Fathomless

Fathomless

(No. 3368)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 1913.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Your judgments are a great deep." Psalm 36:6.

CONSIDER the word, "judgment," in whatever light you please, this
sentence is true. There is much of mystery connected with the terrible
calamities which afflict the earth, devastate nations, destroy cities
and sweep away the relics of the past. There is much of mystery about
the judgments of God upon the wicked in this life–how they prosper for
awhile and are suddenly cut down–how they grow fat like oxen and then
are taken away to the shambles. The judgments of God regarding the
wicked in the world to come are also "a great deep," not to be spoken
of with levity. A solemn subject is that of the future punishment of
the ungodly–"a great deep," a deep where some, I am afraid, speculate
so deeply that the risk they run is imminent–they may drown themselves
in Hell.

But I prefer tonight to take the text as it may refer to God's dealings
with His own people. He deals with them in judgment, not, I think,
penally, vindicating the inflexible justice of the Law by the terrible
vengeance He inflicts on the transgressor as He will deal with the
wicked at the last dread assize. I mean not that. I rather interpret it
of the salutary discipline and painful chastisements of God's hand
which are called "judgments" in Scripture. They do not come by chance,
nor upon us at all merely as a matter of sovereignty, but they are sent
in wisdom, because God judges them to be necessary. They are weighed
out to us with discretion–given to us by prudence. It is a sweet name,
I think, for afflic-tion–not that I look upon affliction as a judgment
upon me for sin, which I cannot do, now that I have seen sin punished
in Christ, but I look at my afflictions as being sent to me according
to the all-wise judgment of a kind Father, not at all without
consideration, but always according to His Infinite wisdom and
prudence, dealt out in measure and at proper times, according to the
Infinite judgment and wisdom of God. In a word, they are called,
"judgments," not because they are judicial, but because they are
judicious!

Now, these dealings of God with His servants, always wise and prudent,
are frequently like great deeps. This evening I shall simply work out
three or four thoughts which arise out of that metaphor.

I. THE DEALINGS OF GOD WITH HIS PEOPLE ARE OFTEN UNFATHOMABLE.

We cannot discover the foundation or cause and spring of them. Some of
God's servants who are earnestly desirous to provide things honest in
the sight of all men, though they are industrious and energetic and use
proper prudence, do not find themselves able to prosper in trade. They
are thwarted in all their purposes. There seems to be a kind of
fatality connected with all their enterprises. If they do but touch a
business or a bargain which will turn into gold with the traffic of
others, it melts under their hand into dross. Now, it is not always
that this can be explained. "Your judgments are a great deep"–a matter
to be perceived as a fact, but not to be explained by reasoning.

Sometimes in a family a dear child is born and is a great comfort to
its parents. It seems, indeed, to be sent in love, to heal some old
wound and to make the house happy! And then just as suddenly as it
came, it is removed. Why? Ah, here, again, is another deep which a
mother's anxious heart would like to fathom, but which it is not for
her to explore. It is a great deep.

Children will be spared to us and just when they are ripening to
manhood and womanhood, and we hope to see them settled and established
in life, it happens–as it happened to one of our beloved friends in
this Church this afternoon– that we have to stand at the open grave,
and say, "Earth to earth, dust to dust." Why God takes away the holy
and the good, the amiable and the lovely when they appeared to be most
useful, we cannot understand. It is a great deep.

Oftentimes, too, it happens that when a man is surrounded by his family
and all his household are dependent upon his exertions with a business
just beginning to prosper, while he bids fair to live for many years,
he is cut down as in a moment–his wife is left a widow–his children
are orphans. He seems to be taken away at the very worst time, just
when he could least be spared. The anxious wife may say to herself,
"Why is this?" but she can only say in return, "I cannot comprehend it,
it is a great deep."

I might thus go on recounting instances, but they have transpired
before us all in our lifetime. And if they have not occurred to us yet,
they certainly will. Trials and troubles will come upon us quite beyond
our measuring line. We shall have to do business in deep waters where
no plummet can by possibility find a bottom! "Your judgments are a
great

deep."

