my desireswould crown Him over, and over,
and over again, and my prayers would clamber up to His lofty Throne and
put fresh coronets upon His dear head, blessing Him that He does not
deny me a share of wishing what I cannot do, and of praying for what I
cannot give! In this sense, Brothers and Sisters, we can, to a very
great extent, bless Him who comes in the name of the Lord–bless Him
with our wishes, our desires, our earnestness and especially with our
prayers.
Now, what is the blessing, then, which we would seek for our Lord,
Jesus Christ? What are the prayers that we would offer for Him? It is
written, "Prayer also shall be made for Him continually." What shall we
ask for Him?
We will ask, first, that He that comes in the name of the Lord may be
blessed in His Church. Oh, that He would bless the Church just now. I
am afraid we have fallen upon lean times just now. It may be that God
is about to chastise His Church, because when we had a revival we had
not Grace enough to keep it. Almost universally there is a cloud
hanging over Israel–lethargy coming in place of earnestness. God knows
we were never very earnest–I mean the Church of God at large was not
very earnest–but yet that earnestness which did arise seems now to be
vanishing. I pray God it may not vanish, but, on the contrary, may all
the zeal which has been in our days be far exceeded–all the agony for
souls, all the labor to proclaim the Grace of God to them, all the
earnest desires and prayers of God's people–may all these be renewed
with tenfold vigor, and in this way may we have to cry, "The Lord has
visited His Church, and let His name be blessed." We do tonight, I
trust, put up the prayer, each one of us who belongs to this Church and
people, "Lord prosper Your Word, be pleased to give power to your
minister and increased Grace to your servants, holiness of life,
separation from the world, power in prayer–give them communion with
Yourself! Grant that there may be peace within the borders of your
Church, and that the citizens of Zion may be filled with the finest of
the wheat." In this respect we will bless Christ by desiring a blessing
on His Church and seeking to promote its prosperity.
Next to this, I say, "Lord save"–"Lord bless"–Him that comes,
(putting it as a prayer for the scattering of the Church's enemies and
His own enemies. Christ still has many enemies in the world. The Pope,
the Antichrist of Rome, with all his doctors and counselors, assemble
at this very hour–the incarnate Antichrist–at this present moment!
And here, in this England of ours, there are priests busy up and down,
in every court and lane, in every corner of the land, and our clergy of
the Established Church, many of them double-dyed Papists, doing the
work of Rome and eating the bread of a Protestant Church at the same
time! And then there is infidelity, seeking all it can to make its
converts, with a zeal which were commendable if it were used for a
right purpose. They compass sea and land to make proselytes, and shame
the coldness of many professed followers of Christ. The enemies of
Christ are very many. The Church is very feeble, yes, she is like a
reed shaken by the wind. Without her Lord, she is less than
nothing–like chaff in the whirlwind! But, oh, let us pray that He may
be blessed who comes in the name of the Lord by the scattering of all
His enemies, by the putting down of spiritual wickedness in high
places, and giving the victory to the Truth and to the Gospel–that
which saves – putting to flight that which destroys before that which
purifies–scattering that which defiles before that which glorifies
God, annihilating that which blasphemes His holy name! May Christ be
blessed as a Conqueror over His foes!
We may, further, very earnestly pray that the Lord may be blessed in
the conversion of souls. Oh, would to God He were blessed in that
respect in this congregation more and more! Preaching becomes very dead
work when there are no converts. Sowing is very well and one likes it
at the sowing season, but if a man had to sow all the year round and
never saw the golden sheaves, he might well grow weary. Though, indeed,
in sowing for God we ought not to be weary, yet the tendency is to be
so. How few conversions there are anywhere just now! The Church does
not increase at all in the same rate as the population does. Every year
I believe that the sin of London is gaining upon the Gospel, and all
the efforts that are made do not tell upon the masses. We scarcely hold
our ground! Certainly we make very little if any, advance. Of course,
we congratulate ourselves that there are so many churches built. Does
anybody go to them? We sometimes think there are so many Chapels. Yes,
but how many are there that are half empty, or even less occupied than
that? And what if they are full, yet in how many places is the Gospel
preached very uncertainly and no certain sound is given from the
trumpet? It is Christ that is preached in a measure, but preached in a
fog–certainly not in the way that is so plain that wayfaring men need
not err therein, but in a way that is so perplexing and involved in
hard words and gaudy obscurities of rhetoric, that oftentimes many know
not their right hand from their left, and look on, marveling at the
orator who speaks so grandly, but what he says, or whereof he affirmed,
they utterly know not! How many there are that have the key of
knowledge, but open not the door! They seem rather to show how
delightfully they can lock it and how skillfully they can shut out the
multitude! We need to see conversions! May God send them everywhere
throughout this land by the tens of thousands! And in other lands,
would God there were conversions by the millions! The world teems with
population, but Jesus Christ has as yet few who find Him. Straight is
the gate and narrow is the way, and few there are that go in at the
gate or tread that road. O Lord, how long, how long, how long? Arise
and convert sinners to Yourself!
