Perfect Justification and Perfect Pardon
(No. 2789)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JULY 27, 1902.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON A LORD'S-DAY EVENING, DURING
THE SUMMER OF 1860.
"In those days, and in that time, says the LORRD, the iniquity of
Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of
Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom
Ipreserve." Jeremiah 50:20.
I do not profess to have attained sufficient proficiency in
interpreting the prophetical parts of Holy Scripture to be able to
enter, as some can, into the minutes of the future and to tell when any
particular promise will have its actual, literal fulfillment and,
indeed, if I could do so, it would not serve my purpose at this time,
for I wish to take my text– perhaps you may think by way of
accommodation–as describing what shall be the case with all God's
people when, having crossed the Jordan of death, they shall stand
before the Great White Throne–and, indeed, what is now the case with
all those "who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set
before us."
I shall use my text thus–first, I shall say something about the great
iniquities and sins mentioned in the text. And then, secondly, I shall
speak, at greater length, upon the great forgiveness by which these
sins have been put away. May God grant that many of us may feel that we
have a sweet and undoubted participation in the complete pardon and
deliverance which are here spoken of!
I. So, first, let us meditate for a little while upon THE GREAT
INIQUITIES AND SINS MENTIONED IN THE TEXT.
Those sins were of no common order. Israel was a nation, chosen out of
the world, to be the peculiar people of the Lord. They were chosen, not
because of anything especially good in them, for they were always a
stiff-necked and rebellious race, but because of God's Sovereign Grace.
Because of this special privilege, even if they had been only ordinary
sinners, their sin would have assumed a most serious aspect, for never
does sin seem to be so black as when it is committed in spite of great
love, special peace, high privileges and other Divine blessings.
The Israelites were not an ignorant people. They did not sin, as the
Philistines did, in the dark. They were not left in the dim twilight of
nature, but they had the fullest Revelation of God's mind and will that
was afforded to any people in those days. They were not taught the
Truth of God by a system that was too high for them to understand, for
the types and symbols of the ancient sanctuary were exactly adapted to
the infant state of the Jewish commonwealth and to the immature
condition of the Israelites' spiritual life. Well might the Lord say
concerning them, "What could have been done more to My vineyard, that I
have not done in it?" He had brought the goodly vine up out of Egypt.
He had planted it in the richest soil in the whole earth. He had built
a wall around it by making His chosen people to be separate from all
the other nations in the world and He had dug a winepress for the
gathering in of the fruits of the vineyard. And so He might well ask,
"Why, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth
wild grapes?"
Therefore, I repeat what I said just now–If the children of Israel had
only sinned as other nations did, yet their sins would have been of the
most heinous character because of the greatness of their privileges and
the peculiar and special love that had been lavished upon them. But
they were sinners of an unusual kind–they were positively unmatched in
guilt by any nation under Heaven! What other nation forsook the gods
whom they worshipped, even though they were only idols? Did not the
idolaters cleave to Baal and hold fast to Ashtaroth? Do we find that
even when the heathen na-
tions were smitten, they forsook the god they professed to worship? Did
they not still blindly and foolishly cling to their worthless idols and
bow before them?
Yet the children of Israel cast away their God–they who had worshipped
Jehovah turned aside from Him and bowed down before Baal and,
oftentimes did they grieve the Lord and provoke Him to anger because
they went after other gods and worshipped idols that were not gods.
This was a new evil under Heaven–a thing unheard of and unknown. The
heathen would sooner have lost their nationality than they would have
forsaken the idols that they adored, but Israel had played the harlot
with many lovers. She, who ought to have been the most chaste of
spouses, was unfaithful to her Lord and went gadding abroad among those
whom He abhorred!
