Lacking Moisture
(No. 2845)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 1903.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
SEPTEMBER 20, 1888.
"And some fell upon a rock, and as soon as it was sprung up, it
withered away because it lacked moisture." Luke 8:6.
IN this parable of the sower, there is great discrimination of
character, not only between those who bring forth fruit and those who
bring forth none, but also between those who bring forth fruit in
different degrees–not only between the fruitful and the fruitless–but
also between various forms of fruitlessness. The reasons are given, not
in bulk, but in detail–why this failed, and that failed, and the other
failed. All this points to discrimination in hearing. When there is
discrimination in the preacher, as there should always be, there should
be an equal discrimination in the hearer, and each one should try to
take to himself that special part of the Word which is intended for
him.
The true preacher, especially our great Lord and Master, resembles a
portrait painted by a real artist which always looks at you, no matter
where you are in the room–to the right, or to the left of it, its eyes
seem to be fixed upon you. So does our Lord, whenever He preaches, look
at us. May He look at us in that way just now and may we catch His eyes
as He gazes upon us–and may the preacher also seem to be looking
straight at you, because you are on the watch for that particular part
of the Truth which especially concerns you! If there is anything
hopeful and cheering in the sermon, may it come to you who are mourning
and doubtful! If there is anything awakening, may it come to those of
you who happen to be tinged with self-confidence!
Coming to our text, I think it suggests to us three observations.
First, let us note well that there is a reception of the Word of God
which fails to be effectual. Secondly, we shall enquire why it fails in
these cases. And, thirdly, we shall consider how this failure is to be
avoided.
I. First, THERE IS A SOWING THAT COMES TO NOTHING. There is even a
reception of the Seed into the soil which disappoints the sower.
This failure was not because the Seed was bad. It was the same Seed
which, in the good soil, produced thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold. You
know that, sometimes, when we do not succeed in impressing our hearers,
we condemn ourselves, perhaps very justly. If men are not saved, the
preacher must not put the blame upon Divine Sovereignty–he must blame
himself. He must also ask himself, "Have I really preached the Truth?
Have I preached it in a right spirit? Have I preached different Truths
in due proportion? Have I given the most weight to that which is of
primary importance and have I put that which is secondary in its proper
position?" We poor sowers often chastise ourselves for our failures,
or, if we do not, we ought to do so–otherwise we shall never improve.
God help us to preach better, to love men's souls more and to be more
earnest in seeking to bring them to Christ! I mean this wish for myself
and for all of you who love the Lord.
But there was no fault to be found with the Seed that fell on the rock,
although it did not result in a harvest. The Seed was good, thoroughly
good. The sower got it from his Master and his Master's granary
contains no Seed which will not grow. True preachers can say with the
Apostle Peter, "We have not followed cunningly devised fables." We have
preached to you the Word of God, so that whenever we put our head upon
our pillow, we can truly say that we have not preached what we thought,
or what we imagined, but we have declared what we believe to be
revealed in this blessed
Book of God. That is the Good Seed that we sow and if it does not grow
in you, it is not the fault of the Seed, it is your own fault. There is
something about you that hinders it. Will you think of that, dear
Hearer, if you are unconverted?
But, in the next place, the failure was not from lack of receptiveness.
Those hearers who are like the Seed sown on the rock, do receive the
Seed. We are expressly told that by our Lord, Himself–"They on the
rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the Word with joy." We
have hearers who take in all we say, perhaps too readily. They hear
indiscriminately. There are some hearers who are like a sponge–they
suck up all–good, bad and indifferent. If they hear of a clever,
oratorical preacher, they speedily run after him. What he preaches, or
whether he preaches with the Holy Spirit sent down from Heaven, is not
a matter about which they enquire. They have not much depth of earth,
but what little earth there is takes in the Seed. There is not enough
depth of earth for the Seed to really bear fruit, yet they do, in some
sort of fashion, receive it. I am not going to pile up indiscriminate
censure upon this receptiveness. It is a briar upon which a rose may
grow but, still, it is a briar until it is properly grafted.
Receptiveness may easily be carried too far and men may even ruin
themselves by being too ready to receive what they hear–not by being
too ready to rightly receive the real Word of Truth, but by receiving
it in the wrong fashion. Do they disbelieve what you say? No, they are
not earnest enough to do that! Do they doubt what you preach? No, they
have not gone so far aside as that. Do they argue against the Gospel?
