"Marvelous Things"
(No. 3086)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 1908.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 7,
1874.
"O sing unto the LORD a new song, for He hats done marvelous things:
His right hand and His holy arm have gotten Him the victory. The LORD
has made known His salvation: His righteousness has He openly showed in
the sight of the heathen." Psalm 98:1,2.
THE invitations of the Gospel are invitations to happiness. In
delivering God's message, we do not ask men to come to a funeral, but
to a wedding feast! If our errand were one of sorrow, we might not
marvel if men refused to listen to us. But it is one of gladness, not
sadness–in fact, you might condense the Gospel message into this
joyous invitation–"O come and learn how to sing unto the Lord a new
song! Come and find peace, rest, joy and all else that your souls can
desire. Come and eat that which is good and let your soul delight
itself in fatness." When the coming of Christ to the earth was first
announced, it was not with sad sonorous sounds of devil spirits driven
from the nethermost Hell, but with the choral symphonies of holy angels
who joyfully sang, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace,
good will toward men!" And as long as the Gospel shall be preached in
this world, its main message will be one ofjoy. The Gospel is a source
ofjoy to those who proclaim it, for unto us who are less than the least
of all saints, is this Grace given–that we should preach among the
Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ! [Mr. Spurgeon enlarged upon
this theme in two Sermons on Ephesians
3:8. [See Sermons #745, Volume 13–THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST
and #1209, Volume 20–A GRATEFUL SUMMARY OF TWENTY VOLUMES] The Gospel
is also a source of joy to all who hear it aright and
accept it, for its very name means "glad tidings of good things." I
feel that if I am not able to preach to you as I would, yet am I thrice
happy in being permitted to preach at all. And if the style and manner
of my address may not be such as I desire them to be, nor such as you
will commend, yet it will matter but little, for the simplest telling
out of the Gospel is of itself a most delightful thing! And if our
hearts were in a right condition, we would not merely be glad to hear
of Jesus over and over again, but the story of the love of our
Incarnate God and of the redemption worked by Immanuel would be the
sweetest music that our ears ever heard!
In the hope that our hearts may thus rejoice, I am going to talk of
many things under two heads. The first is, the marvelous things which
God has done in the Person of His Son and, secondly, some marvelous
things in reference to ourselves which are almost as marvelous as those
that God has done.
I. First, I am to call your attention to THE MARVELOUS THINGS MENTIONED
IN THE TEXT. If you read it carefully, you will notice that first,
there are some marvelous things that are marvelous in themselves.
Secondly, some that were marvelous in the way in which they were
done–"His right hand and His holy arm have gotten Him the victory."
And then, thirdly, some that were marvelous as to the way in which they
were made known–"The Lord has made known His salvation: His
righteousness has He openly showed in the sight of the heathen."
First, then, we will consider the things that are marvelous in
themselves. "He has done marvelous things: His right hand and His holy
arm have gotten Him the victory." You know the story. We were enslaved
by sin–we were in such bondage that we were liable to be forever in
chains. But our great Champion undertook our cause and entered the
lists, pledged to fight for us till the end–and He has done it. It
would have been a cause of great joy if I could have come here and said
to you, "The Lord Jesus Christ has undertaken to fight our battles for
us," but I have something much better than that to say! He has fought
the fight and "His holy arm has gotten Him the victory." It must have
required more faith to believe in the Christ who was to come than to
believe in the Christ who has come. It must have required no little
faith to believe in Christ as victorious while He was in the midst of
the struggle. For instance, when the bloody sweat was falling amidst
the olive trees, or when He was hanging upon the Cross and moaning out
that awful cry, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" But the
great crisis is past! No longer does the issue of the conflict tremble
in the balance–Christ has forever accomplished His warfare and our
foes are all beneath His feet–
"Love's redeeming work is done– Fought the fight, the battle won!"
