The Lord’s Famous Titles

The Lord's Famous Titles

(No. 2347)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S DAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1894.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
NOVEMBER 10, 1889.

"The LORD looses the prisoners: the LORD opens the eyes of the blind:
the LORD raises them that are bowed down: the LORD lo ves the
righteous: the LORD preserves the strangers, He relie ves the
fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked He turns upside down."
Psalm 146:7-9.

This morning as well as I could, looking to God for help, I tried, in
Christ's place, to persuade men to be reconciled to God. I showed that
there was a great spiritual drought and neither dew nor rain to be had
except as God should send it. And I tried to press my hearers to go to
God, to wait upon Him, to look to Him and, through the mediation of the
Lord Jesus Christ, to seek and find in God all that would be necessary
for their eternal blessedness. [Sermon #2115, Volume

35-The Drought Of Nature, the Rain Of Grace and the Lesson Thereof] I

pressed hard and some yielded, not to my pressure, but to a Divine
impulse that went with my pleading! But there were some who did not
yield, this morning, so I am going to make another attempt to win them,
now, calling in our August Ally, even the Divine Spirit, without whom
we can do nothing! May He bring many to God in penitence tonight!

You know that it helps men to come to a person when they know who he
is, how good he is and how likely it is that they will find benefit by
coming to him. My text tells us something about God, the Lord Jehovah.
Five times the word occurs at the head of a sentence, Jehovah, Jehovah,
Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah. Sometimes, when a great king or prince has a
high day, a herald proclaims the titles of His Majesty. He is prince of
this, and lord of that, and emperor of the other–too often a lot of
empty sounds. But when we come to speak of God, every title of His
falls short of what is His real Glory and honor! Tonight we have five
of His titles put together, five wonderful achievements of God, five
things for which the Lord would have Himself noted. I want each one of
you here to hear about them and to say, "That encourages me," or, "That
cheers me," or, "That helps me." At any rate, out of the five great
magnets that I will try to use, tonight, may one or other draw all our
reluctant hearts to God, that we may find rest and peace in Him!

I. There are five famous titles of God here. The first one is, THE
EMANCIPATOR. Read the latter part of the seventh verse–"The Lord
looses the prisoners."

It is God's Glory that He is an Emancipator. How often, in the Old
Testament, and in the New, too, you find the Lord loosing the
prisoners! It was so notably in the case of Joseph, when God brought
him out of the prison and set him up as Lord over all Egypt. And it is
still more notable in the case of Israel in Egypt when, with a high
hand, and a stretched-out arm, the Lord brought forth His people from
all the tyranny of Pharaoh, whom He destroyed in the Red Sea. You may
keep on reading Scripture and you will continually find that it is
true, "The Lord looses the prisoners."

I want some of you who are here to catch at that thought. Are you
mentally a prisoner under gloom, tonight? Did a cloud come over you a
little while ago? Does it still rest upon your mind? Can no physician
remove it? Listen to this word–"The Lord looses the prisoners." Are
you in the bondage of error? Have you been misled by false teachers?
Have you fallen into mistakes about the Word of God? Are you denying
the great Truths of God which would comfort you? Are you believing the
great errors which becloud your spirit? Come to God for teaching! He
can emancipate you from any form of error, even though you have been
brought up in it from a child. "The Lord looses the prisoners." Or have
you come under some gross delusion? Are you the victim of some false
impression which you cannot shake? I pray you, if you are harried and
worried by temptations of Satan and he seems to have a firm foothold in
your spirit, and cannot be driven out, let

this text, like a silver bell, ring out comforting music to you, "The
Lord looses the prisoners." Oh, that you who are in mental bonds might
be set free tonight!

There are, however, worse bonds than those, the chains of moral
slavery. This man is a drunk and though he has taken the pledge, he
cannot escape from the terrible craving which intemperate habits have
brought upon him. Ah, Friend, come to Christ! He can take away the love
of strong drink and set you free! "The Lord looses the prisoners" and
He can do that for men and women who have given themselves up as lost.
God have mercy upon wretched women when they become the prey of strong
drink! To my certain knowledge, this evil is becoming much more common
than it was a few years ago. More frequently do we have to mourn over
fallen sisters than we did some years back. It is sad that it should be
so, but the glorious fact remains that "the Lord looses the prisoners."
Do not despair, poor women! Have hope of deliverance! God can yet loose
you from the bonds of strong drink.

