Soul-threshing

Soul-threshing

(No. 3388)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 1914.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"For the black cummin are not threshed with a threshing instrument,
neither is a cartwheel turned about upon the cummin, but the black
cummin are beaten out with a stick and the cummin with a rod. Bread
flour must be ground; therefore he does not thresh it forever, nor
break it with his cartwheel, nor bruise it with his horsemen." Isaiah
28:27,28.

The art of farming was taught to man by God. He would have starved
while he was discovering it, so the Lord, when He sent him out of the
Garden of Eden, gave him a measure of elementary instruction in
agriculture, even as the Prophet puts it, "His God did instruct him to
discretion and did teach him." God has taught man to plow, to break the
clods, to sow the different kinds of grain and to thresh out the
different orders of seeds.

The Eastern farmer could not thresh by machinery as we do, but still,
he was ingenious and discreet in that operation. Sometimes a heavy
instrument was dragged over the corn to tear out the grain. This is
what is intended in the first clause by the "threshing instrument," as
also in that passage, "I have made you a sharp threshing instrument
having teeth." When the corn-drag was not used, they often turned the
heavy solid wheel of a country cart over the straw. This is alluded to
in the next sentence–"Neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the
cummin." They also had flails not very unlike our own, and then for
still smaller seeds, such as dill and cummin, they used a simple staff
or a slender switch. "The black cummin are beaten out with a stick and
the cummin with a rod."

This is not the time or place to give a dissertation upon threshing. We
find every information upon that subject in proper books, but the
meaning of the illustration is this–that as God has taught farmers to
distinguish between different kinds of grain in the threshing, so does
He, in His Infinite Wisdom, deal discreetly with different sorts of
men. He does not try us all alike, seeing we are differently
constituted. He does not pass us all through the same agony of
convic-tion–we are not all, to the same extent, threshed with terrors.
He does not give us all to endure the same family or bodily affliction.
One escapes with only being beaten with a rod, while another feels as
it were the feet of horses in his heavy tribulations!

Our subject is just this. Threshing. All kinds of seeds need it. All
sorts of men need it Secondly, the threshing is done with discretion.
And thirdly, the threshing will not last forever, for so the second
verse of the text says, "Bread flour must be ground and, therefore, he
does not thresh it forever, nor break it with the his cartwheel, nor
bruise it with his horsemen." First then–

I. WE ALL NEED THRESHING.

Some have a foolish conceit of themselves that they have no sin–but
they deceive themselves and the Truth of God is not in them. The best
of men are men at the best and, being men, they are not perfect but are
still compassed about with infirmity. What is the object of threshing
the grain? Is it not to separate it from the straw and the chaff?

About the best of men there is still a measure of chaff. All is not
grain that lies upon the threshing floor. All is not grain even in
those golden sheaves which have so joyfully been brought into our
garner. Even the wheat is joined to the straw which was necessary to it
at one time. About the kernel of the wheat, the husk is wrapped and
this still clings to it even when it lies upon the threshing floor.
About the holiest of men there is something superfluous, something
which must be removed. We either sin by omission or by trespass. Either
in spirit, or motive, or lack of zeal, or want of discretion we are
faulty. If we escape one error, we usually glide into its opposite. If
before an action we are right, we err in the doing of it–or if not, we
become proud after it is over. If sin is shut out at the front door, it
tries the back gate, orclimbs in at the window, or comes down the
chimney. Those who cannot perceive it in themselves are frequently
blinded by its smoke. They are so thoroughly in the water that they do
not know that is rains. So far as my own observation goes, I have found
no man whom the old divines would have called perfectly perfect–the
absolutely all-round man is a being whom I expect to see in Heaven, but
not in this poor fallen world! We all need such cleansing and purging
as the threshing floor is intended to work for us.