But why does the Lord send us an affliction which we cannot understand?
I answer, Because He is the Lord. Your child must not expect to
understand all his father does, because his father is a man of ripened
intellect and understanding, and the child is but a child. You, dear
Brother, however experienced you may be, are but a child and, compared
with the Divine mind, what intelligence have you? How can you expect,
therefore, that God shall always act upon a rule which you shall be
able to understand? He is God and, therefore, it becomes us oftentimes
to be dumb, to sit in silence and feel and know it must be right,
though we equally know we cannot see how it is so.

God sends us trials of this sort for the exercise of our Divine Graces.
Now, is there room for faith? When you can trace it, you cannot trust
it. If you can understand all that He does, there is room, then, for
your judgment rather than for your faith and for your reliance on His
judgment. But when you cannot understand it, submit yourself to Him!
Say, "I know that God is good. Though He slays me, yet will I trust in
Him; though I walk in darkness and see no light, yet shall not an
unbelieving word cross these lips, for He is good and must be good,
become of me what may." Oh, then it is that faith is faith, indeed–the
faith that brings glory to God and strength to your soul! Here is room,
too, for humility. Knowledge puffs up, but the feeling that everything
is beyond our knowledge, that we are nonplussed and cannot
under-stand–the sense of ignorance and incapacity to understand the
dealings of God–brings humility to us and we sit down at the foot of
Jehovah's Throne. Beloved, I think there is hardly a Grace which the
Christian has which is not much helped by the deeps of God's judgments.
Certainly love has frequently been developed to a high degree in this
way, for the soul at last comes to say, "No, I will not ask the
reason–I will not desirethe reason–I do so love Him! Let His will
stand for a reason. That shall be enough for me. It is the Lord–let
Him do what seems good to Him." We love not those whom we are always
bringing to book and questioning about all they do, but when love comes
to perfection it admires all, it believes all to be right and to be
perfect. And so, when love comes to perfection with reference to the
most perfect God, then it is that everything that is done is endorsed
without examination–everything, even though it is shrouded in
darkness–is believed in without a question. It must be right, for You,
Lord, have done it!

Many other reasons why God calls His people thus to feel His judgments
occur to me. One I may give, then I will leave this point. We have sins
which we cannot fathom, dear Brothers and Sisters, and it is little
marvel, therefore, if we have also chastisements which we cannot
fathom! There are depths of depravity within our heart that call for
other deeps, as deep calls unto deep, and there are consequences of sin
within us which we are not able yet to reach, consequences that are
following us in secret and damaging us in very vital point. It needs
that the medicine should be of a searching kind to follow the disease
into the recesses of our soul where understanding cannot pry. Some of
those deep judgments are like secret, potent, subtle medicines,
searching out certain secret devils that have found their way into the
caverns of our spirit and hidden there. Perhaps an affliction which I
can understand is meant to direct my attention to some known sin– but
it may be that the trial which I cannot understand is dealing deadly
blows against a mortal ill, which, if not thus destroyed, might have
been solemnly prejudicial to my own spirit.

I leave that thought with you–expect that God's judgments will
sometimes be unfathomable. In the next place–if God's judgments are a
great deep–

II. THEN THEY ARE SAFE SAILING.

Ships never strike on rocks out in the great deeps. Children, perhaps,
may fancy that a shallow sea is the safest, but an old sailor knows
better. While they are off the Irish coast the captain has to keep a
good look out, but while he is crossing the Atlantic he is in far less
danger. There he has plenty of room and there is no fear of quicksands
or of shoals. When the sailor begins to come up the Thames, then it is
that there is first one sandbank and then another, and he is in

danger, but out in the deep water, where he finds no bottom, he is but
little afraid. So, mark you, in the judgments of God. When he is
dealing out affliction to us, it is the safest possible sailing that a
Christian can have. "What?" says one, "trial safe?" Yes, very safe. The
safest part of a Christian's life is the time of his trial. "What? When
a man is down, do you say he is safe?" "Yes, for then he need fear no
fall! When he is low, he need fear no pride. When he is humbled under
God's hand, then he is less likely to be carried away with every wind
of temptation. Smooth water on the way to Heaven is always a sign that
the soul should keep wide awake, for danger is near! One comes at last
to feel a solemn dread creeping over one in times of prosperity. "You
shall fear and tremble because of all the good that God shall make to
pass before you," fearing not so much lest the good should depart as
lest we should make an ill use of it and should have a canker of sloth,
or self-confidence, or worldliness growing up in our spirits! We have
seen many professed Christians who have made shipwreck–in some few
instances it has been attributable to overwhelming sorrow–but in ten
cases to the one, it has been attributable to prosperity! Men grow rich
and, of course, they do not attend the little Chapel they once went
to–they must go somewhere where a fashionable world will worship! Men
grow rich and immediately they cannot keep to that road of self-denial
which once they so gladly trod. The world has got into their hearts and
they need to get more. They have got so much and they must get more! An
insatiable ambition has come over them–and they fall–and great is the
sorrow which their fall brings to the Church! Great the mischief which
it does to the people of God!