Besides, my Brethren, I would have you remember that the children of
Israel provoked God, perhaps, more than any other nation that has ever
been upon the face of the earth by reason of the fact that the
provocations of other nations were speedily punished and not permitted
to continue as long as those of Israel. God commanded that the
Canaanites should be exterminated because of their abominable sins, yet
they were not greater sinners than some, at least, of the Israelites
were! Some of the incidents recorded in the Old Testament evince a
state of morality in the commonwealth of Israel as low, as sensual, as
degraded as even the criminality of Sodom itself! As a nation, they had
sinned as foully as others and, in some respects, still more foully
because, when they were often smitten and chastened for their sin, they
returned to it, like the dog to his vomit, "and the sow that was washed
to her wallowing in the mire." Think of the provocation that Israel
gave to the Lord in the wilderness! Remember that time when Jehovah
said to Moses, "I have seen this people and, behold, it is a
stiff-necked people: let Me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot
out their name from under Heaven: and I will make of you a nation
mightier and greater than they." Though the Lord turned from the
fierceness of His anger, yet His anger was fierce and terrible against
the rebellious people.
Think, too, of their continual revolts under the Judges–to omit, for
the while, the possibly better state they were in under Joshua's
leadership. They were first in bondage to one power and then to
another, for the simple reason that there was hardly one false god that
they had not worshipped, nor was there any form of lust or crime which
Israel had not learned. Then remember the abominable iniquities of the
house of Israel during the days of the kings who followed Solomon–how
they offered incense to false gods in all their high places, and bowed
down to idols in all their groves and under almost every green tree.
They adopted the very worst forms of idolatry–they made their children
pass through the fire–they offered up their little ones as a sacrifice
to Moloch! The murder of infants was common among them. They were not
content to imitate the better part of the heathen idolatries, but they
must take the whole and drain the black cup to its dregs–and they even
seem to have exceeded the wickedness of those whom they imitated! The
provocations of Rome have been many. The iniquities of the great
Grecian empire were intolerable. The pride of Babylon was more than God
could endure. The crying sins of Nineveh reached unto Heaven. The guilt
of Sodom and Gomorrah was very great. But the children of Israel, in
the race for the prize of evil, distanced all these who were,
apparently, greater sinners than themselves!
I feel that we must give the pre-eminence to them, especially when we
consider their transgressions in the light of the love and favor which
the Lord God had displayed towards them. Yet, Brothers and Sisters, our
text is true. Let us read it again, remembering what I have been saying
about Israel's iniquity. "In those days, and at that time, says the
Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be
none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will
pardon them whom I preserve." Their provocations, their idolatries,
their lusts were all to be swept away and to be forgotten! Crimes which
had accumulated upon crimes were all to be covered in the depths of the
sea! Surely, this should give hope to the very chief of sinners! If any
of you are sorely depressed because of your great guiltiness, this
passage should afford you much encouragement for, if God took so
completely away, not the sins of those who had lightly offended against
Him, but the crimes of the very blackest of criminals, why may He not
wash away yours, also? And why may not you hope and even be confidently
assured that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses you from
all sin?
II. Now I turn, in the second place, to look, for a little while, at
THE COMPLETE PARDON SPOKEN OF IN
THE TEXT. Let us first consider the words and then the sense of
them–"The iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be
none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found."
First, look at the words of the text. This is a metaphorical form of
speech–"The iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be
none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found." You remember
that Rachel hid the im-
age under the seat on which she sat, so that when her father searched
for it, he could not find it–yet it was there all the while. But it is
not to be so with our sins! They are to be searched for, but there
shall be none. They are to be sought for, but so effectually shall they
have been put away that they shall not be found. Not only shall they
not be discovered, but there shall not be any to be discovered. They
shall be so completely removed, so absolutely annihilated, that they
shall have ceased to exist! Come, let me draw a picture for you. Are
there any who will ever search for the sins of God's people? There are
many who would do so if they could–and there are some who must do so.
There is, first of all, an awakened conscience. One of the first things
which an awakened conscience does is to search for sin. It will never
rest content in the house where there is sin–it will go through every
chamber of the heart and track sin to its most secret recesses. A
blind, dead, sensual conscience may lie in the same bed with sin and
not be disturbed, but an awakened conscience can detect it afar off and
will have nothing to do with it. The lie, or any other form of
iniquity, cannot tarry within sight of a conscience, the eyes of which
have been spiritually opened. But, Believer, you are so fully pardoned
that, though your tender conscience may search for sin, it shall not be
found! Even when your conscience shall be illuminated with the sunlight
of Heaven and all its obliquity and dimness of vision shall be taken
away–if it should in Heaven look for sin, "there shall be none." It is
not difficult to realize that a blind man cannot see sin and a man with
a blind conscience cannot see sin in himself, but I say that the man
with the keenest spiritual sight, the man with the enlightened, the
intelligent, the instructed, the perfect conscience may search the
forgiven soul through and through, but there shall not, upon that soul,
be found even the shadow of a spot! So thorough shall the washing be
that the eyes, which now run with tears day and night because of the
consciousness of sin, shall then be free from tears, for it shall see
no sin to weep over–it shall behold no iniquity over which it has to
grieve and no crime for which it has to mourn. Oh, glorious cleansing
is this, when even an awakened conscience shall search and find no sin!
