"Herein Is Love"
(No. 2448)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JANUARY 19, 1896.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent
His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 1 John 4:10.
As there not scenes and circumstances which, now and then, transpire
before us that prompt an exclamation like that of the Apostle, "Herein
is love"? When we have seen the devotedness of a mother to her
children. When we have marked the affection of friend for friend and
caught a glimpse in different human relationships of the kindness that
exists in human hearts, we have said, "Herein is love!" Yesterday these
words seemed to rise up and float upon my tongue, although I did not
use them, for they seemed to be consecrated to something higher than
creature affection. I had the painful duty of attending the Abney Park
Cemetery, to bury a beloved Sister in Christ, one of the most useful
women we had among us–and as I stood there to commit her body to the
grave, I was pleased–I cannot tell you how I was beyond measure
pleased, on that dark foggy day, at that distance from town, to find
nearly a hundred, mostly poor people, gathered there to show their
respect to their friend who had helped, in many cases, to feed them and
clothe them and, in every instance, had tried to point them to Christ.
There were thousands of tears shed of the sincerest and most heavenly
kind. While conducting the service, I could not help feeling not only a
sympathy with her bereaved husband, but with those who had been the
objects of our Sister's care–men and women who, perhaps, had given up
a day's work and walked long dreary miles in the unpropitious weather
of yesterday, that they might come and mingle their tears over the dust
of one who, as a Christian woman, had served them well. I could not
help thinking, and it suggested the text to me, "Herein is love!"
Seeing what love had done and seeing how love comes back in return, I
said within myself, when love has learned its way into one bosom, it
scatters its seed and fructifies in the hearts of hundreds more! Love
begets love–let it once begin and none can tell its end!
But the words were too sacred for me to use, even at that solemn
service, though they came up so suddenly to the surface of my mind. The
Apostle had consecrated them to another love, still higher, more
profound, more perfect and more celestial. I shall ask you, tonight, to
look at and consider the wonder which the Apostle discovered and made
him, with uplifted hands, exclaim, "Herein is love!"
The wonder, he tells us, which astonished him was not that we loved
God, for suppose that all men had loved God– what wonder would there
have been in it? God created us. We are wonderful specimens of His
power and wisdom. The various devices for securing our comfort and
maintaining us in life–the devices within the body and outside the
body, the way in which the whole world is made to be the servant of
man, so that, as George Herbert says–
"Man is one world, and has another to attend him," these tokens of
benevolence ought to have made all men love God! If every creature who
sprang from the loins of Adam had lived a perfect life of obedience and
had continually reverenced the God who made him and supplied his needs,
there would not have been anything so very remarkable in the fact, for
God deserves the love of all His creatures. Making His sun to shine
upon us and giving us fruitful seasons–keeping us in life and
preserving us from going down into the Pit– we ought to love Him. And
if we did, it would not be anything to excite astonishment.
And, beloved Brothers and Sisters, when the Grace of God comes into the
human heart, casts Satan out of it and renders us capable of loving
God, there is nothing very surprising in our loving Him. I shall not
ask you to think of the ordinary love which there is in common
Christians. Indeed, the wonder about it is that it should be so
ordinary, so little, so faint! It is a great wonder–to be spoken of
with tears–that God should do so much for us and that we should love
Him so little in return. Watts did well to pen those lines–
"Dear Lord! And shall we ever lie At this poor dying rate? Our love so
faint, so cold to You, And Yours to us so great? Come, Holy Spirit,
heavenly Dove With all Your quickening powers, Come, shed abroad a
Savior's love, And that shall kindle ours."
But now, think of the truly earnest missionary. Think of such men as
Carey, or Moffat, or John Williams–men who give up all the comforts of
life, all the hopes of wealth–and go forth among a barbarous people to
suffer insult, perhaps to meet with death for Christ's sake! They brave
the terrors of fever and pestilence! They pass through jungles! They
dare tempestuous seas–no mountains are too high, no weathers are too
stern to deter them! They force their way into the center of Africa, or
high up among the Esquimau if they may but tell of the love of Jesus to
dying men! It may seem very amazing to us, but if you come to think of
it, compared with what Christ has done for them, they may, and they
usually do, sit down and confess that they have done nothing whereof to
glory! They have done only what it was their duty to have done and they
all confess that they fall short of the service which Christ deserves.