Oh, no–they have not fallen into that form of depravity! They take in
what they hear. They do not do much with it. There is not Grace enough
in their heart, after they have nominally received the Word, to cause
it to grow. There is a lack somewhere–not a lack of receptiveness, but
a lack in another direction.
The failure, also, was not caused through lack of heat. There was a
hard rock with a little soil upon it, just enough to take in the Seed.
That rock needed to be broken up, ground to powder and made into good
soil, but as it was not broken up–when the sun shone, the rock
refracted and reflected all the heat and gave great warmth to the soil
in which the seed was lying–so that it grew very fast, for it was in a
kind of hothouse. We have many hearers who, if enthusiasm could save
them, would have been saved long ago. On Sundays they are very soon
warmed up, and there is so little of them that the heat of the sun soon
penetrates to their rocky nature. The heat is refracted and straightway
they are all in a blaze. I know them, they are very nice people to
preach to. How excited they grow! They are ready enough to shout,
"Hallelujah!" They speedily receive the Word, but there is no depth
about them, so they do not retain it. They will do anything that we
want them to do. They are not only enthusiastic, but they soon grow
fanatical. I am not blaming them for this. If there were something else
to go with it, it would be a good thing.
The gardener or florist likes a good bottom heat to make his plants
grow rapidly, but if it is all heat–if it is a dry heat and nothing
else, very soon they are scorched to death. The little moisture that
was in them at first, makes them grow rapidly, but when that is
exhausted, they are soon withered. I do not deny that it is quite a
pleasure to meet with a warm-hearted man. We have plenty of people
about who are either cold or only lukewarm. If they give you their
hand, you feel as if you had laid hold of a fish, it is so cold. We
like to meet with hearers who respond to our appeals with kindly
friendliness and who, when the Word is brought before them, display a
warmth of feeling towards it. These are very hopeful people. I cannot
say more about them. Their name is Hopeful, but they do not always grow
into Faithful. They give us great encouragement, but, alas, they often
cause us great discouragement.
Then, again, this failure was not caused through lack of joy, for we
are told by our Savior that they received the Word with joy. Oh, they
are so happy! They feel that they are saved and they are full of joy!
And the main reason why they believe that they are saved is that they
are so happy. Well, there is something in being joyful. I do not like
to see people who seem to have a religion that disagrees with them.
True religion does, indeed, make us glad. But then, my dear Friends, if
your only evidence of the possession of Grace is that you are so happy,
you may be unhappy tomorrow–and what will be your state then? Our
human nature is so constructed and our body has so much influence upon
our mind and soul, that we can soon become very low in spirit and
scarcely know why we are in such a condition! That joy is part of the
fruit of the Spirit, I cheerfully acknowledge, but there are many joys
that are not fruits of the Spirit at all, for they are earth-born and
carnal. And there is often a so-called religious joy which is the fruit
of carnal excitement and supposed conversion–not the result of a real
saving knowledge of God.
Perhaps if these people had received the Word with sorrow–if they had
received it with a broken heart and a contrite spirit–if they had
received it tremblingly, in the very depth of their souls. If they had
gone home to cry to God in secret prayer instead of rejoicing in open
exultation, there might have been evidences in them of a deeper, surer,
truer and
more abiding work. These people had joy and plenty of it. I am not
saying anything against their joy–it was not the point in which they
failed. They failed somewhere else, as I shall try to show you
presently.
And, once more, they did not fail from lack of eagerness and speed in
receiving the Truth They received it at once and the Seed sprang up at
once. Just because they had no depth of earth, it sprang up all the
faster. The Seed that fell upon the shallow soil covering the rock grew
quickly–it sprang up because of the very absence of the element that
was necessary to bring it to perfection! I believe in instantaneous
conversion. I believe that the new birth must be instantaneous, that
there is a moment in which a man is dead and another moment in which he
is alive and that, just as there is a certain instant in which a child
is born, so there is an instant in which we become the children of God
by faith in Jesus Christ. But there is also a supposed conversion which
is undone as quickly as it is done. There are to be found, in some
churches, men who have grown wonderfully fast. They were drunks a
fortnight ago and they are taking the lead among experienced Christians
today! Well, it may rightly be so. God acts according to His own
Sovereign will and He can work such wonders of Grace and miracles of
mercy. But it may turn out that a thing that grows very fast does so
because it will not stand fast and will not last long. We have to deal
with so many who are always procrastinating and putting off and,
therefore, it seems a good fault when men are hasty about these
things–it is a blessed fault, if a fault at all! Yet it did so happen
that while these people were excellent in that direction, they failed
in another, and failed in a fatal way, of which I have now to speak.
