An Old-fashioned Remedy
(No. 2921)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1905.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
OCTOBER 29, 1876.
"He sent His Word and healed them." Psalm 107:20.
THE healing of natural sickness is not accomplished without the power
of God. Vain were the skill of the most learned physician unless the
God of Nature cooperated with the medicine. If any of you have been
restored of late from sickness, I charge you to praise God for His
goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men. Remember
your weary nights. Remember your painful days. Call to mind the vows of
your soul in anguish and take care that you play not false to God. In
the day of your health, be true to the promises made on your sickbed.
Let the song of gratitude go up from your heart and from your lips–and
let the life which He has so graciously preserved be dedicated to His
service. It ought to be so. God help you that it may be so.
However, the Psalm is intended to speak of spiritual things and so,
tonight, we shall apply our text to the disorders of the mind–the
diseases of the heart. There are some here present who have felt that
worst of sicknesses–a sick heart–and many of us, blessed be God, have
received that best of healing, the healing of the mind! They can praise
God tonight while we speak of this precious fact–"He sent His Word and
healed them."
Just in a few strokes let me sketch the patient in his extremity and
then at length let me describe the cure in its simplicity. "He sent His
Word and healed them."
I. First, let us give the sketch of THE PATIENT IN HIS EXTREMITY. I
hope he will see himself as in a glass and say, "That is myself."
The first thing about him is that he is a fool. Turn to the 17th verse.
"Fools, because of their transgression and because of their iniquities
are afflicted." It is insulting to a man to call him a fool, but I
question whether any man is saved unless he has called himselfa fool!
"Fool," says the man under a conviction of sin, "you may write the word
large about me, for it describes my condition!" We sometimes speak of a
born fool. Well, that is exactly what the convicted man feels he is–he
has been born a fool, his very nature is foolish–for he puts bitter
for sweet and sweet for bitter, darkness for light and light for
darkness! And that not now and then, but by the very force of nature he
seems to constantly make a foolish choice. He has been one of those
fools who has said in his heart, "No God," for he has practically lived
without thinking of his God. He has been one of those fools who has
chosen the transient present and left the eternal future to be
forgotten. It is a difficult thing to cure a man of his folly. "Though
you should crush a fool in the mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet
his foolishness will not depart from him," says Solomon. That would be
a rather rough process, would it not? But it would be useless! Folly
would still remain in spite of all the grinding. When a man truly sees
his sickness, he feels that he is just such a fool as that–a fool with
folly ingrained. "Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child," and
in the life of a sinner!
But this man has played the fool. Besides being a fool, he has acted
like a fool, for, "fools, because of their transgression and because of
their iniquities, are afflicted." Transgression means breaking bounds
and trespassing and he that trespasses in the fields of a God who is so
just and so strong to smite, is a fool! Iniquity means lack of equity,
lack of truth, lack of rightness, lack of honesty and surely he that
tries to cheat God is a fool! How shall he hope to be able to deceive
the Omniscient One, or that those eyes which are like a flame of fire
shall fail to detect the inequity, the dishonesty of his doings? That
he has thought for a moment that he could do it, shows that he is a
fool and that he has acted like a
fool!
Now, I am not going to say of any man present that this is true
concerning him, but if any man here present feels it is the truth about
himself, he is a man that God is going to bless, for when the Lord has
shown you yourself, He will afterwards show you Himself. And when He
has made you see that you are a fool by nature and a fool by practice,
then it is that He will take you into the school of wisdom and yet
teach you the right way! The patient's disease, you will see, is a very
bad one and it is one that is very hard to cure.
You notice, according to the Psalm, that he has come into a condition
in which he has lost all appetite. It is written, "Their soul abhors
all manner of meat." A sick man in certain diseases loses his appetite
for everything. It matters not how daintily cooked the delicate morsel
may be, he turns against it. Ah, well do I remember my own season of
suffering when I passed through this experience. I am only describing
what has happened to myself and, therefore, I know that it has happened
to some of you, for though in detail our experiences differ, in the
main they are amazingly alike. How we loathe everything in our
sickness! Manna–that is light bread. Bread that is heavy. Wine–it is
too hot. Water–it is too cold. It mattered not what was brought to me
when I was in that spiritual condition, I could not receive it.
