The King and His Court

The King and His Court

(No. 2362)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S DAY, MAY 27, 1894.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MARCH
11, 1888.

"My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell
with me: he that walks in a perfect way, he shall serve me." Psalm
101:6.

DAVID is going to be king and these are the resolutions that he makes
before he ascends the throne. He meant that he would look for the best
men in the nation and that he would take care of them. He would give
them offices about his court so that he might have his work done well
–that his people might be judged by wise and righteous men–and all
the affairs of state should be managed by those who were faithful to
God. This was a very proper thing for him to do. I wish that those who
are not kings, but who are placed in any position of influence, would
have their eyes upon the faithful of the land. Good men should
patronize good men. Those who have it in their power, should, to the
utmost of their ability, advance those whom they know to be upright and
true and gracious men. But, my dear Friends, we are not going to talk
about David, now, but about the Son of David, "great David's greater
Son," the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! There is no doubt that in
His Kingdom His eyes are upon the faithful. He looks upon the faithful
among His people. He takes them into communion with Himself and He uses
them as His servants in conspicuous and remarkable ways–"My eyes shall
be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with Me: he that
walks in a perfect way, he shall serve Me."

My business, tonight, is to speak especially to God's people about this
faithfulness. And I shall handle the subject thus. First, Who are these
faithful men–"the faithful of the land"? Secondly, What will the King
do with them? And, thirdly, How may we get among them, that we, also,
may have this favor from the King of Kings?

I. First, then, WHO ARE THESE FAITHFUL MEN to whom Jesus, our King,
will have respect at all times?

I answer, they may be known in part by this mark–they are true in
their dealings with God. A man who is not honest to God is honest to
nobody. He who will rob his God will soon rob his fellow men. Now, I
mean by being truthful and upright to God, just this, that we walk
before Him in deep sincerity of heart. To make a profession of being
what we are not, is not being among the faithful of the land! And to
come before God with prayers which are not prayers, but only the skins
and shells of prayers, is not being faithful before God. To profess to
sing His praises, when we are only uttering words without heart, is to
make ourselves as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal in the ears of
God. We are not accepted by Him if our heart is not true. A man who is
faithful before God will not go in his religious expressions beyond his
religious experience–he will always be afraid of stretching his arm
farther than his sleeve will reach. If he has not felt certain changes,
he will not profess to have felt them. He would rather err on the side
of doubting and distrusting himself than on the side of boasting and
claiming for himself what he really does not possess. I think that it
is a most important thing to be very true and thorough in our private
walk with God. If you are backsliding, it is well to know it. If you
are making but small progress, it is well to confess it. If you are an
idler, it is well to admit it. If you have become lukewarm, it is well
to know it. Nothing is more dangerous than to be saying to yourself, "I
am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing," when all
the while you are "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and
naked."

God has His eyes upon the faithful of the land, those who are faithful
to Him, who do not attempt to deceive themselves with religious
professions which they cannot support. How many a man has become a
bankrupt by a lavish expenditure which exceeded his income! He said
that he "must keep up appearances," and he did keep up appearances till
they became his ruin! God grant that you and I may never try to keep up
appearances before Him! Be what you would seem to

be and, in the Presence of God never seem to be or dream of seeming to
be what you are not! Thus I think we, first of all, know the faithful
by their upright dealing with God.

This will lead them to be true in their dealings with men. I hope that
I need not say much about this, but yet I do not know. I have heard, at
times, of professing Christians who are no more straight in business
than worldlings are. It is a shame to you of whom this can be said and
it is a disgrace to the Church to which you belong! It brings dishonor
upon the Lord Jesus Christ if any of you profess to be His servants and
yet you lie and cheat, or, what is much the same thing, puff your goods
beyond what can honestly and fairly be said of them, or sell them under
false names, deceiving the people who purchase from you. I am not going
into all the tricks of trade. I remember how good old Latimer,
preaching, once, at Paul's Cross, said that he knew a man who had some
wheat, poor stuff it was, and he poured out a bushel of good wheat,
first, and then he put the bad wheat next. And then he put some good
wheat on the top and so mixed it all together, or, rather, he concealed
the bad wheat in the middle. Latimer went on telling another tale, and
another, until all of a sudden he said, "Now, I am not doing you any
good, for, I daresay, some of you will go and do these things,
yourselves, tomorrow."

