Our Champion
(No. 3009)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1906.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, IN THE YEAR 1861.
"And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight, and took the
doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with
them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up
to the top of the hill that faces Hebron." Judges 16:3.
POOR Samson! We cannot say much about him as an example to Believers.
We must hold him up in two lights–as a beacon and as a prodigy. He is
a beacon to us all, for he shows us that no strength of body can
suffice to deliver from weakness of mind. Here was a man whom no fellow
man could overcome, but he lost his eyes through a woman–a man mighty
enough to tear a lion like a kid, yet, in due time, though himself
stronger than a lion, he was bound with fetters of brass. When I think
of the infatuation of which Samson was the subject and remember that we
are men of like passions with him, I can only, for myself, put up the
prayer, "Lord, hold You me up, and I shall be safe," and urge you to do
likewise.
And Samson is also a prodigy. He is more a wonder as a Believer than he
is even as a man. It is marvelous that a man could smite thousands of
Philistines with no better weapon than the jawbone of a newly-killed
ass, but it is still more marvelous that Samson should be a saint,
ranked among those illustrious ones saved by faith, though such a
sinner! The Apostle Paul has put him among the worthies in the 11th
Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews and Paul wrote by
Inspiration–therefore there can be no mistake about the fact that
Samson was saved. Indeed, when I see his childlike faith, and note the
way in which he dashed against the Philistines and smote them, hip and
thigh, with a great slaughter–the way in which he cast aside all
reckonings and probabilities and, in simple confidence in his God
achieved the most tremendous feats of valor–when I see this, I cannot
but wonder and admire!
The Old Testament biographies were never written for our imitation, but
they were written for our instruction. Upon this one matter, what a
volume of force there is in such lessons! "See," says God, "what faith
can do? Here is a man, full of infirmities, a sorry fool, yet, through
his childlike faith, he lives. 'The just shall live by faith.' He has
many sad flaws and failings, but his heart is right towards his God. He
does trust in the Lord and he does give himself up as a man consecrated
to his Lord's service and, therefore, he is saved." I look upon
Samson's case as a great wonder, put in Scripture for the encouragement
of great sinners. If such a man as Samson, nevertheless, prevails by
faith to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, so shall you and I! Though our
characters may have been disfigured by many vices and we may have
committed a multitude of sins, if we can but trust Christ to save us,
He will purge us with hyssop and we shall be clean! He will wash us and
we shall be whiter than snow–and in our death we shall fall asleep in
the arms of Sovereign Mercy to wake up in the likeness of Christ!
But now I am going to leave Samson alone, except as he may furnish us
with a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. Samson, like many other Old
Testament heroes, was a type of our Lord. He is especially so in this
case and I shall invite you to look at Christ rather than at Samson.
First, come and behold our Champion at His work Then, let us go and
survey the work when He has accomplished it And thirdly, let us enquire
what use we can make of the work which He has performed.
I. Come with me, then, Brothers and Sisters, and LOOK AT OUR MIGHTY
CHAMPION AT HIS WORK. You remember when our Samson, our Lord Jesus,
came down to the Gaza of this world, 'twas love that brought Him. Love
to a most unworthy object, for He loved the sinful church which had
gone astray from Him many and many a
time. Yet He came from Heaven and left the ease and delights of His
Father's palace to put Himself among the Philistines, the sons of sin
and Satan here below!
It was rumored among men that the Lord of Glory was in the world and
straightway they took counsel together how they should slay Him. Herod
makes a clean sweep of all the children of two years old and under,
that he may be sure to slay the newborn Prince. Afterwards, scribes and
priests and lawyers hunt and hound Him. Satan tempts Him in the
wilderness and provokes Him when in public. Death also pursues Him, for
he has marked Him as his prey. At last, the time comes when the triple
host of the Savior's foes has fairly surrounded Him, and shut Him in.