Doubtless it is so with you, too. Of the invitations of the Gospel, the
soul says, "Ah, Jesus Christ could not intend to invite me." Of the
promises of the Word, the heart says, "Ah, they may be true for
everybody else, but they cannot be true for me." One may preach the
sweetest and the softest messages of love, but when a soul is under a
sense of sin, it abhors all manner of meat–it turns against all
consolation–it refuses to be comforted. You may try to comfort such a
case as much as you will, but the dreary thought rises in the soul, "It
cannot be for me. As for me, I shall perish in my iniquity! I have
played the fool exceedingly and God has given me up to my heart's lusts
and now I shall perish in the day when He judges mankind."
The Psalmist goes on to say of the sick man that he is drawing near
unto the gates of death I know some souls that feel as if it could not
be long before they shall be utterly lost. They have not had any peace,
rest, happiness, comfort, for such a great while that it seems to them
a wonder that the earth does not open and swallow them up! They cannot
sleep at night for terrible dreams and cannot rest at day for terrible
sounds that are in their ears. They think of an angry God, the Judgment
Seat and the dreadful sword of the Most High that is made bare to smite
the wicked. I do not say that many of you are in that state, but if any
of you are, it is to you that I am sent tonight with words of mercy,
for the text says, "He sent His Word and healed them." These fools,
these that have played the fool, these whose soul abhors all manner of
meat and these who draw near unto the gates of death–to these very
people He sent His Word and healed them! Oh, that Infinite Mercy might
do the same with any such who are in this company!
There is one hopeful mark about this sick man and that is that he has
begun to pray. "Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble." It would
not be much of a prayer if it had been printed–you could not have read
it. Indeed, you could not print it, for you cannot print a cry. The
reporter has not got a sign in all his stenography, I think, by which
he can record a cry. A cry is the heart's own language with which the
tongue cannot interfere. Is there anybody here that does pray and yet
cannot pray–who groans before God, "Oh, that I might be saved"–whose
only words are tears–whose only language is the anguish of his silent
spirit? Ah, you are the person–the person that can cry! Cry, then,
unto the Lord with all your might! It is said of such, "He sent His
Word and healed them."
Well, those few touches may suffice. An artist sometimes sketches a
likeness with a piece of charcoal. So have I sketched my patient in
words few and simple. I am now going to take a longer time to describe
the healing in its wonderful simplicity. "He sent His Word and healed
them."
II. THE CURE IN ITS SIMPLICITY.
When a physician meets with a very bad case–a case in dire
extremity–it will sometimes happen with him that he has to think
awhile. Perhaps he has to resort to his books of medicine or to his
diary of former cases, or to hold a consultation with another physician
before he will venture to prescribe, for something unknown is needed in
this unusual disease. But I want you to observe that though the case
represented in the Psalm was a very bad one, there was no new thing
needed to meet it. The old remedy would suffice. All that the Infinite
Lord had to do was to send His Word and heal them! It was the old
healing Word of God that had healed many a fool before and could still
heal fools–the old healing word that had brought back many from
between the very gates of death! Nothing more was needed in order to
bring back these who were in such a dreadful condition. For the healing
of the souls sick with sin and sick of it, I have no new Gospel to
preach nor any new thing to say. Thank God, the old, old Gospel meets
every case! New developments of
sin, strange out-of-the-way diseases of iniquity keep cropping up, but
the old remedy meets them all. God needs not to consult nor make new
compounds–the simple thing which healed men centuries ago still heals
them. "He sent His Word and healed them."
The text may be understood to mean three things. First God sent Christ,
the Incarnate Word. That is the essenceof the remedy. Then He sent the
Bible, the revealed Word. That is the instrumentof the remedy. He sent,
thirdly, His Word of Power by the Holy Spirit. That is the
applicationof the remedy. Let us speak of these three things. They are
all necessary. As there is a Trinity in the one God, so must there to a
trinity in the one Word by which men are saved.
First, let us look at the essence of the remedy. Dear Friends, when God
heals a sinner He does it by Christ, who is the Word made flesh who
dwelt among us. Almighty healing lies in the Person and work and merit
of Him who is called the Word of God, of whom you read, in the first
chapter of John's Gospel, that "the Word was God, the same was in the
beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was
not anything made that was made."