But more than this, there is within us another eye which is even
quicker in seeing sin than is our conscience, and that is the eye of
our unbelief. It is amazing, my Brothers and Sisters, how soon our
unbelief finds a ground for fear lest we should be lost. It seems to
find such a reason, often, when there is none. It will catch at any
little circumstance in our daily life to make us imagine that God has
forgotten us. Unbelief is blind to good and to God, but it is very
quick of sight to everything that is fearful and terrifying. I have
known some Christians so full of unbelief that it was very difficult to
give them any comfort–they were most dexterous in finding out the
worst parts of their character and history–and very crafty in, as it
were, seeking to neutralize the force of God's promises by mentioning
some evil thing in their own experience which seemed as if it deprived
them of their right to receive the promised gift. But God so fully
pardons His people that even their doubts, their fears, or their
searching unbelief shall not be able to find a flaw in it!
If it were possible for me to be smitten with unbelief even in Heaven,
so that I should begin to mistrust my standing in Christ, or to try to
find a reason why I should mistrust, I should not be able to do so.
However much I might seek to find any speck or spot of sin, I would be
obliged to say at the last, "Great God, I am clean through Jesus'
blood, I am clean every whit." And even now, Beloved, and even here,
though your unbelief thinks it sees a dozen sins, yet remember that
those sins, at least as far as the guilt of them is concerned, are not
really there. They are forever put away! Christ has drowned them in the
Red Sea of His precious blood! There may seem to you to still be
guiltiness upon you, but there is none if God has pardoned you, for
"there is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ
Jesus." You may think that there is, but there is not–God now sees no
sin in Judah, nor iniquity in Israel. He may see it to reprove it, or
to chastise it, but judicially to avenge it, He sees none. Our Lord has
made us so perfectly white that there is no spot to be found in us. He
has so completely covered us with the robe of His matchless
righteousness that no imperfection shall be seen in us even when we
come to the perfect world where we are to dwell with Him forever! What
a precious thought is this! Lord, give us Grace to believe it and to
dwell in Christ–and enjoy to the fullest all our privileges in Him!
But, further, there are other eyes, besides our own, which are always
searching for our sins and, among them, there is the quick eye of the
envious world. There are some of us who have good reason to be dead to
the world, for the world has never spoken a good word concerning us,
but has always been ready to magnify our faults when it could find any,
or to lie against us where there was no fault at all. I, of all men,
have no reason to respect public rumor! I do not respect it and I
cannot, for, of all lying things, public rumor seems almost to exceed
Satan, himself, in the lies which it will invent! Thus men who are to
stand pre-eminent as God's ministers must make up their minds, when
they commence their ministry, that they will probably be accused of
every crime in the calendar! I should not be greatly surprised if you
were to be told
that I had committed the grossest iniquity that ever was perpetrated
and, my Brothers and Sisters, should you hear such a thing, it will not
so much distress my spirit as it might have done in years gone by, now
that I know that the world's tongue is always ready to speak the worst
word it can against the man who does it the most harm. If I am to fight
the Lord's battles, I may leave Him to fight mine! If I defend His
Character, He will defend mine! I shall not defend my own–that I
know–it is always a bad thing for a man to be his own defender!
You must, all of you, have noticed in your more private capacity, how
quick the men of the world are to find fault with you. You just stumble
and they say that you have had a serious fall. There is one spot upon
your cheek and they declare that your face is covered with mire. You
stooped to pick up a pin and they affirm that you stole a ton of gold.
