The Suffering Christ Satisfied

The Suffering Christ Satisfied

(No. 3465)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JULY 1, 1915.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MARCH 29, 1888.

"He stall see ofthe travail of His soul and shall be satisfied. By His
knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many." Isaiah 53:11.

IN these words we have God the Father speaking concerning His Son and
declaring that since He had endured a soul travail, He would guarantee
to Him a satisfactory reward. How delightful it is to observe the
co-working of the various Persons of the sacred Trinity in the matter
of salvation! It was so in the Creation. It was the Father who said,
"Let there be light," and there was light. But we read concerning the
Eternal Son that, "without Him was not anything made which was made,"
and we find express mention of the Spirit of God, who moved upon the
face of the waters and created order out of chaos. Father, Son and
Spirit worked together to make the world and, in the making of man, we
all remember that gracious word, "Let Us make man in Our own image with
Our own likeness." Even so is it in our salvation. The Father has
chosen a people unto Himself. These people He has given unto the Son.
To these people He has also given the Only-Begotten to be their
salvation. It is through the abounding Grace of the Father that
salvation comes to the chosen, but only through Jesus Christ, for
everywhere He is the Savior. We are redeemed by His precious blood. He
it is that will bring the many sons unto glory and is the Author and
the Finisher of their faith. Yet not without the Holy Spirit, for the
blessed Spirit graciously condescends to take of the things of Christ
and show them unto us. What God ordains, the Spirit executes. What the
Son purchases, the Holy Spirit bestows. 'Tis He who makes us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light–and when we are so
meet–we are introduced to the inheritance by the hand of the glorious
Son, and are led up to the Throne of the Eternal Father. Christians,
live much in contemplation upon the God of your salvation! Magnify
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Shun that ministry which dishonors either
of these blessed Persons and seek to be fully built up and instructed
in the Gospel teaching which glorifies Father, Son and Spirit in Divine
equality, and leads your own hearts into "the Grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy
Spirit."

With that by way of preface, we shall now come to the text at once,
taking the words as well as the sense of them.

The Father says of the Son that, "He shall see of the travail of His
soul and shall be satisfied." The first point of consideration, very
briefly, is–

I. OUR LORD'S PAINS AND SUFFERINGS, BY WHICH HE MADE AN ATONEMENT FOR
OUR SINS.

These are described in the text as "the travail of His soul." You know
the meaning of the word, "travail." I will not explain it–I will the
rather do with it as the painter who drew the picture of Agamemnon and
the sacrifice of his daughter, Iphigenia. He painted Agamemnon, but he
threw a veil over his face, for he felt he could not express the grief
that was in the father's face and, therefore, the face was delicately
concealed. Let us do the same. It may suffice for us to say that
whenever in Holy Scripture a forcible word is needed to express fear,
overwhelming pain, distraction and confusion, the word, "travail," is
used. For instance, when the kings looked upon Mount Zion and saw how
safe it was from their attacks, "fear took hold upon them, there, and
pain as of a woman in travail." And in the description which is given
by the Prophet of the men of Babylon when their city was overthrown–he
represents them as being "full of pain as if they were in travail." It
is an unutterable amount of inward grief and trouble and a swelling of
the inner man until it seems as if the whole fabric of nature, being
delicately convulsed, would be utterly broken up to its ruin.

Observe the text says, "The travail of His soul." We are not to
depreciate the bodily sufferings of Christ, but still it has been well
said that "the soul-sufferings of Christ were the soul of His
sufferings." Brothers and Sisters, there was so much in the outward
agony of Christ, that my ears have tingled and my heart burned with
wrath when I have heard certain theologians speak lightly of it! Speak
lightly of the sweat of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane? Speak
lightly of the flagellations by Herod and Pilate when the bloody
scourges made the sacred drops to roll? Think lightly of the