Now, whatever your disease may be, Jesus Christ, the Word of God, is
able to meet it. He can heal the guilt of sin. However guilty a soul
may be, Christ stands in the sinner's place, bears the sin and makes
Atonement for it unto God. So all sin can be put away. No matter how
many your sins, or how black they may be, although they are
double-dyed, yet the moment Jesus Christ comes to you and you accept
Him–
"Your sins shall vanish quite away Though black as Hell before, Shall
be dissolved beneath the sea And shall be found no more." There is
healing for the guilt of sin.
Probably, however, your conscience is troubled about the influence of
sin over your life. Christ can meet that need, too. He can cure you of
sinning. Even if you could be forgiven the past, you cannot bear the
thought of going on as you have done. Dear sick one, there is healing
for your foolishness as well as for your sin–for the iniquity of your
heart as well as for the iniquity of your life! Jesus Christ is able to
set you all right. If the wheels of the watch are wrong, He is the
Great Maker and He can put it all right again. He can rectify every cog
of every wheel till He shall have sanctified you wholly–spirit, soul
and body. Jesus Christ is made of God unto us not only Justification
but Sanctification, too! He is able to meet both the dire ills of life
and the guilt and the power of sin.
Possibly you reply to me that you are suffering in your inmost soul.
Well, the Great Physician speaks and He can heal the depression of sin.
A sense of sin has broken your bones. A sense of sin has seemed to take
away all courage from you. You do not seem to be half a man now, for
sin has unstrung you–has made you weak as water. My Lord Jesus Christ
can heal that! He can take away the depression, the despondency, yes,
and the despair. Though you may have written yourself down as damned.
Though you have made a league with Hell and "a covenant with death,"
yet my Lord Jesus Christ with one touch of His pierced hand can make
your spirit leap for joy! It is His way to pluck us out of the horrible
pit and out of the miry clay and set our feet upon the rock and put a
new song into our mouths and establish our goings. You cannot tell how
quickly despondency can be changed for delight when Jesus appears! He
can put off your sackcloth and your ashes from you so that you shall
never wear them again. He can gird you with gladness and put jewels in
your ears and about your neck, and adorn you as a bridegroom decks his
bride with ornaments. You little know the great joy which Christ can
give, in a moment, to the most desponding sinner!
If you tell me that sin has done you all sorts of mischiefs–that you
feel as if sin had poisoned you all over–that your whole nature is now
out of gear and even though it should be healed, yet there are scars
which you will never lose, broken bones you will carry to your tomb, I
still preach to you of the power of Christ! He can remove even the
scars. My Lord has various ointments and remedies with which He can
heal even these. What He did here on earth to the bodies of men, He is
now prepared to do to the souls of men! There came to Him the blind.
They could not see, just as you cannot understand. You say truly that
sin has darkened your judgment. What did the Master do but make clay
with His spittle, anoint the eyes of the blind and say, "Go and wash,"
and the blind went and came back seeing! Sometimes He touched men' s
eyes and the scales fell and so they saw! My Lord can give you back
your calm and right judgment again. He can so overrule your spirit that
it shall no more put the bitter for the sweet and the darkness for the
light. He can give you back those eyes of your heart–
"He comes from thickest films of night To clear the mental ray, And on
the eyeballs of the blind To pour celestial day."
Ah, but you reply, "I can see well enough, but I cannot act. I know
what I ought to do, but I do not do it. I perceive the right but I do
the wrong–I would, but I cannot." Still I invite you to Jesus. He can
give you the strength you have lost. When my dear Lord was here on
earth, there were men with withered hands and He bade them stretch them
out and they were restored. There were some that had lain on the bed
and could not stir, sick of the palsy, but He bade them walk. And there
was one that had been lying for years by Bethesda's side, that could
not stop into the pool. He lay there as you lie at the pool of
ordinances, but Christ said to him, "Rise, take up your bed and walk,"
and he did so. My Lord can give you back all power that you have
lost–the power to repent, the power to believe, the power to shake off
sin, the power to walk in holiness! He can give it all back to you and
He can do it now, even while you are sitting in this House of Prayer!