The same thought comes to us only a little enlarged. Our desire in
prayer for Christ is that He may the blessed in the sense of being
glorious to the ends of the earth. We have no doubts about the issue of
the struggle in which we are engaged–against the powers of darkness.
It may be a thousand years before Christianity is prevalent. It may be
ten thousand years! It may be fifty thousand years, it may be a hundred
thousand years! We, none of us, know. To God it will be quick, very
quickly–and in but a short time–behold Christ comes quickly! But
that, "quickly," may not mean what we think it does, and they who sit
down and say it will be the next twenty, or fifty, or 100 years know
not what they say, nor whereof they affirm! We who are working now are
very like, as I believe, those coral insects that are about to build a
reef. They begin at the bottom of the sea. They lay, first of all, the
foundations, broad and strong. It will be a long, long, long, long
while before that reef will come to the top of the sea, before it will
be seen, before earth and weeds will be attracted to it. It will be
still longer before there begins to grow upon it certain tiny plants
and mosses–still longer before the cocoanut begins to spring, and
before men and animals shall be found there. Now, those first insects
that lay the foundation die. They have gone, and the next, and the
next, and the next and the reef is still unseen. That is very like what
we are. All we can do is to keep on working, working with all our
might. Our prayer ought not to be that we should see the whole of our
success. I like Moses' prayer–"Let Your work appear unto Your
servants! And Your Glory unto their children." Hence no matter how
things are–it may have been that we have hardly stood our ground, and
we can hardly say the Lord's cause has prospered–still, we have only
seen the beginning! And we may rest assured that when the latter verses
of this grand poem shall come, though the book may have opened somewhat
dolorously and gloomily, the end will be, "Sing unto the Lord for He
has triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider has He cast into the
sea." In any great cause that is undertaken in any country, it is not
one generation that succeeds. Many generations have to take part in it.
There is a period of contempt for even common political principles–a
period of neglect–afterwards a period of contempt–then, perhaps, a
period of absolute persecution, and then, perhaps, when we least expect
it, there comes the moment of victory. And so it will be with the great
cause of Christ! Only let this be our prayer, that the Lord would cut
short His work in righteousness. That He would be pleased to soon come
forth with His sword girt upon His thigh and take to Himself His great
power and reign! Before another year comes, if the Lord wills, the
nations may all give up their idols and turn to Christ! God can do as
He pleases. Time is nothing to Him. With men, steel and iron must be
worked gradually, but in the world of spirits, God has but to strike a
spark and the fire will run along the ground and illumine the earth
with its sacred conflagration! He can affect all minds at once, and
turn the heart of the child to the Father, andthe hearts of all men to
the great Prince of Peace, if so He wills it! And, perhaps, He means to
do that–to save the whole battle for one grand last charge when the
King, Himself, shall lead the van, and then the conquering banner shall
be seen, and the Lord God Omnipotent shall reign! Be it as He wills, we
will always say under every discouragement, at all times when we see
not our sign, "Blessed be You, Jesus! You shall get the crown and be
Conqueror yet! May Your Kingdom come, and Your will be done as in
Heaven, so on earth!"
Now, lastly, there are times, dear Friends, when this exclamation may
be used about ourselves personally. I will only hint at these times.
The first is at our conversion. When we had been in sorrow and trouble,
under sin–when the Law had made sin revive and we died, when every
hope was hurled in despair–you remember how you and I welcomed Christ.
I remember the very Sabbath morning and the spot of ground. Some of you
may not so distinctly remember–that does not matter–but some of you
can. Oh, how blessed was he who came to us in the name of the Lord! Sin
was forgiven. Doubts fled, despair vanished, joy and peace flowed in
our souls, leapt within us, and we were so happy–we scarcely knew how
to express our joy and our love! Oh, dear Savior, on that first day of
our spiritual birth, and afterwards while we were yet in the love of
our espousals, we could do no other than say, "Blessed is He, the dear
precious and exalted Savior, who has come to me in the Lord's name and
saved my soul!" Since that day we have, every now and then, had
repetitions of our conversion–renewals of the Presence of God. You had
got very dull and worldly, and your soul was cleaving to the dust, but,
perhaps, it was under a sermon or in private prayer. Or it may have
been in the middle of your business the Lord returned to you–He became
the health of your countenance and restored your soul! Oh, I know how
you sang, when your communion with Christ began to be as sweet as it
was before, "Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord!" The
Lord send such seasons to any of you who are backsliding! May He come
to you, now, and knock at the door of your heart! Oh, open to Him and
bid Him come in, for there is no power on earth that can revive a
decaying heart like the coming of Christ afresh by renewed communion!
