A Memorable Milestone
(No. 2916)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1904.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH
25, 1886.
"I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have
not refrained my lips, O Lord, You know. I have not hid Your
righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and
Your salvation: I have not concealed Your loving-kindness and Your
truth from the great congregation. Withhold not Your tender mercies
from me, O Lord: let Your loving-kindness and Your truth continually
preserve me." Psalm 40:9-11.
THE 25th ANNIVERSARY OF MR. SPURGEON'S FIRST SERMON IN THE TABERNACLE!
SOMETIMES, dear Friends, we should take a review of life. There are
occasions when men feel bound to do so and the retrospect may be full
of profit to themselves. I find that many look back in hours of
trouble. A dark cloud brings them to a pause. In prosperity they might
have run on with very little thought, but sorrow calls them to a halt.
They are driven to God in prayer and at such times it is not unusual
for them, if God has been gracious to them in the past, to recollect
His great goodness and to mention it while they are pleading at the
Mercy Seat. They say, "He has dealt well with His servants. The Lord
has helped us up to now." They look back and see the Ebenezers which
they have raised in past years and then they cry, "Has God forgotten to
be gracious?"–
"And can He have taught me to trust in His name, And thus far have
brought me to put me to shame?' Thus they drive their griefs away and
the remembrance of past mercy helps them to snatch firewood from the
altars of the bygone years, with which to kindle the sacrifice of the
present moment.
Men are also accustomed to review their lives when they are brought
near to the grave. It is helpful, when we fear that life is about to
end, to begin to add it up, to see what the sum total reaches. If God
should say to us, "Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not
live," the best way to do it is to remember the past–looking at what
we have done and what God has done–and then to set one against the
other, that we may repent of the sin and may hope because of the mercy.
Now, albeit that we may not, ourselves, be brought so near to death's
door as that, yet during the past month or so we have, as a people,
been continually going to the sepulcher. I think that there were seven
notable Brothers and Sisters who fell asleep last week, so constantly
have death's arrows been flying among us. Therefore, as we are come to
the bank of the river and are reminded that we must, ourselves, shortly
put off this tabernacle, let us look back a little and remember all the
ways the Lord our God has led us.
There are, however, other occasions apart from those of great sorrow or
of apprehended departure when wise men are fully warranted in
considering the period as peculiarly noteworthy. I have come to such a
time today. Twenty-five years have passed over our heads since I
preached my first sermon in this house. The sanctuary was opened with
songs of joy–many who were with us then are now in Glory–and many of
you who are with us today were not even born then. To those who were at
the opening of the Tabernacle, it must seem almost an old building now!
I hear people talk of "the dear old Tabernacle" and well they may, for
a quarter of a century is no mean period in the history of a building
or of a Church. There has been a great deal done in those 25 years and
we have both personally and as a Church enjoyed abounding mercy. I did
not think it right to let the occasion pass over without offering
devout thanksgiving to the Lord
for all His loving-kindness to us, and endeavoring to say some words
that shall perhaps make us feel more our indebtedness to God and cause
us to determine to be more than ever consecrated to His service.
This text, though it belongs, first of all, in the most Divine and
fullest sense to our gracious Master, also belongs to David–and
through David to those whom God has called to bear testimony to the
Gospel of His Grace. We can say and we do say, humbly but most
earnestly–and I know that there are many Brothers here who can join
us, each in his own ministry, and many Brothers and Sisters who, though
not in the ministry, can say, in any event in the spirit of the words
after their measure–"I have preached righteousness in the great
congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, You know. I
have not hid Your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your
faithfulness and Your salvation: I have not concealed Your
loving-kindness and Your truth from the great congregation."
I. Coming, then, to our text, here is, first, A CONTINUAL TESTIMONY.
Many of you have borne testimony for God in your homes as well as in
your lives. Some of you have borne the testimony in your classes in the
Sunday school. Some in the streets, some in cottage meetings–some in
larger assemblies. We especially who are called to the public ministry
of the Word, have borne this testimony in "the great congregation." But
all of us who are the Lord's servants have, I hope, borne our testimony
according to our opportunities and abilities.