But a man in trouble–did you ever notice a real child of God in trial?
How he prays! He cannot live without prayer! He has got a burden to
carry to his God and he goes to the Mercy Seat again and again. Notice
him under depression of spirits. How he reads his Bible! He does not
now care for that lighter literature which beguiled him many an hour
before. He needs the solid promise, the strong meat of the Kingdom of
God! Do you notice now how he hears? That man does not care a fig for
your flowers and your fine bits of rhetoric–he needs the Word of God!
He needs the naked Doctrine. He needs Christ! He cannot be fed on whims
and fancies. He cares a great deal less about theological speculation
and ecclesiastical authority–he needs to know something about eternal
love, everlasting faithfulness and the dealings of the Lord of Hosts
with the souls of His people, of the Covenant and of the suretyship
engagements of Christ! Ah, this is the man who, if you notice him,
walks tenderly in the world. He walks holding the world with a very
loose hand. He expects to be often in the way, and hopes to be up out
of the way, for the world has lost its attraction for him!

I say again, God's judgments are a great deep, but they are safe
sailing and, under the guidance and Presence of the Holy Spirit, they
are not only safe but they are advantageous. I greatly question whether
we ever grow much in Grace, except when we are in the furnace! We ought
to do so. The joys of this life with which God blesses us ought to make
us increase in Grace and gratitude, ought to be a sufficient motive for
the very highest form of consecration, but, as a rule, we are only
driven to Christ by a storm–the most of us, I mean. There are blessed
and favored exceptions, but most of us need the rod, must have it and
do not seem to learn obedience except through chastening–the
chastening of the Lord! Here I leave that second thought. Thirdly,
God's judgments are a great deep– III. BUT THEY CONCEAL GREAT
TREASURE.

Down in those great depths, who knows what there may be? Pearls lie
deep there–masses of precious things that would make the miser's eyes
gleam like a star. There are the wrecks of old Spanish galleons lost
these centuries ago and there they lie, huge mines of wealth, but far
down deep! And so with the deep judgments of God. What wisdom is
concealed there, and what treasures of love and faithfulness and what
David calls, "very tenderness," "for in very tenderness," he says,
"have You afflicted me." There is as much wisdom to be seen in some of
the deep afflictions of God–if we could but understand them, we would
see as much wisdom in them as in the creation of the world! God smites
His people artistically. There is never a random blow. There is a
marvelous degree of skill in the chastening of the Lord. Hence we are
told not to despise it, which, in the strongest meaning of it, means
that we are to honor it! We honor the chastisements of our parents, but
infinitely more the chastisements of God. "For they verily chastened us
for a few days after their own pleasure, but He for our profit," and
there is a way of chastening us for profit.