So the good old man checked himself and dealt with the evil rather by
way of generality than by specialty. That man is not faithful in God's
esteem who is not upright, honest, true to a hair's breadth, in his
dealings with his fellow men! We must stand to our bond even though we
lose by it. We must be true to the word we speak though it be to our
own hurt. God grant that His Spirit may work in us, not only the
ordinary integrity which may be found in many a natural man, but
something deeper and more thorough than that in all our dealings in
business, in the family and everywhere else, for the eyes of the King
are upon the faithful of the land!

Now, dear Friends, such people will, in the next place, always be true
in their dealings with men on God's behalf. I think this passage bears
very pertinently upon the minister, the Sunday school teacher and the
Christian worker. The eyes of Christ are upon the faithful of the land.
If I come here and teach you what I do not believe, or if I conceal
what I do believe, or if I tell you something which has in it a
suppression of the Truth of God, or if I preach to you orthodox
doctrine while in my own heart I believe something different, remember
that I cannot be said to be one of the faithful of the land! And if I,
as a minister, sit still and watch the Gospel of Christ trampled in the
mire and hold my tongue for fear of shame and contempt, I cannot be
called one of the faithful of the land! If you, dear Sunday school
teachers, in your instruction of the children, keep back from them
anything they ought to know, or if, in telling them what they ought to
know, you do not press it home upon their consciences. If you do not
pray with them. If you do not long for their conversion, you are not
faithful to their souls on God's behalf and the eyes of Christ will not
be fixed upon you with approval!

It is a very hard thing, to always be faithful with men on God's
behalf. I know that it is so even in visiting the sick. One is tempted
to begin to comfort some of them when they ought not to be
comforted–to say very soft and gentle words to them because they are
ill, when, perhaps, they have never felt their need of a Savior–and
never been awakened to any sense of spiritual need. I remember one who
was greatly condemned for the action that he thought it right to take.
Two or three of us had been to see a sick and dying man who always
welcomed visitors. We prayed with him and told him the Gospel, but we
were all under the impression that we had produced no effect whatever
upon his mind–that he was passing into another world without any
knowledge of his lost estate–without any repentance or faith in
Christ. The good man to whom I refer–he is now in Heaven, but I well
remember the reproach that he suffered for what he did–he stood at the
foot of the bed and he said, "Friend, you are a deceived man. You are
dying and you have no well-grounded hope. You always say, 'Yes, yes,
yes,' to all we say, but my inmost thought of you is that you are
without God and without hope. And if you die as you are, you will be
lost forever."

The man's wife was thunderstruck and so was he! But when we went to
visit him the next day, you should have seen the change that God had
worked in him! There was a broken-hearted man crying for mercy! A man
in sore trouble and distress of soul. The faithful messenger of God had
told him the naked truth–it pained him to do it, but he had been more
faithful to the sick man than others who had spoken very kindly to him!
Oh, I believe if we are faithful, so that we are clear of the blood of
all men, faithful to the Truth of God, faithful to our own consciences,
faithful to the consciences of those with whom we have to deal, then we
are among the number of whom the text says, "My eyes shall be upon the
faithful of the land, that they may dwell with Me."

Have you and I been faithful to our own children and faithful to our
own parents? Wives, have you been faithful to your own husbands about
their souls? Do you not think that some of us might go home, tonight,
and pour out floods of tears before God as we confess, "No, we have not
been as faithful as we should have been to what we know of the Gospel,
and to those to whom we were bound to teach it"? Christ has a special
eye of love for those who are faithful in their dealings with God,
faithful in their dealings with man and faithful in their dealings with
the souls of men on God's behalf. Oh, that we may be among that happy
company!