What foes has Christ overcome? Our main foe, our sin, both as to the
guilt of it and as to the power of it. As to the guilt of it, there was
a Law which we had broken and which must be satisfied. Christ has kept
the positive precepts of that Law in His own perfect life and He has
vindicated the honor of that Law by His sacrificial death upon the
Cross. The Law, therefore, being satisfied, the strength of sin is gone
and now, O Believers, the sins which you saw in the day of your
conviction you shall see no more forever! As Moses triumphantly sang of
the enemies of the chosen people, "the depths have covered them," so
can you say of your sins, "There is not one of them left." Even in
God's great Book of Remembrance there is no record of sin against any
Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. "By Him all that believe are
justified from all things." Try to realize this, Brothers and Sisters
in Christ! Let the great army of your sins pass before you in
review–each one like a son of Anak, armed to the teeth for your
destruction. They have gone down into the depths and the Red Sea of
Christ's blood has drowned them! And so He has gained a complete
victory over all the guilt of sin! And as for the power of sin within
us–alas, we often groan concerning it, but let us groan no longer–or
if we do, let us also sing!
The experience of a Christian is summed up in Paul's utterance, "O
wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this
death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." [See Sermon #235,
Volume 5–the fainting warrior–] If you take the whole quotation, I
believe you have a summary
of a spiritual man's life–a daily groaning and a daily boasting–a
daily humbling and a daily rejoicing–a daily consciousness of sin and
a daily consciousness of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to conquer
it. We do believe, Beloved, that our sin has received its deathblow. It
still lingers within us, for its death is by crucifixion and
crucifixion is a lingering death. Its heart is not altogether fastened
to the cross, but its hands are, so that we cannot sin as we once did.
Its feet, too, are fastened, so that we cannot run in the way of
transgressors as we once did–and one of these days the spear shall
piece its heart and it shall utterly die. And then, with the faultless
ones before the Throne of God, we shall be unattended by depravity or
corruption any longer! Therefore let us "sing unto the Lord a new
song," because His right hand and His holy arm have gotten Him the
victory over sin within us–
"His is the victor's name,
Who fought our fight alone!
Triumphant saints no honor claim–
His conquest was His own!"
In connection with sin came death, for death is the daughter of sin,
and follows closely upon sin. Jesus has conquered death. It is not
possible for Believers to die eternally, for Jesus said, "Because I
live, you shall live also." And even the character of the natural death
is changed to Believers. It is not now a penal infliction, but a
necessary way of elevating our nature from the bondage of corruption
into the glorious liberty of the children of God, for, "flesh and blood
cannot inherit the Kingdom of God." Even those who will be living at
the coming of the Lord must be "changed" in order that they may be fit
to enter Glory. Death, therefore, to Believers, is but a putting off of
our weekday garments that we may put on our Sabbath attire–the laying
aside of the travel-stained garments of earth that we may put on the
pure vestments of joy forever! So we do not now fear death, for Christ
has conquered it. He has ripped away the iron bars of the grave and He
has left in the sepulcher His own winding-sheets and napkin that there
may be suitable furniture in what was once a grim, cold, empty
morgue–and He has gone up into His Glory and left Heaven's gate wide
open to all Believers! Unless He shall first come, we, too, shall
descend into the grave where He went, but we also shall come up again
as He did–and we shall rise complete in the perfection of our redeemed
manhood. Then shall we be satisfied, when we awaken in the likeness of
our Master. So let us "sing unto the Lord a new song, for He has done
marvelous things."–
"Hosannah to the Prince of Light,
Who clothed Himself in clay,
Entered the iron gates of Death
And tore the bars away!
Death is no more the king of dread,
Since our Immmanuel rose
He took the tyrant's sting away
And spoiled our hellish foes.
See how the Conqueror mounts aloft
And to His Father flies,
With scars of honor in His flesh
And triumph in His eyes."
And as Christ has conquered sin and death, so has He conquered the
devil and all his hosts of fallen spirits. This monster of iniquity,
this monster of craft and malice has striven to hold us in perpetual
bondage, but Christ met him in the wilderness and vanquished him there.
And met him, as I believe, in the Garden of Gethsemane, in personal
conflict, and vanquished him once and for all. And now He has led
captivity captive. Inferior spirits were driven away by Christ when He
was here upon earth and they fled at the bidding of the King. And now,
although Satan still worries and vexes the saints of God, the Lord will
bruise Satan under their feet shortly. Therefore, dear Brothers and
Sisters in Christ, this is the joyous news we have to bring to
sinners–that sin, death and the devil have all been vanquished by the
great Captain of our salvation! And for this let us so rejoice that we
sing unto the Lord a new song–
"He Hell in Hell laid low.