Now, threshing is useful in loosening the connection between the good
corn and the husk Of course, if it would slip out easily from its husk,
the corn would only need to be shaken. There would be no necessity for
a staff or a rod, much less for the feet of horses or the wheel of a
cart to separate it. But there's the rub–our soul not only lies in the
dust, but "cleaves" to it. There is a fearful intimacy between fallen
human nature and the evil which is in the world–and this compact is
not soon broken. In our hearts we hate every false way and yet we
sorrowfully confess, "When I would do good, evil is present with me."
Sometimes when our spirit cries out most ardently after God, a holy
will is present with us, but how to perform that which is good we find
not! Flesh and blood have tendencies and weaknesses which if not sinful
in themselves, yet run in that direction. Appetites need but slight
excitement to germinate into lusts. It is not easy for us to forget our
own kindred and our father's house even when the king does most greatly
desire our beauty. Our alien nature remembers Egypt and the flesh-pots
while yet the manna is in our mouths! We were all born in the house of
evil and some of us were nursed upon the lap of iniquity so that our
first companionships were among the heirs of wrath! That which was bred
in the bone is hard to get out of the flesh. Threshing is used to
loosen our hold of earthly things and break us away from evil. This
needs a Divine hand and nothing but the Grace of God can make the
threshing effectual. Something is done by threshing when the soul
ceases to be bound up with its sin and sin is no longer pleasurable or
satisfactory. Still, as the work of threshing is never done till the
corn is separated together from the husk, so chastening and discipline
have never accomplished their design till God's people give up every
form of evil and abhor all iniquity. When we shake right out of the
straw and have nothing further to do with sin, then the flail will lie
quiet. It has taken a good deal of threshing to bring some of us
anywhere near that mark! And I am afraid many more heavy blows will be
struck before we shall reach the total separation! From a certain sort
of sins we are very easily separated by the Grace of God early in our
spiritual life, but when those are gone, another layer of evils comes
into sight and the work has to be repeated. The complete removal of our
connection with sin is a work demanding the Divine skill and power of
the Holy Spirit and by Him only will it be accomplished.

Threshing becomes necessary for the sake of our usefulness, for the
wheat must come out of the husk to be of service. We can only honor God
and bless men by being holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from
sinners. O corn of the Lord's threshing floor, you must be beaten and
bruised, or perish as a worthless heap! Eminent usefulness usually
necessitates eminent affliction.

Unless thus severed from sin, we cannot be gathered into the garner.
God's pure wheat must not be defiled by an admixture of chaff. There
shall in no wise enter into Heaven anything that defiles, therefore
every sort of imperfection must come away from us by some means or
other before we can enter into the state of eternal blessedness and
perfection. Yes, even here we cannot have true fellowship with the
Father unless we are daily delivered from sin.

Perhaps some of us today are lying up on the threshing floor suffering
from the blows of chastisement. What then? Why, let us rejoice therein,
for this testifies to our value in the sight of God. If the wheat were
to cry out and say, "The great drag has gone over me and, therefore,
the farmer has no care for me, " we should instantly reply, "The farmer
does not pass the corn-drag over the darner or the nettles–it is only
over the precious wheat that he turns his cartwheel or the feet of his
oxen. Because he esteems the wheat, therefore he deals sternly with it
and spares it not." Judge not, O Believer, that God hates you because
He afflicts you! But interpret truly and see that He honors you by
every stroke which He lays upon you. Thus says the Lord, "You only have
I known of all the nations of the earth, therefore I will punish you
for all your iniquities." Because a full Atonement has been made by the
Lord Jesus for all His people's sins, therefore He will not punish us
as a judge–but because we are His dear children–therefore He will
chastise us as a father! In love He corrects His own children that He
may perfect them in His own image and make them partakers of His
holiness. Is it not written, "I will bring them under the rod of the
Covenant"? Has He not said, "I have refined you, but not with silver. I
have chosen you in the furnace of affliction"? Therefore do not judge
according to the sight of the eyes or the feeling ofthe flesh, but
judge according to faith–and understand that as threshing is a
testimony to the value of the wheat, so affliction is a token of God's
delight in His people!

Remember, however, that as threshing is a sign of the impurity of the
wheat, so is affliction an indication of the present imperfection of
the Christian. If you were no more connected with evil, you would be no
more corrected with sorrow. The sound of a flail is never heard in
Heaven, for it is not the threshing floor of the imperfect, but the
garner of the completely sanctified. The threshing instrument is,
therefore, a humbling token and, as long as we feel it, we should
humble ourselves under the hand of God, for it is clear that we are not
yet free from the straw and the chaff of fallen nature.

