Fearing and Hoping
(No. 2524)
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JULY 4, 1897.
DELIVERED BY C. H, SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 28,
1885.
"The Lord takes pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in
His mercy." Psalm 147:11.
This Psalm, I think, was intended to set forth the singularity of God.
In it we are exhorted to praise Him who is our God and to give honor
and glory to Him alone. The Psalmist does not dwell, here, upon those
attributes which usually call forth our praise, or the praises of men
in general, but he touches some special strings of the harp from which
he brings forth joyous music for the children of Zion, that they may be
glad in their King. This is one of the notes of the Psalm–that
although God, Himself is so high, He has a very tender regard toward
those who are lowly. He turns His thoughts, not to those who are
brilliant and attractive, but to those who are broken in heart and
wounded in spirit! While the gods of the heathen are pictured in their
mythologies as dealing with kingdoms and with wars and with other
matters upon a large scale, this gracious God of ours is so infinitely
condescending that He waters the grass, feeds the cattle and listens to
the cries of young ravens! This is, indeed, a specialty with God and
one which unconverted men do not readily discover, or even think much
about when it is spoken of in their hearing. But you who know Him, you
who love Him, delight in these wondrous condescension of His Grace–His
dealing in mercy with the contrite and broken in spirit, His filling
Heaven and yet filling you, His ruling the stars and yet managing your
mean affairs–His fiat that creates a universe and His gentle promises
suited to the understanding of a child, to the healing of a widow's
sorrow, and the loosing of the bonds of the prisoner! Oh, yes, we feel
that we are bound to our God with cords of a man and with bands of
love! He considers us when we are of low estate, therefore we will give
all diligence to acquaint ourselves with Him that we may be at peace.
Having spoken of the singularity of God, the Psalmist dwells, in the
verse before us, upon the specialty of His favor. Great kings are known
to have their favorite objects in which they delight with peculiar
pleasure. Many monarchs have gloried in "the strength of a horse."
Their squadrons of cavalry have been their confidence. Others have
taken more delight in "the legs of a man." The muscles and sinews of
their soldiers have been their boast. You must have noticed, in the
Assyrian sculptures, the importance that was attached by the workmen
and by the monarch, also, to "the legs of a man." They represent the
warriors as brawny and strong, swift in running and firm in holding
their place in the day of battle. But our God takes no delight in
cavalry or infantry! No armies of horse or foot soldiers give Him any
gladness–the Lord takes pleasure in very different persons from these.
His delight, His joy, His solace–if we may use such a word– are found
in other company than that which is martial. He turns His eyes quite
another way. "The Lord takes pleasure in them that fear Him, in those
that hope in His mercy."
I. First of all, dear Friends, let us think of THE OBJECTS OF DIVINE
FAVOR AS HERE DISTINGUISHED.
They are distinguished, first, from physical strength. I have already
told you what is meant by the Psalmist in the previous verse, "He
delights not in the strength of the horse: He takes not pleasure in the
legs of a man." When a man was to be chosen to be king over Israel, the
Lord, who knew the weakness of the people, gave to them one who was
head and shoulders above the rest of them. It is natural to men to have
regard to the comeliness of the person and the stature and apparent
strength of the individual who is to rule over them. And, oftentimes,
men and women are so foolish as to imagine that there is something
about the beauty of their face, or the excellence of their person that
should not only make their fellow creatures admire them, but should
make their God admire them, too! True, there are old proverbs which bid
us think lightly of the kind of beauty which is but skin deep and that
tell us that "handsome is that handsome does." But still, there is the
temptation in a man who finds himself healthy, vigorous and strong–the
personification of power–to fancy that, as he has a measure of
influence over his fellows, he may have favor with God.