Was there ever a disease that came to Christ that puzzled Him? Do you
remember one that He ever turned away? In the long list of human
diseases reckoned to be incurable, almost all, if not quite all, came
under His glance, but was there one that foiled Him? Was there one of
which He said, "My Power is not equal to that"? No, you know He even
raised the dead! Even though Lazarus had begun to stink, He raised
him–he had been dead three days and yet he came forth–when the grave
cloths were unwound, there was the living man! What cannot my Master
do?
If I address someone who feels himself to be full of evil till he is
almost like a man with a devil within him, I point that man to Christ.
He can dispossess the devil. Do I speak to one whose raging passion, or
whose lustful desire, or whose unsatisfied thirst of drunkenness, or
whose long habit of blasphemy has made him like the demoniac? Oh, come
here! Come you but within range of that mighty Voice and it shall say,
"Come out of the man, you unclean spirit, and enter no more into him."
Christ can make even you to be clean!
Wherever Jesus Christ comes, He is that Word of God that makes men
whole! So I say to you tonight that if any of you want to save others,
preach Jesus Christ, for He is the Word that heals them! And if any of
you want to be saved, think much of Jesus Christ. Look to none else but
Jesus Christ. Fix your mind's eye on Him and trust Him–and as surely
as you trust Him, you shall be made whole. In your case it shall be
written, "He sent His Word and healed him." There is nothing about your
case that Christ cannot reach! There is in Jesus Christ something
exactly adapted to the peculiarly disastrous nature of your position.
He can, He will save even you, even you, if you do but trust Him now!
I am obliged to be brief for time flies so rapidly. And now, notice in
the second place, the instrument of the remedy. "He sent His Word and
healed them." That is, He sent this Book, this Revelation which is the
Word of God. Though it is Christ that heals men, and not the Bible, the
Bible is like the wrapper of the bottle in which the medicine is
put–and we find the remedy by unfolding the wrapper. Remember, dear
Souls, if you are sick, that the medicine that is to reach your case is
somewhere between these two covers. There is something in here for
every sin-sick soul that seeks it!
Perhaps it is a precept you have been neglecting–something of that
which the Lord would have you to do. I have known many a soul brought
to Christ by a precept. The Law of God has often been a schoolmaster to
bring men to Christ that they might find peace in Him.
But for many more of you there is here an invitation such as this, "Ho,
everyone that thirsts, come you to the waters." That refers to you,
does it not? Do you not thirst? And there is the sweet invitation of
last Sunday night, "Come unto Me all you that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest." That has been the instrument of
healing to countless numbers.
Sometimes it is not an invitation, but a promise or a grand encouraging
statement such as, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all
acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Or
such a sweet word as, "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that
which was lost," which is used by the Great Physician as balm for the
wounded soul.
Precepts, promises, invitations, Gospel statements–here they are! The
medicine is put into many forms because the disease assumes so many
aspects, but within this Sacred Volume lies that living Word of God
which, if it is blessed by the Holy Spirit, will bring peace to your
souls! I wish you, therefore, to value this Book beyond all price–to
read it much, to read it, praying as you read, "Lord, bless it to my
soul"–to lay your heart open to it when it cuts you like a knife–
to receive those friendly wounds as meant for your healing. Then open
your heart to receive its light that you may see by it–to receive its
comforts that you may rejoice through them. Open wide the great doors
of your soul that every part of this Word may have entrance there.
You that preach to others preach much of the Word of God. O dear Sirs,
remember good McCheyne's experience– he says that almost always when
there was a case of conversion the hearer attributed it to a text of
Scripture that had been quoted in the sermon. I believe it is largely
so at all times and when McCheyne again says, "It is God's Word, not
our own, but God's Word that is generally blessed," I am sure it is so.