shame, spitting and the crown of thorns? Oh, Sirs, dare you think and
speak lightly of the piercing of His hands and of His feet, and of the
fever which those wounds engendered, and that thirst which the fever
and the broiling sun together brought on, and the rending of those
hands when the feet could no longer support the body and the iron tore
through the nerves? Is nothing or little to be said of all this? God
forbid, Brothers and Sisters! We believe that the body of Christ took
its full share of the chastisement. By His stripes we are healed! By
His scourging and bodily chastisements we get at least a portion of the
healing balm which cures the disease of sin! Our sin was with the body
and Christ's Atonement was with the body. Our flesh was sinful and,
therefore, His flesh must suffer. Had we been simply spirits and as
spirits, alone, had sinned, a spirit might have made atonement for
us–and a soul bereft of a body might have been a perfect
substitute–but we are Sons of Adam and still wear this red earth about
us! And as we sin in the body, so must the Savior, with hands, feet,
brow and every member of His blessed frame, be made to suffer to make
atonement for our guilt! Still, still, the travail of His soul was the
chief matter and it is that the text speaks about! Where shall I find a
golden reed with which to measure this city, or where shall I find a
plumb line with which to fathom the depths of agony which I now see
before me? Jesus Christ suffered so that I despair of conceiving His
sufferings, or of conveying them to you by any form of words.

And yet there are two lines of thought which might help us. And the
first is this–the perfection of our Lord's Nature. Just think of this
for a minute. Our Lord was utterly and altogether free from sin or any
tendencies to sin–and yet He came into this world and He lived in the
midst of sinners–and He must, in consequence of this, have suffered a
torture to which you and I are utter strangers, except in some small
measure! Now think for a while–inasmuch as Christ was perfect, He was
capable of an amount of sympathy at which you and I have only made a
guess. What a dreadful thing it is for us, sometimes, to have to go and
walk through a hospital. I know I would feel it to be one of the most
painful days in my life if I had to spend a day in the operating room
of a hospital. I think I would have to be taken out within the first
five minutes! But to be obliged to stay on and see my fellow creatures
suffer beneath the knife, even when used most carefully, and tenderly,
and wisely, would, I think, be too much! Some of you who have never
seen the depths of poverty, if you were obliged to go to those parts
and places where men are dying of starvation–if you were taken away
just now to Orissa, or made to stop in the famine-stricken districts of
Algeria, or even compelled to live for a while in some of the very
poorest districts of this great, but just now, poverty-beaten city, you
would feel it to be a great pain. I tell you, when sometimes there are
half a dozen poor cases before us and we have to help them, and then
there come half a dozen more, and we cannothelp them, it is one of the
pains of life! It is one of the worst ills a man can have to bear, to
be so public as to have all this evil gathered round his feet, and yet
be unable to relieve it! Now we will not say that our Savior was unable
to relieve it, but some sufferings which men had brought upon
themselves by their sin came before Him perpetually, and they must have
pierced and penetrated His tender and sympathetic heart, riddling it,
as it were, with the barbed arrows of grief. Still, He took upon
Himself our infirmities and carried our sorrows all His lifetime.

But there was worse than this. Our Lord, being perfect, must have
shuddered as He came into daily contact with sinners. Shut a good man
up in a den with drunks, unchaste person, and swearers–and what worse
Hell could you devise for him? Might not one prefer to be enclosed in a
den of tigers or vipers sooner than with some classes of society? Now
that kind of shuddering which comes over a chaste man when he is
obliged to listen to the lascivious song, or the holy heart when it is
compelled to hear blasphemy and horrid libels against the Most
High–that existed to a pre-eminent degree in the pure and sensitive
heart of Christ! Wherever He went, He either saw the profligacy of the
publican, or the hypocrisy of the Pharisee, or the infidelity of the
Sadducee, or the formalism of the Scribe. There was not a step that He
took but there was something to grieve Him! Even His own disciples–not
merely by ignorance, but by worse than that–pierced Him to the very
quick, so that He endured a soul travail in some respects during the
whole of His life!

But the point I want to bring you to is this. He was such a perfect
Being and yet sin was actually laid upon Him, and what must this have
been! I would like to express myself cautiously and carefully. Jesus
Christ never was a sinner, never could have been one, never was guilty
of sin. In Him was no sin. Yet the sin of His people was imputed to
Him, for so I understand the words, "The Lord has laid upon Him the
iniquity of us all." What a word! "And He bore the sin of many." This
Chapter has the expression, I think, three or four times over that God
actually laid upon Christ, human sin! Now what a load for Him to carry!
What a pain for sin thus to come into contact with the perfectly holy
soul of the blessed Jesus! You do not know what a very Hell is included
in the thought that sin came to be laid upon Christ. Think of it
yourselves. You are perfectly innocent, tonight, of anything like
murder. Suppose yourselves arraigned tomorrow morning at the police
court and accused of it? How would you feel? You may tell me that your
innocence might and would, sustain you. I have no doubt it would, but
still, what a shame it would be to stand before the vulgar crowd and to