Has anyone here fallen into bondage to a lust? Has some evil passion
got a tight hold on you and you cannot break the bonds? There is One
who can set you free! Yes, though you have been indulging in the evil
for many years and seem to be wedded to an evil habit from which you
cannot escape, still is it true, "The Lord looses the prisoners." Do
not trust in yourself to get rid of the evil, but look to Him who died
for sin upon the Cross and trust in Him, for it is written, "He shall
save His people from their sins." I cannot stay, tonight, to mention
all the kinds of moral bondage into which men and women fall, but let
this sweet message be like a stray note from the harps of angels to all
who are in bondage, "The Lord looses the prisoners."

Perhaps you are held fast in spiritual bondage. This is where we are
all by nature–we are born slaves. Are you, tonight, my Friend,
conscious that you are a slave to sin? Are you fast bound by your
trespasses? O spiritual slave, there is an Emancipator who can take
your chains from you! "If the Son shall make you free, you shall be
free, indeed, "and He is able to do it with a single word! Only trust
Him, only yield yourselves up to Him as willing captives, and you shall
be free from that moment! God make you free tonight! Yes, and He can
loose you from every iniquity in which you may be enslaved!

There is another kind of emancipation which the Lord is constantly
giving to the prisoners of hope, even deliverance from this present
evil world. You are sick, tonight. You are sad, you are cast down and
troubled because of the burden of the flesh. "The Lord looses the
prisoners." There is many a prisoner who has been loosed during the
last week or two– dear members of this Church who had been confined to
sick beds. The Lord has opened the cage door and the bird, set at
liberty, has gone caroling up to the skies! The body has been put into
the grave and lies imprisoned there in vile durance, but He shall come,
who, Himself, rose from the dead, and when His feet shall touch the
earth, again, and the angelic trumpet shall sound the summons, their
bodies shall come forth–

"From beds of dust and silent clay To realms of everlasting day," for
"the Lord looses the prisoners!"

Here is a theme for a whole evening's discourse, but I do not want to
take up any more time over this point. I wish rather to drive home this
wedge–if you are prisoners, if you are under any form of bondage–come
to God in Christ Jesus and put your trust in Him, for, "the Lord looses
the prisoners."

II. We must hasten on to notice a second famous title for the Lord,
that is, THE ILLUMINATOR–"The Lord opens the eyes of the blind."

If you will kindly look at your copies of the Bible, you will find that
the words, "the eyes of," are inserted in italics by the translators,
so that the text really is, "The Lord opens the blind." Ah, He opens
the very soul of the blind and lets the Light of God in where there are
no eyes! Have you not noticed that it is so? If anybody were to say to
me, "Mr. Spurgeon, pick out a dozen of the happiest people that you
know," ten of them would be blind people! We have some dear Friends,
members of this Church, who are among the happiest souls that God has
ever made! It is long since they saw the light, but God has opened
their hearts in such a way that they enjoy a wonderful quietness of
spirit, great placidity of mind and an inward Light and splendor which
persons with eyes might well envy! I have noticed that blind people are
often among the happiest people and blind Christians certainly might
take the chief place among us for their quiet and rest of mind! The
Lord Jesus Christ opens the blind–He comes and sheds a Light when the
windows of the body are closed–and gives Light within, so that they
are full of brightness.

But if you like to take the text as it is in our translation, it will
do very well. When the Lord Jesus Christ was here, He opened the eyes
of the blind. He touched many a sightless eye, and the light streamed
in! Read the Evangels through and you will find this miracle constantly
recurring. Blindness is a very common ailment in the East and the
miracle of recovering the sight of the blind was, therefore, frequent
with our Lord.

Next, the Lord enables blind souls to see. Here is a great mercy. The
Lord has opened the eyes of many a man who could not see himself and so
proved how blind he was–and could not see the Lord and so showed,
still more, how blind he was. The Lord has given the inner sight to
many a man who was without spiritual understanding, to whom the Gospel
seemed a great mystery, of which he could make neither heads nor tails.
The Lord has made the scales to fall from many blind mental eyes and
enabled those who were blind, first, to see themselves, and then to see
their Savior. Blessed be His name!