If you who are hearers have a choice in the matter, frequent a ministry
that is full of Scripture. You are more likely to get a blessing,
there, than anywhere else. Read books that are full of the very Word of
God and then read the Word itself. But do not think you will be saved
simply by reading it. That is impossible, for you are only saved by
Christ–and He said to the people of His time, "You search the
Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and you will
not come unto Me that you might have life." But though you will not be
saved by reading, you may be saved through reading and through reading
the Scriptures! While you are reading and hearing God' s precious Word,
He may send home some of the Light of God and the Truth of God and the
Life which lie concealed within the sacred pages. "He sent His Word and
healed them." My learned doctor, we do not want your new gospel! We
want the old Word of God. My friend of the fine poetical speech, you of
the grand rhetoric, you of the golden mouth–we want neither you nor
your mouth unless you give us the Word of God–just what is revealed in
Scripture! There were great preachers before Luther and Calvin, before
Wickliffe and Huss and Jerome–they went about preaching and preaching
to great crowds, too, but they did not save souls! That was not because
they could not speak and were not attractive, but because they had not
this story to tell–the story that is in this Book–the story of Him
who did hang upon the Cross. We must preach the Word! "Preach the Word;
be instant in season and out of season," for it still stands true, "He
sent His Word and healed them."
Now again time checks me and I must therefore notice that there is a
third sense in which we may view this text. Let us speak, then, of the
application of the remedy. Jesus Christ on the Cross does not save men
while they reject and refuse Him. And this Book does not save anybody
until the Holy Spirit with power speaks to the soul. When that happens,
then, it is the Word of God in another sense. Just as of old He spoke
and it was done, as He said, "Let there be light," and there was light,
there seems to be needed a distinct call from God to men or they will
not come to Him. The Living Word must leap from the mouth of the Living
God or else the Bible will be but a dead letter! Men will turn away
from Christ as if it were nothing to them that Jesus died–unless the
Spirit reveals the Truth in power! Beloved, you that have been healed,
do you not ascribe your healing to the secret mysterious power of the
Holy Spirit? You know you give Him the glory. Hence when you wish to
bring men to Christ, always honor the Holy Spirit. Do not forget to
adore Him, to lean entirely upon Him for all the power with which the
healing of a soul is to be accomplished. There is no faith in the world
that will save except the faith which is of the operation of the Spirit
of God! There is no true glance of the eyes toward Christ on the Cross
but such as the Spirit of God has given!
Now I want to speak just two or three words about this. Some of you
will say, "Ah me, would God that the Spirit of God would speak to me."
Be not deceived, He is speaking to you now! The Word, when it is
faithfully preached with prayerful spirit, has the Spirit of God going
with it. Men may resist it, but they add to their sin in doing so. As
said the man of God of old, "You do always resist the Holy Spirit; as
your fathers did so, do you." Let us explain what the Spirit of God
does notdo. Since you can only be saved by hearing about Christ, He
will not bring you a new way of salvation or reveal another Savior. And
if you are not saved by reading the Word of God and hearing it, He will
not be likely to use any other means. The Spirit is of the same mind as
father Abraham who said about the five brothers of the man at whose
gate Lazarus lay begging, "If they hear not Moses and the Prophets,
neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." You must
not sit still and say, "I expect to see signs and wonders, or else I
will not believe." You shall have no sign and no wonder except the sign
of a dying Savior and a Savior risen from the dead–and the added sign
of this great wonder that you refuse to believe in Him and put your
trust in Him.
Now know this, that when men are led to Christ by the Spirit of God,
they do not know at the time that it is the Spirit of God that is
leading them. They have no idea of it! They think, they meditate, they
judge, they decide and they believe. They are free agents and they act
as such. It is afterwards that they discover that the Spirit of God has
been leading them through it all. Now if you wait till you feel the
Spirit of God and know it to be the Spirit of God while you are yet
unbelieving, you will wait forever–for such an experience will never
be granted to you. No man ever knows the Spirit of God so as
consciously to be aware that the Spirit is at work with him until he
knows Jesus Christ. As no man comes to the Father but through the Son,
so no man comes to realize and to be aware of the work of the Spirit on
his soul till he knows Jesus Christ!
What is the Spirit of God, then, to do for you? What I hope in many
cases He is now doing, namely, to make you willing, as I trust you are.
To make you conscious of your danger, as I trust you are. To make you
understand the remedy, as I think you do. And to lead you sweetly and
gently to accept what God provides, as I hope you will.
