The Fainting Hero
(No. 3131)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1909.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"He was very thirsty, and called on the LORRD, and said, You have given
this great deliverance into the hand of Your servant: and now shall I
die of thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumncised?" Judges
15:18.
YOU will remember the occasion on which these words were spoken. Samson
had been brought down from the top of the rock Etam, bound with cords
by his own brothers, and given up as a captive into the hands of the
Philistines. But no sooner did he reach the Philistines than the
supernatural force of God's Spirit came upon him and he snapped the
cords as though they had been but hemp and, seeing the jawbone of a
newly-slaughtered donkey lying near at hand, he grasped that strange
weapon and fell with all his might upon the hosts of the Philistines!
And though, no doubt, they took to speedy flight, yet the one man,
smiting them hip and thigh, left no less than a thousand persons dead
upon the ground! And as he piled up the heaps of the slain, he looked
with grim satisfaction upon the slaughter which he had worked, crying,
"With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of a
donkey have I slain a thousand men." There was, perhaps, a little of
vaunting and vain-glorying in his conduct, but in a moment, a sudden
faintness came over him. He had been exerting himself most marvelously,
straining every nerve and muscle, and now, being very thirsty, he
looked round him for a stream of water, but there was none–and he felt
as if, for lack of water, he would die and then the Philistines would
rejoice over him! With that simple-minded faith which was so
characteristic of Samson, who was nothing but a big child, he turned
his eyes to his heavenly Father, and cried, "O Jehovah, You have given
me this great deliverance, and now shall I die of thirst? After all
that You have done for me, shall the uncircumcised rejoice over me
because I die for lack of a drink of water?" Such confidence had he
that God would interpose on his behalf.
Now, my drift is the comforting of God's saints, especially in coming
to the Table of their Lord. I have thought there may be many of you who
are feeling in an unhappy and a distressed frame of mind and that by
referring you to what God has already done for you, I might lead you to
see a lighter estimate upon your present trouble and enable you to
argue that He who has worked great deliverances for you in the past
will not allow you to lack in the future!
I. YOU HAVE ALREADY, MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS, EXPERIENCED GREAT
DELIVERANCES.
Happy is it for you that you have not had the grim task of slaying a
thousand men, but there are "heaps upon heaps" of another sort upon
which you may look with quite as much satisfaction as Samson and,
perhaps, with less mingled emotions than his when he gazed on the
slaughtered Philistines.
See there, Beloved, the great heaps of your sins–all of them
giants–and any one of them sufficient to drag you down to the lowest
Hell! But they are all slain! There is not a single sin that speaks a
word against you. "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's
elect?" Another arm than yours has done it, but the victory is quite
complete. Christ has returned with dyed garments from Bozrah. He has
trodden the winepress of God's wrath and I may almost say that the
blood which stains His apparel is the blood of your sins which He has
utterly destroyed forever. Look at their number. Take all the years of
your life and make each year a heap. Divide them, if you will, into
groups and classes–put them under the heads of the Ten Commandments
and there they lie, in ten great heaps, but every one of them
destroyed!
Think, too, of the heaps of your doubts and fears. Do you not remember
when you thought God would never have mercy upon you? Let me remind you
of the deep dungeon where there was no water when the iron entered into
your soul. Some of us can never forget the time when we were under
conviction of sin. Moses tied us up to the Halberts and took the
ten-thronged whip of the Law of God and laid it upon our backs most
terribly–and then seemed to wash us with brine as conscience reminded
us of all the aggravations which had attended our sins! But though we
feared we should have been
in Hell. Though we thought that surely the pit would shut its mouth
upon us, yet here we are living to praise God, as we do this day, and
all our fears are gone! We rejoice in Christ Jesus. God "has not dealt
with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities."
"Heaps upon heaps" of fears have we had–bigger heaps than our
sins–but there they lie, troops of doubters. There are their bones and
their skulls, as Bunyan pictured them outside the town of Mansoul, but
they are all dead, God having worked for us deliverance from them!