Now, Brothers and Sisters, I said there were treasures concealed in the
great deeps which we cannot yet reach, and so in the great deeps in
which God makes us to do business there are great treasures that we
cannot come upon at present. We do not, perhaps, as yet, receive, or
even perceive, the present and immediate benefit of some of our
afflictions. There may be no immediate benefit–the benefit may be for
hence and to come. The chastening of our youth may be intended for the
ripening of our age. "It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his
youth." The affliction of today may have no reference to the
circumstances of today, but to the circumstances of 50 years ahead! I
do not know that that blade required the rain on such a day, but God
was looking not to February as such, but to February in its relation to
July, when the harvest should be reaped. He considered the blade not
merely as a blade and in its present necessity, but as it would be in
the full corn in the ear. There are certain marks that an artist makes
upon the block that you cannot see the reason of as yet–and they spoil
the apparent likeness of the block and marble to the image which you
know he wishes to produce–but then those lines are to be worked out,
by-and-by! They are scratches now, but they will be lines of beauty
soon, when he comes to finish them. So, a present trial may even lame
us for present service, damage us–I will even go the length of
saying–for years to come and make us go groaning and brokenhearted, so
as to be of comparatively little service to the Church and of very
little joy to ourselves. But then afterwards–afterwards as Paul puts
it–it bears the peaceable fruits of righteousness in those that are
exercised thereby. Why will you not let the Lord have time? Why will
you be in a hurry? Why will you stand at His elbow and perpetually say,
"Explain this today and show me the motive and reason of this in this
present hour"? A thousand years in His sight are but as yesterday when
it is past, and as a watch in the night! The mighty God takes mighty
time in which to work out His grand results! Therefore, be content to
let the treasures lie at the bottom of the deep for awhile. But then
faith may see them. Faith can make the deep translucent till it sees
the treasure lying there–and it is yours and though you may not at
this hour be able to be at it–yet you shall have it, "for all things
are yours." Everything that is stored up in the great deep of the
Eternal Purpose, or in the deep of the manifest judgment, everything
there belongs to you, O, Believer! Therefore rejoice in it and let it
lie there till such a time as God may choose to raise it for your
spiritual enrichment. God's judgments are a great deep–

IV. AND THEY WORK MUCH GOOD.

The great deep, though ignorance thinks it to be all waste–a salt and
barren wilderness–is one of the greatest blessings to this round
world! If, tomorrow, there should be "no more sea," although that may
one day be a blessing, it would not be so today, but the greatest of
all curses! It is from the sea that there arises the perpetual mist
which, floating by-and-bye in mid-air, at last descends in plenteous
showers on hill and vale to fertilize the land. The sea is the great
heart of the world–I might say the circulating blood of the world! We
must have it. It must be in motion. Its tides, like a great pulse, must
be felt, or the world's vitality would cease. There is no waste in the
sea–it is all needed. It must be there. There is not a drop of it too
much. So with our afflictions which are Your judgments, O God! They are
necessary to our life, to our soul's health, to our spiritual vigor.
"By all these," said one of old, "do men live, and in all these is the
life of my spirit." Rising up from my trouble is the constant mist
which is afterwards transformed into sacred dew, which moistens my
life. "It is good for me that I have been afflicted," said David.
"Amen!" say all the afflicted ones. A thousand sick beds shall bear
witness to the blessedness of the trial. A thousand losses and crosses
that have been borne by the faithful now help the sweetness of the
harmony of everlasting hymns in the land of the blessed. "Oh, blessed
cross," said one, "I fear lest I should come to love you too much! 'Tis
so good to be afflicted!" May God grant to us that at all times,
instead of trying to fathom the deep, we may understand that it is
useful to us and be content. Lastly, if God's judgments are a great
deep–

V. THEN THEY BECOME A HIGHWAY OF COMMUNION WITH HIMSELF.

We thought at one time that the deep separated different peoples–that
nations were kept asunder by the sea. But lo, the sea is today the
great highway of the world! The rapid ships cross it with their white
sails, or with their palpitating engines they soon flash across the
waves. The sea is the world's great canal–a mighty channel of
communication. And so, Brothers and Sisters, our afflictions–which we
thought in our ignorance would separate us from our God–are the
highway by which we may come nearer to God than we otherwise could!
They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business on the great
waters, these see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep.
You that keep close in shore and have but small trials, you are not
likely to know much of His wonders in the deep–but if you are made to
put out far to sea, where deep calls unto deep and the noise of God's
waterspouts astounds the spiritual mariner, then it is that you shall
see God's wonders–wonders of faithfulness, wonders of power, wonders
of wisdom, wonders of love! You shall see them and you shall rejoice to
see them! These troubles shall be as fiery chariots to bear you up to
God. Your afflictions, wave upon wave, shall wash your soul, like a
tempest-tossed boat, nearer to the haven. Oh, but this is a blessed
thing when God's judgments bring us nearer to Him! Old Quarles has a
quaint idea when he represents God as swinging

a flail in judgment–he says if you would get away from it, you must
got close to His hands, and then you are out of the reach of the swing
of the blow. Get close up to God and He will not smite! Get near to God
and the trials cease!

