Anxiety, Ambition, Indecision
(No. 2871)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1904.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY
27, 1876.
"Neither be you of a doubtful mind." Luke 12:29.
THE chief concern of a man should be to see that his own soul is right
in the sight of God. Solomon said, "Keep your heart with all diligence;
for out of it are the issues of life." Many persons think a great deal
about the adorning of the body, but do not think anything about the
ornaments of the soul. The feeding of the physical frame engrosses much
care, but the supply of spiritual food is often neglected. Yet, O Man,
you yourself are better than your body! Your immortal soul is worth far
more than that poor carcass of yours which will soon become food for
worms! And all the things that you have, what are they compared with
your inner self–your real self–your heart, your soul, your spirit?
In our text, our Savior bids us see to the condition of our
mind–"Neither be you of a doubtful mind." He thus calls our attention
to the higher and nobler part of our mind and bids us see to it that it
is in a right state. No doubt there are some people who are in easier
circumstances than others–some who are in positions where they enjoy
many comforts, while others are in places where they suffer many
hardships. But, after all, happiness lies more in the mind than it does
in the circumstances in which any individual is found and the man
within has far more to do with his own joy or sorrow than anything
outside of him has. There have been some who have been perfectly free
in a prison, while others have been in absolute bondage with wide
estates to roam over. We have known some whose spirits have triumphed
when all around has tended to depress them. And we have seen others who
were wretched and desponding when they had, apparently, all that heart
could wish.
It is the mindwhich is the main thing–it will bring you daylight or
midnight, wealth or poverty, peace or war. I wish, dear Friends, that
half the time we spend in trying to better our circumstances were spent
in bettering ourselves after the right fashion and that even a tenth of
the trouble we take to fit our circumstances to our desires were used
in fitting our desires to our circumstances. If we did that, how much
happier men and women we would be! Try as you may, you cannot alter the
world in which your lot is cast and you cannot alter God's Providential
arrangements. So, would it not be better that you should be altered so
as to suit the Providence and be resigned to the will of God?
It is beautiful to see how often the Inspired writers of Holy Scripture
were busy with what I may call indoor work– the work that has to be
done within one's own heart. "Bless the Lord, O my Soul," says David,
in the 103rd Psalm, "and all that is within me, bless His holy name."
This indoor work, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, will always pay us
best. And our Lord Jesus, in His exhortations, often bids us attend to
it. Did He not say to His disciples, "Let not your heart be troubled"?
A little later, He said to them, "In the world you shall have
tribulation." And He says the same to His disciples in every age. It is
no use for you to try to avoid it, for you will have tribulation, yet,
"Let not your heart be troubled." All the water in the sea will not
hurt your vessel as long as you keep it outside–the danger begins when
it gets inside the ship. So it matters little what is outside you, if
all is right within. Have that little bird in your bosom that sings
sweetly of the love of God! Wear the flower called heart's-ease in your
buttonhole and you may go merrily through a perfect wilderness of
trouble and a desert of care! A hurricane of afflictions may beat about
you, yet you shall be a blessed man–for all the elements of
blessedness are within your own heart. God has given them to you and
the devil himself cannot take them away!
In speaking upon this text, I mean to preach a good part of the sermon
to myself, for I need it as much as anybody does. But I ask each
Brother and Sister to take home to themselves any part that suits them.
And before I have done, I shall have a word for you unconverted
people–and I pray God that that word may do you good and that you may
cease to be of a doubtful mind. The original of the text is not easy to
explain, for the word translated, "doubtful," is not used anywhere else
in the New Testament. It appears to have something to do with meteors,
so that the passage might be rendered, "Neither be you of a meteoric
mind."
As the word is so unusual, there have been a great many different
opinions as to its meaning. Some have said that it relates to high
things that float above, such as the clouds. If they are right, our
text says to us, "Do not be like the clouds–do not have cloudy minds,
blown about with every wind of Doctrine." Others render it, "Do not be
like the birds, high up in the air, always on the wing, unsettled and
uncertain, ever flying about and never at rest." Others find an
allusion to the ship that is far out upon the sea–and the text says to
them, "Do not always be at sea, tossed up and down. Have some
anchorage. Do not be always drifting to and fro." The word, "doubtful,"
means so much that I do not expect to be able to tell you all that it
means, but shall rather give you a few practical thoughts concerning
it.