II. That brings me to ENQUIRE WHY THESE PEOPLE MADE SUCH A SAD FAILURE?
The seed that fell on the trodden path, while they were lost to the
farmer, did feed the birds, at any rate. But these on the rock did not.
They quickly sprang up, and were soon withered and good for nothing.
They promised much, but it came to nothing at all. And, in this way,
some of those who appear to be the most hopeful, may cause us most
grief by being our greatest disappointments.
Now why was this? Luke tells us, and no other Evangelist tells us, that
it was because they "lacked moisture."
Does not this mean, first of all, that they lacked the influences of
the Divine Spirit? When we speak of spiritual dew, we refer to the
operation of the Holy Spirit. When we talk of the river of the Water of
Life, we mean those sacred things which come streaming down to us from
the Throne of God through the working of the Spirit of God. These
people lacked that moisture. They were converted, so far as they were
converted at all, through the eloquence of the preacher– and a man who
is converted by eloquence, can be unconverted by eloquence! Or they
were converted by the zeal and earnestness of Christian people. But if
you were converted by one man, another man can unconvert you. All that
is of man is sure to be unraveled as all the spinning and the weaving
of earthly machinery can be pulled to pieces. But the work of God's
Grace endures forever. Have you, my dear Hearer, felt the power of the
Holy Spirit first withering you up? "The grass withers, the flower
fades because the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it." Has He ever dried
up, in you, all that was of yourself and turned the verdant meadow into
a barren wilderness? It must be so with you at first–there is no sure
work which does not begin with emptying and pulling down. Was the
Spirit of God ever so worked in you as a spirit of bondage, shutting
you up in prison under the Law, fixing your hands in handcuffs and your
feet in fetters, putting you in the stocks and leaving you there? If
you have never known anything about that experience, I am afraid you
have, up to now, "lacked moisture."
Then, when the Spirit of God comes to a soul that is thus broken down,
He reveals Christ as a Savior for that sinner, a full Savior for the
empty sinner! And oh, how sweetly does the soul rejoice as it perceives
the suitability, fullness and freeness of Christ–and looks to Jesus
and trusts Him! Have you ever felt that sacred moisture which softens
the heart so that it sweetly yields to Christ, that moisture which
refreshes the heart and makes it bloom again with a holy hopefulness
and delight in Christ? O my dear Hearers, what we say about the Holy
Spirit is no mere talk–it is a matter of fact! "You must be
born-again," born from above! You must be partakers of the Spirit of
God, or else all your religion, however beautiful it may appear to be,
will wither when the sun has risen with burning heat.
Now, my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, you find that everything goes
ill with you when you lack moisture. One of our Brothers sometimes says
to me, after a service, "Oh, Sir, there will be good done today, for
there was dew about!" I know what he means and hope you also do. You
have a little flower at home which you keep in the window, a geranium,
or perhaps a fuchsia. You set great store by it because of its
associations. But perhaps you have been out for a week and when you
come back it looks so drooping that it seems as if it must die–and you
soon discovered the reason why. It was
quite dry–"it lacked moisture." You gave it some water and it soon
began to revive. These plants are kept alive by moisture. But when they
lack moisture, the more the sun shines upon them, or the warmer the
room is, the worse it is for them. They need moisture and so do we,
poor plants that we are. We need the Holy Spirit and if the Lord does
not water us daily from the living springs on the hilltops of Glory, we
shall certainly die! So take heed, Brothers and Sisters, that you do
not lack the moisture of the Holy Spirit's gracious influence.
Why did these people lack it? There was moisture in the air It is
evident that the other Seed which brought forth thirty, sixty, or a
hundred-fold, had moisture. Yet this, which was in the same air as the
other, "lacked moisture." There were morning dews and there were mists
and rains, yet these Seeds on the rock "lacked moisture." The reason
was that there was a lack of power to retain the moisture in the soil.
When it came down, it ran off again, or speedily evaporated because
there was a rock and only a very little earth on the top of it to hold
the moisture, and all that came there soon disappeared. There are many
persons who seem to be like this rocky soil–they have no receptiveness
for the Divine Spi-rit–they seem to manage to do without Him.