That is the style in which they usually magnify our faults–and if they
cannot find any, then they tell lies and invent them! It is a grand
testimony to a man's uprightness when worldlings cannot say anything
against him without lying, for it shows that there is nothing of which
they can truthfully accuse him! It is a noble thing for a man to be in
such a position and then he can say, "Now have I come where I desire to
be–there is no love lost between the world and me. The world is dead
to me and I am dead to the world." If we say hard things of the
world–as we are bound to do if we are faithful–of course it will say
hard things of us. If we say that it is a flaunting harlot, that its
beauty is only painted and its joys are a sham, we must not be
surprised if it says the same concerning us. Have you never noticed
how, if two men are driving in the street, and one of them is on the
wrong side, he is generally the one to call out to the other, "What are
you doing?" So is it usually with the Church and the world–the world,
because it is on the wrong side, will be sure to cry out to the Church,
"What are you doing there?"
Well, Christian, there is a joyous thought for all who have been
slandered and abused! The day is coming when "the iniquity of Israel
shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah,
and they shall not be found"–when, before the eyes of an assembled
universe, God's despised servants shall be fully vindicated and against
them not a dog shall move his tongue, even as it was in the day when
Israel came up out of Egypt. Oh, glorious shall be that resurrection of
buried reputations when there shall come up from the grave, not only
God's people, but also their characters, and they who have served the
Lord faithfully shall shine as the stars in the firmament of Heaven
forever and ever! It is to me a joyous thought that sinners who hate
the Word of God, and hate God's people, shall search for their sins,
but shall not be able to find them!
Yet again, Brothers and Sisters, there is one whose eye is even quicker
than that of the world! One who is always searching for our faults–and
that is our infernal enemy, Satan–Apollyon, the destroyer! Oh, how he
watches us to do us harm! Never did a lion, crouching ready to spring
upon its prey, watch the harmless deer feeding upon the plain, or
drinking at the spring, more keenly and more fiercely than Satan
watches us. He is always seeking to find faults in God's people, that
he may accuse them, sometimes through their own conscience and, at
other times, by himself bringing the accusation against them up to the
very Throne of the King! Happy, happy shall be the day when even Satan
shall not be able to find fault with us! For then, in the Pit, he may
bite at his iron bonds and may in secret hate and long to slander us,
but his malice will all be in vain! The old serpent shall be unable to
spit his venom upon the people of God. It will be a glorious triumph
for you, poor devil-tried child of God, when you shall put your foot
upon the old dragon's neck and he shall be powerless to harm you!
But there is One, whose eyes are quicker than those of the world, and
whose sight is keener than that of Satan–it is HE, the all-seeing One,
our Father and our God. "All things are naked and opened unto the eyes
of Him with whom we have to do." If there were the faintest trail of
sin upon us, He would discover it, for does He not search the heart and
try the reins of the children of men? Can we hide ourselves anywhere
from His Presence? Would the top of Carmel be too high for Him, or the
depths of the sea too deep? If we seek to mount above the clouds to
escape Him, or fly beyond the western sea to get beyond His sight, He
is still there–everywhere, above, beneath, around–all eyes, all ears,
seeing all things, hearing all things, knowing–even before they are
our own–the unformed thoughts that are within our inmost soul. But
what a joy it is for us to know that even He will not be able to find a
sin in any one of His blood-washed children! Up from the blessed bath
we come and even Omniscience, itself, can see no spot remaining upon
us. In the full blaze of the awful glory of the Day of Judgment, when
God's eyes shall read the most secret thoughts of the ungodly, and when
His voice shall wake the echoes of every conscience, His eyes shall see
no sin in those for whom Christ died! And His voice
shall awaken in them no accusing thought, but only cause them unsullied
joy because He perceives in them not even the shadow of a fault, for
they are "accepted in the Beloved."