I. "Neither be you of a doubtful mind." That is, first, CHILDREN OF
GOD, BE NOT ANXIOUS. Be not tossed up and down by your outward
circumstances. If God prospers you, do not ride high, as the vessel
does when the tide lifts it up. And if He does not prosper you, do not
sink down as the vessel does when the tide ebbs away again. Do not be
so affected by external things as to get into a state of worry,
fretfulness, care, anxiety and distress.
Our Savior's injunction means, "Do not be anxious about your temporal
affairs." Be prudent. You have no right to spend the money of other
people, nor yet your own, in wastefulness. You are to be careful and
discreet, for every Christian should remember that he is only a steward
and that he is accountable to his Master for whatever he has and the
use he makes of it. But when you have done your best with your little,
do not worry because you cannot make it more. And when you have done
your best to meet your expenses, do not sit down and wring your hands
because you cannot lessen them. You cannot make a shilling into a
sovereign, but be thankful if you have the shilling! And if you
sometimes find that you must live from hand to mouth, remember that you
are not the first child of God who has had his manna every morning, nor
the first of God's servants to have bread and flesh in the morning, and
bread and flesh in the evening with nothing to lay by for the morrow.
If this is your case, be not staggered and astonished, as though some
new thing had happened to you! And do not begin to fret, and fume, and
worry and trouble yourself about what you cannot help. Can you alter it
with all your worrying?
Have you–you who are in the habit of worrying and fretting–ever made
any profit by doing so? How much a year do you think that anybody would
give you for all your fretting? How much has it brought you? Come,
Brother, if it is a good business, I would like to go into partnership
with you! But I should like first to know something about your profits.
As I look at your face, I notice that it is care-worn and anxious. That
does not seem to indicate that the business is a profitable one. If I
listen to your speech, I hear you murmuring a great deal instead of
praising God. That does not seem to me to be a profitable concern. In
fact, as far as I have ascertained, either by my own experience or by
the observation of others, I have never discovered that anxiety has
comforted anybody, or that it has brought any grist to the mill, or any
meal to the barrel! Well, if a thing does not pay, what is the good of
it?
But perhaps you say, "I cannot help fretting and worrying." No, my good
Brother or Sister, but do you not think that the Lord can help you to
help it and that your faith in Him, if it were what it ought to be,
would soon be the end of your distress and trouble? Have you not found
out yet–I have–that the very anxiety which arises through your being
in a difficulty, unfits you to meet that difficulty? You are in a great
hurry to do something or other and that something or other does more
mischief than could possibly have happened if you had kept still,
resting in the Lord and waiting patiently for Him! Instead of doing so,
you rush this way and that way, and so add to your worries instead of
decreasing them. You are like the servant with the basket of eggs on
her head, who shakes her head because she is afraid her eggs will
fall–and makes them fall by the very process of her trembling!
So, you go and make ten troubles in endeavoring to get out of one.
There is a text that is very easy to repeat, but not always so easy to
obey–"Stand still, and see the salvation of God." But you want to see
your own salvation, so you cannot stand still! There is many a man who
has run before God's cloud and who has been very glad to run or even to
crawl back again. Some people are so anxious to carve for themselves
that they cut their own fingers! They had better leave the
carving in the hands of God and take what He gives them, for He knows
far better than they do what is good for them– and His hand is
infinitely wiser than theirs can possibly be.
"Oh, but," says one, "I feel that I must be doing something." That,
"doing," will just be your undoing unless you stop and consider what
God would have you do! The probability is that your action will be
unwise and hasty while you are in your present feverish condition. Wait
till you get quite cool, Brother–you will see your way far better
then. At the present moment you are in such a fidget and flutter that
you are very apt to mistake your right hand for your left and to put
bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
You say again that you cannot help being anxious. Then, my dear Friend,
I must very solemnly ask you what is the difference between you and the
man of the world? There is an orphan child and it is afraid it will not
be fed–but you have a Father in Heaven–and if you are afraid, surely,
it is of little use for you to have such a Father! Are you not
dishonoring His holy name by such conduct as that? Do you not think
that others who see you in this condition will say, "There is not much
power in religion, for these people, who profess to be Christians, are
not comforted by it in their time of trouble–and it will not be of
much use to them in the hour of their death." Remember Jeremiah's
questions, "If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied
you, then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace,
wherein you trust, they wearied you, then how will you do in the
swelling of Jordan?" Surely it is time that we plucked up courage and
were not so easily disheartened, for we have worse trials on ahead than
any we have yet been called to endure!