And whenever the blind of the earth fall asleep in Jesus and enter into
Heaven, they shall have no blindness in Glory. There, their eyes shall
see the King in His beauty–they shall behold His face and rejoice in
His love. Jehovah is a great Eye-Opener–cannot some of you blind
people catch at this Truth of God and say–"Then we will come to Him,
for we need to have our eyes opened"?

Perhaps someone says, "Sir, I do not quite comprehend all that you say.
I have been a hearer for some time and I want to understand the Gospel.
I try to grasp it, but, somehow, I cannot get at the Truth of God."
Come, in prayerful faith, to God, Himself, tonight, and He will explain
it to you! I can hold the Light of God to your eyes, but, if they are
blind, I cannot make you see. But the Lord can give the sight as well
as the Light and I beseech you to ask it at His hands, tonight. There
is nothing really difficult in the Gospel and if you will come to Jesus
like a teachable child and ask to be instructed of Him, you will find
that it is all plain to him that believes. Of the way of holiness it is
written, "The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein."

If you come to God for Grace, dear Friend, He will never limit you. You
need not be poor Christians–you may be "rich to all the intents of
bliss." You need not have shallow Grace–you may, if you wish, get into
"waters to swim in." Giving will not impoverish Him, withholding will
not enrich Him, but, rather, giving enriches Him, it enriches His very
heart with great joy, for He delights to give! Come, and take freely,
and learn the liberality of God! I remember one who called himself, "a
gentleman-commoner upon the bounty of God." Some of us can take the
same title. We have had a hand basket portion for many years–not a
sack full at a time, but a full hand basket! That is a good way of
living. If a girl gets a portion from her father and the old gentleman
never gives her anything else, she does not receive so much as her
sister who has a hand basket portion many days in the week. A present
often comes to her from the old house at home. Father sends it every
time with his love and she receives more love and more thought, and he,
too, receives more gratitude in return, perhaps, than if he had given
his daughter one lump sum, and then his generosity was all over. It is
a blessed way of learning the liberality of God, to be receiving freely
and receiving continually from Him! "He gives more Grace."

Come, then, to God by Jesus Christ, because He is, first, the
Emancipator and, secondly, the Illuminator.

III. Now for the third bright title of the Lord. That is, THE
COMFORTER. Read the middle sentence of verse eight–"The Lord raises
them that are bowed down."

Some are bowed down with bereavement. Well may she be bowed down who
has just committed to the earth the beloved of her heart. And well may
he go mourning whose first-born son has been taken from him by a sudden
stroke. Well may some lament who have lost the choicest friend that man
ever had, and find that half their life is gone in the death of that
beloved one, yet, "The Lord raises them that are bowed down." Come,
tell your grief to Him who pitied the widow at the gate of Nain! Come,
pour out your sorrow before Him who wept with the beloved sisters at
Bethany when Lazarus was dead! He can help you, for He, "raises them
that are bowed down."

Some are bowed down sadly by the burdens of life. They have more to
carry than most men have. They stagger along, from day to day, beneath
a load that threatens to crush them into the dust. Oh, come to my Lord
who gives new strength to bear burdens, for He raises up those that are
bowed down! It is amazing what a man can do when God has laid His hand
on him and said to him, "Be strong." You are faint and you will faint
without your God, but you will be strong if you come and trust Him,
for, "Jehovah raises them that are bowed down."

Maybe you are bowed down with inward distress. Ah, there is no cure for
some forms of distress but to go straight away to God! The scandal of
our ministry is the despondency that we cannot disperse. How often I
have come down from talking with some dear friends, here, whose minds
have been distracted, and I have had to confess myself, "dead beat."
God has

helped me to comfort many–it is my lot, almost wherever I may be, to
be followed by persons suffering in mind. I sometimes laugh and tell
them that "birds of a feather flock together" and that they must think
me half-cracked and so they come to me to sympathize with them! Well,
so be it–there is a kind of sympathy between me and them. But I have
learned this lesson, that to bring comfort to a diseased mind is not
within the preacher's power except his Master shall specially qualify
him for the task and, in any case, I say to you, dear troubled Friends,
go straight away to Him of whom you read these sweet words, "The Lord
raises them that are bowed down."