Then, observe that these faithful men are thorough in all that they do.
If you read the second part of our text, you will see that the Psalmist
also says, "He that walks in a perfect way, he shall serve me." May I
be permitted to say, especially to you who are commencing the Christian
life, that if you wish to live near to God and to be greatly used of
Him, it is important that you should begin as you mean to go on–by
endeavoring to walk in a perfect way? There are some who tried, at
first, with their own convictions. I cannot help quoting myself, at the
risk of being called egotistical. When I was converted to the Lord
Jesus Christ and made to rejoice in Him, I read the New Testament for
myself. I had no friend and no relative who was a baptized Believer. I
come of a stock in which infant Baptism has long been religiously
observed. I read the Scriptures and I saw, there, that only the
Believer was to be baptized. That Truth of God came to my conscience,
but the suggestion which came to me from friends was, "Well, it really
is a pity to introduce this matter, for all those around you think
differently."

I have never ceased to thank God that I was thoroughly honest to my
convictions about the ordinance. Do any of you think it a trifle? Very
well, waive that point for the moment, but when a man is not honest to
his convictions about a trifle, the next thing is that he is not honest
to his convictions about something else–and so he gets off the
lines–and if you begin to go a little aside, for the sake of peace, or
to prevent disturbances, or to please your friends, you have taken a
way of life which will lead you, I cannot tell, where! Be determined
that if others do as they please, you are not accountable for their
action–but still do what you believe to be right! If you are a
Christian, go through with it! Be a follower of Christ in every respect
as far as the Word of God and your own conscience lead you. I found
that the habit of beginning to think for myself and to follow my
convictions was useful to me, and it has been useful to me to this day.
And at this moment, before the living God, I am able to stand on my own
feet, to lean neither on this man nor on that, but only on that eternal
arm which will support any man and woman–every man and woman who, in
the sight of God, determines to follow the Truth of God wherever it may
lead them!

Now, I earnestly pray every Christian person here, especially in the
beginning of life, to look well to this matter, for the joy of your
life, the peace of your life, the inward rest of your life will much
depend, under God, upon your being faithful to your convictions in
every point as God shall help you! The great King, Himself, seems to
say, tonight, "My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that
they may dwell with Me: he that walks in a perfect way, he shall serve
Me. He is the man whom I will pick for My servant. I will put him here,
or I will place him there, where I am unable to station some others
because they are not clear and straight in their conduct and because
they are not to be depended upon for loyal obedience to their Lord and
Master."

Thus have I tried to describe who the faithful men of the land are. May
we all be numbered among them!

II. But now, secondly, I want very briefly to answer this question,
WHAT WILL THE KING DO WITH THEM?

David says, "My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land," and
David's son, the Lord Jesus Christ, says the same. What does He mean?

Well, first, His eyes of search will seek them out. That dear Brother
who is faithful to God is only a young apprentice, but he has been
faithful in not breaking the Sabbath. Nobody knows about him, dear
young man, but the eyes of the Lord are upon him! There is a working
man who, the other day, in the midst of a swearing company, rebuked the
blasphemer and spoke up for Christ. That noble action is not recorded
in the newspaper and never will be–but God's eyes are upon the
faithful of the land. There is a poor woman who, the other day, lost a
good deal by being straight and honest. No one will report it. Nobody
will put her down in the Legion of Honor. No, but God's eyes are upon
the faithful of the land! And when you, through the Grace of God, are
led to follow Christ faithfully, quite alone, not wishing to be seen,
doing in secret what only God, Himself, knows–it is reward enough for
you that the Lord Jesus Christ sees what you do and He, Himself, will
one day reward you openly.