Made sin, He sin overthrew!
Bowed to the grave, destroyed it so,
And death, by dying slew!
Sin, Satan, death appear
To harass and appall–
Yet since the gracious Lord is near,
Backward they go, and fall."
But, according to the text, what the Lord did is not only marvelous in
itself, but the way in which He did it was also marvelous. Observe that
He did it alone–"His own right hand and His holy arm have gotten Him
the victory." No one was associated with the Lord Jesus Christ in the
conquest which He achieved over sin, death and the devil–and nothing
is more abhorrent to a believing soul than the idea of giving any
particle of Glory to anyone but the Lord Jesus Christ. He tread the
winepress alone, so let Him alone wear the crown! Sinner, you have not
to look for any secondary Savior– Christ has done it all. You need pay
no reverence to saints, or martyrs, or priests–Christ has done it all,
so resort to Him for all you need. Christ alone has accomplished the
salvation of His people–no other hand has been raised to help Him in
the fight. Look then to Jesus, only, for salvation! Trust in Him with
your whole heart! Throw your weight entirely upon Him, my poor Brother
or Sister, if you have not yet done so, and you shall find rest and
salvation in Him!
Another marvel is that He did it all so wisely–"His right hand has
gotten Him the victory." You know that we use the word "dexterous" to
signify a thing that is done well–we mean that it was done
right-handedly. So Christ fought our battle with His right hand. He did
it with ease, with strength and with infinite wisdom. Salvation is the
very perfection of wisdom because, in the salvation of a sinner, all
the attributes of God are equally glorified. There is as much Justice
as there is Mercy in the salvation of a sinner by the atoning Sacrifice
of Christ–Mercy full-orbed, and Justice full-orbed also–God
fulfilling His threats against sin by smiting Christ, and giving to the
love of His heart full vent in saving the very chief of sinners through
the death of His dear Son. The more I consider the Doctrine of
Substitution, the more is my soul enamored of the matchless wisdom of
God which devised this system of salvation! As for a hazy atonement
which atones for everybody in general and for nobody in particular–an
atonement made equally for Judas and for John–I care nothing for it.
But a literal, substitutionary Sacrifice–Christ vicariously bearing
the wrath of God on my behalf–this calms my conscience with regard to
the righteous demands of the Law of God and satisfies the instincts of
my nature which declare that, as God is just, He must exact the penalty
of my guilt! Dear Brothers and Sisters, Jesus Christ suffering,
bleeding, dying, has gotten us the victory! The hand that was pierced
by the nails has conquered sin! The hand that was fastened to the wood
has fastened up the accusation that was written against us! The
hand that bled has brought salvation to us, so that we are Christ's
forever! 'Twas infinite wisdom which shone in the conquest of sin, and
death, and the devil.
But it was also holiness–"His holy arm has gotten Him the victory."
The Psalmist seems, as he advances in his Psalms, to fall more and more
in love with the matchless holiness of God–and the holiness of the
victory of Christ is a great point in its favor. There is never a
sinner so saved as to make God even seem to wink at sin. Since the
creation of this world, there was never an act of mercy performed by
God that was not in perfect harmony with the most severe justice. God,
though He has loved and saved unholy men, has never stained His holy
hands in the act of saving them. He still remains the holy, holy, holy,
Lord God of Sabaoth, though He is still full of pity and compassion,
and passes by transgression, iniquity and sin, and presses prodigal
children to His heart. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is the answer to
the great question, "How can God be just and yet the Justifier of him
that believes? How can He be perfectly holy and yet, at the same time,
receive into His love and adopt into His family those who are
unrighteous and unholy?" O Calvary, you have solved the problem! The
bleeding wounds of the Incarnate God have made righteousness and peace
to kiss each other. May God grant to you, unconverted Sinner, the Grace
to understand how He can save you and yet be perfectly holy–how He can
forgive your sins and yet be perfectly just! I know this is the
difficulty that troubles you–how can you be received while God is what
He is? He can receive you, for the Lord Jesus Christ took the sins of
His people and bore them in His own body on the tree and, being the
appointed Head of all Believers, He has vindicated in His own Person
the inflexible Justice of God! There is the Man who has kept the whole
Law of God–not Adam, for he failed to keep it–but the second Adam,
the Lord from Heaven! And all whom He represented are now "accepted in
the Beloved," made acceptable to God because of what Jesus Christ has
done. So let us magnify that holy arm which has gotten Him the victory!