Have I the extreme joy, tonight, of addressing in this congregation one
who is bowed down by a sense of sin? Where are you, Magdalene, hiding
your face in tears? Where are you, poor erring prodigal, longing to
come back to your Father, but too bowed down to start upon the journey?
Listen–"The Lord raises them that are bowed down." He loves to find
the poor sinner crouching on the dunghill, putting his head into the
dust in very despair of heart, and He delights to come and put His hand
upon him and say, "Stand upon your feet; fear not." There is a great
God of mercies who glories in doing wonders of Grace, forgiving even
the blackest sin! I say again, I would like to ring this text like a
silver bell in the ears of every penitent sinner here, and say, "The
Lord raises them that are bowed down."

IV. We are getting on with our text, for we have come to the fourth
great title. God is THE REWARDER–"The Lord loves the righteous." Come,
dear Friends, here is a wafer made with honey! Here is a feast of fat
things, full of marrow for you who are the people of God, you whom He
has accounted righteous because the perfect righteousness of Christ has
been imputed to you!

First, "the Lord loves the righteous" with a love of complacency. He
takes delight in them. He loves them, not merely with a love of
benevolence that desires their good, but He looks with pleasure and
delight at righteous men, those whom He has made righteous, those who
love Him because they are righteous and who are like He in being
righteous. The Lord looks at them and rejoices over them. How that
ought to cheer any of you who have been made holy by God's Grace! The
Lord's delight is in you! He calls you His Hephzibahs, saying, "My
delight is in them." Wherever there is anything of Christ, anything of
righteousness, anything of holiness, there is evidence of the Lord's
love! So, in the first place, "the Lord loves the righteous" with a
love of complacency.

He does more than that. He loves the righteous with a love of
communion. Remember how the Lord puts it, by the mouth of Isaiah, "For
thus says the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity, whose name is
Holy. I dwell in the high and holy place, with him, also, that is of a
contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to
revive the heart of the contrite ones." I doubt not that God often
talks with righteous men. "The secret of the Lord is with them that
fear Him." He lets them speak to Him and He speaks to them in return.
Do you know anything about this communion with God? If you do not,
never say that others do not, for we are as honest and truthful as you
are–and we bear our testimony that there is such a thing as walking
with God! We declare, from happy, heart-felt experience, that there is
such a thing as talking with God, knowing that He loves us and that His
love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given
unto us.

God also loves His people with a love of favor. He loves them so that
He will give them anything that they need. Yes, He has said, through
the Psalmist, "No good thing will He withhold from them that walk
uprightly." He loves the righteous so that, when they go into their
chamber to pray to Him, He may let them plead a little while because it
is for their good to do so, but He will always yield to their desires.
He has said, "Delight yourself, also, in the Lord, and He shall give
you the desires of your heart." He does that with His people. The Lord
loves the righteous so as to favor them with extraordinary blessings,
things of which I cannot talk, here, for there is many a love-passage
between Christ and the righteous soul that must never be told. We do
not talk of our love-passages in the streets–that would be half
profane. Nor can we even tell of them here. There are favors which the
Lord shows to His righteous people, which they know, and He knows, but
which no one else can know till that day when all things shall be
revealed!

And once more, the Lord loves the righteous so that He will honor them.
If men are righteous, the world will hate them and, as a proof of its
hatred, it will begin to splatter them. There are always some in the
world who say, "Throw plenty of mud, some of it will stick," and oh,
how they delight to throw it! Their hands seem to take to the dirt
naturally. But, Beloved, if you follow God fully, your character will
never be long tarnished. Do not try to answer those who slander you. If
a donkey kicked you, would you kick the donkey? If a fool brings a
charge against you, do not reply to him. Let him rail on–God will
vindicate you. Remember that Psalm from which I quoted just now, the
thirty-seventh–"commit

your way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to
pass. And He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and
your judgment as the noonday." It may even happen to a man that he may
perform an action that will never be understood while he lives. But the
true man of God lives for eternity, not for time. He says, "I do not
care if it takes 500 years for the righteousness of my action to be
seen by my fellow men, it will not make it any more righteous when they
do see it, nor will it be any less righteous while they do not see it!
What have I to do with men? I serve the living God." If you get into
that condition of heart, you can trust your reputation, your life, your
usefulness entirely with God, for "the Lord loves the righteous." A day
shall come when all the world shall know it, when they who are
righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father,
and God shall say of them, "Well done, good and faithful servants,
enter into the joy of your Lord."