It has been imperfect, but it has been sincere. In looking back upon
our testimony for God, we could almost wish to obliterate it because of
its imperfections, but we can truthfully say that it has been sincerely
borne up to the measure of the capacity given to us. It has been borne
without a doubt, without any mental reservation, with intensity of
spirit– borne because it could not be silenced. I have preached the
Gospel to you, my Brothers and Sisters, because I have believed it–and
if what I have preached to you is not true, I am a lost man! For me
there is no joy in life and no hope in death except in that Gospel
which I have continually expounded here. It is not to me a theory. I
would scarcely stop at saying that it is a belief. It has become matter
of absolute fact to me! It is interwoven with my consciousness. It is
part of my being. Every day makes it dearer to me–my joys bind me to
it, my griefs drive me to it! All that is behind me, all that is before
me, all that is above me, all that is beneath me–everything compels me
to say that my testimony has been borne with my heart, mind, soul and
strength–and I am grateful to God that I can say this, putting it as
the text puts it, "O Lord, You know." If others do not know the truth
of the matter, I rejoice that my Master knows my heart.
I feel grateful to God that I can say this because of the subjects of
the testimony. The first subject of the Psalmist's testimony had been
God's "righteousness." That is the main point to be noticed in all
testimony for God–God's positive righteousness in Himself, God's way
of righteousness by which He justifies the ungodly and God's method of
spreading righteousness in the world by the power and energy of His
Holy Spirit. I, for one, believe in a God who punishes sin. I have
never flattered you with the idea that sin is a trifle and that in some
future age it may expiate itself. No, the righteousness of God has
seemed to me to be a dark background upon which to draw the bright
lines of His everlasting love in Christ Jesus. In the Expiation of
Christ, the righteousness of God is vindicated to the fullest. He is
"just, and the Justifier of him that believes in Jesus." I ask for no
pardon to be given to me unrighteously. My conscience could not be
satisfied with a forgiveness that came to me unjustly, for the Glory of
God would be dishonored thereby. There would be a blot upon the
Heavenly statute-book if sin were pardoned without atonement. But we
have preached the righteousness of God and we feel that, in doing so,
we lay a sure foundation upon which to build the comfort and hope of
the Believer in Christ Jesus!
In addition to the righteousness of God, the Psalmist had preached His
"faithfulness." The Lord keeps all His promises. He is the Faithful
Promiser–what He promises He performs. There is no lie in Him, nor
change, nor shadow of a turning. "Has He said and shall He not do?"
Which of His promises ever failed? Has He drawn back even in the least
degree from His Covenant, or altered the word which has gone forth out
of His lips? Our testimony has not been borne to a fickle God and a
feeble salvation which saves for a time and after all, does not really
save, but allows saints to fall away and perish everlastingly. No, we
have given unfaltering utterance to that declaration of our Lord, "I
give unto My sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither
shall any pluck them out of My hand." We believe in everlasting love,
in an Everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things and sure and,
therefore, righteousness and faithfulness have been the two foundations
of our ministry–upon which we have tried to build a Gospel worth our
preaching and worth your having.
Then the Psalmist says that he had borne testimony to two things in
conjunction with each other: "Your loving-kindness and Your truth." Oh,
Brothers and Sisters, what a theme is here! "Your loving-kindness!"
God's generous
mercy, His overflowing love, His "kinnedness," His kindness to His
chosen whom He has made to be a people near unto Himself, to whom He
manifests His very soul. That word, "loving," added to the word,
"kindness," makes it a gem doubly precious! Where is there among words
any other equal to this–"loving-kindness"? I have exulted to preach to
you the loving-kindness of the Lord. I needed not to be driven to this
happy task. I have almost needed, sometimes, to be stopped when I have
passed the hour and my theme has carried me away! Oh, the
loving-kindness of the Lord to those who put their trust under the
shadow of His wings! That is a subject on which one might preach
forever and yet not exhaust its treasures!