"That is just what I dread," says one. What would you do, then,
Brother? "I have been thinking that perhaps I had better turn back."
But you have no armor for your back–and the perils of going back are
far worse than the perils of going forward! Therefore I charge you, if
you are, indeed, a Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, to play the man
and let your faith overcome your fear! Obey that gracious word,
"Casting all your care upon Him; for He cares for you." Do you not
believe that "all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to His purpose"? You say that you
do. Do you not believe that?–
"He sits a Sovereign on His Throne And rules all things well"?
You say that you do. Do you not believe He loves you with an
everlasting love? Do you not know that He spared not His only-begotten
Son, but delivered Him up for you? And do you think that, after having
done so much for you, He will withhold from you anything that is
necessary for your well-being? You must not think so. Brother, Sister,
it would be unkind, ungenerous, ungrateful to think so! Therefore, be
not of an anxious or doubtful mind concerning temporal things.
"Well," says one, "as far as temporal supplies are concerned, I can
leave them entirely in the hands of God, but my anxieties arise from
quite another form of trouble. There is a Christian Brother who is at
enmity against me and he has been spreading an ill report about me,
although I have earnestly sought to walk before God in holy fear and
have watched every step that I have taken. And I feel so worried that I
do not know what to do." Well, dear Friend, there is one rule which you
will generally find to be applicable in such a case as yours. When you
do not know what to do, do not do anything at all! And, usually, if the
trouble has arisen through false reports about your own character, "the
least said, the soonest mended." I believe that if there is anything
you want to have well done, you had better do it yourself, but there is
one exception to that rule and that is the matter of defending
yourself. No defense is needed for a good man who can say, "By the
Grace of God I am what I am." Therefore you may leave that matter of
your own character and, as to the good Brother not getting on with you,
if you have done anything that has grieved him, confess the wrong.
"Well, perhaps if I did, he might not meet me in the same spirit." You
have nothing to do with that, dear Friend–that is his business and
God's. You go and do the right thing and then be no longer anxious
about it, but leave the result with God.
I hear another Brother say, "My anxiety has nothing to do with my
personal affairs. I am anxious about the cause of God–the Church over
which I preside–the Bible class that I conduct–the mission field that
I try to cultivate. Somehow, things do not go as I wish and I am
greatly concerned that they are not more prosperous." And what are you
doing, good Friend, to bring about that result? Are you telling the
Lord about it and agonizing before Him in prayer? That is right, but if
you are telling yourself.about it and your anxiety is confined to
yourself, no good will come of that. "But, Sir, all things seem to be
going amiss." Yes, I am constantly hearing that. There are some of our
friends who believe that
we have fallen upon the worst days that have ever been known in this
world! Well, it may be so. I cannot say much about that. But I will say
this, my dear Friends–that you and I are not of anything like so much
importance to the Church of God as we may have imagined! And the
particular department of work which has been entrusted to us, though we
ought to think well of it, and to do it well, it is not, after all, the
hinge upon which the whole universe turns! God managed the world very
well before we were born and He will manage it quite as well when we
are dead! His Church will not die, for the Lord still lives and His
Spirit still abides in the Church and, therefore, it must live.
But there will be trouble for us if we begin to think that everything
depends upon us. Uzza was well intentioned, no doubt, yet God killed
him for putting forth his hand to stop the Ark of the Lord from
falling. Let none of us become guilty of Uzza's sin! It is our business
to serve the Lord with all our heart and soul, just as Martha, with all
her energy, sought to prepare a supper for Jesus. But when we begin to
be cumbered about our service, then we may expect the Master to say to
us, as He did to Martha, "You are careful and troubled about many
things: but one thing is necessary; and Mary has chosen that good part,
which shall not be taken away from her." It is not well that we should
be cumbered about our service! No, Brothers and Sisters; the Lord loves
His Church far better than we do and He knows far better than we do how
to manage her affairs, so we must–
"Just do the little we can do, And leave the rest with Him." May His
blessed Spirit help us so to get rid of all improper anxieties!