be pointed at as having been guilty of an infamous deed! And suppose
that, although you had not committed the deed, you were, nevertheless,
unable to plead guiltless, for, for certain reasons, it was necessary
that the guilt of the action should lie upon you? Can you now conceive
what strength you would need to keep your tongue from speaking so as to
deny it–and to stand there like the sheep before the shearers–dumb to
your own confusion?

Can you imagine yourselves being condemned to die, though the sin was
not yours, yet out of some great love which you bore to another, you
are condemned? And you can add another supposition–condemned to die
justly, too, although you, yourselves, had not personally been guilty.
Can you picture yourselves coming shuddering up the gallows stairs to
face that dreadful throng assembled around the gallows, with no eye to
pity you among them all, but the whole assembled multitude thrusting
out the tongue, pointing, mocking, jeering and saying, "He trusted in
God that He would deliver him. Let Him deliver him, seeing he delights
in Him." Now the mere dying you could bear, as martyrs have done, but
not the dying with all that weight of sin legally placed upon you! Oh,
who can tell what must have been the horror which took hold upon the
Savior, and how true must have been His expression when He said, "My
soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death"? The Holy One in the
sinner's place! An angel in a dungeon! The God of Heaven veiled in
human flesh to be hung upon the gallows as a malefactor–start as you
think of it and then try to conceive, if you can, what must have been
the horror of His soul!

But I have got another plumb line with which, perhaps, if the Holy
Spirit helps us, we shall be able to fathom the depth better. Think,
Beloved, of what our sins deserved. It is undoubtedly the teaching of
Scripture that a single sin deserves death from God's hand. The very
sparks of sin set Hell on a blaze but what do you deserve who have
transgressed ten thousand times ten thousand times told? And Christ did
not die for you, alone–He died for a multitude that no man can number!
Will you multiply, then, the desert of the sin of one human being by
that of all the countless myriads who are now before the Throne of God
and the yet greater numbers that shall yet be brought there? Now I will
not say that Christ suffered precisely and exactly what all these ought
to have suffered as the result of their sin, but I will say that what
He offered to God was certainly not a less vindication of His justice,
but a greater one than all that would have been, for if all the myriads
of the elect had laid in Hell forever and ever, their debt would have
been no nearer payment after ten thousand times ten thousand years than
at the first! And yet this Man, by His one offering of Himself, has put
away all the sin and all the punishment to all the multitudes for whom
He shed His blood! Transcendent mystery! Angelic minds shall fail to
explore the heights, and depths, and lengths, and breadth of this
atoning Sacrifice! Can you now guess at it? You can, yet you cannot
tell it, for it surpasses language–the travail of the Redeemer's soul!

I ask you now to think of your Lord in His bitter pangs and tormenting
griefs. View Him prostrate in the Garden. See Him sweating great drops
of blood for you. Behold Him tortured by Pilate and Herod, and then see
Him, with broken heart, going up to the accursed tree and there being
made a curse for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in
Him! We must now pass on to observe that there are–

II. CERTAIN RESULTS GUARANTEED FROM THE SUFFERING OF THE LORD.

The Eternal Father says, "He shall see the fruit of the travail of His
soul." That is, He shall see the fruit of it. Jesus is not dead! The
travail was enough to kill Him, but He remembers no more His travail
for the joy of the blessed fruit which is brought into the world
thereby. He looks down from Heaven, tonight, as He has been looking
down ever since He ascended there and He beholds the sweet results of
all His pains and griefs. Now attentively observe one thing. It has
always seemed to us, and I think it will seem reasonable to you, that
if Jesus Christ is to see of the travail of His soul, and to be
satisfied, then whatever was His intention when He laid down His life
will be given Him. This is not far-fetched because if it is written,
"He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied," how
is a man satisfied if he does not have the result, the full result of
his labor, above all such labor–labor even unto death? If a man does
not achieve by his dying all that he died for, then he cannot be
satisfied–unless his first intention is amended, which would imply
that he had been in error. Do you see the drift of this observation?
Jesus Christ did not, then, on the Cross, intend to save every man! It
is not true that Jesus Christ died with the intention of saving every
man of the human race. But this is true–Christ died that every man
might be spared–and they are spared. You are here tonight as the
result of His death. And in that sense He "tasted death for every man."
He died that every man might have the Gospel preached to Him, that
there should be an honest declaration that whoever believes in Jesus
Christ shall be saved. I this night, for the ten thousandth time,
announce to you that Gospel–that if you believe in Jesus Christ, you
shall be saved! And this Gospel is to be preached not to some, but to
every creature under Heaven! And the proclamation of this Gospel comes
universally to all mankind as the result of Christ's death–and in that
sense He tasted death for every man.