And then His "truth"–God's Truth–the truth of His Word. The truth of
His Son! The truth of the great Doctrines which are given to us in the
Gospel. I have not preached to you any sort of speculation. I have
never sought to invent new forms of truth. It shall be seen one day
whose thoughts shall stand–God's thoughts or man's. And it shall be
seen which is the true ministry–that which takes up God's Word and
echoes it–or that which boils it down until the very life is extracted
from it. I have no sympathy with the preaching which degrades the Truth
of God into a hobbyhorse for its own thought and only looks upon
Scripture as a kind of pulpit from which it may thunder out its own
opinions! No, if I have gone beyond what that Book has taught, may God
blot out everything that I have said! I beseech you, never believe me
if I go an atom beyond what is plainly taught there. I am content to
live and to die as the mere repeater of Scriptural teaching–as a
person who has thought out nothing and invented nothing–as one who
never thought invention to be any part of his calling, but who
concluded that he was to take the message from the lips of God to the
best of his ability and simply to be a mouth for God to the
people–mourning much that anything of his own should come between–but
never thinking that he was somehow to refine the message or to adapt it
to the brilliance of this wonderful century and then to hand it out as
being so much his own that he might take some share of the glory of it.
No, no! We have aimed at nothing of the kind! "I have declared Your
faithfulness and Your salvation: I have not concealed Your
loving-kindness and Your truth from the great congregation." Nothing
have we preached as our own. If there has been anything of our own, we
do bitterly take back those words and eat them–and repent that we
should have ever been guilty of the sin and folly of uttering them! The
things which we have learned of God our Father and of His Son Jesus
Christ, by His Holy Spirit, we have sought to speak unto you.
Now, dear Friends, let me say, next, that this text describes a work
which has been done under great difficulties. It may seem a very easy
thing to simply have a message and to tell it. Yes, it appears so. But
it is not as easy as it looks at first sight. I do not suppose that you
always find your servants deliver your messages accurately. Did you
ever sit around a table and tell one person a story, and ask him to
tell it to his neighbor? Let each one whisper it and by the time it
gets to the end of the table, you will scarcely recognize your tale, it
will have been altered so much! There is a tendency in the minds of all
of us to alter what we tell–it is a struggle to keep to the exact
truth. Besides, this is an age which likes pretty things–something
fresh and new–and it is not always easy to swim upstream, or to go
against the tendency of the time and the spirit of the age. We have no
particular desire to be thought fools anymore than anybody else–and we
know where all the wisdom is–at least we ought to know, for we hear
often enough about it. Ask the brethren of the "modern thought" school
if they have not all the wisdom that is to be had nowadays! If they do
not say that they have, many of them act as if they thought they had!
No, Friends, it is not so easy, after all, to keep to the plain Truth
of God. There is a Brother who has struck out something wonderfully
fresh. We read his book–shall we not at least go with him a little
way? You will find, Brothers, that if you determine to hold fast the
faith once and for all delivered to the saints, you will have a battle
to fight in which you will be beaten unless you rely upon God for
strength! If you are willing to let the Truth of God go, you have but
to seek to please man and it is soon done! And only then will you be
greeted with, "Hail fellow! Well met!" But if you mean to declare God's
Truth, you will need the help of the Most High in the struggle.