But, ah, that would be indeed a vain and idle dream! Let no man thus
delude himself. You, good Sir, with all your beauty and your strength,
may be but a day's march from the grave! Then will you be food for
worms, like the rest of those who have gone before you! "Beauty is
vain." What is man, "whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he
to be accounted of?" God thinks nothing of you in that matter of your
personal strength and beauty, however greatly you may pride yourself
thereon! Physical force is found in a greater degree in a horse than in
a man–and if there were to be some honor given to man because of his
physical strength, it ought to be given still more to the rhinoceros,
or to the elephant, or to the whale! Therefore, dear Friends, you can
clearly see how absurd it would be for a man to value himself upon his
bodily comeliness or strength.
There are not many, I should think, who would fall into that gross
absurdity, but there are some who seem to think that mental vigor will
surely be respected of God. The man who is the deepest thinker, who can
look into the very heart of a subject, who can see farthest into a
millstone–surely he shall have some commendation from God! And there
is a kind of superstition current that if a man has been very clever,
if he has written some very entertaining books, it must be all right
with him! Straightway, he who in his life sneered at saintship is
enrolled among the saints! And for anyone to question the character of
such a person, even though it may be well known that it was utterly
deficient in every kind of virtue before God, is almost regarded as
treason against the majesty of literature. Well, such a delusion may
rule the shallow minds that yield to it, but rest you assured that
cleverness, ability, culture and learning, in and of themselves, have
no influence with the Most High! He delights in the lowliest of men,
when they turn to Him, when they sit at Jesus' feet and learn His
Words. But the greatest conceivable ability, if it is united with
forgetfulness of God, will ensure to its possessor a more terrible
punishment from the right hand of God than would have fallen upon the
man had he been ignorant and without gifts, "for unto whomever much is
given, of him shall be much required."
It is a good thing to be learned and wise, and the more you can
cultivate your minds, the better, but remember the words of the
Apostle–"Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many
noble are called." And, oftentimes, the wisdom which is merely that of
the mind may even prove like scales upon the spiritual eyes, hiding
from the soul the blessed sight which alone can save it! It is true
mentally as well as physically, that the Lord takes no pleasure in any
of the faculties which a man possesses if he is destitute of Grace.
Another thing in which the Lord takes no pleasure is that self-reliance
which is much cried up nowadays. This is only another form of "the
strength of the horse" and "the legs of a man." Some persons proudly
say that they are self-made men–and I generally find that they worship
their makers. Having made themselves, they are peculiarly devoted to
themselves. But a man who is self-made is badly made! If God does not
make him anew, it would have been better for him never to have been
made! That which comes of man is but a polluted stream from an impure
source–out of evil comes evil, and from a depraved nature comes
depravity. It is only when God makes us new creatures in Christ Jesus
that it is any joy for us to be creatures at all! And all the praise
must be given to Him. "It is He that has made us, and not we
ourselves," if this day, "we are His people and the sheep of His
pasture." Therefore, although you should exercise every faculty that
you possess and push with might and main in the battle of life, do not
rely on yourself.
It is foolish to worship a god of wood, or of stone. It is equally
foolish to worship a god of flesh. And it is mostfool-ish when that god
of flesh is yourself! Worship the Lord, trust in God–"Trust in Him at
all times; you people, pour out your heart before Him." "Cursed is the
man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart
departs from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert,
and shall not see when good comes; but shall inhabit the parched places
in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man
that trusts in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as
a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the
river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green;
and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease
from yielding fruit." The Lord takes not pleasure in the boastful
self-dependence wherein some glory.
Nor, dear Friends, do I think that God takes pleasure in any mere
capacity for service which exists in any of us, whoever we may be. "The
strength of the horse" and, "the legs of a man" do but set forth what I
now intend to speak of. Suppose a man is a child of God and a preacher
of the Word–and that he possesses peculiar gifts to set forth the
Truth of God–let him not, therefore, exalt himself, for in mere
capacity, even though it is the capacity to preach the Gospel, God
takes no pleasure! A preacher has a talent which brings with it great
responsibility–it will not be a blessing bringing a reward unless
Grace is given to him to use it to his Lord's Glory!