They have dragged Him before Pilate. They have scourged Him on the
pavement. They drag Him to the place called Calvary, while His blood
drips upon the stones of Jerusalem's streets. They pierce His hands and
His feet. They lift Him up, a spectacle of scorn and suffering and now,
while dying in extreme pangs, and especially when He closes His eyes
and cries out, "It is finished," sin, Satan and death all feel that
they have the Champion safe! There He lies silently in the tomb. He who
is to bruise the old serpent's head, is, Himself, bruised! O you who
are the world's great Deliverer–there You lie as dead as any stone!
Surely Your foes have led You captive, O You mighty Samson!
He sleeps. But think not that He is unconscious of what is going on. He
knows everything. He sleeps till the proper moment comes and then our
Samson awakes–and what happens now? He is in the tomb and His foes
have set a guard and a seal that they may keep Him there. Will any now
help Him to escape out of their charge? Is there any man who will aid
Him? No, there is none! If the Champion escapes, it must be by His own
singlehanded valor! Will He make a clear way for Himself and come up
from the midst of His foes? You know He will, my Brothers and Sisters,
for the moment the third day comes, He touches the stone and it is
rolled away! He has defeated death! He has pulled up the posts of the
grave and taken away its gates and bars! As for sin, He treads that
beneath His feet–He has utterly overthrown it! And Satan, too, lies
broken beneath the heel that once was bruised! He has broken the old
dragon's head and cut His power in pieces forever! Solitary and alone,
His own arm brings salvation unto Him and His righteousness sustains
Him. I think I see Him now as He goes up that hill which is before
Hebron–the hill of God. He bears upon His shoulders the uplifted gates
of the grave–the tokens of His victory over death and Hell! Doors and
posts and bar and all, He bears them up to Heaven. In sacred triumph He
drags His enemies behind Him. Sing to Him! Angels, praise Him in your
hymns! Exalt Him, cherubim and seraphim! Our mightier Samson has gotten
to Himself the victory and cleared the road to Heaven and eternal life
for all His people!
You know the story. I have told it poorly, but it is the most
magnificent of all stories that ever were told! "Arms, and the man, I
sing," said one of the great classic poets of old, but I can say, 'The
Cross and the Christ, I sing." 'Tis my delight to tell of Him who
espoused the cause of His people and, though for a while a captive,
broke the green straps and fetters of brass and, having gained the
victory for Himself, also liberated others, then goes, at the head of
His emancipated people, along the way which He has opened–the new way
which He leads to the right hand of God!
II. Let us go now, dear Brothers and Sisters, and calmly SURVEY THE
WORK WHICH CHRIST HAS ACCOMPLISHED.
We will stand at the gates of old Gaza and see what the Champion has
done. Those are ponderous hinges, and they must have held up huge
doors. We will look at these doors, posts and this bar. Why, it is a
mass of iron that ten men could hardly lift–and it might take 50 more
to carry those huge doors! They were scarcely moved, even on their
hinges, without the efforts of a dozen men–and yet this one man
carried them all and I read not that his shoulders were bent, or that
he grew weary. Seven miles, at least, Samson carried that tremendous
load, uphill all the way, too! Still he bore it all without staggering,
nor do I find that he was faint as he was aforetime at Ramath-Lehi.
I will not linger upon Samson's exploits, rather would I lift up your
thoughts to the great Captain of our salvation! See what Christ has
carried away. I said that He had three enemies. The three beset Him and
He has achieved a threefold victory over them!
There was death. My dear Friends, Christ, in being first overcome by
death, made himself Conqueror over death and He has also given us the
victory, for, concerning death, we may truly say that Christ has not
only opened the gates, but He has taken them away–and not the gates
only, but the very posts, and the bar and all! Christ "has abolished
death and has brought life and immortality to light."
He has abolished it in this sense–in the first place, the curse of
death is gone. Believers die, but they do not die for their sins.
"Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." We die, but it
is not any longer as a punishment. It is the fruit of sin, but it is
not the curse of sin that makes the Believer die. To other men, death
is a curse–to the Believer, I may almost put it among his Covenant
blessings, for to sleep in Jesus Christ is one of the greatest mercies
that the Lord can give to His believing people! The curse of death,
then, being taken away, we may say that the posts are pulled up.