But, although this testimony has been borne under difficulties, it has
been attended with unutterable pleasure. Oh, the delight of preaching
the Gospel! I often say to young men who apply for admission to the
College, "Do not become a minister if you can help it." But if you
cannot help it, if a Divine destiny drives you on, thank God that it is
so! You are a happier man if you are able to preach the Gospel than if
you had been elected to a throne! There is no business like it under
Heaven! I have heard some say that our professional study of the Word
of God may be a hindrance to our growth in the Divine life. I know what
they mean and there is some truth in their words–but to me, the
preaching of the Gospel has been a continual means of Grace and I can
say with the Apostle Paul, "Unto me, who am less than the least of all
saints, is this Grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles
the unreachable riches of Christ." It really is a Grace to be permitted
to preach the Gospel–it brings Grace with it. Brothers in the
ministry, have you not read the Bible much more because you have had to
preach the blessed Truths revealed in it? Have you not been driven to
your knees much more because you have had to deal with anxious souls
and to lead the people of God? I am sure that it is so and I thank God
for giving me a calling which does not take me away from the Mercy
Seat, but drives me to it! I am grateful that I have a message which I
am glad to tell, glad to tell anywhere–a message which never needs to
be concealed, but which brings joy to me in telling it and salvation to
our hearers in listening to it! Blessed be God that we have such a
story to proclaim!
I could say much more about this first point, but I must not, for our
time is so short. This must suffice upon the subject of our continual
testimony.
II. Now, secondly, the text mentions A REMARKABLE AUDIENCE. The
Psalmist says, twice over, "I have preached righteousness in the great
congregation." And yet again, "I have not concealed Your
loving-kindness and Your truth from the great congregation'"
It is astonishing to the preacher that there should be a great
congregation to hear the Gospel! I do not know how you think of it, but
if anybody had been set here to speak so many times a week upon
politics, I wonder whether he would have had a crowded congregation at
the end of 25 years? My friend Mr. Varley speaks right mightily, but if
he had been preaching upon total abstinence for 25 years, I am sure
that some would have totally abstained from coming to hear him! If I
had to preach here upon–well, what topic shall I say?–the object that
the Liberation Society has in view, for instance, I am afraid that I
should have liberated many of you from attendance long before this. All
other subjects are exhaustible, but give us that Book and give us the
Holy Spirit–and we may preach on forever! We shall never get to the
end of it!
I have heard of two infidels, one of whom said to his fellow, "If you
had to go to jail for 12 months and you could only have one book, what
book would you choose?" He was very surprised when his companion said,
"Oh, I would take the Bible!" The first one said, "But you do not
believe in it–I wonder that you should choose that." "Oh, but,"
rejoined his friend, "it is no end of a book." His record is true–it
is "no end of a book." Jerome used to say, "I adore the infinity of
Holy Scripture." And well he might. I would like you to look at my
Bible at home which is marked with all the texts I have preached from.
There are thirty-one completed volumes of my sermons and a
thirty-second is in the making.
Of course, in addition to the 32 volumes in the regular weekly series,
there are many more volumes printed and I have all the texts marked
from which I have preached. I sometimes make the outline of a sermon
and then, when I turn to my Bible, I find that I have preached from
that text and the sermon has been published–and I say, "That will not
do for a Sunday morning." I do not want to have the same subject again
more often than I can help. Sometimes, however, I find that the same
text may be taken and a new sermon readily enough made from it, for
there is a springing well in Holy Scripture, never exhausted, and the
great congregation needs continually to come to hear repetitions of the
same great Truths of God, though it is always the preacher's duty to
seek for acceptable words in presenting it. Young man just beginning to
preach–do not be afraid to stick to your texts–that is the best way
to get variety in your discourses. Saturate your sermons with Bibline,
the essence of Bible Truth, and you will always have something new to
say! But when I think of the great congregation, how encouraging it is!
It is always good fishing where there are plenty of fish. We are bound
to go and angle for a single soul, wherever there is one to be found,
and some do great service for the Master who take the fish one by one.
But what a delight it is to have the great seine net of the Gospel and
throw it into such a lake as this, God guiding the hand of the
fisherman all the while! Surely he should be a happy man!