II. Another meaning of the text will make a second division of our
subject. "BE NOT AMBITIOUS." That is, do not fly high. Do not be as the
clouds and the meteors, that not only move about and are uncertain in
their movements, but are also high and lofty.
Some people are troubled because they are aiming at amassing great
wealth. Years ago if anybody had told them they would one day possess
what they have already obtained, they would have thought it was an
amazing sum, more than sufficient to satisfy all their desires. If
somebody had asked them, "Will you retire from business then, and be
quite happy and content?" they would have answered, "Oh, yes,
certainly!" Well, they have already gathered far more than that, yet
they are as grasping as ever and they want more, and more, and more and
they are by no means content with what they have, much as it is. We
should all be happier than we are if we were more contented with what
is really all that we need, namely having food and clothes, having
neither poverty nor riches. Many men have been like that dog in the
fable that had meat in his mouth, but did not eat it because he saw the
reflection of it in the water and was so anxious to get that reflection
as well as the substance that he already had that he lost the piece
that he might have eaten! Such people are always trying to grasp the
reflection instead of enjoying what God has given them. Let us not be
of such a mind as that.
There are others who are ambitious to attain a higher position. They
might be very well content with the kind, good friends they have, but
there was a lord who once looked at them–and ever since that time they
have thought it a very wonderful thing to know a real, live lord. I
have heard of a man who used to boast that the king once spoke to him
and though his majesty only told him to get out of the way, he was very
proud of having been addressed by the king! And there are many people
who think a great deal of that sort of thing. They are only shillings
now, but they are anxious to get among the sovereigns. I have no
sympathy with that desire–the best society in the world for me is a
company of the Lord's people and whether they are poor or rich, so long
as they are God's saints, I feel myself at home with them! If a Brother
spoils the Queen's English and makes a great many mistakes in
pronunciation, that does not matter to me. The real piety that is in
the man–the Grace of God that is in his soul–that is the thing which
ought to please us! To be proud of our association with the great ones
of the earth is both a folly and a sin on the part of any child of God.
Sometimes we are ambitious in the service of God beyond what we ought
to be. You are doing well in that little Chapel, my Brother–the place
is full and God is blessing you–but you want a bigger place, or you
want to get away from those poor people whom the Lord has helped
through your ministry. Possibly, my Friend, you are a Sunday school
teacher and you have charge of the infants, and they love you. And you
are fitted for the work, yet you are not content to be an infant class
teacher, you would like a senior class–and a great stupid you would
make of yourself if you had such a class, for you are not adapted for
it! It is always well to be seeking to do more for the Lord Jesus
Christ, but I would earnestly discourage you from endeavoring to attain
to a higher position merely for the sake of occupying it. Dear Brothers
and Sisters, be not ambitious in this sense, for, after all, what is
human greatness?
Have you ever met with a really great man who would have given a penny
for his own greatness? Do you not know that the higher you rise, even
in the Church of Christ, the more responsibility you have and the
heavier burdens you have to carry? Do you not also know that the way to
be really great is to be little–and that he who is greatest of all is
the one who has learned to be least of all? He who is chief in the
Church of Christ is he who serves the Church most and who is willing to
go lowest for Christ's sake! Cultivate thatkind of greatness as much as
you like, but put aside the other, and be not of ambitious mind even in
your Lord's service!
I meet, every now and then, people who are, I hope, God's children, but
they seem to me to have got into a very curious state of mind. They
have notions that are not at all according to the realities of everyday
life–flighty notions– romantic notions about their own rights,
dignities, importance and so on. Ah, dear Brothers and Sisters, some of
us were, in our own estimation, very important individuals, were we
not, before the Grace of God came into us? But when the Grace of God
works in us, we are made to feel that the very lowest and meanest place
is a better position than we have any right to take. When we are in our
right senses, we never give ourselves those high and mighty airs. A
truly humble Believer does not say, "So-and-So did not treat me with
proper respect." Oh, dear me, what is the proper respect to which you
and I are entitled? May the Lord preserve us from such a spirit as
that!