Though we might say, in a modified sense, "Herein is love," yet, after
all, it is but faintly spoken, for it is but comparatively true.
As we have read Foxe's Book of Martyrs, or some other history of the
saints, and marveled at the stories of their confessing Christ before
the Inquisitors, singing joyful hymns when their bones were put out of
joint upon the rack, or standing boldly up upon the blazing fire while
their flesh was being consumed, still testifying to the preciousness of
Christ, have we not said, "Herein is love"? Well might we say so as we
contrasted our love with theirs, but, after all, if you will but think
a minute, it is a little thing for a man to be willing to burn to death
for One who saved him from everlasting burning! 'Tis sharp work, but it
is soon over, and the reward makes up for it all while Divine Grace
sustains the sufferer under the fiery trial! There is nothing, even in
the love of martyrs, worthy of praise when compared with the exceeding
love of Christ! These are stars–let them hide their heads in the
Presence of the Sun! These are all sweet flowers, yet compare them not
with the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley, whose fragrance
fills both earth and Heaven! Those whose spiritual senses are qualified
to judge, forget all else while they stand entranced before this one
gathering up of everything that is lovely and cry, "Herein is love!"
Oh, this love of Christ–it is beyond all degree, standard, or compass!
In comparison with it, other love, high and noble as that other love
may be, dwindles into insignificance! Then let me ask you now, somewhat
more in detail, to think of the love of God in Christ Jesus towards us
as the text sets it forth.
I. The love of God is LOVE TO THOSE WHO DO NOT LOVE HIM. "Not that we
loved God, but that He loved us." When God loves those who love Him, it
seems to be according to the law of nature, but when He loves those who
do not love Him, this must be above all laws–it is according,
certainly, to the extraordinary rule of Divine Grace, and Grace alone!
There was not a man on earth who loved God. There was none that did
good–no, not one. And yet, the Lord fixed the eye of His electing love
upon sinners in whom there was no thought of loving Him! There is no
more love to God in an unrenewed heart than there is of life within a
piece of granite. No more of love to God is there within the soul that
is unsaved than there is of fire within the depths of the ocean's
waves! And here, indeed, is the wonder, that when we had no love to
God, He should have loved us!
This is a mild way of expressing it, for instead of loving God, my
Brothers and Sisters, you and I withheld from Him the poorest tribute
of homage. We were careless and indifferent. Days and weeks passed over
our heads in which we hardly thought of God. If there had not been any
God, it would not have made much difference to us as to our thoughts,
habits and conversation. God was not in all our thoughts and, perhaps,
if somebody could have informed us that God was dead, we would have
thought it a fine piece of news, for then we could live as we liked and
need not be under any fear of being judged by Him! Instead of loving
God–though now we rejoice that He loves us–we rebelled against Him.
Which of His Laws have we not broken? We cannot put our finger upon one
command without being compelled to acknowledge that we have violated
its claims, or come short of its demands.
I do not want to dilate upon a general doctrine, tonight. I rather want
to press home to the conscience of every child of God here that God
loves him. You know very well that God did not love you because you
loved Him, for there was not–you will confess it painfully–anything
like love to God in you, but much, very much, that sprang from natural
enmity and aversion to Him. Why, then, did He love you? Men do not
generally love those who hate them, those who spite them, those who
give them ill names–and yet God loved us! Why, there are some of the
Lord's people that God loved who, before conversion, used to curse Him
to His face! The Sabbath was the day they took for sensual pleasure.
They were drunks; they were unclean; they were everything that is
vile–and yet He loved them! Oh, the wonder of this! When they were
reeking in the kennels of sin–when there was no sin too black and too
vile for them to commit–God loved them! Oh, never dream that He began
to love you when you began to love Him! Oh, no! But it was because He
loved you hard and fast, when you were reveling in your sin, that His
love put its arms around you, lifted you out of your sin and made you
what you are!
Oh, but this is good tidings to some of you! Perhaps you are still, as
all God's people once were, living in sin. You hardly know why you have
strayed in here, but perhaps, while you sit and listen, you may hear
that God has loved you. Oh, that it may come to be true, that you may
prove to be one of His chosen people whom He loves even though in sin
and whom He will love till you come out of sin and turn to Christ and
get pardon for it! Pray, dear Christian people, pray that it may be so!