Christ has also taken away the after results of death, the soul's
exposure to the Second Death. Unless Christ had redeemed us, death,
indeed, would have been terrible, for it would have been the shore of
the great Lake of Fire. When the wicked die, their punishment begins at
once–and when they rise again, at the general resurrection, it is but
to receive in their bodies and in their souls the due reward of their
sins! The sting of death is the Second Death–that which is to come
afterwards–
"To die–to sleep–
To sleep! Perhaps to dream. Yes, there's the rub, For in that sleep of
death what dreams may come!"
said the world's poet–no, not what "dreams" may come, but what
substantial pains, what dread miseries, what everlasting sorrows will
come! These are not for Christians. There is no Hell for you, Believer!
Christ has taken away posts, and bar and all. Death is not to you any
longer the gate of torment, but the gate of Paradise!
Moreover, Christ has not only taken away the curse and the after
results of death, but from many of us He has taken away even the fear
of death! He came on purpose to "deliver them, who through fear of
death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." There are not a few
here who could conscientiously say that they do not dread death–no,
but rather look forward to it with joyful expectation! We have become
so accustomed to think of our last hours that we die daily–and when
the last hour shall arrive, we shall only say, "Our marriage day has
come."–
"Welcome, sweet hour of full discharge! That sets my longing soul at
large." We shall joyfully hail the summons to mount beyond this land of
woes, sighs and tears to be present with our God! The fear of death
having been taken away, we may truly say that Christ has taken away
posts, bar and all.
Besides, Beloved, there is a sense in which it may be said that
Christians never die at all. Jesus said to Martha, "He that believes in
Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whoever lives and
believes in Me shall never die." Believers do not die, they do but–
"Sleep in Jesus and are blessed."
But the main sense in which Christ has pulled up the posts of the gates
of death is that He has brought in a glorious Resurrection. O Grave,
you cannot hold your prisoners, for they must rise! O Death, your
troops of worms may seem to devastate that fair land of human flesh and
blood, but that body shall rise again blooming with more beauty than
that with which it fell asleep! It shall rise from its bed of dust and
silent clay to dwell in realms of everlasting day! Conceive the picture
if you can! If you have imagination, let the scene now present itself
before your eyes. Christ, the greater Samson, sleeping in the dominions
of Death–death boasting and glorifying itself that now it has
conquered the Prince of Life! Christ waking, striding to that gate,
dashing it aside–taking it upon His shoulders, carrying it away and
saying as He mounts to Heaven, "O Death, where is your sting? O Grave,
where is your victory?"
Another host which Christ had to defeat was the army of sin. Christ had
come among sinners and sins beset Him round. Your sins and my sins
beleaguered the Savior till He became their captive. "In Him was no
sin" yet sins "compassed Him about like bees." Sin was imputed to
Him–the sins of all His people stood in His way to keep Him, as well
as them, out of Heaven. When Christ was on the Cross, my Brothers and
Sisters, he was looked upon by God as a sinner, though He never had
been a sinner. And when in the grave, He could not rise until He was
justified. Christ must be justified as well as His people. He was
justified not as we are, but by His own act. We are not justified by
acts of our own as He was. All the sin of the elect was laid upon
Christ–He suffered its full penalty and so was justified. The token of
His Justification lay in His Resurrection. Christ was justified by
rising from the dead and in Him all His people were justified too. I
may say, therefore, that all our sins stood in the way of Christ's
Resurrection–they were the great iron gate and they were the bar of
brass that shut him out from Heaven. Doubtless, we might have thought
that Christ would
be a prisoner forever under the troops of sin, but oh, see Him, my
Brothers and Sisters! See how the mighty Conqueror, as He bears our
sins "in His own body on the tree," stands with unbroken bones beneath
the enormous load, bearing–
"All that Incarnate God could bear,
With strength enough, but none to spare."