I have now to speak upon the third point, the marvelous Grace which has
revealed all this to us. I t is a very familiar thing for us who are
sitting here to hear the Gospel, but will you just carry your minds
back some two or three thousand years to the period when this Psalm was
written? What was then known concerning salvation was known almost
exclusively by the Jews. Here and there a proselyte was led into the
bonds of the Covenant, but for the most part, the whole world lay in
heathen darkness. Where there was the seal of circumcision, there were
the oracles of God–but as for the sinners of the Gentiles, they knew
nothing whatever concerning the Truth of God. And it might have been so
till this day if the Lord had not made known His salvation and openly
showed His righteousness in the sight of the heathen. Our present
privileges are greater than those of ancient Israel and I am afraid
that we sometimes despise, or at least forget those whom we have for a
time supplanted. They were the favored people of God and through their
unbelief they have been put away for a while, but Israel is yet to be
restored to even greater blessings than it formerly enjoyed–
"The hymn shall yet in Zion swell
That sounds Messiah's praise!
And Your loved name, Immmanuel,
As once in ancient days.
For Israel yet shall own her King,
For her salvation waits,
And hill and dale shall sweetly sing
With praise in all her gates."
Do we value as we ought the privilege we now have of hearing in our own
tongue the wonderful works of God? My dear unconverted Hearer, how
grateful you ought to be that you were not born in Rome, or Babylon, or
in the far-off Indies in those days when there was no Christian
missionary to seek you out and care for your soul, but when the whole
of the Light of God that shone was shed upon that little land of
Palestine! Jesus Christ has broken down the middle wall of partition
and now it makes no difference whether we are Barbarian, Scythian, bond
or free, for the Gospel is to be preached to every creature in all the
world–and "he that believes and is baptized shall be saved"–whatever
his previous character may have been, or to whatever race he may have
belonged!
Yet let us never forget that in order to accomplish this great work of
salvation, it was necessary that the blessed Son of God should descend
to this world. And it was also necessary that the Spirit of God should
be given to rest upon the Church, to be the Inspiration by which the
Gospel should be preached among the heathen. Again let me ask a
question. Do we sufficiently reverence the Holy Spirit and love Him as
we should for all that He has done? The Incarnation of the
Son of God is no greater mystery than the indwelling of the Spirit of
God in the hearts of men. It is truly marvelous that the ever-blessed
Spirit, who is equally God with the Father and the Son, should come and
reside in these bodies of ours and make them His temple. Yet remember
that if it had not been so, there would have been no effective
preaching of the Gospel and, this night, unless the Holy Spirit is here
to bless the Word, there will be no open showing of Christ's
righteousness to you and no making known of His salvation to your
heart. All the victories of Christ, for which I challenge your graceful
songs, would be unknown to you if the Holy Spirit did not touch men's
lips so that they might tell what the Lord has done and publish abroad
His glorious victories!
Remember, too, that in connection with the work of the Holy Spirit,
there has had to be an unbroken chain of Divine Providence to bring the
Gospel to you and to your fellow countrymen. Look back through the past
ages and see what wonderful revolutions of the wheels full of eyes
there have been! Empires have risen and have fallen, but their rise and
fall have had a close connection with the preaching of the Gospel.
There have been terrific persecutions of the saints of God. Satan has
seemed to summon all Hell to attack the Church of Christ, yet he could
not destroy its life. Then came the night of Popery, dense as the
nights of Egypt's darkness, but old Rome could not put out the Light of
the Gospel! Since then, in what marvelous ways has God led His chosen
people! He has raised up His servants, one after another, so that the
testimony concerning the victories achieved by Christ might be
continued among us and might be spread throughout all the nations of
the earth. And thus it comes to pass that, tonight, you have the open
Bible in your hands and I am permitted to freely expound the teaching
of that Bible to you. How wonderfully has the history of our own
country been working towards this happy result! Glorify God and bless
His holy name that we live in such halcyon days as these when the Lord
has made known His salvation and has openly showed His righteousness in
the sight of the heathen!