On the other hand, the threshing instrument is a prophecy of our future
perfection. We are undergoing from the hand of God a discipline which
will not fail–we shall, by His prudence and wisdom, be delivered from
the husk of sin. We are feeling the blows of the staff, but we are
being effectually separated from the evil which has so long surrounded
us and, for certain we shall one day be pure and perfect! Every
tendency to sin shall be beaten off. "Foolishness is bound in the heart
of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him." If
we, being evil, yet succeed with our children by our poor, imperfect
chastening, how much more shall the Father of Spirits cause us to live
unto Himself by His holy discipline? If the corn could know the
necessary uses of the flail, it would invite the thresher to his work!
And since we know whereunto tribulation tends, let us glory in it and
yield ourselves with cheerfulness to its processes! We need
threshing–the threshing proves our value in God's sight! And while it
marks our imperfection, it secures our ultimate cleansing! In the next
place I would remark that–

II. GOD'S THRESHING IS DONE WITH GREAT DISCRETION, "for the black
cummin are not threshed with a threshing instrument." The poor little
black cummin, a kind of small seed used for flavoring cakes, were not
crushed out with a heavy drag, for by such rough usage they would have
been broken up and spoiled. "Neither is a cartwheel turned about upon
the cummin." This little seed, perhaps the caraway, would have been
ground by so great a weight–it would have been preposterous to treat
it in that rough manner! The black cummin were soon removed from the
stalks by being "beaten out with a staff." And the cummin needed
nothing but a touch of a rod. For tender seeds, the farmer uses gentle
means, but for the hardier grains he reserves the sterner processes.
Let us think of this as it conveys a valuable spiritual lesson.

Reflect, my Brothers and Sisters, that your threshing and mine are in
God's hands. Our chastening is not left to servants. much less to
enemies–"we're chastened by the Lord!" The Great Farmer, Himself,
personally bids the laborers do this and that, for they know not the
time or the way except as Divine Wisdom shall direct–they would turn
the wheel upon the cummin, or attempt to thresh wheat with a stick! I
have seen God's servants trying both these follies–they have crushed
the weak and tender and they have dealt with partiality and softness
with those who needed to be sternly rebuked! How roughly some
ministers, some Elders, some good men and women will go to work with
timid, tender souls! Yet we need not fear that they will destroy the
true-hearted, for however much they may vex them, the Lord will not
leave His chosen in their hands, but will overrule their mistaken
severity and preserve His own from being destroyed thereby! How glad I
am of this, for there are many, nowadays, who would grind the tender
ones to powder if they could!

As the Lord has not left us in the power of man, so also He has not
left us in the power of the devil. Satan may sift us as wheat, but he
shall not thresh us as black cummin. He may blow away the chaff from us
even with his foul breath, but he shall not have the management of the
Lord's corn–"the Lord preserves the righteous." Not a stroke in
Providence is left to chance–the Lord ordains it and arranges the
time, the force and the place of it. The Divine Decree leaves nothing
uncertain! The jurisdiction of supreme love occupies itself with the
smallest events of our daily lives! Whether we bear the teeth of the
corn-drag, or men ride over our heads, or we endure the gentler touches
of the Divine hand–everything is by appointment and the appointment is
fixed by Infallible Wisdom! Let this be a mine of comfort to the
afflicted.

Next, remark that the instruments used for our threshing are also
chosen by the Great Farmer The Eastern farmer, according to the text,
has several instruments–and so has our God. No form of threshing is
pleasant to the seed which bears it. Indeed, each one seems to the
sufferer to be peculiarly objectionable. We say, "I think I could bear
anything but this sad trouble." We cry, "It was not an enemy! Then I
could have borne it, " and so on. Perhaps the tender cummin foolishly
fancies that the horse hoofs would be a less terrible ordeal than the
rod–and the black cummin might even prefer the wheel to the staff–but
happily the matter is left to the choice of One who judges unerringly!
What do you know about it, poor sufferer? How can you judge of what is
good for you? "Ah," cries a mother, "I would not mind poverty, but to
lose my darling child is too terrible!" Another laments, "I could have
parted with all my wealth, but to be slandered cuts me to the quick."
There is no pleasing us in the matter of chastisement. When I was at
school with my uncle, for master, it often happened that he would send
me out to find a cane for him. It was not a very pleasant task and I
noticed that I never once succeeded in selecting a stick which was
liked by the boy who had to feel it! Either it was too thin or too
stout and, in consequence, I was threatened by the sufferers with
punishment if I did not do better next time! I learned from that
experience never to expect God's children to like the particular rod
with which they are chastened. You smile at my simile but you may also
smile at yourself when you find yourself crying, "Any trouble but this,
Lord! Any affliction but this!" How idle it is to expect a pleasant
trial, for it would then be no trial at all! Almost every really useful
medicine is unpleasant. Almost all effectual surgery is painful. No
trial for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous, yet it is the
right trial and, none the less right because it is bitter!