But, mark you, He stood as a Substitute for none of you unless you
believe in Him, or shall believe in Him. He suffered for those who
trust Him, but if you trust Him not, you have no part nor lot in this
matter! He had no design to save you. If He had, neither you nor the
devil in Hell could have frustrated that design. But this is His
design, "God so loved the world that whoever believes in Him has
everlasting life." This is the mark of the people for whom Christ
died–that they come and trust in Jesus! By this "broad arrow" are the
blood-bought known, and the blood-redeemed discerned from the
unregenerate mass–by their trusting in Jesus! He has redeemed us from
among men. He loved His Church and gave His Son for it. The Good
Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. All that the Father gives
Him shall come to Him, and him that comes unto Him, He will in no wise
cast out. We know and feel, then, that what was Christ's intention by
His death, He will certainly accomplish! And oh, what a blessed thought
this is for those of us who have to preach the Gospel, that the Gospel
will not be preached in vain, that we do not preach it at haphazard, or
perhaps, or casting dice, as it were, for men's souls! He bought them
and He will have them! They were given Him of old in the decree, and He
will have them, snatching them from between the lion's jaws by the
power of His own Irresistible Grace. Christ sees of the travail of His
soul whenever a sinner touches the hem of His garment and receives the
virtue that comes out of Him. He is satisfied as saints advance in
Grace, as they make progress in the Divine Life. He is most of all
satisfied as, one by one, they go up the glittering pathway to the
gates of pearl and enter into rest. He will be completely satisfied
when all the chosen company shall be on the streets of gold like unto
transparent glass and shall, without the lack of a single voice in the
Divine Choir, sing, "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our
sins in His blood, unto Him be glory forever and ever."

Dear Brothers and Sisters, comfort one another with these words, that
Christ will have His own! He shall see of the travail of His soul and
shall be satisfied. Up with the red flag once again! Sound the trumpet,
you heralds of the Cross! Defy the hosts of Hell! You may defy modern
rationalism and modern Popery, too. You may despise the sneers of the
critics and the banter of the ignorant, and the threats of the
persecutors! None of these can trample that flag beneath their feet.
The King sits upon the Throne of God in Zion, working His way and
having His will. Has He said and shall He not do it? Shall He purpose
and shall it not come to pass? Over your heads there sounds, like the
trumpet of doom, the sound of Jehovah's words, "I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion upon whom I will
have compassion." He does as He wills among the armies of Heaven and
among the inhabitants of this lower world! He shall see His seed! He
shall prolong His days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
His hands!

But again we must pass on. One of the results of the Savior's passion
is now specified in the text, "By His knowledge shall my righteous
Servant justify many."

The former part of my discourse has been addressed to Believers. I
should now like to catch the ear of the unbeliever. Do you know what it
means to be justified? It means, very simply, to be made just–to be
accepted by God–as if you were always just. You have not been just,
but a very long way from it! You have done the things you ought not to
have done. Now if ever you are to be saved, you must be, before God,
righteous. How can you be made righteous? The only way is the way
mentioned in the text–by the knowledge of Christ shall Christ justify
many. "What?" says one, "I thought we were to be made holy through what
we do!" No, not by what you do, but through what you know! "But I know
a great many things," says one. Do you know Jesus Christ? You know
about Him, you say. Do you know this about Him–that He came into the
world to save sinners? Do you know that you are a sinner and do you
know that, therefore, if you cast yourself upon Him, He will save you?
"Well," you say, "we do know that." Well, I want to know whether you
know it in your heart, not merely as a common piece of news, but
whether you know it by experience in your soul? In other words, do you
trust in Him? Do you know Him so as to believe Him? When you know a man
well, if he is a good man, you trust him. You cannot help trusting him
when you know him. So do you know Christ so as to trust Him? If you do,
you shall be justified–that is, God will treat you as if you were
perfectly just and look upon you as if you never did wrong in all your
life! And He will bless you and take you to Heaven as if you had been
an innocent from your mother's breast. "But am I not to do something?"
Nothing. "But am I not to felsomething?" Nothing. The doing and the
feeling will come afterwards–the way to be justified is by knowing.