So too, dear Friends, you and I have said this when we have had some
very happy seasons in the house of the Lord. Have you not sometimes, in
this very place, when our voice has gone up in song (the thousands
praising God)–when we have been all moved by gracious Words of
Scripture, as the trees of the forest are moved with the wind–have you
not been inclined to burst out with the note, "Hosanna! Blessed is He
that comes in the name of the Lord"? Why, the very preacher has been
beloved to you for his Master's sake! But the preacher's Master–oh,
what love you felt in your heart for Him–what joy at the sound of His
name! What delight when it has been like ointment poured forth, and the
love of God has been shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit which
is given unto you! Do you not remember when you went up with the
multitude that kept holy day, when you went up to the altar of God with
exceeding joy, with the voice of thanksgiving? Ah, then it was–
"Blessings forever on the Lamb, Who bore the Cross for wretched men."
And once again, to conclude, whenever God visits His Church with a
revival, then the cry goes up, "Blessed is He that comes in the name of
the Lord"–a revival of religion, I mean, of this kind–when a deep
religious concern is upon all, when Christians become more earnest and
more prayerful, when they become more attentive to the unconverted and
more anxious to see them saved. And when the unconverted, themselves,
take a deeper interest in the Word–when they begin to feel their sin,
when they cry out for mercy, when they ask the way to Zion! We have had
the Lord with us now these 17 years with no bursts of excitement, but
with one continual stream of blessing–and I am so anxious that we
should not lose it. I could wish that we might see some token of even a
larger measure of His Presence than we have had yet. I would ask some
of you that have power in prayer to join with me every morning and
every night in a prayer that He would come to us afresh. We are not
discouraged–very far from it. We have never been without many
enquirers and many being added to the Church, but still, there are
unconverted ones in the congregation. We have found at the Tabernacle
what we had at Park Street, that we have many more members than seats.
I remember one man coming one night to have a seat who was very honest
and wanted to see me, first, before he took a sitting. "Sir," he said,
"somebody told me that I should be expected to be converted if I took a
seat, and I cannot guarantee that." I said, "My dear Friend, somebody
has told you the right thing, but he has not put it exactly right. If
you take a seat, we expect that you will be converted. It is not that
you are expected to convert yourself, but we expect that if you hear
the Word, God will bless you, because," I said, "I hardly know any who
have sat there but have been converted." I was very glad to find there
was all current among the seat-holders that God would bless them! I
believe He will. But still, I wish we had more members. Wehave 4,200, I
think, but we can hold more than that. I would like to see six
thousand! What a joy it would be! So many that I would be half inclined
to say I must go and fish in another pool–they are all caught here!
Would not it be a mercy if there were no more fish in the sea to be
caught, but all were converted–everyone that comes into this
Tabernacle? His power is infinite! There is no limit to that, except
that our unbelief in the economy of Grace is sometimes allowed to limit
it. What is said converted to God! If you could go out and do good to
others, and bring others in, and other churches could be formed, what a
blessing might come of it! And why not? "He could not do many mighty
works there, because of their unbelief." Oh, that this might be taken
away from us! May we believe, and we shall see! May we trust and pray,
and we shall joyfully behold it! Oh, that some poor sinner would come
to Jesus Christ tonight! He would, indeed, have to say, "Blessed is he
that comes in the name of the Lord." One prayer will bring you to Him,
if it is sincere. Simply to trust Him–that is the thing! To rely upon
Him–that is all! He died for the guilty. His blood was shed for the
foul. Come and trust Him and yield to Him! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM118.
Verse 1. Ogive thanks unto the LORD: for He is good: because His mercy
endures forever Here is a standing reason for thanksgiving. Although we
may not always be healthy, nor always prosperous, yet God is always
good and, therefore, there is always a sufficient argument for giving
thanks unto Jehovah, That He is a good God essentially–that He cannot
be otherwise than good–should be a fountain out of which the richest
praises should perpetually flow.
2, 3. Let Israel now say that His mercy endures forever Let the house
of Aaron now say that His mercy endures forever These were especially
set apart for God's service and, therefore, where much in given, much
is expected. The house of Aaron, therefore, must have a special note of
thanksgiving, and though we who preach the Gospel claim no sort of
priesthood, yet if any ought to lead the strain of thankfulness, it
should be those who minister continually for God.