Notice, too, that God not only selects the instruments, but He chooses
the place. Farmers in the East have large threshing floors upon which
they throw the sheaves of corn or barley–and upon these they turn
horses and drags–but near the house door I have often noticed in Italy
a much smaller circle of hardened clay or cement–and here I have seen
the peasants beating out their garden seeds in a more careful manner
than would naturally be used towards the greater heaps upon the larger
area. Some saints are not afflicted in the common affairs of life, but
they have peculiar sorrow in their innermost spirits. They are beaten
on the smaller and more private threshing floor, but the process is
none the less effectual. How foolish are we when we rebel against our
Lord's appointment and speak as if we had a right to choose our own
afflictions! "Should it be according to your mind?" Should a child
select the rod? Should the grain appoint its own thresher? Are not
these things to be left to a higher wisdom? Some complain of the time
of their trial–it is hard to be crippled in youth or to be poor in age
or to be widowed when your children are young. Yet in all this there is
wisdom! A part of the skill of the physician may lie not only in
writing a prescription but in arranging the hours at which the medicine
shall be taken. One draught may be most useful in the morning and
another may be more beneficial in the evening– and so the Lord knows
when it is best for us to drink of the cup which He has prepared for
us. I know a dear child of God who is enduring a severe trial in his
old age and I would gladly screen him from it because of his
feebleness, but our heavenly Father knows best and there we must leave
it. The instrument of the threshing, the place, the measure, the time,
the end are all appointed by Infallible Love!

It is interesting to notice in the text the limit of this threshing.
The farmer is zealous to beat out the seed, but he is careful not to
break it in pieces by too severe a process. His wheel is not to grind,
but to thresh. The horses' feet are not to break, but to separate. He
intends to get the cummin out of its husk, but he will not turn a heavy
drag upon it utterly to smash it up and destroy it. In the same way the
Lord has a measure in all His chastening. Courage, tried Friend, you
shall be afflicted as you need, but not as you deserve! Tribulation
shall come as you are able to bear it. As is the strength, such shall
the affliction be–the wheat may feel the wheel, but the black cummin
shall bear nothing heavier than a staff. No saint shall be tempted
beyond the proper measure–and the limit is fixed by a tenderness which
never deals a needless stroke!

It is very easy to talk like this in cool blood, but quite another
thing to remember it when the flail is hammering you! Yet I have
personally realized this Truth upon the bed of pain and in the furnace
of mental distress. I thank God at every remembrance of my afflictions.
I did not doubt His wisdom, then, nor have I had any reason to question
it since. Our Great Farmer understands how to divide us from the husk
and He goes about His work in a way for which He deserves to be adored
forever!

It is a pleasant thought that God's limit is one beyond which trials
never go–

"If trials six are fixed for men They shall not suffer seven. If God
appoints afflictions ten They never can be eleven."

The old Law ordained forty stripes save one, and in all our scourges
there always comes in that, "save one." When the Lord multiplies our
sorrows up to a hundred, it is because 99 failed to effect His purpose,
but all the powers of earth and Hell cannot give us one blow above the
settled number! We shall never endure a superfluity of threshing. The
Lordnever sports with the feelings of His saints. "He does not afflict
willingly " and so we may be sure He never gives an unnecessary blow.

The wisdom of the farmer in limiting his threshing is far exceeded in
the wisdom of God by which He sets a limit to our griefs. Some escape
with little trouble and, perhaps, it is because they are frail and
sensitive. The little garden seeds must not be beaten too heavily lest
they be injured–those saints who bear about with them a delicate body
must not be roughly handled nor shall they be. Possibly they also have
a feeble mind and that which others would laugh at would be death to
them–they shall be kept as the apple of the eye!

If you are free from tribulation, never ask for it! That would be a
great folly. I met with a Brother a little while ago who said that he
was much perplexed because he had no trouble. I said, "Do not worry
about that, but be happy while you may." Only a very strange child
would beg to be flogged! Certain sweet and shining saints are of such a
gentle spirit that the Lord does not expose them to the same treatment
as He metes out to others–they do not need it and they could not bear
it–why should they wish for it?