You know, trials are sometimes weights to keep men down, but you have
seen many a machine in which one weight going down lifts another weight
up. And there is a way by faith of adjusting the consecrated pulleys so
that the very weights of your affliction may lift you up nearer to God!
The bird with a string and a stone to its feet cannot fly and yet there
is a way that God has of making His birds fly even when they are tied
to the ground! They never mounted till they had something to pull them
down! Never ascended till they were compelled to descend! They found
the gates of Heaven not up there, but down here! The lower they sank in
self-estimation, the nearer they came to the everlasting God who is the
foundation of all things!

Thus, Brothers and Sisters, I have brought you to the last thought–may
the Holy Spirit bring you to make it your own. May God's deep judgments
lead you to deeper communion.

Dear child of God, you that are in trouble tonight, the voice of that
trouble is to you–get nearer to God! Get nearer to God. God has
favored you, favored you with an extraordinary means of growth in His
Grace. To use Rutherford's simile, He has put you down in the wine
cellar in the dark. Now begin to try the wines on the lees
well-refined. Now get at the choice treasures of darkness! He has
brought you on to a sandy desert–now begin to seek the treasures that
are hid in the sand. Believe that the deepest afflictions are neighbors
always to the highest joys and that the greatest possible privileges
lie close by the darkest trials. If the bitterer your sorrow, the
louder your song at the last–there is a reason for that–and that
reason faith may discover and experience live upon.

May God bless the tried ones here! But there are some here, perhaps,
who are in trial and have no God to go to. Poor souls! Poor souls!
Poverty and no God! Sickness and no God! A life of toil, and no Heaven!
A slavery of penury on earth and then driven forever away from God's
Presence! Oh, how pitiable! How pitiable! Pity yourselves and remember
that it need not always be so. You may have a Heaven, you may have
present bliss. Here is the Gospel–"He that believes and is baptized
shall be saved." Oh, if you can but trust Him who bled upon the Cross,
you shall have comfort for your present trouble! You shall have pardon
for your past, present and future sins! The Lord bless each one of you,
for Christ's sake. Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALMS 73; 37:1-10.

TITLE, "A PSALM OF ASAPH." He was a great singer, but he could not
always sing. In the first part of the Psalm he felt rather like
groaning than singing–and you shall find that those who sing the
sweetest the praises of God sometimes have to hang their harps upon the
willows and are silent. The strong temptation through which Asaph
passed is one which is very common. You find another account of it in
the 37th Psalm. It may help your memory to notice that it is the 37th
and the 73rd Psalm (transpose the figures) which are both upon the same
subject–the temptation caused to the people of God by the prosperity
of the wicked.

Verse 1. Truly, God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean
heart It must be so. Whatever argument my soul may hold about it, I
will set that down, to begin with as a certainty–"Truly, God is good
to Israel." He cannot be unkind or unfaithful to His own people! It
cannot be possible, after all–however things may look–that God is a
bad God and a bad Master to His own servants!

2. But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well near
slipped. Am I, then, one of His people or not? I know He is good to
them, but how about myself? Perhaps some here will never question
themselves in that way, and if they were led to do so, they would think
it was of the devil. I do not think so. I think it is rather of the
devil to keep us from questioning ourselves. I remember what Cowper
said–

"He that has ne ver doubted of his state, He may–perhaps he may–too
late." Let us delight in full assurance, but let us keep very clear of
presumption and that assurance which cannot bear self-examination is
presumption, depend upon it! When a man declines to search himself and
test himself, there is something

doubtful, if not rotten in his estate–and it is time he began to say,
"As for me, my feet were almost gone: my steps had well near slipped."
This is how it came about–

3. ForI was envious at the foolish, when Isaw the prosperity ofthe
wickedI know that wicked men are fools. Asaph and David had often said
that before. Yet says he, "I was a greater fool, still, that I was
envious of these fools–when I saw the prosperity of the wicked."

4, 5. For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is
firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued
like other men. Many of them keep up a hypocritical profession through
a long life and die in a stupefaction–so that conscience never awakens
and they pass out of the world loaded with guilt–and yet talk about
being accepted before God! How can this be? Where is the justice of it?