Now let me warn you of certain things that indicate a lack of moisture.
The first is Doctrine without feeling. You believe the Bible Doctrine
concerning Christ. I am glad that you do, but dry Doctrine, without the
bedewing influence of the Spirit of God, is just a granite rock out of
which you will get nothing whatever. You say that you believe the
Doctrine of Human Depravity, but have you ever really felt it and
mourned over it? You say that you believe the Doctrine of Redemption,
but have you ever proved the power of the precious blood of Jesus? Have
you ever been melted at the sight of the Cross? You say that you
believe the Doctrine of Effectual Calling, but have you been
effectually called by Grace? You say that you believe the Doctrine of
Regeneration, but have you been born-again? If not, you lack moisture.
I have known some Brothers and Sisters who have been so "sound" that
they have been nothing but sound. "Sixteen ounces to the pound," they
said they were. I thought that they were 17 ounces to the pound and
that the last bad ounce spoilt the other sixteen! You may be
wonderfully orthodox and yet be lost! That hard pan of rock must be
broken up and ground to powder, that the moisture may get to the Seed.
Of what use is Doctrine without feeling?
It is equally worthless where there is experience without humiliation.
I mean that some talk about having felt this, and having felt that–and
they boast of it. Some of them have even thought that they have become
perfect–and they glory in it. Well, they lack moisture! As soon as you
get side by side with them, you feel a need of something, you do not
quite know what it is. It is dry experience. Perhaps it is boiling hot,
but it is very dry. There is no bowing before the Lord in a humble
confession of unworthiness. There is no understanding of what it is to
feel the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should loathe
ourselves, as condemned criminals ought to do. I pray the Lord to save
us from an experience, however perfect it seems, which is not moist,
which has not a living tenderness worked into it by the power of the
Spirit of God. Avoid, then, experience without humiliation.
Also shun practice without heart-love. I have known some Brothers and
Sisters who have been most exact and precise in all their conduct. I
have thought that they scarcely ever sinned and I have not wondered
that they did not because there did not seem to be enough juice in them
to sin. They did not appear to have any human nature in them. They were
just like dry pieces of leather–never excited, never getting into a
bad temper–they have not seemed to have any temper, either bad or
good. They never say a word too hastily. They always measure things out
very exactly, yet a lack of love is a fatal lack. I knew one whom I
greatly esteemed as a minister of the Word for many years. I esteemed
him for his regularity of conduct. I believe that he got up to the tick
of the clock, that he had family prayer to the tick of the clock and
that he did everything in the same methodical manner. I remarked to him
once, "There are many people, round about your Chapel, who are living
in the depths of sin. Do you ever get any of them into your place of
worship?" "No," he replied, "I do not want to get them in." I asked,
"Why?" "Well," he answered, "they are mostly harlots and thieves. What
could I do with such people?"
Then I saw that it was possible to be regular, precise and good up to a
certain point, and yet to have no moisture. And as the moisture was not
there, of course no thief or harlot would go to hear him–he was too
dry for them. It is an awful thing to have a Pharisaic
practice–perfect when looked at by the casual eye, yet without the
life and light of love–and, therefore, lacking moisture.
Beware, dear Friends, of a belief that never had any repentance
connected with it, for that is another way in which the lack of
moisture is manifested. There are some people who are willing to
believe a great deal, but you never hear of
them groaning because of sin, or confessing it with a broken heart in
true humility before God. To trust in repentance without faith would be
ruinous to the soul–but to have a kind of faith without repentance,
would also be ruinous. If faith never has tears in its eyes, it is a
dead faith. He who has never wept because of his sin, has never really
had his sin washed away. If your heart has never been broken on account
of sin, I will not believe that it was ever broken from sin. And if
your heart is not broken from your sin, you are still at a distance
from your God and you will never see His face with acceptance.
Beware, also, of a confidence that is never associated with
self-diffidence. Yes, my dear Sir, speak as boldly as you will, be as
brave as you may for your Master, but, at the same time, be very lowly
in spirit. Let your own weakness be seen, as well as your Master's
strength. While you glory in Christ's merits, confess your own
sinfulness and admit that in yourself, you are nothing. We can never
have too much confidence in God, but, unless it is associated with deep
self-distrust, it will lack moisture and it will never produce any real
harvest unto God.
Beware, also, of action without spirituality. We have many people of
that kind. They are very active in serving God in one way and another.