Others, again, are very heavily pressed, but what of that if they are a
superior grain–a seed of larger usefulness intended for higher
purposes? Let not such regret that they have to endure a heavier
threshing since their use is greater. It is the bread corn that must go
under the feet of the horseman and must feel the wheel of the cart–and
so the most useful have to pass through the sternest processes. There
is not one among us but what would say, "I could wish that I were
Martin Luther, or that I could play as noble a part as he did." Yes,
but in addition to the outward perils of his life, the inward
experiences of that remarkable man were such as none of us would wish
to feel! He was frequently tormented with Satanic temptations and
driven to the verge of despair. At one hour he rode the whirlwind and
the storm, master of all the world, and then after days of fighting
with the pope and the devil, he would go home to his bed and lie there
broken-down and trembling! You see God's heroes only in the pulpit or
in other public places–you know not what they are before God in
secret. You do not know their inner life, otherwise you might discover
that the bread corn is bruised and that those who are most useful in
comforting others have to endure frequent sorrow, themselves! Envy no
man, for you do not know how he may have to be threshed to make him
right and keep him so.

Brothers and Sisters, we see that our God uses discretion in the
chastisement of His people! Let us use a loving prudence when we have
to deal with others in that way. Be gentle as well as firm with your
children and if you have to rebuke your Brother or Sister in Christ, do
it very tenderly. Do not drive your horses over the tender seed.
Recollect that the cummin is beaten out with a stick and not crushed
out with a wheel. Take a very light rod. Perhaps it would be as well if
you had no rod at all, but left that work to wiser hands. Go and sow
and leave your Elders to thresh!

Next, let us firmly believe in God's discretion and be sure that He is
doing the right thing by us. Let us not be anxious to be screened from
affliction. When we ask that the cup may pass from us, let it be with
a, "nevertheless not as I will." Best of all, let us freely part with
our chaff. The likeliest way to escape the flail is to separate from
the husk as quickly as possible. "Come you out from among them."
Separate yourselves from sin and sinners, from the world and
worldliness–and the process of threshing will all the sooner be
completed! God make us wise in this matter! A word or two is all we can
afford upon the third head, which is–

III. THE THRESHING WILL NOT LAST FOREVER.

The threshing will not last all our days even here–"Bread flour must
be ground, but He will not always be threshing it." Oh, no! "For a
small moment have I forsaken you, but with great mercies will I gather
you." "He will not always chide, neither will He keep His anger
forever." "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the
morning." Rejoice, you daughters of sorrow! Be comforted, you sons of
grief! Have hope in God, for you shall yet praise Him who is the health
of your countenance! The rain does not always fall, nor will the clouds
always return. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Threshing is not an
operation which the corn requires all the year round–for the most part
the flail is idle. Bless the Lord O my Soul! The Lord will yet bring
home His banished ones.

Above all, tribulation will not last forever, for we shall soon be gone
to another and better world. We shall soon be carried to the land where
there are neither threshing floors nor corn-drags. I sometimes think I
hear the herald calling me. His trumpet sounds, "Up and away! Boot and
saddle! Up and away! Leave the camp and the battle and return in
triumph." The night is far spent with some of you, but the morning
comes. The daylight breaks above yon hills. The day is coming–the day
that shall go no more down forever! Come eat your bread with joy and
march onward with a merry heart, for the land which flows with milk and
honey is but a little distance before you. Until the day breaks and the
shadows flee away, abide the Great Farmer's will, and may the Lord
glorify Himself in you. Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON:

PSALM 90; 119:21-32. "The prayer of Moses, the man of God."

I think this Psalm has been very much misunderstood because the title
has been forgotten. It is not a Psalm for us in its entirety–it cannot
be read by the Christian and taken as it stands. It is a Psalm of Moses
as far as Moses can get. It goes a long way, but there was a Joshua
that lead the people into the promised land–and there is a Jesus who
has "brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel." That light
shines through the gloomy haze of this dark Psalm. Please remember that
Moses was a man peculiarly tried. We have never duly given weight to
the afflictions of Moses. All the people that he brought out of Egypt,
with two exceptions, died. And he saw most of them die–himself having
the sentence of death in himself that he, like the rest, must not cross
into the Land of Promise. So that with two millions or more of people
round about him, that forty years he stood in the Valley of the Shadow
of Death–and with all the mercies that surrounded him, yet still he
must have had continual sorrow of heart–all his old friends and
companions passing away, one by one. It is a brave Psalm if you read it
in that light–it is a grand specimen of heroic faith!