This is a sweet Truth of God and it is easy to utter, but how difficult
it sometimes seems to grasp and hold it firmly! Yet, if we are
believers in Jesus, we are complete in Him, perfect in Christ Jesus,
for He has put away all our iniquities and cast all our sins behind His
back into the depths of the sea. His own declaration to each of His
redeemed ones, is, "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your
transgressions and, as a cloud, your sins." Fly, Gabriel, to all the
countless hosts of Christ's elect! Look upon each one as they now
gather before the eternal Throne of God and say, you bright discerning
angel, have you found a fault in any one of them? There is Mary
Magdalene and there the penitent thief and yonder are Saul of Tarsus
and Manasseh, and many more who were great sinners while here
below–but can you see any sin in them now? There, too, stand the
glorious hosts of those who, in these later days, have crossed the
stream and entered their eternal rest. I charge you, O you watchers,
you holy ones, tell me, can you find a fault in any one of them? The
answer of all of them is, "No, the fact that they are here proves that
they are without sin, for of this city it is written, 'There shall in
no wise enter into it anything that defiles.'" Yes, when the Last Great
Day shall come, and the whole family of the redeemed shall be safely
housed in their Father's home above, if each one should, individually,
be put into the scales of the sanctuary, there is not one of whom it
would be said, "Tekel: you are weighed in the balances, and are found
wanting." If they were all to be cast into the crucible, not one grain
of dross would be found in the whole of them! Though many of them were,
once, among the very chief of sinners, yet if they were all to be
examined–as they will be–by the eyes of Infinite Justice, yet, in
them all, no trace or shadow of sin shall be discovered!
Now, in closing, I want you to take the sense of the words, which I
understand to be that when God pardons His people, He pardons all their
sins at once–not half, but all! Their blasphemy, their lust, their
theft, their pride, their lying, or whatever their sin may have
been–this is God's receipt in full for all their indebtedness to
Him–"The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses from all sin." If you
believe in Jesus now, my Hearer, there is not one sin recorded against
you in God's Book of Remembrance, nor a tithe of a sin, nor a shadow of
iniquity!
Not only does God pardon all the sins of His people, but He pardons in
all senses of the term. You know that, sometimes, a man pardons his son
for his wrongdoing, yet he cannot fully reinstate him in his
confidence. He will not trust him with his money as he does his son who
never wandered away from home. But God pardons completely. He harbors
no ill thought of you, but loves you no less than He would have done if
you had never sinned. If you had been as Adam was once–perfect and
pure, without spot–God could not love you more than He does now, nor
could He give you greater privileges, or higher honors. He has given
you the promise of a crown and a share in His Son's Throne and Glory!
He has made you joint-heir with Christ of all that He has–what more
could He have done for you had you been an absolutely perfect being?
But, further, when God pardons a sinner, He puts away all his sin
forever. The cloud may return after the rain, but the cloud of my sin
comes back no more. When the winter is gone and the springtime and the
summer have made their presence felt, yet we know that winter will come
again and the leaves will fall from the trees. But the winter of my
spirit's sin will never return. The great sea, when it rolls up in its
might, must go out again at the ebbing of the tide. But that ocean of
the love of God, which covers up my sins, will never roll back, but
shall abide at the full forever and ever! The sun of God's mercy never
sets when it has once risen. The stream of Divine Love never dries up
when it has once begun to flow. It is no brook like Cherith, at the
side of which a Prophet might sit down for a little while and then its
waters fail–but it is an ever-flowing river, as perpetual as the
eternal Fountain in the heart of God Himself!
I know not where my brethren who think that pardoned sin may come back
again, ever get any comfort. O Beloved, this Bible would be to me like
a casket emptied of its jewels if you could ever take from me the firm
belief that once forgiven, sin is no more imputed! Once washed away,
the filthiness never returns! That was a magnificent argument of the
Apostle Paul–"If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by
the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by
His life." Do you see the pith of the argument? If, when we were
enemies, we were reconciled– the harder work–how much more, being
friends, we shall be saved! And if, when we were enemies, we were
reconciled by His death, how much more, being friends, shall we be
saved by His life!
If we are washed in Jesus' blood, verily we are clean, so clean that–
"Not the shadow of a spot
Shall on our soul be found."
Come death when it may, we shall meet it with joy, and not with sorrow,
for–
"With our Savior's garments on"
we shall be–
"Holy as the Holy One!"
Sinner, if you have never known what it is to be pardoned, let it not
seem like a dream to you. If you ask, "May I be forgiven?" I
answer–Yes, certainly you may! Listen to what God Himself has
said–"Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord: though your
sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are
red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Sinner, if you believe in
Christ, be your sins ever so many, they shall be blotted out, for–
"The moment a sinner believes,
And trusts in His crucified God,
His pardon at once He receives,
Redemption in fill through His blood." So, without delay, just as you
are, come and trust in Christ! and your sins, which are many, shall be
forgiven you, and you shall go on your way rejoicing in hope of the
glory of God, even as you are rejoicing in the assurance of the love of
God. Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM 18:1-35.