God hears prayer. Put up the prayer silently now–"Lord, attract some
of Your chosen people to Christ tonight! Let some who never thought of
Him, but were bent on sinning rather than of being brought to God, see
Jesus and find salvation though Him." "Herein is love!" God loved the
unlovely, the hateful, the vile, the depraved–and loved them though
they did not love Him!
II. Another part of the wonder lies in this, THAT THIS LOVE SHOULD COME
FROM SUCH AN ONE AS GOD IS. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but
that He loved us." What does God want in loving us? You never saw a fly
on the dome of St. Paul's–it would have been too small an object for
you to see when walking round the Cathedral! Now, a fly on the dome of
St. Paul's is a monstrous being, a marvelous individual compared with
you crawling about this world. Why, it bears a much larger proportion
to St. Paul's than you do to this globe! What an insignificant little
creature you are! Supposing you could love that fly–it would seem a
strange thing. Or that an angel could love that fly–it were stranger
still! But that God should love us is much more a wonder! Lift up your
eyes to the heavens and count the stars. Listen to the astronomer, as
he tells you that those little specks of light are mighty worlds, some
of them infinitely superior to this world of ours. And that there are
millions upon millions of such worlds glittering in the sky and that
perhaps all these millions that we can see are only like one little
corner, one little sand hill of the worlds that God has made–while
throughout boundless space there may be long leagues of worlds–if I
may use the expression, innumerable as the sands that belt the shore
around the great and mighty deep!
Now, one man in a world–how little! But one man in myriads of worlds,
one man in the universe–how insignificant! And herein is love, that
God should love so insignificant a creature! For what is God compared
with the worlds, their number and their probable extent of space? God
is infinitely greater than all the ideas we suggest by such
comparisons! God Himself is greater than all space! No conception of
greatness that ever crossed a mind of the most enlarged faculties can
enable us to apprehend the grandeur of God as He really is! Yet this
great and glorious Being who fills all things and sustains all things
by the word of His power, condescends to rivet upon us–not His pity,
mark you, not His thoughts, but the very love of His soul which is the
essence of Himself, for He is love. "Herein is love!" An insignificant
creature–vile, filthy and polluted–loved by the august Creator and
loved with all the infinite affection of Jehovah's heart! Stand still
and wonder! You cannot fathom this depth! You cannot scale this height,
for imagination's utmost stretch dies away at the effort!
III. And is it not a point of wonder THAT THIS LOVE SHOULD BE UNSOUGHT?
"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us, and sent
His Son." We never went to Him–He came to us. Suppose that, after we
had all sinned, we had fallen on our knees and cried importunately,
"Oh, Father, forgive us!"? Suppose that day after day we had been, with
many piteous tears and cries, supplicating and entreating forgiveness
of God? It would be great love, then, that He should devise a way of
pardoning us. But no–it was the very reverse! God sent an ambassador
of peace to us–we sent no embassage to Him. Man turned his back on God
and went farther and farther from Him and never thought of turning his
face toward his best Friend! It is not man that turns beggar to God for
salvation! It is, if I may dare to say it, as though the Eternal God,
Himself, did beg of His creatures to be saved! Jesus Christ has not
come into the world to be sought for, but to seek that which is lost.
It all begins with Him! Unsought, unbidden by the object of His
compassion, Jesus came into the world.
Now, I wonder if it may come true, tonight, that some here shall be
found of God, after whom they have never sought? Such things have
happened. When John Williams was converted–I think you know the
story–there had been an agreement made to go out with a little party
of youths to commit sin. It was very foul sin, too–and they sent John
Williams into Whitefield's Tabernacle to look at the clock. The clock
happened to be over the door, so that young Williams was obliged to go
a little way up the aisle to see it. There was a crowd and something
that was being said by the preacher caught his ear and he stood and
listened. His companions outside began to be vexed with him for keeping
them so long, but he kept them still longer–and the deed of darkness
that was to have been done that night was never done– for God had
found John Williams who had never sought after Him!