Are you, dear Friend, peculiarly adapted for teaching in the Sunday
school, and has God put honor upon you there? Then remember that what
your Master will look to will not be your ability, but your
fidelity–not your capacious mind, your firm grasp of the Truth of God,
and your power to impart it to others–but the Grace with which you use
this faculty and this ability. I believe that there may be many a godly
woman who teaches her handful of infants to do little more than read,
and who is scarcely able to convey a profound idea to their minds, who,
nevertheless, may be a greater blessing than that teacher who has
gathered many about him, whom he has been able to instruct with marked
ability, but without corresponding Grace. I am sure that it would have
been better for some of us who have to come before thousands of hearers
with our message and yet we are not be faithful to your souls–if we
had occupied the lowliest pulpit and preached to only 10 or 20 people,
or if we had never spoken at all! For God values none of us by our
position, or our ability, or even by our apparent success! He does not
take pleasure in all this of itself–it is in them that fear Him, in
those that hope in His mercy–in our spiritual relationship to Himself
and our spiritual dealings with Himself, that He does have a keen
delight. All the rest may or may not be delightful to Him. He may or
may not look upon it with complacency–that will entirely depend upon
whether we are those who fear Him and who hope in His mercy!
II. Now, in the second place, I want your earnest attention while I
notice THE OBJECTS OF DIVINE FAVOR AS THEY ARE HERE DESCRIBED. "Them
that fear Him: those that hope in His mercy."
You see, dear Friends, these are things which relate to God. God's
favor is displayed to those who fear Him and who hope in His mercy. You
are truly, dear Friend, what you are towards God, and God regards you
according to what you are in reference to Himself. If you are a
philanthropist, a lover of mankind–that is well as far as it goes, but
it is always evil to put the second table of the Commandments before
the first. The first is, "You shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and
with all your mind." And then the second table bids you, "love your
neighbor as yourself." But he who does not love his God has not learned
aright how to love his neighbor! There is a worm at the core of
philanthropy when it is not accompanied with true religion. Depend upon
it, that what you are toward your God, that you really are, and so does
He regard you. What if you fear evil Yet if you fear not Him, you are
not really His! And what if you have hope this way or that? Yet you are
not right before Him unless you have hope in His mercy! You have not
come to your right condition unless your emotions, joyous or sorrowful,
have relation to Him.
Notice, next, that this description of character applies to true
servants of God in their earliest and weakest form. Observe, it is not
said, here, that God has pleasure in those who possess full assurance,
though that is most true, but He has pleasure in "them that fear
Him"–who can get no further in the spiritual life than to fear the
Lord, and who, as yet, even have something of the spirit of bondage
connected with that fear! Yet, if there is also in them a little of
that brightness which comes of hoping in His mercy, the Lord takes
pleasure even in such poor feeble creatures! They have not yet attained
to full confidence in God's mercy–they are only hoping in it at
present–yet, if it is a real fear of Him and a true hope in His mercy,
however little it may be, the Lord takes pleasure in them! You do not
take much pleasure in yourself, poor hoping-fearing one, do you? That
may be and it may be quite consistent with God's taking pleasure in
you! There are some who take pleasure in themselves, but in whom God
has no pleasure–and there are many who loathe themselves in their own
sight, who, nevertheless, are delightful in the sight of the Most High!
Our judgment of ourselves is a very different thing from God's judgment
of us.
Dear Heart, do you fear to come before God because of your sin? Do you
tremblingly stretch out your finger to touch the hem of your Savior's
garment, that you may be made whole? Is your faith feeble? Do you trust
His Word, but weakly? He will not, therefore, spurn you, but will
receive you, for, as He healed the woman who came behind Him in the
crowd and bade her go in peace, so will He do with you. "The Lord takes
pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy." If
they never get beyond that point for the present, they shall get into a
higher stage, by-and-by, but even now the Lord takes pleasure in them!
"Therefore comfort one another with these words." The description in
our text is intended to embrace the weakest forms of spiritual life. I
am sure it is, because of the kind of grammatical structure between our
text and the verse that precedes it–"He delights not in the strength
of the horse: He takes not pleasure in the legs of a man." That is, He
has no pleasure in the strong things, the powerful, the vigorous, but
He has pleasure in the weak, though true–in the trembling, though
sincere. He takes pleasure in those who are so little that all we can
say of them is that they fear Him and that they hope in His mercy!