But there is more than that. When King David says, "My eyes shall be
upon the faithful of the land," it means that his eyes of favor will
cheer them. The King would first search them out and then he would
bring them forward. He would promote their interests, he would see that
the faithful men were not thrust into a corner and neglected, he would
have an eye to cheering them as they had an eye to pleasing him. I
believe that God greatly favors and blesses those whom, by His Grace,
He makes to be faithful. If you are unfaithful, your unfaithfulness
will come home to you, sometime or another. I mean, if you are a child
of God, for there is discipline in the House of the Lord. I am not
talking, now, about the punishments of the Law of God–the children of
God are not under the Law–I am speaking about the discipline of the
Gospel. You are saved by free, rich, Sovereign Grace and you are made a
child of God. From the moment of your new birth you come under the
discipline of the great Father's House and if you are unfaithful, your
unfaithfulness will deprive you of many a comfort and many a joy! It
will dog your footsteps and track you when you least expect it. Look at
David. After his great sin, he was never the man that he had been
before–and many were the griefs and pangs of heart which he brought
upon himself by that one terrible fall. The Lord grant that we may be
kept faithful, so that God's eyes of approval may rest upon us and that
we may joy and rejoice in Him from day to day!

But then the text, after saying, "My eyes shall be upon the faithful of
the land," adds, "that they may dwell with Me." The faithful shall
dwell with God. Oh, this is a choice privilege! When Grace makes a man
faithful, God rewards his faithfulness by permitting him to dwell in
close communion with his Lord! It is a wonderful thing to me that if we
have any good works, God always works them in us, and then he rewards
us for them as if they were our own! He gives us Grace and then smiles
on us because of the Grace that He, Himself, gives! So, if He makes a
man faithful, He then rewards him for it according to His Grace, and
says, "He shall dwell with Me."

I think I see David carrying out this resolution. There is a poor but
honest man away down there in Bethlehem and David hears of his strict
integrity and sends him a letter. "Come to Jerusalem," says the king,
"I will make a courtier of you. I will make a friend of you. You are
the sort of man I need. Come and dwell with me." He hears of another
poor man, over yonder, who has been ridiculed because he stood up for
Jehovah, the God of Israel, when others were inclined to worship some
false god. "Come up to Jerusalem," he says, "come live with me. You are
my sort of company, for you are one of the faithful ones." Now, that is
what the Lord Jesus Christ says to us! He calls us as sinners, but He
communes with us as saints! He washes us when we are guilty, but after
we are washed and He has made us upright in His sight, then He takes us
to dwell with Him! He delights in opening His heart to us and in
permitting us to open our heart to Him!

Now, if any of you are not faithful to Christ, I can tell you that you
will not be able to commune with Him. If you have done a wrong thing in
business, or if you have held your tongue and not been faithful in
testifying for Christ. When you go on your knees at night you will not
be able to find yourself so led out in prayer as you were, before, when
you were true to Him. And when you turn to the Scriptures, instead of
finding them speaking to you, they will seem as if they were dumb–no
voice of comfort will come from them. But if you have been faithful and
true, and out and out for Christ, then you shall dwell with Him–you
shall abide in Him and His Word will abide in you!

Then it is added, "He shall serve Me." The faithful shall be Christ's
servants. I do not know which is the greater privilege, "He shall dwell
with Me," or, "He shall serve Me." Perhaps the second is the higher.
Have you ever thought, Beloved Friend, what an honor it is to be
permitted to do anything for God? For God to bless us is great
condescension on His part, but for Him to permit us to be of any use to
Him–this is a wonderful honor from His right hand! I believe that
there is more honor in being allowed, for the Glory of God, to teach a
little Sunday school child the way of salvation than there would be in
ruling the whole German Empire if it were done for the glorification of
self! The honor does not lie in the act so much as in the motive–and
if the motive is, "I did it unto the Lord," then I stand in the same
rank with angels, yes, in a line with those wonderful living creatures
that John saw in the Revelation who reveal the Glory of God and
continually do Him service!