But yet more sweetly let us praise the Lord that we not only live where
the Gospel is made known, but that God has made it known to some of us
in a still higher sense. Some of us now understand, as we did not at
one time, the righteousness of God–His way of making men righteous
through Jesus Christ. We understood it in theory long before God made
it savingly known in our soul. This is another work of the Holy Spirit
for which we have good reason to sing unto the Lord a new song! Sinner,
I have to say to you that God has sent the Gospel to you to tell you
that His Son, Jesus Christ, has conquered sin, death and the devil–and
that if you believe in Jesus, you shall be a partaker in His victory!
There is nothing for you to do but to believe in Him. Even the power to
understand His Truth is God's gift to you. Even the faith that receives
it, He works in you according to His Spirit! You are to be nothing that
God may be everything! It is for you to fall at His feet, with
confusion of face and contrition of heart, and when He bids you do so,
to rise up and say, "I will sing unto the Lord a new song. O Lord, I
will praise You, for though You were angry with me, Your anger is
turned away and You comforted me through Him who has gotten the victory
on my behalf."
II. The second point of my subject, on which I must speak very briefly,
indeed, is this–THESE ARE SOME MARVELOUS THINGS IN REFERENCE TO
OURSELVES.
The first of these marvelous things is that after all that Christ has
done, and the mercy of God in making it known, so many are utterly
careless and indifferent concerning it. Tens of thousands will not even
cross the threshold to go and hear about it! Bibles are in many of
their houses, yet they do not take the trouble to read them. If they
are going on a railway journey, they consult their Bradshaw–but they
do not search God's own Guide Book to find the way to Heaven, or to
learn where and when they must start if they mean to reach that place
of eternal happiness and bliss! We can still ask, with Isaiah, "Who has
believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" The
most marvelous sight out of Hell is an unconverted man! It is a marvel
of marvels that the Son of God, Himself, should leave Heaven and all
its glories and come to earth to bleed and die in manhood's shape for
manhood's sake–and yet that there should be anyone in the shape of a
man who should not even care to hear the story of His wondrous
Sacrifice, or that hearing the story, should disregard it as if it were
of no interest to him! Yet see how men rush to buy a newspaper when
there is some little bit of news! With what avidity do some young
people–and some old people too, who ought to know better–read the
foolish story of a love-sick maid! How freely their tears flow over
imaginary griefs! Yet the Lord Jesus Christ, bleeding to death in
disinterested love to His enemies, moves them not to tears, and their
hearts remain untouched by the story of His sufferings as if they were
made of marble!
The depravity of mankind is a miracle of sin. It is as great a miracle
from one point of view, as the Grace of God is from another. Jesus
Christ neglected! Eternal Love slighted! Infinite Mercy disregarded!
Yes, and I have to confess, with great shame, that even the preacher of
the Gospel is not always affected by it as he ought to be. And not only
must I, my Brothers and Sisters, confess this, but so must others, I
fear, who preach the Word of God. Why, it ought to make us dance for
joy to have to tell you that there is mercy in the heart of God, that
there is pardon for sinners, that there is life for the dead, that the
great heart of God yearns over sinners! And our hearts ought to be
ready to break when we find that men disregard all this good news and
are not affected by it. It is an astounding calamity that men should
have fallen so terribly that they are insensible to Infinite Love! God
grant that His Grace may show to you unconverted sinners what a
horrible state your hearts must be in that, after all that Christ has
done, you still give Him no token of gratitude, no song of praise for
the wonders He has worked!
Looking from this point of view, there is another marvelous thing–that
some of us have been brought to recognize the work of Christ so that we
are saved by it, because, to confess the truth, there are some of us
who were very unlikely subjects (speaking after the manner of men) to
be saved. Probably each saved person here thought himself the most
unlikely one ever to be saved. I know that I thought so concerning
myself. You remember the story of a Scotchman who went to see Mr.