I do not say this to encourage any of you to put off seeking the Lord,
for the command is, "Seek you the Lord while He may be found; call you
upon Him while He is near." But still, here is the mercy! It is
written, "I am found of them that sought Me not; I said, Behold Me,
behold Me, unto a nation that was not called by My name." The Grace of
God sometimes comes in like a sheriff's officer, takes a man by the
collar and says to him, "You must turn tonight." Jesus Christ sometimes
comes to men as He did to Zacchaeus, who was up in the sycamore tree.
He says, "Come down, for today I must abide at your house." It is not,
"If you will," but, "I must! I must! It must be so!" So, O Lord, make a
"must" of it tonight! Oh, make a "must" of it to many here, that You
must abide in their house! Then they must give up their sins and they
must turn to You!
But herein is love, the wonderful love of God in condescending thus,
not only to wait for us, but to wait upon us and come to us with His
effectual Grace and save us. Though I speak but feebly on these points,
I hope that your hearts will not beat feebly. I trust the children of
God will be praising and magnifying the Lord as they say to themselves,
"That is just how He dealt with me! That is precisely how He showed His
favor to me! 'Herein is love.'"
IV. How, too, may THE THOUGHTFULNESS OF DIVINE LOVE raise our
admiration. "Not that we loved God, but that God loved us, and sent His
Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Now observe the consideration
and counsel this implies. We had sinned against God's Law, but His Law
was not an arbitrary despotism–it was the embodiment of a constitution
equitably and benevolently adapted for the government of the universe.
It was framed in such wisdom that obedience involved happiness and
violation entailed misery! And punishment for breaking God's Laws was
not in any respect irrelative or unconnected with the harmony of
reciprocal interests. Not to punish the guilty was to exact the penalty
of suffering from the innocent! Think what an injury and injustice
would be inflicted upon all the honest men in London if the thieves
were never punished for their roguery. It would be making the innocent
suffer if you allowed the guilty to escape. God, therefore, not out of
arbitrary choice, but from very necessity of rightness, must punish us
for having done wrong. How was this to be avoided? His mighty love
suggested the plan! Had it not done so, a parliament of angels could
not have devised a scheme! The assembled senate of all the intellects
that God had ever made could not have sketched a plan by which the
eternal Laws of right and wrong should stand unshaken, God's honor
should be untarnished and yet He should be able to forgive us. But
God's love thought out a plan, a wondrous plan, by which Jesus came to
be a Substitute to stand in our place, that we might go free! But I
will not pause over the design, because there is the open manifestation
of that kindness and love for us now to look at.
V. "Herein is love"–SELF-DENYING LOVE, AMAZING LOVE, UNEXAMPLED
LOVE–language fails me. I know no words by which to set forth the
excellence of this love. 'Tis Divine love, love beyond degree–God
"sent His Son to be propitiation for our sins." It was necessary that
this only-begotten Son of the Father should suffer in the flesh, that
He should be delivered up into the hands of sinners, cruelly treated,
spit upon, nailed to a tree and put to death! Who among us would give
up his son? Dear, unspeakably dear to us are the children of our loins.
Well, we might give them up for our country in the day of battle. We
might say, "For our hearths and for our homes let the young men go,"
but it would be difficult–as many a widowed mother has known when she
has read the list of the killed in battle and seen that her brave boy
has fallen. The blood-stained drapery of war has had but little glory
in her eyes.
But who among us would think of giving up his son to die for his enemy,
for one who never did him a service, but treated him ungratefully,
repulsed a thousand overtures of tenderness and went on perversely
hardening his neck? No man could do it! Ah, think, then, what manner of
love it is that God's only-begotten Son should be willing to die, that
the Holy One should be willing to become a man, willing to take our
sins upon Him, willing to suffer for those sins, willing to endure the
bloody sweat, willing to bare His shoulders to the lictor's scourge,
willing to give up Himself, body and soul, to the pangs of such a death
as was never known before or since! "Herein is love!" If ever I have
coveted powers of speech such as God has committed to some men, powers
of thrilling the soul and moving the heart, I covet them tonight, for
how can I speak of the wondrous tragedy of the Cross? How can I set
forth the death-throes of my blessed Lord and Master?
Instead of attempting what I must certainly fail to accomplish, I do
but ask you to let your mental vision look for a minute at the
spectacle, itself. He who is the Lord of Glory is mocked by rough
soldiers. They spit in His face! They pluck His hair; they call Him
king and they bow with mimic homage before Him. He is scourged and the
scourging is no child's play. He is made to carry His Cross upon His
shoulders through the streets of Jerusalem! He is brought to a rising
knoll outside the city gates–the Old Bailey, the Tyburn of Jerusalem.