"Is that all?" asks one. Ah, Beloved, it is a very great, "all." I know
I cannot do that work! And all the ministers in the world put together
could not do that which you think to be so little. I am certain if I
were sent to you to proclaim that you could all be saved if you would
go barefoot from here to John o'Groats and start tonight, that the
great northern road would be thronged by people going! People would do
anythingof that sort to be saved! They would not need to be persuaded.
But if we tell them that they are to believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ–it is so simple, it is so easy– that God has to work a miracle
before He can bring their proud hearts to consent to be saved in that
way! He has to give men new life and new light before they will come to
it. Oh, have you come to it? Have you come to it now? Do you feel that
at this instant you can say, "I do trust Jesus." Well, dear Brother, or
Sister, it is the Spirit of God that has brought you to it! He is
within you! You need not raise any question about it. He has sent the
Word and healed you. If He has brought you there, keep saying–
" While I view You wounded, grieving, Breathless on the cursed tree,
Gladly I'd feel my heart believing That You suffered thus for me."
Do you trust yourself to Him now, whether you sink or swim? Do you
trust yourself to Him that bled on the tree? That is the work of the
Spirit of God–none but He could have done it!
"It seems so little," says one. "It looks as if I might have done it
myself." Ah, but that little thing is the great thing here. When Elisha
said, "Wash in Jordan and be clean," that was the hard thing. "If the
Prophet had bid you do some great thing, would you not have done it?"
asked his servant. But it was really a great thing the Prophet had
commanded. If our Gospel were hard, it would be easy, but because it is
easy it is hard! It needs a strong hand to bring us down to this and I
am praying while I am preaching to you that the Lord Jesus Christ would
now send forth the ever-blessed Spirit– His own Word of Power–to
bring you to Himself. Look and live!
Oh, are you sick? Christ is a Physician on purpose for the sick! Are
you crying? Christ is One who always comes at the cry of sick souls!
Are you willing to be saved in God's way? Will you let Him do what He
wills with you? Do you surrender at discretion? Do you say, "Anyway,
anyway, just so I may be but saved from the wrath to come?" Will you
now open wide your hearts to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord? Then
the Spirit of God is present healing you! He is at work with you. He
has healed you, I trust, already! Only trust the bleeding Lamb of God,
only trust Him! It is done. It is done. All glory to the Lamb of God!
It is done! All glory to the Divine Spirit who has brought us into this
state of salvation! Amen and Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM107.
1. O give thanks unto the LORD, for He is good: for His mercy endures
forever Because we are sinners, God's goodness takes the form of mercy.
Mercy–this was what we need–therefore, instead of mere benevolence
towards the good, God's love takes the form of mercy towards the guilty
and this mercy is forever! It always was, always is and always shall
be.
2. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom He has redeemed from the
hand of the enemy. Let the redeemed be the first to sing and let them
sing the sweetest of all. O children of God, you are meant to be
leaders in the chorus of God's praise! All nature is a great organ and
if you are what you should be, you are the men and women whose fingers
of gratitude are to touch the keys and bring forth thunders of praise
unto God!
3. And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the
west, from the north, and from the south I t is a part of Redemption's
work to gather out all people–fetch them into a separated condition.
The voice of Redemption sounds–"Come out from among them and be you
separate. Touch not the unclean thing." And the hand of Redemption
gathers out God's chosen and brings them into a saved unity where they
enjoy fellowship with each other and with God. Now here he gives a
description of the gratitude which is due to God from different persons
who have been partakers of His mercy. First, souls are here compared to
lost travelers.
4-6. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no
city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then
they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and He delivered them out of
their distresses. Some of you know what this means. You have lost your
way. You know not how to find it. Spiritually you are in a wilderness
and you would, if you could, get to the city of Jerusalem. You would
get to the very heart of God, but you cannot. You find no city to dwell
in–no peace–no rest.
Moreover, your spiritual needs are very pressing. You are hungry and
you are thirsty, but it is a wilderness and you cannot find a morsel of
food. No manna drops for you. Your soul is ready to faint. You feel as
if you could not go another step nor search another inch. To lie down
and die is all that you can do. But the vultures are in the air and you
are afraid even of despair. You are hard pressed. Notice it is said,
"Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble." Why did not they do
so before? Because men do not begin to pray to God as long as they have
any hope besides. But when all hope is gone, then comes the first real
living, agonizing, cry to Heaven–and no sooner is that heard than God
answers it! "He delivered them out of their distresses."