Another set of foes that God has slain includes our temptations. Some
of us have been tempted from every quarter of the world, from every
point of the compass. Sometimes it has been pride. At another time,
despair. Sometimes it has been too much of the world and at other times
it has been too little. Sometimes we have been too strong and puffed
up. At other times we have been too weak and cast down. There has
sometimes been a lack of faith and at other times our fervency may have
been inflamed by the flesh. The best of men are shot at with the
devil's worst darts. You have been tempted by Satan. You have been
tempted by the world. Your nearest and dearest friends have, perhaps,
been your worst tempters, for "a man's foes shall be they of his own
household." There has not been a bush behind which an enemy has not
lurked. There has been no inch of the road to Canaan which has not been
overgrown with thorns!
Now look back upon your temptations and where are they? Your soul has
escaped like a bird out of the snare of the fowler and this night you
can say, "They compassed me about like bees. Yes, like bees they
compassed me about, but in the name of God have I destroyed them! I
have passed safely where others have been ruined. I have walked along
the walls of salvation when others have been lying at the foot, dashed
in pieces by their presumption and their self-confidence– 'heaps upon
heaps' of my temptations have been slain and You, O God, have worked
for me a great deliverance!"
So let me say, in the next place, has it been with most of your
sorrows. You sons and daughters of tribulation have sometimes sat down
and said, "All these things are against us." You have lost children,
friends have died, business has departed, wealth has melted–almost
every comfort has had a blight upon it. Like Job's messengers, evil
tidings have followed one another and you have been brought very low.
But, Beloved in Christ Jesus, you have been delivered! "Many are the
afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them
all." It has been so in your case. Whatever form the affliction has
taken, Mercy has taken a suitable form to meet it. When the arrow flew,
God was your Shield. When the darkness gathered, He was your Sun. When
you had to fight, He was your Sword. When you needed to be supported,
He was your Rod and your Staff–
"Thus far we'veproved that promise good Which Jesus ratified with
blood. Still is He gracious, wise, and just And still in Him let Israel
trust."
I will let no man or woman in this congregation take a place before me
in obligation to the Most High! Brothers and Sisters, we are all
debtors, but I count myself most of all a debtor! I boast that I have
nothing to boast of! I would desire to lie the lowest and to take the
meanest place, for I owe most of all to the Grace of God! When I look
back to my parentage, when I see from where the Lord has brought me and
what He has done for me and by me, I can only say, "You have given to
Your servant this great deliverance." And I suppose if all the people
of God could meet here, one by one, they would each claim that there is
something peculiar in their every case. Each one would say, "There is
something in the deliverance God has worked for me that demands of me a
special song"–therefore let the whole of us together, who have known
and "tasted that the Lord is gracious," look back upon the past with
thankfulness and praise to the Lord! II. YET FRESH TROUBLES WILL ATTACK
YOU AND EXCITE YOUR ALARM.
Thus, after his fight with the Philistines, Samson was thirsty. This
was a new kind of trouble to him–he was so thirsty that he was afraid
that he would die! The difficulty was totally different from any that
Samson had met before. Shake those Samsonian locks in which your
strength lies, but they cannot distil a single drop of dew to moisten
your mouth! The strongest man is as much amenable to thirst as the
weakest–and that arm which could slay a thousand Philistines, cannot
open a fountain in the earth, or draw down a shower from the skies, or
yield to thirst a single draught of water! He is in a new plight. Of
course it seems to you to be a far simpler trial than he had known
before, and so it was. Merely to get thirst relieved is not anything
like so great a thing as to be delivered from a thousand Philistines!
But I daresay, when the thirst was upon him and oppressed him, Samson
felt that little present difficulty more weighty and severe than the
great past difficulty out of which he had so recently been delivered!
Now I think, Beloved, there may be some of you who have been forgiven,
saved, delivered and yet you do not feel happy tonight. "God has done
great things for you, whereof you are glad," yet you cannot rejoice.
The song of your thanksgiving is hushed. A little inconvenience in
getting into your pews, a hasty word spoken by somebody outside the
gate, the thought of a child at home–something which is very little
and insignificant compared with all that God has worked for you will
sometimes take away the present joy and comfort of the great–the
unspeakably great gifts which you have received! You may be sure of
your standing in Christ and yet some little trouble keeps buzzing about
your ears and may be distracting you even now. Let me say two or three
words to you.