The Lord will not have you as His servant if you are not faithful, if
you do not give yourself up to His Truth and to be true, through and
through! It is not God's way to send forth His Truth by untruthful men.
If there is a lie in your left hand, the Truth of God in your right
hand will seem to have lost at least half its power. Like the hoard of
Achan hidden away in the tent which robbed all Israel of the victory at
the gates of Ai, so will you find that anything which is untrue, hidden
away in your life or your conduct, will deprive you of victory when you
go out in the service of God. "He shall serve Me," says Christ. And He
will not accept the service of those who are not true to Him.

III. Thus I have spoken of a very necessary practical Truth of God, and
I am going to close by trying to answer one more question–HOW MAY WE
GET AMONG THESE FAITHFUL ONES?

Perhaps we can truly say, God helping us, we hope that we are among
them. If so, as we read a little while ago, "it is He that has made us,
and not we, ourselves." If there is any faithfulness, if there is any
uprightness, unto God be the glory of it all! Pray, dear Brothers and
Sisters, that you may never lose your faithfulness, but that you may be
kept even unto the end! Remember that passage in Jude's Epistle, "Now
unto Him that is able to guard you from stumbling"? So it is in the
Revised Version and it is an improvement and nearer to the original
than our old text, for while it is a great mercy to be kept from
falling, it is a still greater favor to be guarded from stumbling, so
as to walk with careful, steady progress in uprightness before God all
your life! Let it be your constant prayer that you may be thus kept
faithful even unto death.

But now I speak to others who are not as yet faithful. You say, "How
are we to get among the faithful?" Well, I should say, first, so far as
you may be, and so far as your light goes, be faithful tonight–be
honest in confessing sin. Before you sleep, put yourself before God
just as you are. Have you neglected religion? Confess it. Or have you
pretended to possess religion when there was no truth in your
profession? Confess it. What has been your sin? Confess it. Kneel by
your bedside and there, God, alone, seeing you, unveil your heart
before Him. You say that He knows all about you. That is true and that
is a reason why you should be the more explicit in your confession to
Him. Speak freely to God and make Him, as you ought to make Him, your
only "Father Confessor." Tell Him that you are lost. Tell Him that you
are hard-hearted. Tell Him that you are unfeeling. Tell Him that you
desire to be converted, but that it is only a faint desire as yet. Tell
him all about yourself. In a word, begin to deal with God on the
straight. If you have not done so, already, I pray God that you may do
so, tonight, and I beseech you to go as far as you can in this matter.
Reveal your poverty, your filthiness, your sin, your nakedness, your
deserving of Hell–only do all honestly as in the sight of God. What an
amazing thing it is that men do not like to act thus, yet, when the
Grace of God enables them to do it, they are already on the road to
salvation! When the man comes before God with a rope round his neck,
confessing that he deserves to die, then there is this blessed text to
comfort him–"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." God
grant that you may find it to be so tonight!

Well, then, dear Friend, next, be anxious to have a new heart and a
right spirit. May God make you thus anxious tonight! Remember that
there is evil in us by nature. "All have sinned and come short of the
Glory of God." "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked." And before we can be faithful, we must be born again. No man
will ever be true until the God of Truth has truly renewed him. Our
tendency is to lean either this way or that–to stand upright is a gift
of Divine Grace and none but the Holy Spirit can bestow it upon us! Oh,
that we might have a deep anxiety to undergo that wondrous change, that
radical and total change of heart which the Savior described when He
said to Nicodemus, "You must be born again"! Go to the Lord with
David's prayer, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right
spirit within me." Plead that Old Testament promise, "A new heart,
also, will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I
will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you
an heart of flesh."