See how He takes those sins of ours upon His shoulders and carries them
right up from His tomb and hurls them away into the deep abyss of
forgetfulness, where, if they are sought, they shall not be found any
more forever! As for the sins of all God's people, they are not partly
taken away–they are as clean removed as ever the gates of Gaza
were–posts, gates, bar and all! That is to say, every sin of God's
people is forgiven–
"There's pardon for transgressions past, It matters not how black their
cast! And, oh, my Soul, with wonder view, For sins to come there's
pardon too!"
Every sin that all the elect ever did commit, are now committing, or
ever shall commit was taken away by Christ– taken upon His shoulders
in His great atoning Sacrifice and carried away! There is no sin in
God's book against any of His people! He sees no sin in Jacob, neither
iniquity in Israel–they are justified in Christ forever.
Moreover, as the guilt of sin was taken away, the punishment of sin was
consequently taken away, too. For the Christian there is no stroke from
God's angry hand. No, not so much as a single frown of punitive
justice! The Believer may be chastised by a Father's hand, but God, the
Judge of all, has nothing to say to the Christian, except, "I have
absolved you: you are acquitted." For the Christian, there is no Hell,
no penal death, much less any second death. He is completely freed from
all the punishment as well as the guilt of sin–and the power of sin is
removed too. It may stand in our way to keep us in perpetual warfare,
but, oh, my Brethren, sin is to us a conquered foe! There is no sin
which a Christian cannot overcome if he will only rely upon his God to
enable him to do so. They who wear their white robes in Heaven overcame
through the blood of the Lamb–and you and I may do the same. There is
no lust too mighty, no besetting sin too strongly entrenched–we can
drive these Canaanites out though they have cities walled unto Heaven–
we can pull their cities down and overcome them through the power of
Christ! Believe, Christian, that your sin is virtually a dead thing. It
may kick and struggle–there is force enough in it for that, but it is
a dead thing! God has written condemnation across its brow. Christ has
crucified it, "nailing it to His Cross." Go now and bury it forever,
and the Lord help you to live to His praise! Oh, blessed be His name!
Sin, with the guilt, the power, the shame, the fear, the terror of it,
is gone! Christ has taken posts, and bar and all up to the top of the
hill!
Then there was a third enemy and he, also, has been destroyed–that was
Satan. Our Savior's sufferings were not only an Atonement for sin, but
they were a conflict with Satan and a conquest over him. Satan is a
defeated foe. The gates of Hell cannot prevail against the Church of
Christ, but Christ has prevailed against the gates of Hell! As for
Satan, the posts and bar and all have been plucked up from his citadel
in this sense–that Satan has now no reigning power over Believers. He
may bark at us like a dog and he may go about like a roaring lion, but
to rend and to devour us are not in his power. There is a chain about
the devil's neck and he can only go as far as God likes, but no
further. He could not tempt Job without first asking God's permission
and he cannot tempt you without first getting God's permission. There
is a permit needed before the devil dares so much as look on a
Believer! And so, being under Divine permission, he will not be allowed
to tempt us above what we are able to bear.
Moreover, the exceeding terror of Satan is also taken away. A Man has
met Apollyon foot to foot and overcome him. That Man in death triumphed
over Satan–so may you and I. The prestige of the old enemy is gone.
The dragon's head has been broken and you and I need not fear to fight
with a broken-headed adversary! When I read John Bunyan's description
of Christian's fight with Apollyon, I am struck with the beauty and
truth of the description, but I cannot help thinking, "If Christian had
but known how thoroughly Apollyon had been thrashed in days gone by, by
his Master, he would have thrown that in his face and made short work
of him." Never encounter Satan without recollecting that great victory
that Christ achieved on the tree! Do not be afraid, Christian, of
Satan's devices or threats. Be on your watch-tower against him. Strive
against him, but fear him not. Resist him, being bold in the faith, for
it is not in his power to keep the feeblest saint out of Heaven, for
all the gates which he has put up to impede our march have been taken
away, posts, bar and all–and our God, the Lord, has gotten to Himself
the victory over all the hosts of Hell!