Rowland Hill and who sat and looked him in the face for so long that
the good old minister asked him, "What are you looking at?" He replied,
"I have been studying the lines of your face." "What do you make of
them?" asked Rowland. And the answer was, "I was thinking what a great
vagabond you would have been if the Grace of God had not met with you."
"That thought has often struck me," said Rowland! And a similar thought
has often struck some of us. If we had not been converted, wouldn't we
have led others into sin? Wouldn't we have invented fresh pleasures of
vice and folly? Who would have stopped us? We had daring enough for
anything–enough even to have bearded the very devil himself if we had
thought that some new vice could have been invented, or some fresh
pleasure of sin could have been discovered! But now that God has made
us yield, "by Sovereign Grace subdued," and brought us to His feet, and
put on us the chains which now we gladly welcome and which we long to
wear forever, O come and let us sing unto the Lord a new song, for He
has done marvelous things for us! "His right hand and His holy arm have
gotten Him the victory!" Dear child of God, if there is special Grace
in your case, as I know you feel that there has been, there ought to be
special honor given to Christ by you. Everyone who is saved ought to
live a very special life, an extraordinary life. If you were an
extraordinary sinner, or have been, in some way or other, an
extraordinary debtor to Divine Love, may there be some extraordinary
devotion, extraordinary consecration, extraordinary faith,
extraordinary liberality, extraordinary loving kindness, or something
else about you in which the traces of that marvelous right hand of God
and His holy arm will be plainly manifested!
The last thing I will speak about is this–there is something marvelous
in the joy which we, who have believed in the victory worked by Christ,
have received. Probably all of you have sung that song of which the
refrain is–
"I am so glad that Jesus loves me." That refrain is very monotonous,
yet I think I should like to sing it all night and should not wish to
leave off even when the morning broke–
"I am so glad that Jesus loves me."
You may turn it over, and over, and over, and over, as long as you
like, but you will never find anything that makes you so glad as that
thought, "Jesus loves me." And you will never find that the sweetness
of that thought, "Jesus loves me," will ever be exhausted. Sinner, if
you only knew the blessedness of the life of Christ, you would be glad
enough to run away from your own life and run to share ours in Him! We
have peace like a river, we can leave all our cares and our burdens
with our God. We are just where we love most to be–in the bosom of our
Heavenly Father–and the Spirit of adoption makes us feel perfectly at
home with Him. We can say, "Return unto your rest, O my Soul, for the
Lord has dealt bountifully with you!" We are in perfect safety, for who
is he that can destroy those whom Christ protects? We have got into
peace even with our own conscience. We have also a blessed prospect for
the future–we shall be borne along upon the wings of Divine Providence
until we exchange them for the wings of angels! We have a Heaven below
and we are looking for a still better Heaven above–
"All that remains for me
Is but to love and sing,
And wait until the angels come
To bear me to the King!"
This is the lower part of the choir. Some of the singers are up in the
galleries and we are learning, here, the notes that we shall sing
above. Come, Beloved, let us make these sinners long to share our joys!
If any of you saints have been moaning and groaning of late, get into
your proper condition! Begin to tune up and praise the Lord with all
your might till the ungodly shall say, "After all, there is something
sweeter and brighter and better in the lives of these Christians than
we have ever known in ours."
But whether you will rejoice or not, my soul does magnify the Lord and
my spirit does rejoice in God my Savior! And so I will, by His help,
till death suspends these mortal songs, or melts them into the immortal
songs before the Throne of God! God bless you, Brothers and Sisters,
for Christ's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM 116.
1. I love the LORD because He has heard my voice and my supplications.
[See Sermon #240, Volume 5–prayer answered, LOVE NOURISHED] Every
answered prayer should make us love the
Lord and especially those prayers that come up from our heart when it
is overwhelmed within us. When we pray in deep trouble and God sends us
help and deliverance, it is impossible for us not to love Him! Cannot
each Believer here say, with great gratitude, "I love the Lord because
He has heard my voice and my supplications"?
2. Because He has inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call upon
Him as long as I live. "This begging business pays so well that I will
never give it up as long as I live! The Lord has heard me, so He shall
hear me again and again. He is so good and so generous a God–and such
bounties are continually being distributed at His door–that I will
never go to anybody else, but will continue to knock at God's door as
long as I live." The Psalmist goes on to tell us what was the special
occasion which brought out this expression of his gratitude.