Then, supposing that you have come thus far, I earnestly entreat you,
if you would be found among the faithful of the land, be sincere in all
your dealings with the living God. If you mean to pray, pray! If you
believe in Jesus, do not simply say that you believe, but believe! If
you repent, do not merely talk of repentance, but repent! Let
everything be thorough and downright. May the Spirit of God save you
from getting the imitation of spirituality which will damn you! And may
He give you the reality of spiritual life which will effectually save
you! I believe that there are many who are very much injured by being
led to profess religion when they do not possess it. There is a revival
meeting. There is a room for con-verts–they get in there–they are
pressed, they are exhorted, they are entreated! They think that they
are sincere–in a certain measure they are–but there is no sense of
guilt, no loathing of sin, no true repentance, no wounding and,
therefore, no healing, no stripping and, therefore, no clothing! The
whole thing is but a mere sham! And they go away and are, themselves,
deceived and afterwards return to their old sins and are worse than
they were before! If you have not eternal life, do not pretend that you
have it. I charge you before God, who shall judge the quick and the
dead, in the day of His appearing, never cheat yourself in this matter,
for you are the only person that you can really cheat for long! God,
Himself, you will never deceive. Make clear, clean, sharp, distinct,
decided work of this matter, or rather, may God the Holy Spirit work
this miracle of mercy in you, for Christ's name's sake!

Lastly, dear Friend, if you would be among the faithful of the land,
depend continually upon the Lord Jesus and His Word to make and keep
you faithful. Every day wait upon Him for fresh anointing and renewed
power. And daily live unto Him and for Him, laying yourself out to
honor Him who has redeemed you. Your only hope is in His precious
blood! Then let the objective of your existence be to glorify Him,
alone. If this is so, you shall be among the faithful of the land and
you shall dwell with the King, even with the King of Kings, and you
shall serve Him forever and ever!

Are you not glad to hear this, you great sinners? Jesus is as able to
pardon you, now, as He was to save the dying thief! And you who have
hard hearts, He is able to give you new ones, today, as He gave them to
those of old. And oh, you children of God, I pray you, do not act as if
David had a great God, and you have a little God! Do not act as if, in
the trials of the olden times, God made bare His arm, but that now He
will hardly put out His little finger! Do not treat Him as if it could
be so. God still hears prayer! If He does not work miracles, He does
the same thing in some other way which is even better! He still
delivers us! He still feeds us! He still leads us! He still guards us!
He is the same as He always was! Oh if you would but trust Him!
Abraham's God is your God and He can help you in the day of battle.
Joshua's God is your God and He says to you as He did to Joshua, "I
will not fail you, nor forsake you." Oh, believe it! Jesus Christ–my
grandfather's Jesus Christ, my father's Jesus Christ–is my Jesus
Christ! Look back on all the godly people you have ever known and think
of what the Lord did for them–and then remember that His arm is not
shortened, His ear is not heavy, His love is not diminished, His wisdom
is not turned to foolishness! He is still able and willing to bless
you, as in all the ages that have gone by. Trust Him, you saints! Trust
Him, you sinners–and the Lord bless you all, for Jesus Christ's sake!
Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM 100; 101.

May the Spirit of God, by whose Inspiration David penned these Psalms,
bless them to us as we read them!

Psalm 100. This is entitled "a Psalm of Praise." Note, here, that this
is the only Psalm which bears that title. There are others which have
titles very much like it, but this one is singled out from all the rest
to be, in a very special sense, "a Psalm of Praise." Martin Luther was
very fond of it and it has even been said that he composed the tune
which we have just sung, and which is commonly called, "the Old
Hundredth"–though other attribute it to a German named Franc.

Verse 1. Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all you lands. Do you
notice the missionary spirit here? The Jews looked upon God as the God
of Israel and they had but very faint desires for the conversion of
other nations. But the Holy Spirit speaks more by David than David,
himself, may have known–"Make a joyful noise unto Jehovah, all you
lands." We ought to express the praise of God, not merely to feel it,
and to express it by what is called, here, "a joyful noise." All our
songs to God should have in them a measure of joyfulness. The gods of
the heathen were worshipped with dolorous noises, with sorrowful sounds
and cries of misery–but the God of Heaven is to be worshipped with a
joyful noise! "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all you lands." Oh,
that the day were come when China, India and all Asia, Africa, America
and Europe would take up the gladsome note of praise to Jehovah!