Yet I also think that this description comprises the noblest form of
religion in the very highest degree of it. After all, we do not get
beyond this point–fearing God and hoping in His mercy! A little child
grows, but when it has grown to manhood, it is the same being as when
it was a child. It has not grown another eye, or another hand, or
another foot– all that is in it when it is a man, was in it when it
was a child! In like manner, all the Divine Graces of our holy religion
are in the new-born babe in Grace–not perceptibly as yet, nor called
into action, but they are all there–and when the babe in Grace shall
reach the full stature of a man in Christ Jesus, there will be in him
just what there was in him when he was a little and weak child.
Therefore, let us grow as we may, we shall always fear God. Perfect
love casts out the fear that has torment, but not that filial fear
which is here meant, that child-like reverence and holy awe of the Most
High that shall grow and shall deepen, world without end.
And as to hope, Beloved, why, we had hope when we began our spiritual
life, and we still have hope–and that hope will continue with us–I
will not say in Heaven, though I think it will, for there is something
to hope for in the disembodied state. We shall hope for the Day of
Resurrection and there will be something to hope for even in the
resurrection, for, throughout the ages we shall have a good hope that
still we shall be "forever with the Lord." Certainly, he who knows God
best, fears Him most and also hopes in Him most! Fear deepens and hope
rises and I believe that very much in proportion as a man has the fear
of God before his eyes, he will have a hope in God within his heart.
And as he learns to hope in God, and to hope nowhere else, his fear of
God will become more and more operative upon his entire nature and
life.
I should like you also to notice that the persons favored of God are
represented as a sort of sacred blending of different characters. "Them
that fear Him"–"those that hope in His mercy." These two things, fear
of God and hope in His mercy, go well together, and what God has
joined, let no man put asunder! Blessed is that man who has a trembling
fear concerning his sinnership, who knows that he deserves the deepest
Hell, bows before God under the burden of sin and always loathes
himself to think that he should have been such a sinner–but who also
hopes in God's mercy! He is sure of sin, but equally sure of sin's
forgiveness. He is humbled by guilt, but equally rejoicing in the
fullness of that Atonement which has covered his transgression and cast
his iniquity into the depths of the sea! I fear because I am such a
great sinner. I hope because Christ is such a great Savior! I am down
in the very depths whenever I think of my guilt, crying out unto God,
but I am also up in the very heights as I think of the finished work of
the Lord Jesus Christ and am led, thereby, to hope in the mercy of God!
It is a beautiful blend, that fear of God, and hope in His mercy!
It is well every day to have this sacred blending in another fashion,
to be always afraid of yourself, fearful to begin the day without
praying, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," never
indulging in self-confidence in the least, yet always hoping in the
mercy of God that He will keep you, and never suffer you to perish, for
He has said, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow
Me: and I give unto them eternal life: and they shall never perish,
neither shall any pluck them out of My hand." This is a blessed
blending of fear and hope, fearing before God, knowing what a frail and
feeble creature you are and yet confident in the Lord, knowing how
mighty, how faithful and how unchangeable He is to keep the souls that
are committed to His care!
Then there is that holy form of fear which causes a jealous anxiety
concerning yourself. I do not wish to ever be rid of that kind of fear.
There is a doubting of yourself which it is well to cultivate until
honest and faithful self-examination has enabled you, in all
impartiality, to conclude that you are the child of God. But, oh, never
let that fear degenerate into a looking to frames and feelings as your
ground of confidence! Let your hope always be in God's mercy, whatever
may be the result of your self-examination. These two things should
always go together–"Lord, search me, and try me, and know my ways."
"Yet, Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You, and that my
hope is fixed upon You, and I do not doubt that You are able to keep
that which I have committed to You." There, you see, is the fear of the
Lord, but there is also hope in His mercy. And these two streams run
side by side in the life of the man in whom God takes pleasure.