3. 4. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of Hell got hold
upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the
LORD; O LORD, I beseech You, deliver my soul [See Sermon #1216, Volume
21–T0 souls in agony] His petition was short, earnest, plain and
personal. It was a
sharp arrow shot from the bow of prayer–and it reached its mark in the
heart of God. Are any of you just now in very sore distress? Then let
each one imitate the example of the Psalmist and pray, " Lord, I
beseech You, deliver my soul." Have you been delivered as the Psalmist
was? Then, make a note of it! Be sure to jot it down in your diary, so
that when you get into such a trouble again, you may turn to the record
of God's delivering mercy and say, "The God who delivered me before has
not changed, so I will apply to Him again, for I am sure that He will
again deliver me."
5, 6. Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yes our Godis merciful The
LORD preserves the simple: I was brought low and He helped me. Poor
simpletons who cannot help themselves, but who are, nevertheless, free
from deceit and craft and take God's Word as they find it–sincere
simple souls–who trust in the Lord! He will take care of them, but He
will leave those who think they are wise enough to do so, to take care
of themselves.
7, 8. Return unto your rest my soul; for the LORD has dealt bountifully
with you. For You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from
tears, and my feet from falling. If we have enjoyed this trinity of
deliverances, let us praise the Three-One God forever and ever! Praise
Him, my Soul, if you are saved! Praise God, my eyes! Be filled with the
happy tears of gratitude since He has delivered you from the bitter,
briny tears of grief! Praise Him, you feet that He has kept from
falling and run in the way of His commandments with great joy!
9. I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living. "That shall
be my way of walking–not before men, that I may gain their praise, but
I will consider the Lord and the Lord alone. And as long as I please
Him, I shall not mind whether I please anybody else or not.
10, 11. I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted: I
said in my haste, All men are liars. It is always better not to speak
in haste. It is very seldom that we say much that is worth hearing when
we talk too fast. "I said in my haste, All men are liars."
12. What shall I render unto the LORD for all His benefits toward
me?That is better, for it is better to praise the Lord than to find
fault with men, even if the fault found is really there. It is better
for each one of us to be rendering our
homage to God than picking holes in the coats of others, so let each
one of us ask, "What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits
toward me?"
13. I will take–The Psalmist asks, "What shall I render?" And he
answers, "I will take." That is a strange way of rendering, is it not?
Yes, Brothers and Sisters, but that is the way for us to show our
gratitude to the Lord for all His benefits toward us. John Newton was
right when he wrote–
"The best return for one like me,
So wretched and so poor,
Is from His gifts to draw a plea,
And ask Him still for more."
"I will take"–
13, 14. The cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD. I
willpay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence ofall His people. And
I can be spokesman for you, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, and say
that the Lord is good, and that we have proved Him to be good to us
under peculiarly trying circumstances. He does not fail to help His
people, neither does He turn His back upon them in their hour of need.
We have tried all other dependences and have been bitterly
disappointed. But the Rock of Israel's salvation stands fast forever,
Glory be to the name of Jehovah of Hosts! Let us pay our vows unto the
Lord now in the presence of all His people.
15. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints. [See
Sermon #1036, Volume 18–PRECIOUS DEATH]j It is an event for which He
makes all necessary arrangements. He does not allow it to happen
"accidentally," or according to the will of man. As good old John
Ryland says–
"Not a single shaft can hit
Till the God of Love thinks fit."
16. O LORD, truly I am Your servant; I am Your servant, and the son of
Your handmaid: You have loosed my
bonds. [See Sermon #312, Volume 6–PERSONAL SERVICE] The Psalmist
said that he was a home-born slave because his mother was a servant of
God and he was born, as it were, a servant of his mother's Lord. How
delightful it is to be a Christian and the son of a Christian! Let us
rejoice and be glad if that is our happy lot. It is more honor to have
had a mother who feared the Lord than a mother who was princess or an
empress, but who had not the Grace of God in her heart.
17-19. I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call
upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the
presence ofall His people, in the courts of the LORD'S house, in the
midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise you the LORD.