But then, dear Friends, when we think of this great congregation, what
solemn thoughts come over our mind! I come down to this platform,
sometimes, and when I get another look at this great congregation, I am
staggered. Time after time I have felt as if I could run away sooner
than face this tremendous throng again and speak to them once more.
O Sirs, to think of all these being dying men and dying women–and to
think that this Gospel that I preach is needed by them all and may be
refused by many with awful consequences–and may be accepted by some
(it will be, thank God) with consequences of unutterable joy! To think
that we shall have to give an account of how we have preached and how
you have heard! To think that we shall all meet again at the Judgment
Seat to give an account of every Sunday and every Thursday service! If
Xerxes could not restrain a tear at the thought of his myriads of men
passing away, who can look at a congregation like this without being
moved with compassion? Yes, yes–it is not easy to preach to a great
congregation so as to be able to say at the last, "I am pure from the
blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the
counsel of God."
The sight of this great congregation gathered tonight suggests many
memories. I recollect some dear ones that used to sit here, and there,
and there, and there. I can almost see them now–some dear old saints
with gray heads that used to be our glory–who are now with God. Some
young and ardent spirits that were taken away before they reached their
prime. You sit where sat some who loved your Master well–and served
Him faithfully. Worthily occupy their places, beloved Friends!
But excuse me if I say no more upon this topic. My brain seems in a
whirl as dissolving views pass before my memory in quick succession. If
you want to see life and death, stand here. I feel like the captain of
a vessel on the bridge. I am looking down on you who are the passengers
and crew but yet, from another point of view, I seem to be looking at
great waves that sweep by and more come, and others follow–a
succession of changes, nothing abiding. How long shall we remain? How
soon shall we, too, also go? Well, it is something to have preached
Christ to this great congregation! It is something to believe that
those who have not received Him are without excuse. It is much better
to believe that many have received Him and that we shall meet them in
Heaven, rejoicing in that glorious Sacrifice by which they have been
cleansed from sin–in that dear Savior by whose life and death they
have been quickened and made heirs of eternal glory! Oh, that this
faith may be in us all and that we may all at last join in the general
assembly of the Church of the FirstBorn, whose names are written in
Heaven!
III. I have only a few minutes left in which to expound upon the last
of the points, THE SUGGESTED PRAYER. May I just give you an outline of
what I would have said if we could have had more time? The prayer of
the Psalmist is– "Withhold not Your tender mercies from me, O Lord:
let Your loving-kindness and Your truth"–the things which he had
preached–"continually preserve me."
This prayer is suitable for the preacher and he prays it now. Taking
David's words and making them my own, I pray to the Lord at this
moment–"Withhold not Your tender mercies from me, O Lord: let Your
loving-kindness and Your truth continually preserve me."
The prayer is also suitable for every Christian here. Let me read it
and let every Christian pray it now–"Withhold not Your tender mercies
from me, O Lord: let Your loving-kindness and Your truth continually
preserve me."
With a little alteration, this prayer may suit you who are not yet
saved, but who desire to be–"Withhold not Your tender mercies from me,
O Lord." Are you praying it? Is not this a good time in which to pray
that prayer? The signs are all propitious. There is "the sound of a
going in the tops of the mulberry trees." There are tokens for good
abroad. There is dew about tonight. Now, therefore, pray this prayer if
you have never prayed before–and God help you to claim the answer by
appropriating faith!
It seems to me that this prayer was suggested to the Psalmist by at
least three things.
First, it was suggested by the great congregation. David seems to say,
"O Lord, there are so many others who need Your care. Let me not be
lost in the crowd–withhold not Your tender mercies from me."–
"Lord, I hear of showers of blessing
You are scattering, full and free.
Showers, the thirsty land refreshing–
Let some drops fall on me, Even me." Next, the subject suggested it.
"Your truth, Your loving-kindness, O Lord. Let these preserve me. I
hear of Your goodness–I cannot bear to miss it. I hear of Your
truth–I would not be a stranger to it. Lord, bless me, even me!"