Verse 1. I will love You, O LORD, my strength What a blessed "I
will"–"I will love You"! He does love the Lord, and he declares that
he will continue to do so. He feels that he must do so, for the Lord
has been his strength. There are many aspects under which the love of
our heart is most justly and fitly given to God and this is one of
them. If the Lord has been the strength of our heart, then let our
heart love Him.
2. The LORD is my rock, andmy fortress, andmy deliverer; my God, my
strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my
selection, and my high tower How David heaps up the epithets! When the
Believer once begins to praise the Lord, there is no end to it. He can
never even satisfy himself, much less can he hope to rise to the height
of this great argument! Notice how many of those little pronouns there
are. Luther used to say that the very marrow of divinity lies in the
pronouns. Certainly the sweetness–the honey of it lies here. Let me
read the verse again, putting the emphasis on the pronouns–"The Lord
is myrock, and myfortress, and my deliverer; myGod, mystrength, in whom
Iwill trust; mybuckler, and the horn of mysalvation, and myhigh tower."
3. I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shallI be
saved from my enemies. Calling upon Him in prayer, and rendering praise
to Him, "so shall I be saved from my enemies." You remember how the
army of Jehoshaphat marched forth into the valley of Berachah, singing
and praising the Lord? They had no need to strike a blow, for the Lord
gave them a glorious victory when they began to sing and to praise! And
we might have more victories if we had more praise and more prayer. Now
David goes on to tell us what had happened to him and what happened to
the children of Israel when they came up out of the land of Egypt and
went into the wilderness.
4. 5. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men
made me afraid. The sorrows of Hell compassed me about: the snares of
death prevented me. That is, "went before me," "lay in my pathway." Did
you ever have a window opened in your heart so that you could see all
the ruin of your nature–all the possibilities of evil that lay asleep
within your soul? Did you ever feel, as you gazed upon that sight, as
if you were looking over the edge of the bottomless Pit? Ah, then, you
have been in the condition which the Psalmist here describes–"The
sorrows of Hell compassed me about: the snares of death lay in my
pathway."
6. In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God; He
heard my voice out of His Temple, and my cry came before Him, even into
His ears. That is a wonderful expression, "My cry came before Him, even
into His ears." That is, of course, speaking after the manner of
men–and we cannot speak in any other manner. God appeared to hear
David's cry as you and I hear a thing when we say, "It seemed to ring
in my ears, I could not get rid of the sound of it." What happened
then?
7. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills
moved and were shaken, because He was angry. The Lord was angry with
those who had made His child cry, as a father is angry with one who
injures a beloved child of his, or as a mother is angry with one who
puts her babe to pain. The Lord made the earth to tremble because He
was angry at the oppressors of His servant.
8. There went up a smoke out of His nostrils, and fire out of His mouth
devoured: coals were kindled by it That is David's graphic and striking
representation of the indignation of God on his behalf.
9. He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under His
feet This is a wonderful description of the interposition of God on
behalf of His people. The scene referred to by David is probably the
destruction of the Egyptians at the Red Sea, and the deliverance of the
children of Israel from their cruel enemies.
10. And He rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yes, He did fly upon the
wings of the wind. So swift is prayer to reach the heart of God–and so
swift is God to come to the help of His people!
11. 12. He made darkness His secret place; His pavilion round about Him
were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. At the brightness that
was before Him, His thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire.
For all the dread artillery of Heaven shall be used for the defense of
the faithful. God will hold nothing in reserve when His people are in
danger.
13. The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave His
voice; hail stones and coals of fire. What made God speak in those
terrible tones? It was the faint and feeble cry of His poor servant
down below. Can you and I make thunder? Yes, we can. If we can thunder
at the gates of Heaven by prayer, God will thunder in the heavens in
His Omnipotence! He will quickly respond to His children's cries. The
first Christians who were employed in the Roman armies were called the
thundering legion, because, it was said, once upon a time when they
prayed, God sent a thunderstorm to destroy their enemies and, truly, a
living Church of God that is full of prayer, may be called a thundering
legion!