He is thrown upon His back–the iron is driven through His hands and
feet! He is lifted up–the Cross is fixed into its place with a jar
that dislocate His bones! He cries, "I am poured out like water; all My
bones are out of joint!" He suffers fever through the irritation of the
nerves of the hands and feet till His mouth is dried up like an oven
and His tongue cleaves to His jaws. He cries, "I thirst!" and they give
Him vinegar mingled with gall.
Meanwhile, His soul is in tortures such as no man has ever felt! His
spirit, lashed by a hurricane of Divine wrath, is like a sea when it
boils as a pot, seething and tossing to and fro. Oh, the unknown depths
of Jesus' griefs! And all this for His enemies–for us who loved Him
not! For us who never asked it at His hands. For us who refused to have
it. For us who, when we are brought to accept the mercy, do not
understand it. For us who, even when we somewhat understand it, do not
feel anything like a corresponding gratitude. For us who, even if we
feel the gratitude, do not show it, but go our way and forget it! For
us who are utterly unworthy of anything like such affection! "Herein is
love!" Oh, stand and wonder! I can do no more than ask you to wonder
with me and God grant that our wondering may end in something
reciprocal by way of love to Him and something practical by means of
love put into action!
VI. With this question I shall conclude–WHAT OUGHT TO BE THE EFFECT OF
LOOKING UPON THIS GREAT WONDER?
As the Apostle tells us in the next verse, "Beloved, if God so loved
us, we ought also to love one another." Christian, by the love which
God has manifested to you, you are bound to love your fellow
Christians! You are to love them though they have many infirmities. You
have some, yourself, and if you cannot love one because he has a crusty
temper, perhaps he may reply that he cannot love you because you have a
lethargic spirit. Jesus loved you with all your infirmities–then love
your infirm brethren! You tell me you cannot love because you have been
offended by such a Brother, but you also offended Christ. What? Shall
Christ forgive you all your myriad offenses and you not forgive your
Brother? What was it, after all? "Well, he did not treat me
respectfully." Ah, that is it–a poor worm needs to be treated
respectfully! "But he spoke disparagingly of me and there is a Sister,
here–she may be a Christian woman, but she said a very unkind thing of
me."
Well, yes, but what does it matter? I have often thought when people
have spoken ill of me and they have been very, very false in it,
perhaps, if they had known me better, they might have found something
true to say–and so I must be like we sometimes say of a boy when he is
beaten and does not deserve it, "Well, he did deserve it, some time or
other, for something else." Rather than get angry, smile over the
offense. Who are we that we should expect everybody to honor us when
nobody honored our Lord? Oh, let us be ready, at once, to forgive even
to seventy times seven! A beautiful spirit worthy of a Christian was
that of a man who found his horse in the pound one day and the farmer
who put it in said, "I found your horse in my field and I put it in the
pound. And if ever I catch it there again, I'll put it in again."
"Well," replied the other, "I found six of your cows in my farmyard the
other night eating my hay. I just drove them out and put them into your
farmyard. I didn't pound them and if ever I catch them in my yard
again, I'll do the same."
"Ah," the farmer said, "you are a better man than I am." And forthwith,
he went and paid the fees and let his neighbor's horse out of the
pound, ashamed of himself. Such a generosity of disposition becomes
you, especially to your Christian Brothers and Sisters. If God has such
wonderful love to us, let us love those who offend us and show hearts
of compassion toward the Lord's poor people. It is easy to be courteous
to those who are better off than ourselves and show deference to those
who wear respectable attire–but the thing is to love the Lord's people
who are poor–yes, and to love them all the more tenderly for their
poverty, for they have, in some respects, more of the image of Christ
than we have. Christ was poor and so are they.
And let us cleave close to God's persecuted ones. Some people always
run away from a man as soon as anybody flings a handful of dirt at him.