It is very usual for God'speople, when they have had some great
deliverance, to have some little trouble that is too much for them.
Samson slays a thousand Philistines and piles them up in heaps–and
then he must die for need of a little water! Look at Jacob–he wrestles
with God at Peniel and overcomes Omnipotence itself–and yet he goes
limping on his thigh! Strange, is it not, that there must be a touching
of the sinew whenever you and I win the day? It seems as if God must
teach us our littleness, our nothingness, in order to keep us within
bounds! Samson seems to have crowed right lustily when he said, "With
the jaw of a donkey have I slain a thousand men." Ah, Samson, it is
time your throat became hoarse when you can boast so loudly! The mighty
man has to go down on his knees and cry, "O God, this thirst will
overcome Your hero! Send me, I pray You, a draught of water." God has
ways of touching His people so that their energy soon vanishes. "In my
prosperity I said, I shall never be moved…You did hide Your face and
I was troubled." Now, dear child of God, if this is your case, I say it
is not an unusual one. There is a reaction which generally follows any
strong excitement. No doubt the excitement of having slain the
Philistines would naturally be followed by depression of spirits in
Samson. When David had mounted the throne of Judah, there came a
reaction and he said, "I am this day weak, though anointed king." You
must expect to feel weakest just when you are enjoying your greatest
triumph!
I have already said that the use of all this is to make a man feel his
weakness. I hope it makes you feel yours. What fools we are, Brothers
and Sisters and yet, if someone else were to call us fools, we would
not like it–though I do not doubt but that we are very well named,
whoever may give us the title–for the whole of Heaven cannot make us
rejoice if we have a pain in our head and all the harps of angels and
our knowledge of our interest in "the Glory that shall be revealed,"
cannot make us happy if some little thing happens to go contrary to our
minds! Somebody trod on the corns of your pride as you were coming in
here–and if an angel had preached to you, you would not have enjoyed
it because of your mind being discomposed. Oh, simpletons that we are!
The table is daintily spread and the manna of Heaven lies close to our
hands, but because there is a little tear in the garment, or a small
thorn in the finger, we sit down and cry as though the worst of ills
had happened to us! Heaven is your own and yet you cry because your
little room is scantily furnished! God is your Father and Christ your
Brother–and yet you weep because a baby has been taken from you to the
skies! Your sins all forgiven and yet you mourn because your clothes
are poor! You are a child of God, an heir of Heaven–and yet you sorrow
as though you would break your heart because a fool has called you ill
names! Strange is it and foolish–but such is man–strangely foolish
and only wise as God shall make him so!
III. If, my Brothers and Sisters, you are now feeling any present
trouble pressing so sorely that it takes away from you all power to
rejoice in your deliverance, I want you to remember that you ARE STILL
SECURE! God will as certainly bring you out of this present little
trouble as He has brought you out of all the great troubles in the
past.
He will do this for two reasons, both of which are found in the text.
The first is because if He does not deliver you, your enemy will
rejoice over you. "What?" said Samson, "Shall I die of thirst, and fall
into the hands of the uncircumcised? Faint, weary, thirsty, shall I
become their victim?–I who was once their terror and made the damsels
of Gath and of Askelon to weep instead of to dance? Shall I be slain?"
And what do you say? But hush your gloomy forebodings! If you perish,
the honor of Christ will be tarnished and the laughter of Hell will be
excited. Bought with Jesus' blood and yet in Hell–what merriment there
would be in the Pit! Justified by the righteousness of Christ and yet
lost–what a theme of scorn for fiends! Sanctified by the Spirit of God
and yet damned–oh what yells of triumph would go up from the abode of
Apollyon and his angels! What? A child of God forsaken of his Father? A
jewel plucked from Jesus' crown? A member rent from Jesus' body? Never,
never, never! God will never permit the power of darkness to triumph
over the power of light. His great name He always has in respect and
the ruin of the meanest Believer would be the cause of dishonor and
disrespect to God–therefore you are safe! Oh it is such a blessed
thing when you can run behind your God for shelter! Some youngster out
in the street has been offending his fellow and is likely to receive a
blow–but here comes his father–and he runs behind him and feels that
there is no fear for him now! So let us shelter ourselves behind our
God. Better than bronze walls, or castles, or high towers shall Jehovah
be to us! And we may then look at all our enemies and say, as the Lord
did to Sennacherib, "The virgin, the daughter of Zion, has despised you
and laughed you to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head
at you." The uncircumcised shall not rejoice! The daughters of
Philistia shall not triumph! We are our God's and He will keep His own
until the day when He shall display them as His jewels.