Now, Brothers and Sisters, to turn the text around the other way, I
trust we shall always have a hope of final perseverance. He who has
began the good work in us will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ. Are we, therefore, as some suppose we might be, careless about
how we live? Oh, no! We are afraid of sinning! The very shadow of sin
is obnoxious to us! We hate the garment spotted by the flesh. The very
appearance of evil terrifies us. How is that consistent with the full
belief in our perseverance unto the end? If we cannot explain it, many
of us know that it is practically so.
So also we have a hope, most sure and steadfast, that we ourselves
shall, like our Representative, enter into Heaven. But for all that we
have a daily fear lest we should seem to come short of it! We know that
"there remains a rest to the people of God," and we are persuaded that
we belong to that happy company. Yet we keep under our body and bring
it into subjection, lest that, by any means, after having preached to
others, we ourselves should become castaways. If you ask, "How can a
man feel these two things?" I answer–he does feel them and if he is
born of God, and God delights in him–he feels them pretty much with
equal force. As two battledores keep up the shuttlecock, so often I
believe a man is kept in his right place by the action of these two
contrary forces as they seem to be. As the earth goes round the sun,
keeping in its orbit, it is under two influences–the centrifugal that
would drive it off at a tangent and the centripetal that would pull it
into the sun at once–but between the two, it keeps its proper course,
and so does the Christian. Oh, that the centripetal force might
speedily conquer the centrifugal, that we might fly unto our God and be
forever with Him rejoicing in the fullness of eternal happiness!
I hope, Brothers and Sisters, that we who believe have a hope of
perfection. In some senses, we have it already, for we are complete in
Christ Jesus and accepted in the Beloved. But even that blessed
assurance is attended with a measure of fear. We are mourning our
transgressions, our defects and our shortcomings. We are not what we
ought to be, we are not what we wish to be, we are not what we shall
be–and while we grasp the, "shall be," with the hand of faith, we sigh
to think that as yet we have realized so little of its blessedness!
Brothers and Sisters, may God grant to us hope whenever we have fear,
and fear whenever we have hope. May we have hope in God's power to
deliver us when we are under the fear of any trial or danger! May we
have hope in God's Providence to arrange for us whenever we are poor,
or sick, or in any straits or difficulties! When we have any fear of
God's wrath, let us have hope in His pity, and whenever we are doubting
or troubled, let us have hope in God's promises which cannot fail, but,
in due season, shall surely be fulfilled.
This fear, mingled with hope, is, I believe, to be the contexture of
our religious life. I know that it is of mine with regard to the world
at large and the Church at large. I have a daily fear and trembling for
the state of the Church of this present time. If anybody asks the
watchman what he sees, I answer that I see no morning coming, but
deeper darkness constantly falling upon us. Yet even that fear is mixed
with hope, for I am certain that God's Truth will, in the end, win the
day. It does not matter which way the current of modern thought may
happen to run, the Truth of God will come to the front, by-and-by.
Puritan Divines are at a great discount today, but I believe that some
of us will live to see them prized more than they ever were! The
Doctrines of Grace are, for a while, trod in the mire, but after
infidelity has emptied the chapels, and the churches have lost the true
missionary spirit, they will come back again to the grand old Truths of
the Gospel, and we who are spared shall see a revival of them such as
our hearts have longed for! Whatever we fear for Zion in her travail,
we have hope in the birth that shall come of it by God's good Grace!
This same principle ought, I think, to be applied to our ordinary daily
life. We hope in God's mercy whenever we are in trouble, but we fear
whenever we are prosperous. If we are in health, then we fear, for we
may be struck down in a moment. If we are sick, then we hope, for we
may be raised up just as quickly. If we are in adversity, then we hope,
for the longest tide turns, at last. When we are prospering, then we
fear and tremble for all the goodness that God causes to pass before
us. I, for one, must say that I usually feel confident and joyous
whenever I am in trouble. But whenever I have a grand day of success, I
go home sinking into my shoes, for I am always afraid that something
evil will follow!