But if God so loved us when we were sinners, we ought to love our
fellow Christians when they are under a cloud. Are they persecuted for
righteousness' sake? Then every brave spirit ought to say, "I am for
that man–I am for that man!" I was pleased with the remark of a
Brother I met, the other day. Alluding to the love he felt for his
minister, he said, "The first reason why I came to hear him and love
him was that I saw him abused in all the newspapers. And I said, 'There
is something good in that man, I am sure of it, and as he is the weaker
one, and all are against him, I am on his side till I find something
against him.'" Oh, take care to rally round the persecuted Christian!
Whenever the child of God is evilly spoken of, say, "My place shall be
at his side! I will share in such an honor as that, that I may share in
the honor which awaits the saints hereafter."
I have tried to speak to some here who are not converted and to put a
few very comforting thoughts before them. If they go home and seek the
Lord, He will be found of them. Yes, and if they trust Jesus Christ at
once, they shall be saved! A young lady was reading a newspaper and her
mother said, "Have you done with it?" She said, "Yes, I have done with
it. I was only looking at it to see the death of Jane__. Poor girl, she
used to be a Sunday school teacher with me."
Well, she said she had done with it, but you may depend upon it, she
had not, for the fact that one was dead who had been her companion had
not done with her–it would speak to her and impress her–and if she
shook it off, the responsibility would not have done with her.
You have heard a sermon, tonight, and you may think, "Now I have done
with it." Well, it may be so, but it has not done with you! You will be
called to account for every Truth of God it contains, for every
reminder to your conscience and every affectionate invitation that
reaches your heart. Very few sermons, alas, are ever done! The most of
them are listened to and forgotten, but if they were all done–that is,
if their counsels and admonitions were carried into effect– what a
blessing it would be! No, you have not done with it and this text has
not done with you!
I think–no, I seem to know–that there are some who never will have
done with this text, neither in this life nor in the life to come, for
the text is saying to you, tonight, "Though you love not God, now, yet
you shall love Him, for He has loved you, loved you with an everlasting
love." And the thought of this text will entice you to go and seek
Jesus to see if it is so. And when you find it so, you will say to your
children, "There is no text in the Bible more beautiful to me than this
one, 'Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us.'"
And you may tell to your children's children that on such an evening
that text seemed to get into your soul, and to be set a ringing there
like the old bell on the Inchcape Rock–the higher the storm, the
louder it rang! And you shall hear it ring, ring, ring till it rings
you to Christ and rings you into Heaven! And then in Heaven it will
make sweet music in your ears and you will say, even there, "Herein is
love, not that I loved God, but that He loved me, and gave His Son to
be a propitiation for my sins."
HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"^54, 23 (VERSION III), 782.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM23.
I hope we all know this Psalm by heart. May we also know it by heart
experience! It is a sweet pastoral song just suited to our Sabbath
evening worship. There is here no din of arms, no noise of war, but
there is a delicious hush, only broken by the gentle tinkling of the
sheep-bell. God give us that sweet rest tonight!
Verse 1. The LORD is my shepherd. All true rest begins with Jesus, as
all the comfort of the sheep is provided for them by their shepherd.
"The Lord is my shepherd." Is it so? Can you look up, poor defenseless
sheep, and say, "The Lord is my shepherd"? Then comes the blessed
inference–
1. I shall not want. I do not want, I cannot want. I shall never want
with such a Shepherd as I have. He will provide for me. No, more, God
Himself is my provision! All I need I have, for, "The Lord is my
shepherd, I shall not want." I cannot provide for myself, but I shall
not want. Famine may come and others who have no God to go to may pine
and perish, but in the worst season I shall not want, for, "The Lord is
my shepherd."
2. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. I am so weak that I even
need God's help to enable me to lie down, but "He makes me to lie
down." Yes, the rest of the soul is so hard to attain that nobody ever
reaches it except by the power of God. He who made the heavens must
make us to lie down if we are really to rest. What delightful rest it
is when we lie down in His pastures which are always green! Did you
ever find them dry? Our Shepherd makes us not only to feed, but so to
feed that we lie down in the midst of the pastures. There is more than
we can eat, so the Lord makes a couch of it for us–"He makes me to lie
down in green pastures."