Verse 1. Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. All
Your saints abide in You. Your fiery cloudy pillar covers and protects
us.

2. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the
earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
Oh, that is grand to feel that there is something stable–there is a
Rock that never crumbles–God from everlasting to everlasting the same!
As for us, what are we?

3. You turn man to destruction and say, Return you children of men. A
breath gave them life–a word makes themdie.

4-6. For a thousand years in Your sight are but as yesterday when it
ispast and as a watch in the night. You carry them away as with a
flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which
grows up. In the morning it flourishes and grows up. In the evening it
is cut down and withers. We have seen this over and over again, as we
shall see it yet again this year in the flourishing and the cutting
down of the grass. But we forget it for ourselves. Too often we forget
it for our companions–we think that they are immortal where all are
mortal. Let us correct our estimate that we may somewhat correct our
sorrows.

7. For we are consumed by Your anger and by Your wrath are we troublet.
Which was true of that generation. They died because of God's anger,
but we bless God–as many of us as have believed in Christ Jesus are
not under the Divine anger–it is taken away. When it does fall upon
us, it is as a father is angry with his children. It troubles and
consumes us, but blessed be God, we usually walk in the light of His
Countenance and joy and rejoice therein. Let us value His mercy as we
see the misery of His wrath!

8. You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light
of Your Countenance. That is true of you that know not God! Your sins
are always before His face, but it is not true of Believers. You have
cast all their sins behind Your back. God has forgotten the sins of His
chosen according to His own promise, "Their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more forever." O blessed Gospel! Moses cannot reach
to that.

9. For all our days are passed away in Your wrath: we spend our years
as a tale that is told. "For all our days are passed away in Your
wrath." So it was with those that were round about Moses, but our days
are passed in God's goodness! They shall pass away in Infinite Love!
"We spend our years as a tale that is told."

10. The days of our years are three-score years and ten; and if by
reason of strength they are fourscore years, yet is their strength
labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off and we fly awaj. Speaking of
the mass of men, this is all that can be said of them. But as for the
godly, where do they fly? They fly into His bosom who has loved them
with an everlasting love! What is death but an open cage to bid us fly
and build our happy nests on high? Blessed be God that we do fly away!
Have not we often wished for it and said, "O that I had the wings of a
dove that I might fly away and be at rest"–that will come, by-and-by!

11. Who knows the power of Your anger? Even according to Your fear, so
is Your wratt. As He is greatly to be reverenced, so is He greatly to
be feared. But the Lord has said of His people, "As I have sworn that
the waters of Noah shall no more cover the earth, so have I sworn that
I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you." Blessed be His name.

12-14. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts
unto wisdom. Return, O LORD, how long? And let it repent You concerning
Your servants. O satisfy us early with Your mercy; that we may rejoice
and be glad all our days. Poor Israel was greatly afflicted. Those
deaths in the wilderness made her a perpetual mourner! But Moses asks
that God will return to His people cheer and encourage them and let the
few days they have to live be bright with His Presence.

15-17. Make us glad according to the days wherein You have afflicted us
and the years wherein we have seen evil. Let Your work appear unto Your
servants and Your Glory unto their children. And let the beauty of the
LORD our God be upon us: andestablish You the work ofourhands upon
us;yes the work ofourhands establish it

PSALM 119:21-32.

21. You have rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from Your
commandments. Wherever there is pride in the heart, there is sure to be
error in the life. A proud man is wrong to begin with and as long as he
continues proud, he must be wrong. It is not possible for him to be
right. God has rebuked him and God has cursed him. How wise it would be
of him to be humble! Remember we shall have either to be humble or to
be humbled–and it is much better to be humble than to have to come
under the humbling dispensations of God's hand!

22. Remove from me reproach and contempt: for I have kept Your
testimonies. O Lord, do not suffer men to believe lies and slanders
against me, or if they do, let my conscience sustain my courage by the
consciousness that I have kept Your testimonies.

23. Princes also did sit and speak against me. Had they nothing else to
do but talk against God's servants? No, they sat down to do it with
deliberation. "Princes also did sit and speak against me."

23. But Your servant did–"Go to law with them?" No, not so here. "But
your servant got in the face and defended himself?" No, no! Look, you
will not read those words. But, "Your servant was brokenhearted about
it to have the great men of the earth speaking against him?" No, it is
not so either. "But your servant did"–

23. Meditate in Your statutes. Is not that a very blessed and admirable
way of enduring slander–simply to take your Bible and read a little
more than usual? You will cure it so.

24. Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors. Because I
love them and delight in them. I submit my life to their guidance. I go
to Your Book to ask what I shall do. I consult it as the Oracle of God.
I take my doubts and difficulties and dilemmas there and I find that
they are all met. "Your testimonies are my delight and my counselors."

25. My soul cleaves unto the dust: quicken You me according to Your
Wore. Ah, there is a note of sadness here. The Psalmist complains of
himself. He found himself very sorrowful and he could not get out of
the sorrow. Or he found himself very full of business cares and he
could not get rid of them."My soul cleaves to the dust"–as though it
was stuck to the dust and the dust to it and could not rise. Then how
sweet the prayer, "Quicken You me." "Did You not first make me of dust
and will You not, at the last, quicken my mortal body out of the dust?
Then, now, my Lord, quicken You me according to Your Word." See, here
is an evil complained of. He finds himself cleaving to the dust. Here
is a remedy sought, "Quicken You me." And here is an argument pleaded
with God–"according to Your Word." There is a promise for it. Lord,
fulfill Your Word!

26. I have declared my ways and You heard me: teach me Your statutes. A
confession had been made–"I have declared my ways." That confession
had been accepted–"You heard me." Then a petition is offered–"Teach
me Your statutes." "You see that I confess how wrong I was. Now give me
Grace that I may not go wrong again." May that be our spirit always!

27. 28. Make me to understand the way of Your precepts: so shall I talk
of Your wondrous works. My soul melts for heaviness: strengthen You me
according unto Your Wore. "I am poured out like water " says the
Savior. "My heart is like wax. It is melted." It is the greatness of
pain, the greatness of fear, the greatness of sorrow, till He seems to
melt away in the fire like wax. "For heaviness " says He, "my soul
melts. Then strengthen You, Me." Oh it is so sweet to turn to

God when your soul is burdened–to look to Him and say–not, "deliver
me." Observe that–the child of God is not so anxious to get rid of
trouble as he is to know how to behave worthily under it! "Strengthen
You, me, according to Your Word." How he harps on that, "according to
Your Word." The child of God does not expect God to do otherwise than
He has promised to do. And he is quite content if the Lord will act
according to His Word, for well does our poet put it–

"What more can He say than to you He has said– You who unto Jesus for
refuge have fled?'

In this book dear Brothers and Sisters, whatever your trouble, there is
a promise to meet it! If you lose a key and you send for the locksmith,
as a general rule, somewhere in that bunch of keys, he has a key that
will fit your lock. And so here is a bunch of keys and there is a key,
here, that will exactly fit the lock of your trouble whatever it may be
for God foresaw the circumstances of all His people and prepared a
promise for every circumstance!

29. Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me Your Law graciously.
"Take away the evil, give me the good." "The way of lying." Oh it is a
dreadful thing to get into that! There are some that have a way of
doing it–some that do it naturally. Some that do it by implication.
Some think it shrewd to deceive. "Remove from me the way of lying." If
truth should be banished from all the world, it ought to find a shelter
in the breasts of Christians! The Christian is forbidden to take an
oath because there should never be any necessity for it. His word–his,
"Yes yes"–his, "No no," should always be sufficient. Thank God it is
where the Grace of God is!

30, 31. have chosen the way of truth: Your judgments have I laid before
me. I have stuck into Your testimonies: O LORD put me not to shame.
Here is, first, choice–"I have chosen the way of truth." Here is his
practically carrying it out–"Your judgments have I laid before me."
Here is his perseverance in it–"I have stuck into Your testimonies."
And then there is his prayer about it, "O Lord, put me not to shame."
And it is a prayer which is sure to be answered! "Truth may be blamed
but it cannot be shamed." Truth is God's daughter and He will take care
of her. If you have chosen the way of truth, it is a way in which
though some may censure and slander, your righteousness shall come
forth in due time as the noonday!

32. I will run the way of Your commandments when You shall enlarge my
heart. "When I get liberty of heart, then will I take as my choice Your
ways." The Christian is never so much at liberty as when he is under
law to Christ. He knows the difference between license and liberty. He
has a liberty to do as he wills because he wills to do as God wills him
to do–and herein lies the only freedom which we desire!