But there are some people–professing Christians, too–whose heads are
always being filled with that kind of nonsense. They do not seem to
have learned that the spirit of Christ is a spirit of meekness which
teaches us to bear and forbear, to forgive until seventy times seven,
to expect to have our rights trampled on and to be willing to lay them
all down for any who please to tread upon them. It is blessed to feel,
"I will be content to take any place, so long as I can love others and
do them good by loving them. As long as I can but love them to Christ
and help them to love Christ and manifest the love of Christ to them, I
will, by His Grace, be content." O Brothers and Sisters, we all need to
go to school to our dear Lord and Master! You have never read that He
said anything about His rights, or about defending His dignity. No, He
who is the King of kings, and Lord of lords, was the Servant of
servants when He was here upon earth! And, truly, he that serves most
is the most royal of all. Therefore, "let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus," and then you will not be anxious or
ambitious to be great.
III. A third meaning of the text is this, "BE YOU NOT OF AN IRRESOLUTE
MIND, WITHOUT DECISION OF
CHARACTER."
If you look at the connection of the passage, you will see that this
meaning fits in exceedingly well. There are persons in the world who
may be described as time-servers. The main consideration with them is
what they shall eat, or what they shall drink, or how they shall be
clothed–so they are always watching to see which is the best way to go
in reference to those matters. As the old proverb has it, they know on
which side their bread is buttered, or, according to another familiar
saying, they are waiting to see which way the cat jumps! And when they
have ascertained that, their "principles" will lead them to jump in
that particular direction.
Mr. John Bunyan, in The Pilgrim's Progress, has well described just
such persons–Mr. By-Ends and Mr. Fair-Speech–and some of us have
known their descendants. You remember hearing of the waterman who got
his living by looking one way, and pulling another. And that waterman
has had a great many sons of very much the same character as
himself–and they have made a certain kind of progress in the world by
that sort of scheming. But you and I, Beloved, are not to be of an
irresolute mind. Every Christian should say, "By the Grace of God my
mind is made up to serve Him, cost what it may. Does my Lord desire me
to keep the Sabbath holy? Sunday is the best day in my particular line
of business, but that does not matter to me. My mind is made up to
serve the Lord–and whatever it costs will make no difference to me.
There is a party to be held tonight and I know that if I go to it, I
shall have to witness the utmost frivolity, and I shall have to be a
partaker in what will be, to me, a good deal of sin. Uncle Jonas will
be angry if I don't go, but I mean to do the right thing–whether Uncle
Jonas is pleased, or not." That is the way all you who have the love of
God shed abroad in your hearts ought to speak. The question, "What is
right?" being answered, you have only to do the right, whatever
happens. This is what our Lord meant when He said to His disciples,
"Neither be you of a doubtful
mind."
"Oh, but," some say, "we really must look at both sides of that
question. There may come a time when we know that a certain course is
right, but, if we take it, we may bring ruin upon ourselves and upon
others, too." Let me read the 4th and 5th verses of this chapter–and
when I have done so, there will be no need for you to say anything–"Be
not afraid of
them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.
But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear: Fear Him, which after He
has killed, has power to cast into Hell; yes, I say unto you, Fear
Him." And the 8th and 9th verses– "Whoever shall confess Me before
men, him shall the Son of Man also confess before the angels of God:
but he that denies Me before men shall be denied before the angels of
God." Does not that decide you? God grant that it may and that you may
henceforth say, "I will confess Christ and act for the right and the
true and, by the aid of His blessed Spirit I will never hesitate to do
as He bids me–
"'Through floods and flames, if Jesus leads, I'll follow where He
goes'– "neither will I be of a doubtful mind."
IV. A fourth meaning of the text is, BE YOU NOT AT SEA SO FAR AS YOUR
OWN PERSONAL SALVATION
IS CONCERNED.
Brothers and Sisters, there are some who are not saved, who yet imagine
that they are. There are many who know nothing of vital godliness, yet
who sing as joyfully as the brightest of saints, never suspecting their
real condition in the sight of God. Whenever I meet with a man who
never has had a doubt about his own condition, I feel inclined to quote
to him those lines of Cowper–
"He has no hope who never had a fear And he that never doubted of his
state, He may perhaps–perhaps he may–too late."
Beware of all presumption! There are some who even decry anything like
self-examination. They cannot bear for us to look for the signs and
tokens of the Holy Spirit's work within them. And if we talk about
practical holiness, they say that we are getting upon legal ground and
turning aside to the "beggarly elements" of the Law of God. From all
such turn away, for they can do you no good! You are exhorted in the
Scriptures to examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith,
and to prove yourselves. No, self-examination alone is not
sufficient–you must cry with the Psalmist, "Search me, O God, and know
my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there is any wicked
way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."