"How can I know, then?" asks one. Well, listen. Incline your ears and
come unto me. Listen, and your souls shall live, for faith comes by
hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Attend much where the Gospel
is preached, and when you hear it, do not reject it, but accept it! Oh,
my dear Hearer, I wish you would accept the Gospel now–tonight! It all
lies in a nutshell. It is just this–Jesus Christ put Himself into the
sinner's place and whoever will trust Him, Christ put Himself into that
man's place. And that man's sins are not his sins any more. They were
put on Christ and Christ's righteousness belongs to that man. "What?
Even if he has been a drunk?" Yes, if he has been a drunk ever so deep.
"What? If

he has been a swearer?" Yes, yes! If he trusts Christ, his blasphemy
shall not be imputed to him. It was laid on Christ. Christ suffered on
the red Cross where He poured out His life's blood, suffered for that
man's blasphemies. "Well, but he has been in sin all this afternoon." I
care not if he has been in sin up till the last tick of the clock–if
he comes and casts himself upon what Christ has done, with a simple,
hearty, earnest faith–he may come in, for his sins, which are many,
are all forgiven him. "Will he go and do as he did before?" Not if his
sins are forgiven him, for he will love God and he will so love God
that he will hate the things he once loved. He will turn his cups
bottom upwards. And his oaths he will vomit forever. And he will begin
now, once and for all, to walk in the ways of holiness, serving God
whom once he despised. Yes, yes–it is by knowing Christthat men are
justified, and only by this!

"Oh," says one, "I wish I were justified so!" Well, look at the text,
"By His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many." Justify
many! Then why not you? "Lord, are there few that shall be saved?" And
the answer comes, "He shall justify many." Oh, that He would justify
all in this Tabernacle! And why not? The justifying righteousness of
Christ has an unbounded efficacy about it, just as His blood has–and
He will justify not only many–but all who know Him and rely upon Him
shall be found just in the sight of God!

The last clause of the text explains the reason of it all, "For He
shall bear their iniquities."Three or four sentences upon this will be
enough, for the clause is so very plain that it needs no explanation.
The reason why Jesus Christ is able to forgive sin and to make unjust
men, just, is this–because He bears their iniquities. My dear Brothers
and Sisters, you know that in these modern times it is thought to be
very old-fashioned and very ignorant to teach the literal Substitution
of Christ in the place of sinners! And to say that Christ actually bore
our sin and that we bear Christ's righteousness is thought to be an
absurdity! Well then, absurdity or not, God is responsible for it, for
these are His very words, "By His knowledge shall My righteous Servant
justify many, for"–for this very reason–"for He shall bear their
iniquities." Then if Christ did not bear their iniquities, there is no
justifying sinners! This is the very top, and bottom, and basis of
Christ's power to justify–that He, Himself, took the iniquity of those
whom He justifies! There are gentlemen we sometimes meet with who bring
forth new theories of the Atonement–very pretty and very philosophical
ones–and I have sometimes felt inclined to endorse those theories, for
there was a great deal of attractiveness and glitter about them. But I
now tell you my own experience in the matter. I never find my
conscience made peaceful by any theory of the Atonement, except this,
that my sins were actually laid upon Christ and that His righteousness
is put upon me–and it is only when I firmly believe in that Divine
exchange and blessed Substitution that I find quiet and rest within!
And as long as this is the case, I shall cling to the old anchorage and
let who will, try new-fangled ways! If Christ really did suffer for
sinners, then God is just in not punishing sinners. But if He did not
actually suffer for sinners, then there is no Atonement, the justice of
God is not satisfied and there is no basis for a sinner to rest upon at
all!