4. Let them now that fear the LORD say that His mercy endures forever
Let them all say it–let them all say it now–let every one of us say
it for himself, "His mercy endures forever."
5. I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me and set me
in a large place. I think many of us could make just such a record as
that and not once, but many times in our lives we could say, "I called
upon the Lord in distress." We have had many trials, but we have a
Mercy Seat always to fly to and a God always ready to hear the cries of
His distressed ones.
6. The LORD is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do to me?The
past always gives us assurance for the future, for we are dealing with
the same unchangeable God and, therefore, we may expect to have the
same dealings from Him.
7. 8. The LORD takes my part with them that help me: therefore shall I
see my desire upon those who hate me. It is better to trust in the LORD
than to put confidence in man. There is one text which I have never
seen put up anywhere. You have illuminated texts in your houses and
schoolrooms, and so on, but I think I have never seen this, "Cursed is
he that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm." Or this other one,
"Cease you, from man whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he
to be accounted of?" And I am sure there is no teaching of Scripture
more necessary than that, whether it refers to great men or to little
men, whether it refers to men of eminence, or to those of your own
family circle. "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put
confidence in man."
9. It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.
It is nobler, it is more agreeable to sound reason, it will lead to
better results. God better deserves our confidence than the princes of
the earth do–even the best of them.
10. All nations compassed me about: but in the name of the LORD will I
destroy them. This may apply to David, but it applied better to Christ,
around whom Jews and Gentiles came, but He won the victory over them.
11. 12. They compassedme about: yes, they compassedme about: but in the
name of the LORD I will destroy them. They compassed me about like
bees, they are quenched as fire of thorns; for in the name of the LORD
I will destroy them. The thorn makes a good blaze and crackles and
splutters, but it is soon out. "For in the name of the Lord will I
destroy them." In this way we may meet our spiritual foes, temptations,
trials, the world, sin, death, Hell–the name of Jehovahshall be our
strength. "In hoc signo vincitt" said one of old–"By this sign you
conquer," and so by this sign we also overcome through the blood of the
Lamb!
13. You have thrust sore at me that I might fall; but the Lord helped
me. This will rebut all the attacks of our fiercest foes–"But the Lord
helped me."
14, 15. The LORD is my strength and song, and has become my salvation.
The voice of rejoicing and salvation in the tabernacles of the
righteous: the right hand of the LORD does valiantly. Where God's
people dwell, there is the voice of joy. "Their family prayer
sanctifies the house with its joyous notes." Even then there is trouble
and sorrow in the house, yet resignation still makes joy and rejoicing
there. And if rejoicing for a moment should go, yet salvation never
does. "This day is salvation come to your house. If you are now a
converted man, it will never go away. It is an abiding thing–it is in
the tabernacles of the righteous.
16, 17. The right hand of the LORD is exalted, the right hand of the
LORD does valiantly. I shall not die but live, and declare the works of
the LORD. Some have thought this Psalm was composed by Hezekiah after
his sickness, and after the destruction of Senacherib's host. It may be
so. It has been used by many besides Hezekiah, who have not forgotten
that these are the words of Wickliffe, used when monks came round his
dying bed with prayers, Paternosters and crucifixes and urged him to
repent, and he said, "I shall not die, but live and declare the works
of the Lord." And so, indeed, he did!
18. The LORD has chastened me sorely: but He has not given me over unto
death. Many of His best children can say this, for, "whom the Lord
loves He chastens." "The Lord has chastened me sorely, but He has not
given me over unto death." You that have recovered from sickness, here
is a song for you who above all were not given over to your sins and to
the just punishment of them! Here is music for you, "He has not given
me over to the second death which He might have done."
19, 20. Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them and
I will praise the LORD. This gate of the LORD into which the righteous
shall enter. I suppose he who uttered these words has passed through
the beautiful gates of the Temple.
21. I will praise You: for You have heard me, and have become my
salvation. Future, past, present–all full of blessing!
22-24. The stone which the builders refusedis become the headstone
ofthe corner. This is the LORD'S doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day which the LORD has made: we will rejoice and be glad in
it. Though this is applicable to the Sabbath, yet it is also applicable
to any day and to every day which God especially makes glorious by
delivering many.
25-27. Save now, I beseech You, O LORD: O LORD, I beseech You, send now
prosperity. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD: we have
blessed you out of the house of the LORD. God is the LORD, who has
showed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of
the altar.It is the king returning from victory and recovered from
sickness. He brings his sacrifice with thanksgiving, as every child of
God should, and there it is, ready bound to the altar horns.
28, 29. You are my God, and I will praise You: You are my God, I will
exalt You. O give thanks unto the LORD: for He is good; for His mercy
endures forever.