That is one reason for confidence, but another reason is to be found in
the fact that God has already delivered you. I asked you just now to
walk over the battlefield of your life and observe the heaps of
slaughtered sins, fears, cares, temptations and troubles. Do you think
He would have done all that He has done for you if He had intended to
leave you? The God who has so graciously delivered you up to now has
not changed! He is still the same as He ever was. I have no doubt about
the sun rising tomorrow morning–he always has done so since I have
been able to see him. Why should I doubt my God, for He is more certain
than the sun? The Nile ceases not to make Egypt laugh with plenty–men
trust it. And why should not I trust my God who is a river full of
water overflowing with loving kindness? If we never doubt God till we
have cause to do so, distrust will be banished from our hearts forever!
Of men, we speak as we find them–let us do the same with God. Was He
ever a wilderness to you? When did He forsake you? When did your cries
to Him return without an answer? Has He ever said, "I have blotted you
out of My Book and I will remember you no more?" You have doubted Him
wickedly and wantonly, but never have you had any cause for suspicion
or mistrust! Now, since He is "the same yesterday, and today, and
forever," the God who delivered you out of the jaws of the lion and out
of the paws of the bear will yet deliver you out of your present
difficulty!
Do you think, dear Friend, if He does not do so, He will lose all that
He has done for you! When I see a potter making a vessel, if he is
using some delicate clay upon which he has spent much preliminary labor
to bring it to its proper fineness–if I see him again, and again, and
again molding the vessel–if I see, moreover, that the pattern is
coming out–if I know that he has put it in the oven and that the
colors are beginning to display themselves–I think were it common
everyday ware I could understand his breaking up what he had done,
because it would be but worth little. But since it is a piece of rich
and rare porcelain upon which months of labor have been spent, I could
not understand his saying, "I will not go on with it," because he would
lose so much that he had already spent! Look at some of those rich
vessels by Bernard de Palissy which are worth their weight in gold, and
you can hardly imagine Bernard stopping when he had almost finished and
saying, "I have been six months on this, but I shall never take the
pains to complete it."
Now God has spent the blood of His own dear Son to save you! He has
spent the power of the Holy Spirit to make you what He would have you
be and He will never stay His mighty hand till His work is done! Has He
said and shall He not do it? Has He begun and shall He not complete it?
God will have no unfinished works! When Jehovah's banner is furled and
His sword is sheathed, then shall He cry–
"'Tis done,
For the kingdoms of this world Are the kingdoms of My Son."
In that day, every vessel that He prepared for Glory shall be in Glory,
having been made perfectly meet for it. Do not, then, despair because
of your present trouble!
Doubtless some of you who are saying that I am speaking as one who does
not know the occasion or the bitterness of your peculiar distress. My
dear Friends, I do not care to know it. It is enough for me to know
that if God has worked for His servants so great a deliverance as He
has done, the present difficulty is only like Samson's thirst and I am
sure He will not let you die of faintness, nor suffer the daughter of
the uncircumcised to triumph over you. "Ah," says one, "it is all very
well talking, but mine is a very, very, very peculiar case!" Well,
then, dear Brother, there is a special reason why God should deliver
you because if Satan could overcome you in that peculiar case, he would
then say that he could have overcome all the saints if he could have
got them into the same corner! And he would loudly boast just as though
the whole had perished! But I do not think that your case is so very
peculiar–it is only the way in which you look at it. The road to
sorrow has been well trodden–it is the regular sheep path to
Heaven–and all the flock of God have had to pass along it. So I pray
you, cheer up your heart with Samson's words and rest assured that God
will deliver you soon!