Would that all were–if it were in a right spirit! They are busy from
morning to night, but there is no prayer and no dependence upon God
mingled with their efforts–that will not do. That is all wasted
activity. However busy we may be, we shall effect nothing unless we
receive from the Holy Spirit all the power with which we work and are
dependent upon Him for the success of every word we say. Beware of
having so much to do that you really do nothing at all because you do
not wait upon God for the power to do it right.
Then there is another dry thing, namely, zeal without communion with
God. Zeal for extending the Kingdom of Christ, zeal for spreading the
denomination, zeal for the advance of a particular sect, zeal that is
intolerant, probably, but, all the while, no careful walking according
to God's Word, no observing what God would have us to be zealous about,
no humbling of ourselves in the Presence of the great Lord of all, and
no bathing of ourselves in the river of the Water of Life by fellowship
with God.
Thus I might keep on showing you various ways in which people may have
a great deal that is very good, yet it will all come to nothing because
they lack moisture. But the seed cannot assimilate the dry earth until
it is mixed with water and held in solution, and spiritual life can
only be fed by Truth held in solution by the Holy Spirit. When He
softens and prepares us, then our roots and rootlets take up the true
nutriment and we grow.
In the case of the seed upon the rocky ground, there was, also, a
deficiency of sensitive vitality. The seed grew for a time, and then
became dry–and are there not multitudes of people, in our Churches
now, who are just like that? They are as dry as old hay, they have
withered away. We cannot turn them out, but, oh, that we could turn
life into them! Oh, that the Water of Life might flow all about them,
so that they might live and bring forth fruit unto God!
I have said enough, if God shall bless it, to set many people searching
their hearts to see whether this sacred moisture is there.
III. Now, to close, we are to CONSIDER HOW THE EVIL IS TO BE AVOIDED.
Well, first, let us one and all cry to God to break up the rock Rock,
rock, rock, will you never break? We may scatter the Seed upon you, but
nothing will come of it till that rock is broken. The great steam-plow
needs to be driven right through men's hearts till they are torn in
sunder and the old rock of nature is ground to powder, made soft and
turned into good soil. Dear Friend, do pray to God to make sure work of
you. As far as you are concerned, the one thing you have to do is to
believe in Christ Jesus, that you may be saved. But a part of the
process of your salvation is the taking out of you the heart of stone
and the giving to you of a heart of flesh. There is no true growing
unless this takes place.
The next thing is, look well to spirituality. This moisture was a very
subtle thing. Men might easily overlook that dampness in the atmosphere
and in the soil which was all-essential. Who can tell you what unction
is? Yet a sermon without unction is a poor, worthless thing. There is a
certain secret something which distinguishes a true Christian from a
worldling or a mere professor–see that you have it. Do not be content
with the Creed, Baptism, the Lord's Supper, or anything else that is
visible, but say, "Lord, give me the moisture that I need. Give me that
secret something without which I shall be lacking the very thing which
I most need." You cannot see your soul. You cannot fully tell what it
is. Yet you know that it is a something that keeps your body alive and
when that something is gone, the body becomes dead–so is all religion
dead until it receives the life which comes from the moisture that so
many lack.
That leads me further to say, look to the Holy Spirit Be very tender
towards the Holy Spirit. We preach Christ to you, as we are commanded
to do, but we do not want you ever to forget the blessed Spirit,
without whom nothing saving can ever be worked in you! You cannot make
yourself to be born-again. Even the faith that saves is the work of the
Spirit of God, if it is the faith of God's elect. Be zealous and
tender, therefore, and walk carefully in reference to the Spirit of God
lest you grieve Him.
Then I would say, next, try to avoid all dry heat Do not work yourself
up into a frenzy and think that there is anything saving in it. The
heat of excitement may be necessary, just as dust flies from the wheels
of a chariot when it moves swiftly, but, as the dust does not help the
chariot, but is a nuisance to those who are riding in it, so is it with
excitement. It does not help the true movement and it is a nuisance to
those who are living near to God.
Lastly, be constantly looking for that Divine mystery of secret
vitality which is called in the text, "moisture. " I commend to you
this prayer, "Lord, give me this blessed moisture. Saturate me through
and through with the heavenly dew, the Divine rain, that I may grow and
bring forth fruit to the Glory of Your holy name." God bless you, for
Jesus' sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM42.
We often read this Psalm because we are very often in the same state
that the Psalmist was in when he wrote it–and the language seems to
suit us at many periods of our life.