Now, then, will you not come to Him, since His favorites are the best
people in all the world? Kings and princes have often been known to
choose their associates among the worst of their subjects–men who
ministered to their baser passions. The favorites of kings have often
been the offscouring of the earth, but our King loves the righteous! He
will have none to be His courtiers, to come near to Him, to dwell
before His face, but those who walk uprightly through His mighty Grace!
I think that there is something very inviting there to you who are of a
true heart, something which ought to induce you to come to such a God
as this–the Lord who loves the righteous.

V. But now, last of all, and, perhaps, sweetest of all, the fifth name
of God is THE PRESERVER–"The Lord preserves the strangers; He relieves
the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked He turns upside
down." My time is so nearly gone that I can only just ask you to apply,
by God's help, the few words that I shall say.

Notice, first, that God preserves strangers. In all nations, in the
olden times, strangers were driven out. They did not want any
foreigners settling among them. In this country, in almost every
village, it used to be the practice for a stranger to be regarded as a
kind of mad dog. And if he happened to wear a different garb from that
of the villagers, all the boys hooted him. It seems that our depraved
humanity is naturally unkind to strangers! I often hear people say,
even now, "Oh, he is a foreigner!" O you proud Englishman! Is he not as
good as you? You are a foreigner when you get to the other side of the
English Channel! It was God's order to His ancient people that they
were to be kind to strangers. Wherever they came, they were to be
allowed to dwell and were to be taken care of. God put it thus to
Israel–"You shall neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him, for you
were strangers in the land of Egypt." And because God loved them when
they were strangers in Egypt, they were to take special care of
strangers and foreigners who came into their midst.

What a grand trait this is in God's Character, "The Lord preserves the
strangers!" If any of you feel to be strangers here, tonight. If you
are strangers to religion, strangers to religious observances,
strangers to everything that is good. If you feel, when you hear the
Gospel, that you are altogether a stranger to it–it sounds so odd in
your ears, come along, dear Stranger, "The Lord preserves the
strangers!" Come under the shadow of His wings and you shall find
shelter there. Father is dead, mother is dead, friends are all gone and
even in the very village where you were born you are a stranger– come
along, your God is not dead, your Savior lives–"The Lord preserves the
strangers."

Then notice the next sentence in our text–"He relieves the fatherless
and widow." If you turn to the first Books of the Bible, you will see,
there, God's great care of the fatherless and the widow. Who had the
tithes? Well, the Levites, but also the poor, and the stranger, and the
fatherless and the widow! If you look at Deuteronomy 14:28, or 26:12,
you will find that the tithes were not exclusively for the priests, but
they were also for the widow, the fatherless and the strangers. Besides
this, the Israelites were never to glean their fields twice, for the
gleanings were for the widow and the fatherless. And they were never to
shake the olive tree or any fruit tree twice, but to leave what
remained upon it for the widow and the fatherless. There was also this
Law of God made, that they should never take as a pledge the raiment of
a widow. That is pretty often done in London, but it might not be done,
then–the garment of the widow might never be taken in pledge. Wherever
the legislation of God for His people touched upon the widow and the
fatherless, it was immeasurably kind. Now, then, you who feel like
widows. You who have lost your joy and earthly comfort. You who feel
like the fatherless and say, "No man cares for my soul," oh, may the
sweet Spirit of the Lord entice you to come to Him, for, as I reminded
you in the reading, "A father of the fatherless and a judge of the
widows is God in His holy habitation."

But the view of God's Character would not be complete if it were not
added, "The way of the wicked He turns upside down." You see, the godly
and they who trust God are always in danger from the wicked, but He
turns the way of the wicked upside down! Take an example. Joseph's
brothers sell him into Egypt and make a slave of him. God turns this
ar-

rangement upside down and makes a prince of him! Think of Mordecai.
Haman will have him hanged–he has the gallows ready, but Haman is
hanged on his own gallows! God knows how to make the malice of men
promote the benefit of those against whom they turn their cruelty! "The
way of the wicked He turns upside down."