2. Serve the LORD with gladness. What a text that is! "Serve the Lord."
Obey Him, yield to Him your homage, but serve Him, "with gladness." He
wants not slaves to Grace His Throne! He loves willing worship, happy
worship, for He is "the happy God." "Serve the Lord with gladness."

2. Come before His Presence with singing. Singing is delightful, but
singing in God's Presence is heavenly! Do not the spirits that are made
pure and holy come before His Presence and come before it with singing?
I wish that whenever we sing, we would sing as in the Presence of God.
I am afraid that we sometimes go through the tune mechanically and the
words languish on our lips. "Come before His Presence with singing."

3. Know you that the LORD, He is God. One says, "Man, know yourself,"
and another says, "The proper study of mankind is man." Not so! Man,
know your God! The proper study of mankind is God! He who knows God
knows himself, that is, he knows himself to be nothing. "Know you that
Jehovah, He is God." There is but one God–it is the same God in the
Old Testament as in the New–Jehovah, the God of Abraham, of Isaac and
of Jacob–the God and Father of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

3. It is He that has made us, and not we, ourselves. Note the negative,
as if to deny that we had any hand in our own making, and this is also
worthy of notice spiritually. It is the Lord who has made us
Christians, not we, ourselves. He has created us in Christ Jesus. There
are some who lay such stress upon the human will and I know not what,
besides, in man, that it is necessary to put in the negative as well as
the positive. "It is He that has made us, and not we, ourselves."

3. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Praise Him, then!
Praise Him because He is your Maker! Praise Him more sweetly because He
is your Shepherd. If we are His people, here is His electing love, here
is His effectual calling, here is the Grace of His Spirit that made us
so. "We are His people and the sheep of His pasture." He leads us, He
feeds us, He protects us, He has bought us with His precious blood.
Truly, this is good reason why we should make a joyful noise unto God
and serve Him with gladness! "We are His people and the sheep of His
pasture." Are you His people? O my dear Hearer, ask yourself–are you
one of the sheep of His pasture?

4. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with
praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. Gratitude is that oil
which makes the wheels of life easily revolve. And if anybody ought to
be grateful, surely we are the men and women for whom the Lord has done
so much! "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts
with praise."

5. For the LORD is good. Should we not praise so good a God?

5. His mercy is everlasting; and His Truth endures to all generations.
"His Truth"–that is to say, His truthfulness, His faithfulness to His
people. This is a blessed Psalm and it seems to me to reach the highest
point of praise when it tells us, "The Lord is good; His mercy is
everlasting; and His Truth endures to all generations."

Psalm 101. The last Psalm was a Hymn of Thanksgiving, this one is a
Psalm of Thanksgiving. I suppose it to have been written by David just
when he assumed the throne, when he was about to become king over all
Israel and Judah. Its title is, "A Psalm of David." This is what he
said to himself–

Verse 1. I will sing–That is right, David. In the 100th Psalm, he had
exhorted other people to sing. Now, in the 101st he declares what he,
himself, will do. "I will sing"–

1. Of mercy and judgement. It is a mingled theme. There are the treble
and the bass notes–"mercy and judgment." There are some dear friends
who, if they sing at all, will have to sing this way, for they have a
heavy sorrow on their heart and yet great mercy is mixed with it. Oh,
you who are troubled and bow your head in grief, say, "I will sing of
mercy and judgment." Mix the two together!

1. Unto You, O LORD, will I sing. A second time the Psalmist says, "I
will sing." It is well to make this firm resolve. "Unto You, O Lord,
will I sing." Winter or summer, "I will sing." Poverty or riches, "I
will sing." Sickness or health, "I will sing." Life or death, "I will
sing"–

"I will love You in life, I will love You in death And praise You as
long as You lend me breath." "I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto
you, O Lord, will I sing."