And now, while I have been talking thus, the thought has again occurred
to me that many people listen to me who are not Christians. My Friends,
my great wonder is what some of you do without God! I can hardly
understand how the rich man can have any comfort without God, for he
must suffer from bereavement and bodily pain as well as the poor. Those
silly butterflies of fashion who spend all their time in flitting about
from flower to flower are so heartless and thoughtless that I can, to
some extent, comprehend how they can do without God. With empty heads
and silly hearts, men and women can make gods of anything! Their own
pretty persons can be quite a sufficient object for their idiotic
worship. But a man who stands right straight up, a sensible thinking
man–a working-man, if you will–I do not mind whether he works with
the dry heat of his brain or with the damp sweat of his face–I cannot
understand how a man like this, with organs of thought and a reasoning
soul, can go on without God! There must be pinches with some of you
when you need a God. I would have been in a madhouse a dozen times if
it had not been for my God. My feet would have altogether gone into the
chambers of despair and I would have ended this life if it had not been
for the faithful promises of the God who keeps and preserves His
people! My life has not been a miserable, but a happy one! And yet I
tell you that there have been innumerable times in it when I could not
have done without my God. I do not understand what some of you who are
always so pinched, do without God. There are many such here. You are
poor. You are not often without sickness. You were born inheritors of
maladies that make your life wretched. Your children are sickly about
you. It is as much as you can do by Saturday night to make ends
meet–you are frequently in debt–you are constantly in trouble. Oh, I
cannot tell what you do without God! Why, you have nothing here, and no
hope of anything hereafter! Poor Souls, I could weep for you to think
that you are without God!
And you will have to die soon. When the death-thirst is in your throat,
what do you think you will do without God? To die in God's Presence is
simply to let life blossom into something better than life–but to die
without God must be horrible! You will not want your companions then!
Strong drink will not pacify you then! Music will have no charms for
you then! The love of a tender and gentle wife can yield you but sorry
comfort then! You may lay your moneybags at your side, but they will
not calm your palpitating heart then! You will hear the booming of the
waves of the great sea of eternity! You will feel your feet slipping
into the dreadful quicksand! You will clutch about you for help, but
there will be none! Instead, invisible hands shall begin to pull you
down and down through the dark sea! And you will descend to those
darker depths where dread despair will be your everlasting heritage!
But there is hope yet! Whoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ shall
be saved! Turn your eyes to Christ, poor Sinner, as He hangs there
suffering in man's place, taking human guilt on Himself and being
punished for it as though it were His own! Trust Him, Sinner–and
resting in Jesus you shall be saved!
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM37.
Verse 1. Fret not yourself because of evildoers, neither be you envious
against the workers of iniquity. They often seem to have the best of it
in this life, but if it really is so, we must never forget that there
is another life after this in which there will be no reason for the
righteous to be envious of evildoers and workers of iniquity!
2. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the
green herl. It is very easy to cut down the grass with a sharp scythe.
And when Death takes down his scythe and cuts down men as the mower
cuts down the grass of the field, they fall, rank upon rank, to "wither
as the green herb."
3. Trust in the LORD, and do good. These are two good things to go
together–faith and good works! "Trust in the Lord, and do good."
3. So shall you dwell in the land Not merely on earth, but in the land
of promise, the land which God has promised to His people. We dwell
there by faith even now. Everywhere we find our God and wherever we
find Him, it is Emmanuel's land to us.
3. So and verily you shall be fed. "Verily, verily," is Christ's most
solemn affirmation. [See Sermon #3053, Volume 53–jesus CHRIST'S IDIOM]
David here says, "verily," because the statement
he makes is absolutely true–"Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shall
you dwell in the land, and verily you shall be fed."
4. Delight yourself also in the LORD; and He shall give you the desires
of your heart. [See Sermon #454, Volume 8–sunshine IN THE HEART] When
all your heart's desires are fixed upon Him
because He is your heart's delight, then you may give a loose rein to
those desires without any fear that they will run away! When your
heart's desires are of this sort, you shall have them, be they what
they may! It is not every man who shall have the desires of his heart
given to him, but only that man whose heart's delight is in his God.
There is much in connection with the person praying which will help to
decide whether he shall or shall not have his desires granted. What is
the condition of the heart out of which the desires come? When the
heart is full of delight in the Lord, its desires shall be pleasing in
His sight and shall be granted.