III. We will now see HOW WE CAN USE THIS VICTORY.
Surely there is some comfort here–comfort for you, dear Friend, over
yonder. You have a desire to be saved. God has impressed you with a
deep sense of sin. The very strongest wish of your soul is that you
might have peace with God. But you think there are so many difficulties
in the way–Satan, your sins, and I know not what. Beloved, let me tell
you, in God's name, there is no difficulty whatever in the way except
in your own heart, for Christ has taken away the gates of Gaza–posts,
bar and all! Mary Magdalene said to the other Mary, or the women said
to one another, when they went to the sepulcher, "Who shall roll away
the stone for us?" That is what you are saying. And when they came to
the place, the stone was rolled away! That is your case, too, poor
troubled conscience–the stone is rolled away! What? You cannot believe
it? Here is God's testimony for it–"Though your sins are as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they
shall be as wool." You need an atonement for your sins, do you? "It is
finished." You need someone to speak for you. "He is able to save unto
the uttermost, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for us." Can
you believe in the mercy of God in Christ and rest your poor guilty
soul upon the merit of His doing and the virtue of His dying? If you
can, God is reconciled to you! There may have been great mountains
between you and God, but they are all gone. There may have been the Red
Sea of your sins rolling between you and your Father. That Red Sea is
dried up. I tell you, Soul, if you believes in Christ Jesus, not only
is there a way of access between your soul and God, but there is a
clear way! You remember, when Christ died, the veil of the Temple was
torn in two. There was not a little slit for sinners to creep through,
but it was ripped in two from the top to the bottom, so that big
sinners might come in the same way as when Samson pulled up gates,
posts, bar and all! There was a clear way out into the country for all
who were locked up in the town. Prisoner, the prison doors are open!
Captive, loose the bonds on your neck–be free! I sound the trumpet of
jubilee! Bond-slaves, Christ has redeemed you! You who have sold–
"Your heritage for nought,
Shall have it back unbought,
The gift of Jesus'love!"
The Lord has anointed His Son Jesus "to preach deliverance to the
captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." Trust
Him! May His mercy lead you to trust Him now, for there is really
nothing to prevent your salvation if you rest in Him. Between your soul
and God, I tell you, there is no dividing wall. "He is our peace, who
has made both one…and came and preached peace to you which were afar
off, and to them that were near." May these precious words be treasured
up by such as need them! Some of you need them. May the Spirit of God
put them into your hearts and lay them up there, that you may find
comfort in Christ!
But is there not something more here? Is there not here a ground of
exhortation to Christians Brothers and Sisters, have not some of you
been tolerating some sin–some besetting sin which you think you cannot
overcome? You would be more holy, but the thought that you are not able
to overcome it makes your arm helpless against your own sin. So you
think that Christ has left the posts, do you? I tell you, no! "Whoever
is born of God does not commit sin." He that is born of God sins not
with allowance. He sins not with constancy and it is in his power, with
the Holy Spirit's aid, to overcome his sin! And it is his duty, as well
as his privilege, to go to war against the stoutest of his corruptions
till he shall tread them under foot. Now, will you believe, Brothers
and Sisters, that in the blood of Christ and in the water that flowed
with it from His side, there is a Sovereign virtue to kill your sins?
There is nothing standing between you and the pardon of your sins but
your unbelief–and if you will but shake that off, you shall march
triumphantly through the gate of Glory!
Once more and I am through. Is not this an incentive for us, who
profess to be servants of Christ, to go out and fight with the world
and overcome it for Christ Brothers and Sisters, where Jesus leads us,
it needs not much courage for us to follow. "The earth is the Lord's,
and the fullness thereof." Let us go and take it for Him! Nations that
sit in darkness shall see a great light. Satan may have locked up the
world with bigotry, with idolatry and with superstition, as with posts
and bars, but the Kingdom is the Lord's! And if we will but awaken
ourselves to preach the Word, we shall find that the Breaker has gone
up before us and broken and torn away the gates, posts, and bar and
all–and we have nothing to do but to enjoy an early victory. God help
us to do so!