Now what say you, my Hearers? Can you look to Christ upon the Cross,
with a load of sin upon Him, and can you say, "I lay my guilt there"?
Can you look to Him in the throes of death, bruised beneath His
Father's rod, and can you say, "He was bruised for me–my sins I have
confessed and laid them upon Him"? Then are you happy! But if there has
been none to bear your sins, then remember, I beseech you, that you
will have to bear them yourselves! And if they gave Christ a travail,
oh, what will they give you? Oh, impenitent ones, if the imputed sins
that were laid on Christ made Him sorrowful, even unto death, what will
your actual sins do with you when you are made drunk with the wormwood
and God makes you to break your teeth with gravel–when you are cast
out into outer darkness, where there is weeping and wailing, and
gnashing of teeth? If the veil were lifted, we might hear, tonight, the
cries of spirits that are banished far from God without a hope. Within
an hour that may be your portion, unconverted Hearer! In a few more
years, which will seem as short as an hour when you have looked back
upon them, that will be your portion if you die impenitent! And if you
do not repent tonight, what cause have you to hope that you will repent
tomorrow? Hearts do not soften by delay! Spirits are not rendered more
susceptible of gracious influences by procrastination! Christ's word
is, "now." Cast it not off with the devil's word–"tomorrow." You must
suffer, or Christ must be your Surety. What shall it be? Shall it be
the hands fastened to the wood, yonder, or shall yourhands be tormented
in the flame? Shall it be that tongue which said, "I thirst," or shall
it be yourtongue which shall long for a drop of water in vain? Shall it
be those feet that were fastened to the tree, or shall it be
yourmembers which have been servants to unrighteousness, and which
shall be partakers in the Divine Wrath? As the Lord lives who once was
crucified, I ask you to remember that I bade you this night in His
name, close in with Him and trust Him! There is no door of hope for you
but this–believe and live! So stands the Scripture. But if you laugh
at this, if you despise this, if you forget this, if in any shape–

"Your ears refuse

The language of His Grace

And hearts grow hard like stubborn Jews,

That unbelieving race.

The Lord, in vengeance,

Will lift His hand and swear–

'You that despised My promised rest

Shall have no portion there.

If you believe not, it will be because you are not of His sheep, as He
said unto you. But think not that you will make void His purpose, or
disappoint the bleeding Lamb! Ah, no! If you will not come, others
will. If you perish outside the ark, others shall enter and shall be
saved. Perhaps your own wife, your own child shall be made willing,
while you still reject. Oh, then, I pray you pause awhile this Sabbath
evening, when the year is going on apace. When we have not long since
passed, as it were, through the gates of the spring, and all the
flowers are beginning to bloom, and the buds to burst forth, just ask
whether it is not time for your hearts to open and your souls to
bud–and your spirits to bring forth some hope, some love, some
obedience to your Lord! And oh, may you do it! His shall be the praise,
but yours shall be the great joy! And He shall have joy, too, as He
shall thus see of the travail of His soul!

I could wish, and I do wish, that some of you would believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ before you go home tonight. You may not have many more
times to go home. This may be the very last time that you shall ever
come here. It will not make you wretched on earth. It will increase
your happiness here. It will help you to live and help you to die. It
will make those eyes brighter and put that heart at greater ease. And
as for eternity, this is the true Lamp for its darkness, this is the
true Light for all its gloom! What will you do without Christ? Oh, get
Him and you shall be eternally blest! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM 72:1-16.

"A Psalm for Solomon"–much more for one who is greater than Solomon,
the true Prince of Peace!

Verse 1. Give the king Your judgments, O God, and Your righteousness
unto the king's Son. So it is decreed, and so it has been accomplished,
that Jesus, who is both a King and a King's Son, should have all
judgment delivered into His hands. And now, at this time, Christ is the
Judge. It is He who discerns between the precious and the vile. He sits
as King in the midst of Zion.

2. He shall judge Your people with righteousness, and your poor with
judgment The Kingdom of Christ has a special eye to the poor. They are
generally passed by and forgotten in the scope of legislature among
men, but Christ makes even His poor people–the poor in spirit,
also–to be the objects of His judgment.