5. Commit your way unto the LORD.You who are just now in trouble. You
who are walking in a rough way, commit that trouble and that way to the
Lord! You who are in difficulty as to what is your right way, commit
that difficulty to the Lord! Then, of course, you will not need to keep
it yourself, nor to trouble your head about it. It does not need two to
"care" when God is one of the two, so cast all your care upon Him, for
He cares for you! His Grace is amply sufficient for every emergency
that can possibly arise, so "commit your way unto the Lord." You have
committed your soul to Him–then you can surely commit your business to
Him, for that is a far inferior thing to your immortal soul!
5. Trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass. Your desire shall
be brought to pass. Your safety shall be brought to pass. Your
everlasting advantage shall be brought to pass. Your way shall be made
passable to you–you shall find your way to Heaven.
6. And He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your
judgment as the noonday. Are you misunderstood, misrepresented,
slandered, laughed at? Leave it all with your God! Are you now walking
in darkness? Trust in Him and He will bring you out into the Light of
God in due time. We do not have morning light in the evening–morning
light comes when the morning comes–and your deliverance shall come
when it is the right time for you to have it.
7. Rest in the LOR . That is a blessed state to reach. Notice the
various stages that the Psalmist has mentioned. There was first, "Trust
and do." Then there was, "Delight and have." Then there was, "Commit,
and have it brought to pass." And now there is, "Rest in the Lord."
7, 8. And wait patiently for Him: fret not yourself because of him who
prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked devices to
pass. Cease from anger. That comes of fretting and of being in a
hurry–and not resting and being patient–for when the mind is restful,
we can bear injuries. "Cease from anger."
8, And forsake wrath: fret not yourself in any wise to do evii. Very
often our proverb is true, "The more haste, the less speed." And he who
is in a hurry often does evil under the notion that it is the shortest
way to get good–which it never is, for evil brings forth evil–and
that perpetually.
9, 10. For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the
LORD, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the
wicked shall not be: yes, you shall diligently consider his place, and
it shall not be. The very place wherein he stood so high has utterly
perished. How many instances there have been of men who have taken
great pains to perpetuate their own names, yet their names are
forgotten in the very place where they dwelt! God has a way of stamping
out evil and putting an end to it–and when there has been great
wickedness in the land, He knows how to make the very name of the
wicked to rot.
11-13. But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight
themselves in the abundance of peace. The wicked plots against the
just, and gnashes upon him with his teeth. The Lord shall laugh at him:
for He sees that his day is coming. "His day is coming," and what a day
it will be! When the day of the wicked shall come–the day of God's
righteous vengeance–woe unto him; woe unto him!
14-16. The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to
cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as are of upright
conversation. Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their
bows shall be broken. A little that a righteous man has is better than
the riches of many wicked. Not of one wicked man, only, but of "many
wicked." Fortunes heaped upon fortunes as the result of evil-doing
cannot equal the portion of the poorest of God's saints! A little with
a blessing resting upon it is vastly better than much accompanied by a
curse.
17. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the LORD upholds
the righteous. They would soon fall if they were not upheld–but they
shall not fall, for God will make them to stand!
18. The LORD knows the days of the upright. He knows our dark days and
our bright days–and all our days that are yet to be as well as all our
days that have been! The Lord knows all about all our days.
18. And their inheritance shall be forevei. What they have, if it is
really worth having, they shall keep forever. What God has given them
in Christ, because they are His children, shall never be taken away
from them, nor shall they be taken away from it–"their inheritance
shall be forever." Men try to pass on their estates, but it is often an
unsatisfactory system. Our estates are owned by God–upon the
inheritance of every one of His people there is an inalienable
ownership.
19. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time If any shall say to
them, "How is it that you are a child of God and yet you live in such
an evil time?" they shall not be ashamed, but they will have an answer
ready for them. They will tell them that many righteous men have lived
in evil times, but they, themselves, have not been evil because of
that. Where should bright lights be but in a dark place? Where should
the salt be but where everything is going to corruption? "They shall
not be ashamed in the evil time," for their God will still be their God
and though everyone else may fail them, their God will not fail them.