It is with that blended hope and fear that we come to God in
prayer–trembling to take upon ourselves to speak to Him, for we are
but dust and ashes–yet coming with holy boldness to the Throne of the
heavenly Grace. In this way, also, we go to our service for our Lord.
Luther said that, often, when he went to preach, his knees knocked
together for fear. But when he was preaching, he had such hope in God's
mercy that he was like a lion! That is the way we expect to die. We
will go to our dying bed and gather up our feet with fear, for we are
men–but also with hope, for we are men of God–fearing the Lord, but
hoping in His mercy!
III. I have not time to preach upon the blessings implied in this
Divine favor, so I will give you only an outline of them.
When God takes pleasure in any man, the outcome of His favor may be
learned from the pleasure which we take in our own child. For instance,
when any mother takes pleasure in her child, she likes to thinkof her
child, she likes to look at her child, she likes to speakto her child,
she likes to ministerto her child. She loves her child's prattling
talk, its little broken syllables are all music to her ears. She takes
pleasure in all that her child is, in all it does, in all it is to be.
It is altogether a delight to her. Now, without enlarging upon this
point, I will say that if you fear the Lord and hope in His mercy, God
takes as much delight in you as you do in your dear child–and far
more, because God's is an infinite mind and from it there comes
infinite delight, so that He views you with infinite complacency!
Can you believe it? You do not view yourself so–I hope that you do
not, but God sees you in Christ. He sees that in you that is yet to be
in you! He sees in you that which will make you grow into a heavenly
being and, therefore, He takes delight in you. It does not matter what
others think of you. I want you to go home and feel, "If my Heavenly
Father takes delight in me, it really does not concern me if my fellow
creatures do not understand or appreciate me."If you and I want to be
pleased by other people's good opinion, we shall lay ourselves open to
be wounded by other people's badopinion. Live so as to please Godand if
your fellows are not pleased, well then, they must be displeased. It
should be the one aim of your life to be able to say, "I do always
those things which please Him." Walk with God by faith, as Enoch did,
that you may have a like testimony to his, "he pleased God." And if you
have pleased God, what matters it who is not pleased? Therefore, let us
rejoice and be glad, and praise the name of the Lord, for He "takes
pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy."
I trust that there is some poor sinner who can squeeze into the Kingdom
of God through that description. "I fear Him," says one, "I have a
feeble hope in His mercy." God bless you, dear Friend! He takes
pleasure in you. If you are but consciously guilty of sin and,
therefore, fear–and if you are but believingly looking to Christ,
alone, and, therefore hope, then you are His, and His forever! The Lord
bless you, for Christ's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM147.
This Book of Psalms ends its golden stream in a cataract of praise. The
last Psalms are Hallelujah Psalms. This one begins and ends, as several
others do, with "Hallelujah."
Verse 1. Praise you the LORD: for it is good to sing praises unto our
God. He is, "our God," whether He is the God of other men or not. He is
"our God" by His choice of us, and by our choice of Him–"our God" by
eternal Covenant, to whom we also pledge ourselves "This God is our God
forever and ever: He will be our Guide even unto death." Then let us
"sing praises unto our God," for, "it is good" so to do.
1. For it is pleasant; and praise is comely. It is the most pleasurable
of all exercises! It is the occupation of Heaven. "It is pleasant." It
is delightful to the heart. Nothing tends to lift us out of sorrow and
trouble like giving ourselves to singing the high praises of God. "It
is good." "It is pleasant." "It is comely." It is becoming, fitting,
beautiful. Praise and Jehovah should go together. He is so worthy to be
praised that to withhold His praises would be an uncomely thing! But to
adore Him, to magnify Him, is the very beauty of holiness.
2. The LORD does build up Jerusalem: He gathers together the outcasts
of Israel. There is the first reason for praise. The Jews were pleased
to behold their city rising out of the heap of ruins. They were glad to
see the scattered ones, the outcasts, coming back to their native place
and entering into citizenship in Zion. Shall not the Church of God, of
which Jerusalem was a type, praise God that He is steadily and solidly
building up a Church to His praise and Glory? He is building it out of
strange materials–outcast sinners who were far from Him by wicked
works are brought near by the blood of Christ! Stones from Nature's
quarry are changed into living stones and then built up into a living
Temple for His praise. "Jehovah does build up Jerusalem." Not the
minister, not the workers in the Church, but the Lord Himself does it!