7-9. And He led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a
city of habitation. Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness,
and for His wonderful works to the children of men! For He satisfies
the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness. Is there a
longing soul here tonight? Amidst these thousands, surely there must be
some! Well, dear Soul, God will satisfy you! He will not merely stay
your hunger for a little while, and help you to break your fast, but
your longing shall be satisfied. And if you are hungry, He will fill
you and fill you not only with good, but with goodness itself–the very
quintessence of everything that is excellent! Next, the Psalmist
describes prisoners. We have a picture of the spiritual state of man
from another point of view.
10-13. Such as it is in darkness and in the shadow of death, being
bound in affliction and iron because they rebelled against the words of
God's and condemned the counsel of the Most High: therefore He brought
down their heart with labor; they fell down and there was none to help.
Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble and He saved them out of
their distresses. These were prisoners in a prison where they were
forced to work and where they found no rest. A picture of a dark
soul–a soul over which death spread his dragon wings. You know what it
means to be brought into spiritual death–to feel the chill of
spiritual death even to your very marrow, paralyzing you and binding
all your hopes in everlasting frost, do you not? Have you been in dread
of the wrath to come? Have you set to work to redeem yourselves and
toiled like slaves, but toiled in vain? Has your heart been brought
down from your high notions, your proud desires, your boasting and your
loftiness? Then is fulfilled in you the words of this text–"Therefore
He brought down their heart with labor: they fell down and there was
none to help."
"Then," but not till then–"they cried unto the Lord in their trouble
and He saved them out of their distresses." Proud hearts will not pray.
When a man can help himself, he will not cry to God. As long as he has
any hope left within the compass of his nature, he will not turn to the
God who made him. But what a blessed despair that is which drives us to
God! It is like the wave that sweeps the mariner up on to the rock
where he is safe. May such a wave of despair catch some of us and hurl
us into safety! They cried and He saved them.
14-16. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and
broke their bands in sunder Oh that men would praise the LORD for His
goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men; for He has
broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder The third
picture of our lost estate is given us under the image of a sick man.
17-19. Fools because of their transgressions and because of their
iniquities are afflicted. Their soul abhors all manner of meat; and
they draw near unto the gates of death. Then they cry. Even these
fools! "Then they cry"–
19-22. Unto the LORD in their trouble and He saved them out of their
distresses. He sent His Word, and healed them, and delivered them from
their destructions. Oh that men would praise the LORD for His goodness
and for His wonderful works to the children of men! And let them
sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare His works with
rejoicing. One more picture is given and that is of a soul at sea,
tossed with tempest and not comforted–spiritually shipwrecked.
23-28. They thatgo down to the sea in ships that do business in great
waters; these see the works ofthe LORD, and His wonders in the deep.
For He commands and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves
thereof They mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the depths:
their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and
stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit's end. Then they cry.
Never till they get to their wit's end do men cry to God! When nothing
else is to be done and all human might has utterly failed, then they
cry. Now, you that have ever been in this storm–you know what it
means. You recollect how you were sailing smoothly along with fair
weather and suddenly a spiritual cyclone took hold of you, and twisted
your soul roundabout–threw you sometimes up with presumptuous hopes,
and then down again with awful despairs! You could not stand or hold to
anything, even the Truth of God you knew, you could not believe, and
the promises which you could believe, you could not apply to yourself.
There was no hold-fast for you! You reeled and staggered and your
courage was gone. Your soul was melted because of trouble. There seemed
nothing before you but the abyss. Deep called to deep, and Jehovah's
waterspouts sent forth a sound. "Now," you thought, "surely the end is
come." And then it was that you began to pray.
28-32. Unto the LORD in their trouble, and He brings them out of their
distresses. He makes the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are
still Then are they glad because they are quiet; so He brings them unto
their desired haven. Oh that men would praise the LORD for His
goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! Let them
exalt Him also in the congregation ofthe people, and praise Him in the
assembly ofthe elders.