19-23. And in the days of famine they shall be satisfied. But the
wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the LORD shall be as the fat of
lambs: they shall be consumed; into smoke shall they be consumed. The
wicked borrows, and pays not again: but the righteous shows mercy, and
gives. For such as are blessed of Him shall inherit the earth; and they
that are cursed of Him shall be cut off. The steps of a good man are
ordered by the LORD. Oh, what comfort there is in this blessed
assurance! Sometimes we know not which way to move, but we need not
lack Divine guidance, for there is a special Providence which watches
over every step of a gracious man. When we are right with God,
everything is right with us. If our heart's desire is that we may walk
in God's way, then God will take care that the way of His Providence
shall be made plain to us and shall be full of love to us.
23. And He delights in his way. God delights to watch the way that His
children walk, even though their steps may falter and totter, for they
are often like little children learning to walk and usually they are
very weak and feeble. Yet, if it is a good man who is walking as he
should walk, God "delights in his way."
24. Though he falls, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD
upholds him with His hand. He is like a little child who does not yet
know how to stand alone, so his mother or nurse holds him up, or picks
him up if he falls. God's arms are under His children's arms as He says
by the mouth of the Prophet Hosea, "I taught Ephraim also to go, taking
them by their arms." This is how He also teaches us to go–in wondrous
condescension taking us by our arms!
25. I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the
righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. I have been young and
though I am not yet old, I can truly say that I have never seen the
righteous forsaken. I have, however, seen the seed of the righteous
begging bread. David never saw that sad sight, but then he was a king,
so he was not likely to see as many beggars as some of us do. Yet,
still as a general rule it remains true that the God of the fathers
does provide for their children. Of course, if the seed of the
righteous become vicious and profligate, as they sometimes do,
drunkenness will clothe them with rags and set them among the beggars
of the street just as it would if they were the children of ungodly
parents! And it may be mercy on the part of God that it should be so,
as it was in the case of the prodigal, who never came to himself until
he was in need–and his begging of bread was a blessing to him–for it
brought him, at last, to beg to be received again into his father's
household!
26-27. He is always merciful, andlends; and his seed is blessed. Depart
from evii. Do not remain near it, do not even look at it, do not parley
with it–run away from it! "Depart from evil."
27. And do goot. For you must do something, either good or evil. If you
became an idler, even though you had departed from evil, you would not
have become what God would have you to be. Negatives must be backed up
with positives! "Depart from evil, and do good."
27, 28. And dwell forevermore. For the LORD loves judgment, and
forsakes not His saints; they are preserved forever: but the seed of
the wicked shall be cut off. Not, of course, if they themselves become
righteous, for then they come under the Covenant of Grace and shall
never be cut off.
29-37. The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever.
The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom, and his tongue talks of
judgment. The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall
slide. The wicked watches the righteous, and seeks to slay him. The
LORD will not leave him in his hands, nor condemn him when he is
judged. Wait on the LORD, keep His way, and He shall exalt you to
inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, you shall see it. I have
seen the wickedin greatpower, andspreading himself like a green bay
tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yes, I sought him, but
he could not be found. Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright:
for the end of that man is peace. He does not wither and vanish like a
gourd of the night. He passes not away like that phantom bay tree which
seemed so substantial, but really was not. His end is peace and "all is
well that ends well," so all is well with him–and blessed is that
man's life which came to such a blessed conclusion as this–"the end of
that man is peace."
38, 39. But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of
the wicked shall be cut off But the salvation of the righteous is of
the LORD. That is why they are not cut off like the wicked, because
God's salvation is in them. They would pass away, they would be but the
mere dream and phantom that the prosperous wicked ones are, but God
Himself is in them and, therefore, are they solid and substantial and
their salvation is an everlasting salvation!
39, 40 He is their strength in the time of trouble. And the LORD shall
help them and deliver them: He shall deliver them from the wicked, and
save them, because they trust in Him. That is the main point–"they
trust in Him." One of the descriptions of Abraham is this, "Abraham
believed God," and therefore he had God for his shield and his
exceeding great reward. Are you trusting in God, dear Friends? Are you
living a life of faith? Then the walk of faith will be followed, in due
time, by the triumph of faith! Blessed are all they that put their
trust in the Lord, and blessed forever shall they be.