Verse 1. As the hart pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul
after You, O God. It is the "hart" that pants and, in the Hebrew, the
word is in the feminine. The old naturalists say that the female has
greater thirst than the male and that it shows it more, having more
feebleness of body and less power of endurance. The hart is said to be,
naturally, a thirsty creature, and when it has been long hunted, its
thirst seems to be insatiable. The Psalmist does not say, "yoursoul
hungers," but, "My soul thirsts." As man can bear hunger much longer
than he can bear thirst, he may continue without food for days, but not
without drink. So the Psalmist mentions the most thirsty creature and
the most ardent of the natural passions–"As the hart pants after the
water brooks." He does not merely say, "after the brooks," but, "after
the water brooks." Why is this? I think it is because there are many
brooks that are dry at certain seasons and the hart longs for those
that have water in them. So the Christian thirsts, not only for the
means of Grace–they are the brooks–but he longs for God in the means.
When Grace is in the means of Grace, then they are water brooks,
indeed. "So pants my soul after You, O God." He does not say, "So I
pant after my former grandeur," or, "so pant I for my friend," but, "so
pants my heart after You." His soul had only one longing, one
thirst–and every power and every passion had united itself to that one
desire–"so pants my soul after You, O God."
2. My soul thirsts for God. It was a soul thirst, not a throat
thirst–the thirst had got as far down as the soul, till the inner
spirit was as dry as a man's throat after a long journey through the
desert. "My soul thirsts for God,"
2. For the living God. David had thirsted, you remember, for water from
the well of Bethlehem that is within the gate and he said, "Oh that one
would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem which is by
the gate!" But that was not living water–he had drunk of it before,
yet he thirsted again. But now his soul thirsted for God, for the
living God. Nothing but the cool refreshing Living Water of the Living
God can ever effectually quench human thirst!
2. When shall I come and appear before God? He valued the assembly of
God's people because he believed that there, in a special manner, he
was "before God." What a rebuke this is to those who despise public
worship! We know some who say, "Well, we can read a good sermon at
home, we can study the Scriptures there." David was a great lover of
God's Word and read it both day and night, yet even he could not
dispense with the outward means of Grace–the public assembly of the
saints. "When shall I come and appear before God?" Brothers and
Sisters, let us look upon our gatherings for worship as an appearance
before God! You do not merely come to listen to the Lord's minister, or
to join in the sacred song of the congregation, but you come to "appear
before God," that you may show yourself to Him as His servants and that
He may reveal Himself to you as your Lord. When you and I have been
tossing upon the bed of languishing, or have been detained upon the
sea, or have journeyed abroad, then we have learned to prize the means
of Grace more than ever!
3. My tears have been my food day andnight, while they continually say
unto me, Where isyour God?The Psalmist had sorrow within and
persecution without, and a Christian sometimes has to eat salty food.
"My tears have been my food." He finds but very little sweetness or
solace in such food as this, yet, after all, there is much in a
Christian's tears. It is a comfort to be able to shed tears of
repentance and tears of longing after God. There are some Believers who
still have tears for their food, yet they can say, "Thank God we are
not dead–if we can weep, we are not utterly left of God. If we can
sigh after Him and so, though our tears are salt, they are nourishing
to the spirit." "My tears have been my food day and night, while they
continually say unto me, "Where is your God?" This is what our enemies
always say to us when we are in trouble. This is what Queen Mary said
when the Covenanters were obliged to flee to the Highlands. "Where now
is John Knox's God?" But when her French soldiers were afterwards put
to the rout by the brave Scots, she found out where God was! This was
the taunt at the St. Bartholomew massacre in France. As they murdered
the Protestants, the Papists cried, "Where is your God?" What a mercy
it is that they say this, for nothing brings God so soon to His people
as the taunts of their enemies. If any man supposes that God has
forgotten His people and, therefore, insults them thus, God will come
to them post-haste to rectify the mistake. "Where is your God?" He is
coming to you, O Christian! He is near you now!
4. When I remember these things, Ipour out my soul in me: for I had
gone with the multitude, I went with them to the House of God, with the
voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holy day. You see,
Brothers and Sisters, the more a man enjoys the means of Grace at one
time, the more he grieves when he loses them. "I had gone with the
multitude." There is something very inspiring in worshipping God in a
crowd. The joy is infectious, there is a holy contagion in it. As the
sacred song floats upward from many joyous voices, we seem borne up
upon its billows of praise. I like that word "holy day" even though it
is rather like holiday, for our holy days should be our true holidays.