Then, again, the future suggested, it. The Psalmist expected to suffer
great trials and serious afflictions and, therefore, he prayed, "Let
Your loving-kindness and Your truth continually preserve me."
Now, as a congregation we have completed 25 years in this building, but
we must not reckon that we have reached the end of our struggles, or
even the end of our sins! O Brothers and Sisters, this is only a part
of the way to Heaven. I think that I told you, once before, that some
friends, when they raise an Ebenezer, sit down on the top of it and
say, "Here we are going to stop." When this Tabernacle was opened, I
remember that that night I put a sharp iron spike on the top of "the
stone of help," that nobody might sit upon it–and I do the same again
on the Ebenezer stone I now raise in remembrance of God's goodness! Let
none of us sit down at the end of this 25th year and say, "We have come
this far and here we are going to stay." Long nights of darkness lie
ahead–there are giants to be fought, mountains to be climbed, rivers
to be crossed! Who dreams of ease while he is here in the enemy's
country? Out with your sword, man! You have not done with the battle.
Awake, you that sleep! You have not come yet to the place of resting!
This is the place for watching, praying, wrestling and struggling.
Therefore do we cry, "Withhold not Your tender mercies from me." We are
getting older! We are getting weaker! We are, perhaps, getting less
wise! Who knows that all our years will bring us good news? They may
bring us evil if we trust to our past experience. We need God with us
now as much as we ever did! Therefore let us cry to Him, "From this
night bless us more and more."
The poor Psalmist was in great trouble when he prayed this prayer. He
says, "Innumerable evils have compassed me about." Therefore he says,
"Withhold not Your tender mercies from me."
He adds, "My iniquities have taken hold upon me." If there is one here
whose conscience is accusing him and who is guilty before his God, let
him pray this prayer because of his iniquities.
He goes on to say, "I am not able to look up." If that is your case–if
you cannot, look up–pray the Lord to look down and cry to Him never to
take His mercy from you!
David further says, concerning his iniquities, "They are more than the
hairs of my head: therefore my heart fails me." Well, when our heart
does fail us, let us recollect the mercy which has helped us so
long–and let us cast ourselves again upon that mercy for all that lies
before us.
I am not going to venture upon any prophecy. I attended, on Wednesday,
the funeral of our beloved Brother, Dr. Stanford. You may attend mine
before this year is over–or I may attend yours. If you could draw up
the curtain that hides the future, you would not wish to do it, would
you? Trust the Lord so that if you live, you are prepared to live– but
if you die, you are prepared to die1 I think that the best thing you
can do is to do the next thing that comes to you and to do it
thoroughly well. I was here last Monday. I had no rest from spiritual
work from three in the afternoon till half-past nine at night. And
about the middle of it I felt, "Well, I do not know how I shall get
through this long long afternoon of seeing enquirers and candidates for
Church fellowship." So I said to a Brother, "How am I to do it all?"
However, there was a cup of tea in front of me and I said, "I think I
will drink that tea–that is the next thing to be done."
Oftentimes that will be your best course, just do the next thing you
can do when you are saying to yourself, "How shall I do if I live to be
old?" When you go home tonight, eat your supper and go to bed to the
glory of God. And when you get up in the morning, do not think about
what you are going to do at night. Do what comes to you when you begin
the day's work and keep right straight on. If you can see a step at a
time, that is about as far as you need to see. Do not begin prying into
the future, but just go straight on from day to day, depending on God
for the mercy and Grace and strength of the day. That is the way to
live and I am persuaded that is the way to die! Mr. Wesley said, "If I
knew that I was to die tonight and I had an engagement to attend a
class meeting, I would go to it. If I had promised to call and see old
Betty So-and-So on the way back, I would call in to see her. I have
then to go home and have family prayer. I would do that. Then I would
take my boots off and I would go to bed, just as I would do if I were
notgoing to die." Oh, do not let death be a sort of addition to the
program which was not calculated upon–but so live that whenever it
comes you will be ready for it–even if it comes while we are sitting
here tonight! Then yours will be a happy life, a joyful life, a useful
life.