14. Yes, He sent out His arrows, and scattered them; and He shot out
lightning, and discomfited them. What a wonderful picture this is–as
if the Eternal had taken down His bow and aimed His shafts of lightning
against the foes of His people!
15. Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the
world were discovered at Your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the
breath of Your nostrils. At the Red Sea, Moses sang, "You did blow with
Your wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty
waters." But here, David does not represent God as sending forth a
great wind, but as if, in His eagerness to help His servant, His very
nostrils gave forth such a mighty blast as made the sea to divide, so
that "the channels of the waters were seen." It is one of the most
vivid pieces of poetry that ever fell from the pen of Inspired or
uninspired man!
16. 17. He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters.
He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them who hated me: for
they were too strong for me. When a child of God is in such a condition
that he cannot help himself and he cries to his Heavenly Father, then
the Lord always helps him. Our proverb says, "God helps those that help
themselves." That is true, but there is something better than that. God
helps those who cannothelp themselves. That proves the greatness of His
mercy, which endures forever. David said of his foes, "They were too
strong for me," but they were not too strong for the Lord to overthrow!
18. They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my
stay. "I leaned on Him. I rested on Him. I relied on Him and so I was
made peaceful, calm, quiet, confident in Him–'The Lord was my stay.'"
19. He brought me forth also into a large place; He delivered me,
because He delighted in me. What do you say to that, Believer? That God
delights in you–that He finds something in you, which He has put there
by His Grace, which is the object of His benevolence? Is it not your
likeness to His dear Son, whom He loves so much, that wherever He sees
His image, there His love flows forth?
20. The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to
the cleanness of my hands has He recompensed me. For when God gives a
man holiness, He will give him happiness! Holiness and happiness
usually go together and if, for a while, they seem to be divided, they
shall soon be united again.
21-24. For Ihave kept the ways of the LORD, andhave not wickedly
departed from my God. For all His judgments were before me, and I did
not put away His statutes from me. I was also upright before Him, and I
kept myself from my iniquity. Therefore has the LORD recompensed me
according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my
hands in His eyesight The godly never see any merit in their own works,
they never have any trust in them for salvation, yet they cannot help
observing, with pleasure, that when God enables them to walk uprightly,
He sooner or later delivers them. If you come into any trouble because
you fear God and serve Him, you will come out of it again. Yes, and
come out of it like the three holy children came out of the
furnace–with not so much as the smell of fire remaining upon you.
25, 26. With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful; with an
upright man You will show Yourself upright; with the pure You will show
Yourself pure; and with the obstinate You will show Yourself obstinate.
If a man walks in a obstinate way, and opposes God, he will soon find
that God treats him in a similar fashion. Sinners shall surely smart
for their sin. Rebels shall yet sing another tune, however loudly they
may boast today and scoff at God and His people.
27. For You will save the afflicted people. There is comfort there for
any of you who are His people, and who are under His afflicting hand.
27. But will bring down high looks. Pride enflames the indignation of
Jehovah–it is to the humble that He has regard.
28. For You will light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my
darkness. Plead that promise if you are in the dark at this moment. If
you are God's child, He will bring you out into the light before long.
29. For by You I have run through a troop; and by my God have Ileaped
over a wall. God's warriors have to fight in various ways and in all
they must show themselves like men, and ascribe all their triumphs to
their Lord.
30. As for God, His way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: He
is a buckler to all those that trust in Him. No armor of proof or
shield of brass so well secures the warrior as the Covenant God of
Israel protects His warring people. He is Himself the buckler of
trustful ones.
31. For who is God save the LORD? Or who is a rock save our God? Where
can lasting hopes be fixed? Where can the soul find rest? Where is
stability to be found? Where is strength to be discovered? Surely, in
the Lord Jehovah alone can we find rest and refuge!
32- 36. It is God that girds me with strength, and makes my way perfect
He makes my feet like hinds' feet, and sets me upon my high places. He
teaches my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by my arms.
You have also given me the shield of Your salvation: and Your right
hand has held me up, and Your gentleness has made me great. I think you
will see that David has given us, in this Psalm, the reasons why he
began by saying, "I will love You, O Lord, my strength."