There should be no rest to the Christian like the holiness of the
Sabbath–the holiness should be the very joy of it. Keep it a holy day,
and then it will be a holiday! Try to make it a holiday and then it
will be neither a holiday nor a holy day. At the remembrance of these
past joys, the Psalmist's soul was poured out like water, his heart was
as water spilt upon the ground. See, Brothers and Sisters, how low a
good man may come, and yet be safe–how near the rocks God's ships may
go and yet not be wrecked.
5. Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted in me?
Hope you in God: for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His
Countenance. As one well remarks, Christian men have a deal of indoor
work to do. They have not only to question others, but they have to
question themselves. "Why are you cast down, O my soul?" Be very
jealous, dear Friends, of doubts, and fears, and despondency. Some of
us are sometimes the subjects of these emotions and this is sad, but
when we try to pamper them, this is inexcusable. Endeavour to live
above this disquietude–you cannot praise God, you cannot serve your
fellow men, you cannot do anything well when your soul is in a
disquieted state. Hope in God is the best cure for this despondency.
"Hope you in God." When you have no hope in yourself, nor in your
graces, nor in your experience, "hope you in God." He is loving,
faithful, powerful and true, so, "hope you in God." "For I shall yet
praise Him for the help of His Countenance." "My countenance is
wrinkled and covered with sores through my sickness, but He is the help
of my countenance, and I shall yet praise Him."
6. O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember
You from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hillMizar.
Oh, what a mercy it is to be able to look back upon our past
experiences of God's mercy! How delightful it is to remember what the
Lord was to us in days gone by, for He is the same God still. When you
are like Paul in the great storm, when neither sun, nor moon, nor stars
for many days appeared, it is very pleasant to remember that the sun,
moon and stars did shine in the past, and that they will shine forth
again.
7. Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterspouts: all Your
waves and Your billows are gone over me. When there is a great rain at
sea, there is a peculiar kind of noise, as if the deep above were
talking to the deep below. "Deep calls unto deep and, sometimes, the
two deeps clasp hands and then there is what we call a waterspout. The
Psalmist uses this as a picture of his sorrows and it is very
remarkable that sorrows seldom come alone. When the rain comes down on
land, it calls to the little brooks, and they say, "Here we are," and
they go leaping down the hillside and speak to the rivulets, and they
say, "Here we are," and the rivulets speak to the rivers, and they say,
"Here we are," and they speak to the gulfs, and the gulfs to the broad
sea till, "deep calls unto deep." So, little sorrows, great sorrows,
overwhelming sorrows come to the Christian and they all seem to come at
once! No, not only do they come to us, but they go over us till we
cry, "All Your waves and Your billows are gone over me." Surely, this
language is an exaggeration, for it is only Christ who could say that,
but, sometimes, when you and I are in a low dark frame of mind, we are
apt to think that we have felt all the twigs of the rod and that we
could not be made to smart more. Little do we really know of it–God
grant that we may never know more than we do! Now comes an exercise for
faith to be able, when down at the bottom of the sea, like Jonah, and
at the mercy of every wave, to say with the Psalmist in the next
verse–
8. Yet the LORD will command His loving kindness in the daytime, and in
the night His song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my
life. We shall not only have daytime Grace, but nighttime Grace, too!
"In the night His song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of
my life." What a sweet title that is, "The God of my life," the source
of my life, the strength of my life, the comfort of my life, without
whom my life is not life at all!
9. I will say unto God my rock, Why have You forgotten me? He had been
talking too much to himself–now he talks with his God.
9-11. Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with
a sword in my bones, my enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto
me, Where is your God? Why are you cast down, O my soul and why are you
disquieted within me? Hope you in God: for I shall yet praise Him who
is the health of my countenance, and my God. Notice how the Psalmist
had been growing. In the 5th verse, where the refrain comes in, it is
very nearly the same as it is here, yet there is some difference. There
it was, "I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance," but
here it is, "I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my
countenance." Then it was God helping the poor wrinkled brow to turn
towards Heaven. Now it is God Himself giving the man joy and rest. Then
there is the last utterance of the Psalmist on that occasion, "My God."
He could not reach that note before, and when the Christian can say,
"My God," his troubles are at an end.