But, on the other hand, there are some who think that doubts and fears
are necessary to a child of God. I draw a very grave distinction
between doubting the Truth of God's promise and questioning whether
that promise is made to me– they are two very different things. To
doubt the power of the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse from all sin is
one thing, but, sometimes, to question whether I really have trusted in
that blood is quite another thing. The first is sinful. The second is
only proper and discreet. I would advise everyone to often look to the
foundation of their faith, to see whether they really have believed in
Jesus and have in their heart the true life which grows out of such
faith. But, Brothers and Sisters, there is really no reason in a man
saying, "Whether I am a child of God, or not, I am sure I do not know.
I sometimes hope I am," and so on.
I suppose there are few men who have not, at some time or other
suffered pain, but it is not necessary for us to always have a
toothache in order to prove that we really are men. And, in like
manner, there are few Christians who have never had any doubts, yet it
is not necessary to be always doubting in order to prove that we are
Christians! But, as we are glad enough to get rid of pain, so are we to
be glad to get rid of doubt by fully trusting our Lord who is so worthy
of our trust! Dear Brothers and Sisters, you oughtto know, you canknow,
you can know now, whether you are saved or not! At any rate, if I did
not know myself to be saved, I would give no sleep to my eyes, nor
slumber to my eyelids, till I had found the Savior. If a shadow of a
doubt about my being washed in the blood of Christ were on my soul, I
would get to my knees and not rise from them until I did really know
that Christ had saved me!
If you are in doubt and yet are content about your condition, I fear
that you know nothing at all about the matter, for the true child of
God, if he is in any doubt about his salvation, is uneasy till that
doubt is gone. He cannot rest till he knows that he is saved and, after
all, that is not a very difficult thing to know, for we are told, over
and over again in this blessed Book, that he that believes in Christ is
not condemned, but has everlasting life! If you have believed in Him,
you are not condemned–you have His word for it. He who trusts to Jesus
only, builds on a sure foundation! So, if you are trusting in Him, you
may have the full assurance that you have passed from death unto life
and shall never come into condemnation. Do not, Brothers and Sisters,
go limping along all your life when you might run in the way of God's
commandments! A good old minister of my acquaintance, when people used
to say to him that they hoped, and hoped,
and never got any further than that, was in the habit of replying, "You
are always hoping and hopping. I hope you will learn to run one of
these days–to run without weariness in the ways of God."
The last thing I have to do is to bid all here present who have not
believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, to do so at once. My dear Friends,
my text says, "Neither be you of a doubtful mind." But you cannot help
being of a doubtful mind while you remain as you are and I really wish
that your conscience would trouble you even more than it now does–that
your uneasiness might become even greater and your unrest yet more
unrestful! Look at yourself, my dear Hearer. You have not believed in
Christ, so you are in debt to Divine Justice and you are hopelessly
bankrupt, for you cannot meet one in a million of the claims that are
recorded against you! How can you rest as long as you are thus indebted
to God? You are a prisoner, too. When Marshal Bazaine had many of the
comforts of life on the Isle of St. Marguerite, off the coast of the
South of France, he could not rest till he had regained his liberty.
And I marvel how you can be so happy, even with the joys of this world,
while you are without the great blessing of spiritual liberty! I wish
you felt that you could not rest till you had become emancipated from
the bondage of sin and been made the Lord's freeman. How would you like
be in a condemned cell and not to know when your execution was to take
place? I am sure that you would pity any poor creature, whatever his
crime, if you could see him under such circumstances. Perhaps you say
that you are living in a wide world and not in a prison. Yet you are
condemned already! It was said of the old Roman Empire that if a man
once broke the law, the whole world was a prison for him, for Caesar
had almost universal sway. And God sees you wherever you are and
everywhere you are in the condemned cell and, perhaps, before the sun
shall rise again, your execution will have taken place.
I have been told that some years ago there went into the chamber of
horrors at Madame Tussaud's exhibition, a young gentleman who was
foolish enough to put himself under the guillotine–in the place which
had been occupied by criminals. And as he lay there, with his bare neck
exposed to the terrible knife, he was so struck with horror that he was
unable to move–and people who went by thought he was one of the wax
figures and he could not stir until someone took him away! And, oh, if
you did but know where you really are, with that dreadful axe of Divine
Justice just above your head, you might well be paralyzed with horror!