6. Therefore pride compasses them about as a chain. As kings wear
chains of gold, so is their pride to them.

6. Violence covers them as a garment They are not ashamed of it. They
get to be so bold in sin that they wear it as an outside cloak!

7. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could
wish Superfluities! They never have to ask where a meal will come from.
They have more than they need.

8. They are corrupt and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they
speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens.Such big
mouths–such blasphemous words–have they, that they attack God
Himself! There is nothing too high for them to drag it down–nothing
too pure for them to slander. "They set their mouth against the
heavens."

9. And their tongue walks through the earth.Like the lion seeking its
prey, they take long walks in their slander. Nobody is safe from them.

10. 11. Therefore his people return here: and waters of a full cup are
wrung out to them. And they say, How does God know? And is there
knowledge in the Most High?'God's sorrowing children have to drink of
the bitter cup while these proud ones are eating of the fat of the
land!

12-14. Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they
increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed
my hands in innocence. For all the daylong have I been plagued, and
chastened every morning. When Asaph got into this unbelieving state of
mind, it looked as if all his care of his character and all his desire
to serve God were wasted, for the wicked prospered, while he was
chastened! It is a strong description which he gives of his state. "All
the daylong have I been plagued." Not by the half-hour, but by the
whole day–plagued and weeping as soon as he was out of bed–chastened
every morning! He almost seemed to be sorry that he was a child of God,
to be so roughly handled. He almost, but not quite, wished that he
could take the portion of the wicked, that he might enjoy himself as
they did and might prosper in the world as they did.

15. If I had said, I will speak thus, behold, I would have offended
against the generation of Your children. That was very wise of Asaph.
He thought, but he did not speak. Some persons say, "You may as well
out with it." You may as well keep it in! No, a great deal better–if
you have it in your own heart, it will grieve yourself–but if you
speak it out, you will grieve others. If you wear sackcloth, Brothers
and Sisters, wear it round your own loins, but do not wear it as your
outside garment. There is enough sackcloth in the world without your
flaunting it before everybody else's face! If you must fast, remember
your Master's words, "You, when you fast, anoint your head and wash
your face, that you appear not unto men to fast." He gave us that
precept in order to avoid Pharisaic ostentation, but we may also follow
it from another motive, namely, that we may not spread sorrow in the
world. There is enough of depression of spirit, enough of despondency,
enough of heartbreak without our saying a word to increase it among the
sons of men–

"Bear and forbear, and silent be– Tell no man your misery,"

lest you bring another into it, unless, indeed, you meet with a strong
man who can help you. Then you may tell your sorrow to get relief. But
tell it not to the children.

16. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me. "Too
painful" to keep it. "Too painful" to speak it out and grieve other
people.

17. Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood their end.
Asaph went to his God. He got to Christ, whom he foresaw, for the
Person of Jesus Christ is the sanctuary of God! Some people call these
buildings sanctuaries. They have no authority for so doing. "God dwells
not in temples made with hands." He may have done so under the Old

Covenant, but not now. Christ is the sanctuary of God and when we get
to Him and come into fellowship with God in Him, then we begin to learn
something! "Then understood I their end."

18. Surely You did set them in slippery places. There they are–on a
mountain of ice, bright and glittering! Up aloft, where others see,
admire and wonder at them. But oh, how dangerous their pathway!

18. You cast them down into destruction. They are not left to slip, but
a hand overthrows them–flings them down from the heights of their
prosperity to the depths of unutterable woe!

19, 20. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! They are
utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awakes, so, O Lord,
when You awake, You shall despise their image. As if God slept today
and let these images of prosperity exist as in a dream, but by-and-by
He wakes. His time of judgment comes and where are these prosperous
men? They have gone. The "baseless fabric of a vision" has melted into
thin air and "left not a wreck behind." It is not. It is gone!

21. Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. I felt a
heart-pain. I felt my whole nature go amiss, as if there had been
calculi causing the deepest possible misery in my reins.

22. So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before You. I saw
no farther than a goose! Like a beast that cannot look into the future,
I judged these men by today–by the pastures in which they fed and the
fatness which they gathered there. "I was as a beast before You." Now
notice the splendid connection of these two verses. I will read them
again–the 22nd and the 23rd . "So foolish was I and ignorant, I was as
a beast before You."