And now, as we come to the Lord's Table, let us have before us this
vision of our glorious Samson achieving His mighty victory! And while
we weep for sin, let us praise His superlative power and love that have
worked such marvels for us. The Lord give us to enjoy His Presence at
His table, and He shall have the praise! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON:
PSALM 51.
A Psalm of David, when Nathan the Prophet came to him and rebuked him,
in the name of God, for his great sin with Bathsheba.
Verse 1. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving kindness:
according unto the multitude of Your tender mercies blot out my
transgressions. This is not a Psalm to be sung to the joyous music of
the harp and the viol, but rather to the minor music of sighs, groans
and tears. You must have the picture of weeping David before your
mind's eye if you would really get to the heart and soul of his
language here. There is only one thing on the Psalmist's heart, and
that is the consciousness of his great sin which seemed to swallow up
everything else. He feels that he must have that sin forgiven–he
cannot rest until he knows that it is pardoned.
Note how he makes his appeal to the loving kindness and tender mercies
of God. A sinner under a sense of sin has a keen eye for the mercy of
God, for he knows that there is his only hope and, therefore, he looks
for it as a mariner at sea looks for a star! He will not allow even one
to escape his observation if there is but one visible between the rifts
of the clouds. David urges the most powerful plea with God–"According
to Your loving kindness; according unto the multitude of Your tender
mercies blot out my transgressions."
2. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For
he loathes it. It is abominable in his sight. His whole spirit seems
sickened at the very recollection of it. He not merely prays, "Wash
me," but, "'Wash me thoroughly." Wash me thoroughly, not only from sin,
but from the inequity of it, the wrongdoing of it, that wherein it was
essentially sin and when You have washed me, cleanse me, for, perhaps,
washing will not be enough–there may need a cleansing by fire. Lord
cleanse me anyway, only cleanse me from my sin."
3. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is always before me.
He had tried to forget it, but he could not, for it haunted him
wherever he went. He had put it behind his back, but now it had gotten
in front of his eyes. It seemed as if it were painted on his eyeballs
and he could not see without seeing through his sin. This is how God
makes men repent–how He makes sin to be like gall and wormwood to
them.
4. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your
sight that You might be justified when You speak, and be clear when You
judge. David had sinned against a great many others beside God, but the
virus, the very poison of the sin, seemed to him to lie in this–that
he had sinned against his God. The unregenerate usually take no account
of that, they care nothing about sinning against God. Offending men,
doing some injury to their fellow creatures, may cause them trouble,
but as for offending God they snap their fingers at that and count it
to be something not worth even thinking of! But when a man is really
awakened by Divine Grace, he sees that sin is an attack upon God, an
offense against God's very Nature and this becomes the heaviest burden
to him. Do you know what this experience means, dear Friends?
5. Behold, I was shaped in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive
me. David has got further than seeing sin upon him–he sees that he is,
himself, sinfulness–that his nature, his very being, is steeped and
dyed in sin! The evil is not merely that you have sinned, but that you
are a sinner Sin would never come out of you if it were not in you.
And, oh, what a mine of sin, what a bottomless deep of sin there is in
human nature! No wonder that it bursts forth as it does. As the volcano
is but the index of a mighty seething ocean of devouring flame within
the heart of the earth, so any one sin is only a token of far greater
sinfulness that seethes and boils within the cauldron of our nature!
"Behold, I was shaped in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive
me."
6. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts. "Alas, O Lord, it is
not there! I have looked there, but have seen only sin. It is not
truth, but the reverse of truth that I find in my inward parts! Lord,
You will never have what You desire to see in me unless You put Your
hand to the work."