2. He leads me beside the still waters. There is, first,
contemplation–"He makes me to lie down." Then there is activity. "He
leads me." There is also progress and there is provision for our
advance in the heavenly way–"He leads me." He leads me beside the
waters of quietness, not by the rushing torrents of excitement, nor by
the place of noisy strife. "He shall not strive, nor cry, neither shall
any man hear His voice in the streets." "He leads me beside the still
waters." Not, "He drives, or drags," but He, Himself, leads, going
first to show the way. It is for me to follow, happily to follow, where
"He leads me beside the still waters."
3. He restores my soul. He can do it at once. He restores now. He is a
restoring God. "He restores my soul." He brings my wandering spirit
back when I forsake His ways and, having done that, He leads me, even
more carefully than before. For a second time we have the Psalmist's
declaration, "He leads me."
3, 4. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.
Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil. Though death's shadow hovers all around me and dampens my
spirit. Though I feel as though I must die and cannot bear up under
present trial any longer, "Yes, though I walk," for I do walk–I will
not quicken my pace, I will not be in a flurry, I will not run for it.
Though death, itself, shall overshadow me, I will keep up my walk with
God. "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil." There is none, therefore I will not fear any. We often
feel more afraid through our fear, itself, than through any real cause
for fear. Some people seem to be always on the lookout for fear where
there is none. Do not see any, nor let any enter your heart–say with
the Psalmist, "I will fear no evil."
4. For You are with me. Should a sheep fear when the shepherd is with
it? What cause has it to fear if that Shepherd is Omniscient,
Omnipotent and full of tenderness?
4. Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. Your rule and Your
correction–Your rod, with which I sometimes am made to smart–Your
staff, with which I am supported. These are my comforts, why should I
fear? Are you drinking in all this precious Truth of God, dear Friends?
Are you feeling it in your soul's deepest experience? This Psalm is
very good to read, but it is far better to write out from your own
experience! Make it a song of your own–not merely a song in the Book,
but a song for yourselves!
5. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. There
is a fight going on and there are enemies all around. You do not
generally have tables set in the hour of battle, but God keeps His
people so calm amid the bewildering cry, so confident of victory, that
even in the presence of their enemies, a table is spread with all the
state of a royal banquet. "You prepare a table." There is a cloth on
the table. There are the ornaments on it and there are all the
accompaniments of a feast–"You prepare a table before me in the
presence of my enemies." They may look on if they like. They may grin,
they may wish they could devour, but they cannot sit down at the table
and they cannot prevent me from sitting down at it! Let them blow their
trumpets, let them fire their guns–"You prepare a table before me in
the presence of my enemies." It is the very acme of security and repose
that is here described. I know of no expression, not even that of lying
down in green pastures, that is more full of restfulness than
this–"You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies."
5. You anoint my head with oil. At some feasts, they poured perfumed
oil on the heads of the guests, so God will leave out nothing that is
for the joy and comfort of His people. "You anoint my head with oil."
You shall have delicacies as well as necessities. You shall have joy as
well as safety. You shall be prepared for service as well as preserved
from destruction.
5. My cup runs over. I have not only what I wish, but I have more! Not
only all I can hold, but something to spare– "My cup runs over." If
this is the case with your cup, dear Friend, let it run over in
thankful joy! And if you have more of this world's substance than you
need, ask the poor and needy to come and catch that which flows over.
6. Surely–This is another of the Psalmist's inferences, and a very
sure one. He does not say, "Perhaps," but, "Surely."
6. Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Here is
a prince of the blood royal of Heaven attended by two body
guards–goodness and mercy–which keep close behind him. These are the
grooms that ride on the horses of salvation–"Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me." "Goodness"–to provide for me. "Mercy"–to blot out
my sin. "Goodness and mercy shall follow me"–not only now and then,
but, "all the days of my life." When I get gray-headed and feeble and
have to lean heavily upon my staff, these twin angels shall be close
behind to bear me up and bear me through.
6. And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. Even while I am
here in this world, I will be–
"No more a stranger or a guest But like a child at home,"
dwelling with God! And, by-and-by, in the fullest sense, "I will dwell
in the house of the Lord forever." I always compare this Psalm to a
lark. It begins on the ground among the sheep, but up it goes till you
may hear its blessed notes echoing among the stars! "I will dwell in
the house of the Lord forever." It has its nest in the grass of the
green pastures, but it flies up like the strains of sweetest music
rising even to the skies–"I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever." God grant that this may be the portion of every one of us,
for His great name's sake! Amen.