Be you just and fear not! Rest in Christ's atoning Sacrifice! Trust Him
only! Come to your God and be His servant from this day and forever,
and you shall see how He will break your bonds, open your eyes, cheer
your spirit, indulge you with His love and preserve you even to the
end! "There shall no evil befall you, neither shall any plague come
near your dwelling." God bless you, dear Friends, and may you all come
to God, tonight, through Jesus Christ our Lord! Amen.

EXPOSITIONS BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM146; LUKE 17:11-19

Psalm 146:1. Praise you the LORD. Or, "Hallelujah." I am sorry to see
that great word, Hallelujah, Hallelu-Jah, praise to Jah, Jehovah,
become so hackneyed as it is, by talk about "Hallelujah lasses," and
Hallelujah–I know not what. The Jews will not even pronounce the word
Jah, or write it. It seems a great pity that it should be thus dragged
in the dirt by Gentiles. "Praise you the Lord." Whenever you make use
of the word Hallelujah, let it be with the due reverence which should
be given to that blessed name, for remember, "the Lord will not hold
him guiltless that uses His name in vain."

1. Praise the LORD, O my Soul. Whatever we exhort others to do, we
should be ready to do ourselves. Yes, our own soul should praise the
Lord most of all, since, if we rightly know our obligations, no one in
the world is so much indebted to God as each one of us should feel
himself to be. "Praise the Lord, O my Soul." Not my lips, only, but my
innermost spirit, for soul-music is the soul of music–"Praise the
Lord, O my Soul."

2. While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God
while I have any being. I will lisp His praises when I can do no more.
When my being seems to be dried up, in the weakness of the death-throe,
still, "I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being."

3. Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there
is no help. What is the connection, here, between praising God and not
trusting man? Why, this connection, that we never praise God better
than by exercising faith in Him! Quiet trust is among the sweetest
music that reaches the heart of God and when we put our trust in man,
we rob God of His Glory–we are giving to others the confidence which
belongs, alone, to Him.

4. His breath goes forth, he returns to his earth; in that very day his
thoughts perish. What is man–with a life dependent upon his breath,
such a vapory thing, such a thin, unsubstantial thing is human
life–what is he that we should trust in

him?

5. Happy is he that has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in
the LORD his God. He is the happy man who has learned to trust in the
invisible God.

6. Which made Heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is:
which keeps the Truth of God forever. Never did His promise fail.
Perhaps, dear Brothers and Sisters, you have not pleaded the promises
enough of late. Then the Mercy Seat is the place where promises must be
pleaded, with the certainty that then they shall be fulfilled.

7. Which executes judgment for the oppressed: which gives food to the
hungry. The LORD looses the prisoners. Souls that are in bondage will
never get freedom till the Lord looses them! Oh, that prisoners of
hope, who are here, this evening, might have Grace to look to God! You
cannot pick the lock of your prison, yourself, nor forge your way
through the iron bars of despair, but, "the Lord looses the prisoners."
Yes, but when they get loose, they are blind, for man, by nature, is
blinded by sin! Therefore the Psalmist adds–

8. The LORD opens the eyes of the blind. He will not only give you
liberty, but understanding, insight into His Word, a knowledge of
Himself! Yes, but when men get their eyes opened, they see much to make
them sorry and He that increases knowledge often increases sorrow! Yes,
but look at the next words–

8. The LORD raises them that are bowed down. He can take away
depression of spirit and relieve the heart of its burdens and, as the
woman who was bowed down for many years, was made straight by the word
of Christ, so can those that suffer from mental infirmity be restored.
And best of all–

8. The LORD loves the righteous. He loves them and His love is wealth
and health. The love of God is all a creature needs.

9. The Lord preserves the strangers. When our eyes are opened and we
are no more bowed down, but feel we have a sense of God's love, yet we
still know that we are exiles, banished ones, strangers and foreigners,
as all our fathers were. It is comforting, therefore, to be assured
that, "the Lord preserves the strangers."