"He gathers together the outcasts of Israel." An uplifted Christ draws
all men to Him! The gathering power is with Him. "Unto Him shall the
gathering of the people be." Let us praise God that this takes place,
in a measure, in our midst, and in other Churches where His name is
honored.
3. He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds. He is such
a condescending God that He walks the hospitals and is familiar with
despondency–and enters in sympathy into the cases of distress which
others shun because they are unable to help. Where He comes as the Good
Physician, "He heals the broken in heart."
4. He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by their names.
I call your attention, dear Friends, to the wonderful change from the
sick to the stars–from the broken in heart to the starry hosts of
Heaven! Our God is equally at home with the little and with the
great–with stars, which to us are countless–and with men, who to us
are comfortless. God is just as great in dealing with our sorrows as in
guiding the stars in their courses! He is as great as He is good, and
as good as He is great!
5. Great is our Lord, and of great power: His understanding is
infinite. There are three things here predicated of Him–first, that He
is great in Himself, great in the vastness of His Being. Next, that He
is of great power and, then, that He is of great, yes, of infinite
understanding. Here is the mercy of it all, that He brings that
greatness, that vastness of power, that infinity of knowledge to bear
upon poor broken hearts–that He is just as wise in meeting our
distresses as He is in marshalling the stars that He has made. Oh, what
a God is ours!
6. The LORD lifts up the meek; He casts the wicked down to the ground.
Ours is an amazing God. There is none like He. He is undoing all the
things that are, turning things upside down. The lowly, He lifts up,
but the proud, He throws down to the ground, even into the dust. This
is His way and this is always a special note in the songs of God's
people. Remember how Mary sang, "He has put down the mighty from their
seats, and exalted them of low degree. He has filled the hungry with
good things; and the rich He has sent empty away"? This singular
behavior of our God, who has no respect unto the persons of men, is a
special cause for our thankfulness. Therefore, let us magnify His name!
7. Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto
our God. Let every form of melody and harmony be consecrated to Him.
Give Him thanks-giving and thanks -living. And as He is always giving
to you, take care that you give to Him what you can–namely, your
thanks.
8. 9. Who covers the Heaven with clouds, whoprepares rain for the
earth, who makesgrass to grow upon the mountains. He gives to the beast
his food, and to the young ravens which cry. God, the Infinite One,
makes the clouds–not the laws of Nature, which are dead, inoperative
things without Him! But Jehovah Himself fashions the clouds and
prepares the rain. There is an Infinite Wisdom about the preparation of
every raindrop and the sending of it in such form and way that it shall
be balanced upon each blade of grass and shall hang there glittering in
its perfection, and nourish even the least herb of the field. Only
Infinite Wisdom could have thought of or prepared a single shower of
rain! This rain is for the grass–does God think of the grass. Yes, not
only of the cedars of Lebanon, but of grass, and not only of the grass
that grows in the fruitful meadow, but of those little tufts which are,
here and there, upon the rugged mountains! He thinks of clouds, of rain
and of grass which He makes to grow upon the mountains, that He may
feed cattle. Does God, the high and lofty One, stoop to give to the
beast His food? Ah, and more than that! He feeds all those wild birds
that seem of no use to men–even the young ravens which clamor for the
parent bird to return and fill them when they are hungry. Does God turn
feeder of ravens? Ah, so it is. Then, again, blessed be His name!
Praise you the Lord, for it is good to sing praises to such a
condescending God as this! I am sure that you can draw the inferences
for your own comfort. Do you seem like a little bit of grass on the
bare mountainside? He has clouds and rain for you! Do you seem like a
neglected bird in its nest, crying for food? He who feeds the ravens
will feed you! The Hebrew has it, "the sons of the ravens," and if God
gives food to the sons of the ravens, He will certainly feed His own
sons!