Only let your breath fail, or your pulse stop and down it descends to
your utter destruction! But alas, you are insensible to these things.
May the Spirit of God awaken you! May He make you feel your true
position and then, I am sure, you will not be content to remain a
moment longer of a doubtful and undecided mind!
Listen, my Friend! That sin of yours can be forgiven, for Jesus died
for sinners! That heart of yours can be renewed by Grace, for Jesus
lives again! You can be delivered from the wrath to come, for Jesus has
gone up on high to plead for just such sinners as you are! What are you
to do in order that you may have Christ as your Savior? Why, as the
hymn says–
"Only trust Him, only trust Him, Only trust Him now!"
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM571-6.
Verse 1. Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul
trusts in You: yes, in the shadow of Your wings will I make my refuge,
until these calamities pass. The heading of this Psalm–"To the chief
musician, Al-Taschith, Michtam of David, when he fled from Saul in the
cave"–tells us when it was written. It is one of David's "Golden
Psalms." What a mixture of feebleness and strength there is in this
first verse–the feebleness so beautified by being clothed with the
strength of faith! What a turning away from man and what a turning
wholly unto the Lord! And, in coming to the Lord, what humility and
what pleading for mercy, and for mercy only! "Be merciful unto me, O
God, be merciful unto me." Yet what holy boldness also! "For my soul
trusts in You." And what joyous confidence and what sweet repose in
God! "Yes, in the shadow of Your wings, will I make my refuge." "If I
cannot see the brightness of Your face, the shadow of Your wings shall
be enough for me. Only let me get near You–only permit me humbly to
trust You, and it shall be enough for me, 'until these calamities
pass.'"
2. I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performs all things for
me. Do you pray like that, my Brother, my Sister? I hope you do "cry
unto God most high." But do you pray to Him as the One "that performs
all things" for you–not merely who canperform all things for you, but
who is actually doingit at the present moment–working out your lasting
good by everything that is transpiring around you?
3. He shall send from Heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that
would swallow me up. Selah. If all the forces on earth are not
sufficient to save His saint, God will send sufficient reserves from
the ranks of the heavenly host to preserve His people. Or if He does
not determine to preserve them on earth, He will take them away from
the earth, to be with Him in Glory. But, in one way or another, they
shall be eternally secure!
Mark what the Psalmist says of the voracity of his enemy–he speaks of
Saul as "him that would swallow me up." And the Believer in Jesus is,
at times, such an objective of the unbeliever's detestation that he
would annihilate him if he could. But God will sooner send help from
Heaven for His people than that such a calamity should ever happen.
3, 4. God shall send forth His mercy and His truth My soul is among
lions. What peril David was in and what dangers often surround the best
of the men–if not from arrows, swords and spears–from the hellish
artillery of unbridled tongues! A human tongue is soft, but it can cut
to the very quick. And the wounds from a cruel tongue are not easily
healed. Many a man will bear, as long as he lives, the scars that were
made by a slanderous tongue. God can save us, however, even from this
great trial, and enable us to actually rejoice in this sharp
affliction. It is no strange thing that has happened unto us, for so
evil men persecuted the Prophets that were before us–as they said all
manner of evil against them falsely. God Himself was slandered by the
old serpent in the Garden of Eden, so it is not surprising that His
children should be still slandered by the serpent's seed.
5. And I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men
whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. Be
You exalted, O God, above the heavens; let Your glory be above all the
earth A grand burst of praise and all the grander because of the
condition of the man from whom it came! "My soul is among lions," he
says, "but, 'be You exalted, O God,'" as if he would say, "It does not
matter what becomes of me. I shall be content even in this den of
lions, so long as You are exalted above the heavens and Your glory
above all the earth."
6. They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they
have dug a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen
themselves. Selah. He knew that it would be so and he looked upon it as
already accomplished–their nets and pits would only injure themselves.
Now look at the next verse in the light of the prayer David had been
praying. See what a marvelous act of faith and what a grand result of
unwavering confidence in God it is, for a man to be able to sing as
David does even when his soul is among lions and fierce and powerful
enemies are all round him, seeking his harm!