9. He relieves the fatherless and widow. He does so literally–"A
Father of the fatherless, and a Judge of the widows is God in His holy
habitation." He also relieves such spiritually. When any feel
themselves to be poverty-stricken and unable to help themselves, let
them look to Him who is both able and willing to succor them, for, "He
relieves the fatherless and the widow."

9. But the way of the wicked He turns upside down. Where they looked
for joy, they experienced disappointment. Where they expected success,
they met with defeat, and whereas they thought to heap to themselves
pleasures according to their lusts, they find that they have only
increased their misery.

10. The LORD shall reign forever, even your God, O Zion, unto all
generations. Praise you the LORD. The Sovereignty of God should be the
delight of His people. God anywhere is blessed, but God on His Throne
should make His people shout their Hallelujahs with all their heart.
Now let us read in the New Testament about one who glorified God and
gave thanks to Jesus.

Luke 17: 11, 12. And it came to pass, as He went to Jerusalem, that He
passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as He entered into
a certain village, there met Him ten men that were lepers, which stood
afar off: Lepers were allowed to enter villages, but not to go into the
large walled towns. They were, however, commanded to stand at a certain
distance from other people–and these men did so. This must have been a
terrible sight! Ten men afflicted with such a horrible disease, all in
one group! It shows how prevalent, at that time, was this disease, now
happily so rare, at least among us–"Ten men that were lepers." It
seemed as if the effect of sin in men became more conspicuous in the
day when the Great Healer of men was here in Person. Then Satan's chain
was lengthened that he might have greater power over the bodies of men,
that his Master might subdue him and that Christ Jesus the Lord might
have the greater victory over the Prince of Darkness.

13, 14. And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have
mercy on us! And when He saw them, He said unto them, go show
yourselves unto the priests. There was a tacit promise in that that
they should be healed, for, of course, the showing themselves to the
priests was not that they might be pronounced unclean, for they were so
pronounced already by their own confession, but that they might be
pronounced clean! They were to go to the priests and there was an
implied promise that if they so went, when the priests looked upon them
they would be healed.

14-16. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And
one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back and, with a
loud voice, glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet,
giving Him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. He was probably the only one
out of the 10 that was a Samaritan. Though Jews and Samaritans did not
usually agree, yet, as sorrow brings a man strange bedfellows, so in
this case, these partners in a general sorrow forgot their sectarianism
and were blended into one sad company. Now that they were all healed,
only one felt true gratitude to God, and to his Benefactor–"and he was
a Samaritan."

It is very singular to notice that Luke tells us that this man
glorified God, "with a loud voice." We have, sometimes, heard
complaints that, at certain revival meetings, the singing was very loud
and there was even shouting. Let the converts shout, Brothers and
Sisters, let them shout! They have good reason to shout, for Christ has
made them whole. We have a great deal too much of respectable death
about us–let us have a little noisy life. I would sooner by half hear
the praises of God shouted with a loud voice than hear the mockery of
praise in a tone that is scarcely to be heard, while some machine
grinds out music to God's glory–and men forget to sing or are drowned
in loud bursts of wind from the instrument! Do not be ashamed to let it
be known that you are saved. Praise the Lord with all your might and,
if they say that you are excited, tell them that you are and that you
wonder if anybody could help being excited if he had been healed of
leprosy or had his sins forgiven!

But, at the same time, note the humility as well as the zeal of this
man–he "fell down on his face at His feet." I would like to see more
of this action. In some revivals, there is plenty of shouting, but very
little falling down on the face at Christ's feet. Oh, for deep
prostration of spirit, a humble waiting upon God, a gracious, tender
confession of thanks to Him for all that He has done for poor leprous
sinners!

17, 18. And Jesus answering, said, Were there not ten cleansed? But
where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to
God, save this stranger? Often those who are thought to be the worst of
people turn out the best. Many of the

most precious pearls have been found in the deepest sea and some of the
most grateful hearts have been discovered among those who were most
immersed in sin and error.

19. And He said unto him, arise, go your way; your faith has made you
whole. Christ uses the word, "whole," in an emphatic sense–"Not only
your body, but also your soul is made whole, and you are holy from this
day." There is a wonderful connection between these two words, "whole,"
and, "holy." A holy man is a whole man, but he who is not holy is
unsound and not whole in the sight of God. The Lord make us wholly holy
for Christ's sake! Amen.