10, 11. He delights not in the strength of the horse. He takes no
pleasure in the legs of a man. The Lord takes pleasure in them that
fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy. Again, you see, it is the
same strain. It is not the great things or the mighty things that
attract Him, but the little things, and the weak things, and the
despised things.
12, 13. Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion. For He
has strengthened the bars ofyour gates; He has blessed your children
within you. There shall be special hallelujahs from God's own people.
His holy city and His holy hill should magnify the thrice-holy God. O
Beloved, if we are, indeed, children of that Jerusalem which is from
above, which is the mother of all Believers, let us prepare a new song
to the Lord our God for all His mercy to us! Praise Him in your own
houses, in "Jerusalem." Praise Him in His own house, in "Zion." Let
your praise thus be continuous, where you dwell and where He dwells!
"He has strengthened the bars of your gates." The fortifications are
finished and He has made all secure. Therefore, magnify His name.
14. He makes peace in your borders, and fills you with the finest of
the wheat. When the Church is peaceful and when the Gospel fills the
saints–and they feed upon it and feel it to be the very finest of the
wheat–should not God be praised? Does not the hallelujah come in here,
again? Praise you the Lord for spiritual meat, and spiritual peace, and
spiritual security!
15. He sends forth His commandment upon earth: His Wordruns very
swiftly. Oriental kings made a point of having swift postal
arrangements by which they could send their decrees to the extremity of
their dominions, sometimes on horses, and sometimes on swift camels.
But God's command, God's decree, God's "Word runs very swiftly." He
dwells in the midst of His people and He sends forth from Zion His
decree. He dispatches His couriers and they run very swiftly to work
His will. It is so in Providence–it is assuredly so in Grace! As to
Providence, see what God does–
16. He gives snow like wool. People say, nowadays, "It snows." They
said among the Hebrews, "HE gives snow." There seems to be a tendency
to get further and further away from God in these very learned days. If
this is all that science can do for us–put God further off–it shall
be our injury rather than our blessing! "He gives snow like wool." The
flakes are like the fleece and fall softly. Snow clothes the earth with
a white, warm garment, as the well-washed sheep are clothed with wool.
16. He scatters the hoarfrost like ashes. There are black frosts and
white frosts–and you know how, sometimes, vegetation appears to be
burnt up with cold. It is God who does it all–
"He scatters the hoarfrost like ashes."
17. He casts forth His ice like morsels. The hailstones come like
morsels–like crumbs, that is the word–like crumbs of ice, or, as the
ice is formed upon the lake, it comes like crusts. Either way, "He
casts forth His ice like morsels."
17. Who can stand before His cold? If God displays Himself as fire, who
can stand against His flames? Or if He chooses to display Himself in
cold, there is as much of consuming force about intense cold as about
vehement heat! "Who can stand before His cold?"
18. He sends out His Word, and melts them. The icebergs float southward
and are melted. The rivers that had been held in chains of ice leap
into liberty and all at the Word of the Lord–"He sends out His word,
and melts them."
18. He causes His wind to blow and the waters flow. "This is the result
of the laws of nature." So say those who are still in nature's
darkness! "This is the work of God," say those who have come out of
that darkness into His marvelous light!
19. He shows His word to Jacob. Observe that when God's people know
God's Word, it is as much the work of God as when the waters are loosed
from their bands of ice!
19. His statutes and Hisjudgments to Israel The Lord does it according
to His own Sovereign will.
20. He has not dealt so with any nation: and as for His judgments, they
have not known them. Praise you the LORD. Here, you see again, is a
peculiar reason for thanksgiving! "Praise you Jehovah." "It is good to
sing praises unto our God, for He has dealt with us in a special
manner, with peculiar and discriminating Grace. 'He has not dealt so
with any nation; and as for His judgments, they have not known them.'"
Therefore are they silent, but let us not be dumb. With such a
Revelation as we have, with such teachings of His Spirit to make the
Lord known to us, let us not be ungrateful, but always praise His name!