Secularism teaches us that we ought to look to this world. Christianity
teaches us that the best way to prepare for this world is to be fully
prepared for the next. It elevates and glorifies the secular duties
which otherwise would trail in the mire if our conversation, our
citizenship is in Heaven, even while we are on the earth! God bless
you, Beloved! Let us praise His name for all the mercies of the past
quarter of a century and trust His Grace for all the future.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM40.
These are the words of David–they are the words of all God's tried and
believing people, but above all they are the words of the Lord Jesus
Christ, Himself. So complete is the union between Christ and the
Believer that it is possible to describe them both at the same time.
The experience of a child of God, sin alone excepted, is very much like
the experience of the great First-Born. But Christ is always above us,
so you will find words in this Psalm which belong to nobody but Jesus
in all their fullness. Yet the title of it is, "A Psalm of David."
Verse 1. I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined unto me, and
heard my cry. You and I can say that and so could our Divine Master. Oh
the wondrous patience of the Lord Jesus Christ in prayer! In that agony
in the Garden when the bloody sweat showed how great was the wrestling
of His spirit, He could say, "I waited patiently for Jehovah, and He
inclined unto Me and heard My cry."
2. He broughtme up also out ofan horriblepit, out ofthe miry clay,
andset my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. We can say that,
too. We remember when we were deep down in the mire, when we found it
impossible to rise, for the more we struggled, the more we sank. It was
clay under us–miry clay–we could not hope for a rescue, but the arm
of Jehovah lifted us out of the deep and set us on a rock and there we
stood to sing His praises. Jesus Christ could say the same. He said,
"My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death." And He cried, "My
God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" What a very different frame of
mind He was in a few minutes afterwards when He said, "Father, unto
Your hands I commend My spirit" and shouted, "It is finished!" All His
travail was over. It is a great thing for us to have fellowship with
Christ in His suffering which we could not have had if we had not,
ourselves, also been brought up out of an horrible pit, out of the miry
clay.
3. AndHe hasput a newsong in my mouth, evenpraise unto our God: many
shallsee it, and fear, andshall trust in the LORD. Well, God has done
that for you and for me. He has put a new song into our mouths which
Satan cannot take out of it–and we are singing it today–and others
who hear it shall be encouraged to trust in God. But is this true of
Christ? Listen to those words at the end of the 22nd Psalm where,
beyond all doubt, it is the Savior who speaks–"My praise shall be of
You in the great congregation; I will pay My vows before them that fear
Him." So the Savior is the chief Leader of the holy song which goes up
to God on account of redemption! He sings because God has delivered Him
and delivered us. Both the Surety and the sinner are now free and the
song goes up from both of them! Again you see what sympathy, what
fellowship, we have with Christ.
4. Blessed is that man that makes the LORD his trust, and respects not
the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. Jesus knew the blessedness
of faith. Remember how Paul quotes it, "I will put my trust in Him," as
the language of the Redeemer, Himself. As Man, He had His fears. As Man
there was worked in Him a wondrous faith in God. Oh that you and I
might have the same trust and have no respect to the proud nor such as
turn aside to lies!
5. Many O LORD, my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done,
and Your thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in
order unto You: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more
than can be numbered. We are not dealing with a God who never deals
with us. Faith in God is no fiction. We have already had from God the
most wonderful displays of power–we have been the recipients of great
mercy springing from His thoughts of love toward us. It ought to be an
easy thing for experienced saints to trust in God and I hope it has
become so with us.