6. And in the hidden part You shall make me to know wisdom. Yes, God
can teach us. Even those hidden parts which no human teaching can
reach, God can touch and there He can make us to know wisdom.
7. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. "Sprinkle the blood of
Atonement upon me, give me a sacrificial cleansing, and then I shall be
clean."
7. Wash me, andI shallbe whiter than snow. To my mind, this is a
wonderful expression of faith. I do not know of any Scripture that
seems more full of holy confidence than this is. David had such a deep
sense of his sinfulness that it was a wonderful thing that he should
have, side by side with it, such a perfect confidence in the power of
God to cleanse him! It is easy enough to say, "I shall be whiter than
snow," when we do not realize what scarlet sinners we are, but when the
crimson is before us and we are startled by it, it requires a real and
living faith to be able to say to God, "Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow."
8. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which You have
broken may rejoice. God has a way of making our sins come home to us
like the blows of great bone-breaking hammers. I suppose that no pain
can be much worse than that of a broken bone, but God can make the pain
of sin in the conscience to be as continuous and as intense as that of
broken bones and then, blessed be His name, He knows how to heal the
bones which He has broken and to make each broken bone to sing and
rejoice. Whereas it groaned before, he can give it a new power and make
that very bone to be a mouth out of which shall come praise to God!
9. Hide Your face from my sins. "Lord, look no more at them. Do not
hide Your face from me, but hide it from my sins!"–
"O You that hears when sinners cry, Though all my crimes before You
lie, Behold them not with angry look, But blot their memory from Your
book!"
9. And blot out all my iniquities. "Do not let them be recorded any
longer, O Lord! Run Your pen through them! Let them not stand against
me in Your books of remembrance!"
10. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within
me. Here the truly quickened man speaks. It is not salvation from
punishment he asks for, but salvation from the power of sin. He wants a
new heart. He wants to have removed from him the defiling power of sin
over his affections. "Create in me a clean heart, O God." It will need
the Creator to do it. Only the God who made the world can make me what
I ought to be. Great Creator, put Your hand to this work–'Create in me
a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.'"
11. Cast me not away from Your Presence; and take not Your Holy Spirit
from me. "O Lord, do not thrust me into a dungeon and say, 'You shall
never be a favored child of Mine again.' 'Take not Your Holy Spirit
from me. That I should dread beyond everything else!"
12. Restore unto me the joy of Your salvation; and uphold me with Your
free Spirit. "Lord, I shall slip again unless You hold me up, and,
since You cannot trust Your little child by himself, come and teach me
how to walk."
13. Then will I teach transgressors Your ways; and sinners shall be
converted unto You. "If You will but teach me, and save me, and cleanse
me, then I will tell to others what great things You have done for me.
I will tell out the story of Your love that others, also, may prove its
power."
14. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, You God of my salvation:
and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.This was a
wonderful prayer, but it was not wonderful that David should get relief
when he called his sin by its right name. Another man, in his place,
might have said, "I did not kill Uriah. It is true that I had him put
where he was likely to be slain, but then the sword devours one as well
as another." That was the way that David did hypocritically talk at
first–but now that his conscience has been awakened, he confesses that
he is a murderer– "Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God."
15. 16. O Lord open You my lips: and my mouth shall show forth Your
praise. For You desire not sacrifice; else would I give it: You delight
not in burnt offering. How wonderfully a true sense of sin puts a man
on the track of Evangelical doctrine! David could see that sin was too
grievous a thing for the blood of sheep and bulls to wash it away, and
though he did not despise the ritual which God had ordained, he looked
beyond it to something greater and better of which it was but a type.
17, 18. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a
contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. Do good in Your good
pleasure unto Zion: build You the walls of Jerusalem. This is a blessed
end to David's mournful Psalm. He felt that his sin had a tendency to
do injury to the Church of God–that he had, in fact, pulled down the
towers of Zion by his iniquity, so he prays "Build You the walls of
Jerusalem."
19. Then shall You be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,
with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer
bullocks upon Your altar.