23. Nevertheless I am continually with You: You have held me by my
right hand. What a strange mixture a man is! And a godly man is the
strangest conglomerate of all! He is a beast and yet continually with
God. View him from one side–he is ignorant. View him from the other
and he has an unction from the Holy One and he knows all things! View
him from one point of the compass and he is naked, and poor, and
miserable! View him from another quarter and behold he is complete in
Christ and "accepted in the Beloved!" They know not man who do not know
that every true man is two men!

24. You shall guide me with Your counsel, and afterward receive me to
Glory. I, the fool that envied fools, yet, "You shall guide me with
Your counsel, and afterward receive me to Glory."

25. Whom have I in Heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I
desire beside You. Now he has got out of the temptation! He is not
going to seek for prosperity that he may rival the wicked in their
wealth. No! He sees that in having God, he has all he needs. Even
though he should continually be plagued all the day long, and chastened
every morning, his portion in God is quite enough for him. He will not
murmur anymore!

26. My flesh and my heart fails. I see what a poor thing I am. I
allowed my flesh and my heart to get the mastery over me and I got
caught in this trap.

26, 27. But God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.
For, lo, they that are far from You shall perish: You have destroyed
all them that go a whoring from You. A strong word, but none too
forcible, for every heart that seeks delight away from God is an
unchaste heart. It has got away from true purity even for a moment in
pouring out its love upon the creature.

28. But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in
the Lord GOD, that I may declare all Your works.

PSALM 37. Verse 1. Fret not yourself because of evildoers, neither be
you envious against the workers of iniquity. A common temptation. Many
of God's saints have suffered from it. Learn from their experience.
Avoid this danger. There really is no power in it when once the heart
has come to rest in God. But it is a sad affliction until the heart
does get its rest. "Fret not because of evildoers."

2-4. For they shallsoon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the
green herb. Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shall you dwell in the
land, and verily you shall be fed. Delight yourself also in the LORD.
Make Him your delight, and take care that you do really delight. Feel a
fullness of joy in Him.

4. And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Because when the
heart delights in God, then its desires are all such as God can safely
grant. He does not say to every man, or even to every praying man, "I
will give you the desires of your heart," but, "Delight yourself in the
Lord," and then He will.

5. Commit your way unto the LORD. Give it up to Him to rule it, and to
guide you and lead you in every step. "Commit your way unto the Lord."

5, 6. Trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass. And He shall
bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as the
noonday. It is better to trust our character with God than with the
ablest counselor. Scandal may pass over a fair name for a while and
cloud it, but God is the avenger of all the righteous! There will be a
resurrection of reputations, as well as of persons at the Last Great
Day. Only we must commit it to God.

7, 8. Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him: fret not yourself
because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings
wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not
yourself in any wise to do evil A fretful spirit soon comes to be an
angry spirit–and when we begin to be jealous of evildoers, we are very
apt to become evildoers ourselves! Many an honest man has snatched at
hasty gain because he was envious of the prosperity of the unrighteous.
And then he has pierced himself through with many sorrows in
consequence. But "fret not yourself in any wise to do evil." There is
an old proverb that it is hard for an empty sack to stand upright.
Therefore, when you are in temporal trouble, ask the Lord to fill you
with His Grace, for then you will stand upright and, by-and-by, you
shall be delivered.

9. For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD,
they shallinherit the earth. If there is anything good to be had here,
men that wait upon God shall have it! If there is any grain of wheat
amidst these heaps of chaff, Believers that are trusting the Lord shall
find them!

10. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be. How transient
are their joys! Their wealth which they accumulate, the beauty which
they think is upon their estate–all this is but as the painted colors
of the bubble, which is scarcely seen before it vanishes. Will you envy
this? Will you envy a little child his playthings, which will be broken
in an hour? Will you envy a madman the straw crown which he plaits and
puts upon his head when he thinks himself a king? Oh, be not so
foolish! Your inheritance is eternal and you are immortal! Why should
you envy the creature of an hour? "For yet a little while, and the
wicked shall not be."

10. Yes, you shall diligently consider his place. His mansion, his
house, the grand figure that he cut in society.