3, 4. The mountains shall bringpeace to thepeople, and the little
hills, by righteousness. He shall judge the poor of the people, He
shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the
oppressor In the reign of Christ there shall be no treading down of the
little by the great–no pressure put upon the feeble by the strong–but
His right hand shall get to the weakest cause, the victory!

5. They shall fear You as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout
all generations. For the Kingdom of Christ renews itself. It is never
broken in pieces by the power of the enemy, but every piece becomes a
new root, and it springs up again. There are some plants of which they
say that the more you tread upon them, the more they will spread, and
certainly it is the case with the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. As
long as there is a sun in the heavens, and a moon to gladden the night,
so shall the Kingdom of Christ endure!

6. He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that
water the earth Christ shall not come like fire to burn up and to
destroy, for His Kingdom is one of mercy and Divine Grace. When the
grass has just been wounded with the scythe, He shall come down to
bring it refreshment that it may spring up again. In plenteous showers
of Grace shall He visit wounded spirits.

7. In His days shall the righteous flourish: and abundance of peace so
long as the moon endures. There have been empires which have been
propitious to the flourishing of great wrongs. Some of the worst and
vilest of men have flourished under certain empires which have but
lately passed away. But in the Empire of Christ, the righteous alone
shall flourish. Everything about Him and about His power shall make it
go well for them, and His Empire is the most truly peace –"abundance
of peace so long as the moon endures."

8. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto
the ends off the earth. Universal monarchy is to be the Monarchy of
Christ! This is the fifth great Monarchy, and there shall never be
another! No king or potentate that shall ever rise can possibly have
universal dominion again. We need not fear that, for the fifth Empire
is that of the Christ of God, and behold He comes to claim it!

9. They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him and His
enemies shall lick the dust. The most distant tribes–those that wander
and have no settled dwelling place–shall, nevertheless, bow before
Him. The Arab boasts that he never knew a master–that even Caesar
could not penetrate into his deserts and subdue him! But Christ shall
be his Lord, and he will be glad to acknowledge Him!

10. The kings off Tarshish and off the isles shall bring presents: the
kings off Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. We need not be afraid if
this Psalm refers to Christ–and we do not doubt that it does. He must
reign. The end of the world is not coming until there shall be a
conquest for Him. He may come before that time, but certainly there
shall be no winding up of history until this shall be literally true!
"The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents."

11. 12. Yes, all kings shall fall down before Him: all nations shall
serve Him. For He shall deliver the needy when he cries; the poor also,
and he that has no helper. The Psalmist seems glad to dwell upon that.
It seems to be the joy note in his mind–that the Great King–the
greatest of all kings–will care for the lowly and the humble. Let us
rejoice in this, dear Friends. Christ is chosen out of the people and
exalted by God–and He is the Christ not only ready to save the
highest, but to save the lowest! From His Kingdom we may say–

''None are excluded hence but those Who do themselves exclude! Welcome
the learned and polite, The ignorant and rude."

13-15. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of
the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence:
andprecious shall their blood be in His sight. And He shall live. They
say, "O king, live forever." It can never happen to their kings, but to
our King it will happen! "He shall live."

15. And to Him shall be given off the gold off Sheba–He shall have the
best the world can find willingly given to Him. I am sure that we who
know His love think that we have nothing good enough for Him. We would
render to Him all that we have.

15. Prayer also shall be made for Him continually. With the gold shall
come the golden prayer–the prayer for Christ. But how can we pray for
Him? Why, that He may have the reward of His sufferings and see of the
travail of His soul–that His Kingdom may come and that His name may be
dear in the hearts of men!

15. And daily shall He be praised. He shall have praise as well as
prayer and gold.

16. There shall be an handful off corn in the earth upon the top off
the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they off
the city shall flourish like grass off the earth. It was corn–good
seed corn, but there was only a handful of it. So there were saints in
the world, but there were very few of them. And where were they? On the
tops of the mountains! A strange place for corn–not a likely place for
a harvest. So have God's servants been pushed into the corners of the
earth. There they were in the valleys of Piedmont for many a year
fighting for dear life. And in all lands, those that have been faithful
to God have been put away into the corners–driven, as it were, to the
mountaintops. But what has come of it, and what will come of it? Why,
the fruit shall shake like Lebanon. The golden corn, standing upright
in its strength, adorned with its ear, shall wave in the breeze as
pleasing a sight even as the cedar of Lebanon!