6-8. Sacrifice and offering You didnot desire; My ears have You opened:
burnt offering andsin offering have You not required. Then said I, Lo,
I come: in the volume ofthe Book it is written of Me, I delight to do
Your will, O My God: yes, Your Law is within My heart Now we
undoubtedly get the words of Christ. Our Lord said these words and,
therefore, He came to fulfill the Father's will and present on our
behalf an acceptable Sacrifice with blood better than that of bulls or
of goats. You and I have to say this in a very humble measure. We do
not now bring to God any sacrifice of bulls or goats, but we do bring
our whole heart to Him, trusting to be accepted, for He has written on
those hearts His own Law and it is our delight to now do the will of
God. This is the kind of sacrifice that God accepts–true, fervent,
obedient hearts! God grant us always to present it.
9, 10. I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I
have not refrained My lips, O LORD, You know. I have not hid Your
righteousness within My heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and
Your salvation: I have not concealed Your loving-kindness and Your
truth from the great congregation. What a preacher Christ was! How He
told out what He had learned of the Father! How fully, how constantly
was He the Witness for God to men! Some of us following far behind,
with unequal footsteps, nevertheless can say, "I have preached
righteousness in the great congregation." It is a great comfort in
feeling, if you are called to present the Gospel, that as far as you
know, you have preached it and have kept back nothing that God has
taught you. It will be a thousand mercies if any of God's servants
shall be found clear at the last. When we have done all, we are
unprofitable servants–we have only done what it was our duty to do.
But there is still a sweet peace about fidelity when in the integrity
of one's heart we can say that we have not refrained our lips as God
knows. Then comes the prayer–
11. Withhold not Your tender mercies from Me, O LORD: let Your
loving-kindness and Your truth continually preserve Me. If you have
dealt honestly with God's Word, you may expect that God will deal
graciously with you. Surely He would not send us to proclaim a message
of mercy and then deny mercy to us! That cannot be. But Brothers, when
we have done our best for God and before God, yet we cannot boast–we
still need mercy and we fall back upon the loving-kindness of God just
as the sinner must do when he first of all comes to God. May we always
be in that true and humble frame of mind which looks for nothing but
mercy.
12. For innumerable evils have compassed me about: my iniquities have
taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up; they are more than
the hairs of my head: therefore my heart fails me. Now here is a
passage in which the Master is not to be seen but only the servant!
This is the man that said that God had put a new song into his mouth.
He is a true child of God to whom God had had respect and whose prayer
God had heard, yet see what a plight he has come to! Dear Friends, you
and I may have to undergo this trial. Happy shall we be if we have such
faith in God that even when innumerable evils compass us about, we
shall remember the innumerable mercies of God, such mercies as the
Psalmist had spoken of in the fifth verse. When our iniquities take
hold upon us, what a mercy it is to think that Christ has taken hold
upon us, too, and will never let us go! When our sins seem more than
the hairs of our head and our heart is failing us, it is very sweet to
feel that the depths of eternal love and of atoning merit have drowned
even our innumerable sins–they are cast upon the head of Him that said
"Lo, I come to do Your will." They are carried away and they have
ceased to be through Him whose precious blood and glorious
righteousness have made us accepted before God!
13. Be pleased O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me.
You may pray like that and yet be a true Believer. The man that is not
in haste to be saved does not need to be saved at all. He that can put
it off till tomorrow knows nothing about it! A true Believer, when he
is crying for mercy, cries, "My case is urgent! Help me now, make haste
to help me."
14-17. Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my
soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that
wish me evil Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say
unto me, "Aha, aha. Let all those that seek You rejoice and be glad in
You: let such as love Your salvation say continually, The LORD be
magnified. But I am poor and needy, yet the LORD thinks upon me: You
are my Help and my Deliverer; make no tarrying, Omy God.''But I am poor
and needy, yet"–oh blessed, "yet"–"Yet the Lord thinks upon me." He
does not throw me a penny and pass on as we often do to the poor and
needy! But He stops and thinks. Yet He makes no tarrying. He answers
the cry of His people and comes in haste to deliver them!