2. I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. This was a good
resolve, but David did not carry it out to the fullest. There were evil
times when he was not wise and there were sad times when he was far
from perfect. Still, it is well to make such a resolve as this
declaration of David when he came to the throne, especially when you
are newly married, or just opening a business. Oh, that every young man
and young woman would commence life with such a holy resolution as
this–"I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way." But notice the
prayer that follows the resolve–

2. O when will You come unto me? For I shall be neither wise nor holy
without You. "O when will You come unto

me?"

2. I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. There is a great
deal in the way in which a man walks in his house. It will not do to be
a saint abroad and a devil at home! There are some of that kind. They
are wonderfully sweet at a Prayer Meeting, but they are dreadfully sour
to their wives and children. This will never do! Every genuine Believer
should say, and mean it, "I will walk within my house with a perfect
heart." It is in the home that we get the truest proof of godliness.
"What sort of a man is he?" said one to George Whitefield, and
Whitefield answered, "I cannot say, for I never lived with him." That
is the way to test a man–to live with him.

3. I will set no wicked thing before my eyes. "I will not look at it,
for if I do, I may long for it." It is the tendency of things that are
gazed at to get through the eyes into the mind and the heart. Therefore
is it wise to say with the Psalmist, "I will set no wicked thing before
my eyes."

3. I hate the work of them that turn aside. He means all those who
practice dodges–the "policy" people–those who never go straight.
Kings usually like such people as these. Do not men say that an
ambassador is a gentleman who is paid to live abroad and to lie for the
benefit of his country? I suppose that is what diplomats in David's day
generally did, but David resolved that he would have none of that sort
of folk about him. "I hate the work of them that turn aside."

3. It shall not cleave to me. "If I touch it, by His Grace, I will not
let it stick to me. Pitch defiles, so I will keep clear of it and if
any man tries to practice a trick for my advantage, I will have nothing
to do with him."

4. A forward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked
person. "For, if I come to know him, one of these days I may be known,
myself, to be a wicked person." "Evil communications corrupt good
manners." No man or woman can afford to be the friend of a man who is
not a friend of God! If he does not love God, quit his company, for he
will do you no good. Say with David, "I will not know a wicked person."

5. Whoever privately slanders his neighbor, him will I cut off. David
was a king and he meant to study the peace of his people by putting
down slander. Oh, what mischief is worked by backbiting tittle tattle!
If we could have a race of men– and for the matter of that, of women,
too–with no tongues, it might be an advantage, for there are some who
use their tongues for very sorry purposes. David says, "Whoever
privately slanders his neighbor, him will I cut off."

5. Him that has an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer. High
looks and proud hearts are generally the characteristics of cruel,
tyrannical, domineering persons–and King David would not have any such
near him.

6. My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell
with me. Oh, that masters had more of an eye to the piety of their
servants than they often have! They want "clever fellows." Whether they
are honest or not is generally a secondary question. So long as they
are profitable to their masters, they will not mind what they are to
their customers. But David would not have servants of that sort.

6, 7. He that walks in a perfect way, he shall serve me. He that works
deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that tells lies shall not
tarry in my sight. He was a king and he could choose his company–and
he meant to select the truthful and upright. Now mark this! If David
would not let a man who lies tarry in his sight, you must not expect
that God will let such tarry in His sight. "All liars shall have their
part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone," says the
Scripture. God grant us to have clean, truthful tongues!

8. I will early destroy all the wicked of the land; that I may cut off
all wicked doers from the city of the LORD. What a practical Psalm this
is! I have heard of a prince of Saxe-Gotha, years ago, who, whenever he
thought that one of his ministers or judges was not what he ought to
be, used always to send him the 101st Psalm to read. It was commonly
said of such a man, "He will get the 101st Psalm before long." And,
after reading it, if he did not mend his manners, the prince sent him
his dismission and he had to go about his business. Oh, that all who
profess and call themselves Christians would act according to the tenor
of this straight Psalm which is like a line drawn by the hand of God,
without a crook or a turn in it!