A Suitable Watchword

A Suitable Watchword

(No. 3097)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 1908.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Help, LORD." Psalm 12:1.

THIS was a prayer of David. It was offered under peculiar
circumstances. He had been treacherously betrayed again and again. He
delivered the city of Keilah from the Philistines and then had to flee
from the place, or the men of Keilah would have delivered him up to his
enemy, Saul. He went to the wilderness of Ziph and the men of Ziph at
once ran to Saul to betray him. Doeg was present when David received
some help from Ahimelech the priest and he set off straightway to
inform the king. Everyone seemed to act treacherously with David while
he was in his state of wandering. He therefore turned away altogether
from men in whom he could put no confidence–and he cried, "Help,
Lord."

Let us spend a few minutes, first of all, in remarks upon the prayer
itself. Then let us offer a few suggestions as to when it may be used.
And we will close up with some encouragement to expect and answer.

I. First as to THE PRAYER ITSELF.

That which strikes you at once is its shortness–"Help, Lord." Two
words–and one of these is rather the direction of the prayer than the
prayer itself. It is the very soul of brevity. "Help, Lord." I may,
however, say that it is none too short for all that for there is a
fullness and suggestiveness in it which could not readily be exhausted.
It is no fault in our prayers if they are short. And I think in our
public petitions, especially at Prayer Meetings, it is a virtue to be
aimed at to be brief. Mr. Jay says, with regard to his sermons, that he
knew there were some excellences which would cost him much pains to
attain, "But," he said, "there was one I knew to be within my reach,
namely, brevity, and therefore I made not the sermon too long."
Praying, indeed, being a more spiritual exercise than even preaching,
must not be protracted. It is remarkable, if you remember, that
Joshua's arm never grew weary while he was fighting the Amalekites, but
Moses' hands grew weary while he was up on the mountain in prayer.
Because prayer is a more spiritual exercise than fighting and,
consequently, the spirit being our weaker part, we feel the weakness
the sooner there. Let us not, then, pray our members into a good frame
and then pray them out again–but when we have expressed our desires
with that fewness of words which is proper in the Presence of God, let
us close our supplications and let some other Brother take up the note.
This is a short prayer.

Do you not see, dear Friends, that those of you who have been saying,
"We do not pray because we have not time," are guilty of a great
falsehood? It cannot be lack of time. "Help, Lord." Why, it takes
scarcely a second to offer such a prayer as that! It is not lack of
time–it is lack of heart and lack of inclination. People talk about
praying as though they needed an hour to pray every morning and every
night. I grant you it would be a very blessed thing if we could get the
hour. I wish that, like the Puritans, we could always get an hour for
devotion every morning and likewise at evening, but this is not
absolutely necessary. You working men must not say, "We cannot pray
because we have not time." Why, in your work, in the midst of your
goings to and fro, if God has given you the heart of prayer, you will
be lifting up your soul to God! I think it is a good thing to have some
small change of prayer about you. I compare this prayer to our small
change. It has been said of some great men that they could not talk in
company–when they got upon their feet and had a prepared discourse,
they could speak very much to edification, but in general society they
could not edify anyone. Someone said they had gold, but it was all in
bullion–it was not minted–they could not put it into a shape so that
it might be current in society. Well now, we must have the bullion of
prayer, so as to be able to wrestle with God by the hour together if
necessary, but to have the minted small change of brief or exclamatory
prayer, to send a thought up to

Heaven–the glance of an eye, a tear-bedewed word to let drop before
the Throne–that, also, is well! I invite you to adopt the prayer,
brief as it is, and use it tonight, tomorrow, all your days–"Help,
Lord."

Besides being very short, it was very seasonable. It is well to have
seasonable prayer, for those prayers speed best that spring out of an
emergency which, as with a fair wind, drives the soul to the Throne of
God. The worst of those forms of prayer which are of merely human
composition, I think, is that they are very much like those ready-made
clothes which we see for sale–they are intended to fit everybody, and
yet rarely do they fit anybody. Forms of prayer must, from the
necessity of the case, be unseasonable. That is the best prayer which
draws its adaptation from my present circumstances, its intensity from
my present feelings and its aspiration from my present faith. It makes
me cry in just such language and plead just such promises that I could
not plead any other–I could not wish for any other, I could not ask in
any other style than I now do. That is a seasonable prayer. David, you
see, had been betrayed and deceived. He had met with flattering lips
and deceitful hearts. He found all men in his day gone aside from
honesty and so he turned right away from those broken cisterns that
were leaking at every point, to cry to the great Fountain that he might
have a draught from the cooling stream! "'Help, Lord!' Men will not
help me. I am reduced to an extreme so far as the creature is
concerned. Now is Your turn, O You gracious One! Put out Your mighty
arm, now that man's puny arm is broken. 'Help, Lord!' Help, I pray
You!"

How distinct this prayer is! There are many, many prayers that one has
heard, but when uttered, you could not say what had been asked. If
anyone should ask you, "What has that Brother been praying for?" you
would think and say, "I really do not know. He hassaid, 'Lord, bless
us!' but what particular blessing he desired, I was not able to make
out." Many of our dear Brethren edify us with an account of their
experience and with a little exposition of the Doctrines of Grace–very
edifying and proper in any other shape–but as a prayer–terribly out
of place! The Lord knows your experience, He knows the Doctrines of
Grace and does not need you to inform Him upon these matters. This
prayer is to the point, "Help, Lord." The man knows what he needs and
he asks for it. He does not ask wealth, health, long life–he needs
help. He has come to a dead lift and he cannot lift his burden, so he
cries, "Help, Lord." It is one word, but that one word goes straight to
the mark. What a mercy it is to be able to pray pointed prayers! David
said, "In the morning will I direct my prayer unto You." Now, according
to some scholars, the Hebrew there is, "I will marshal up my prayers."
"As the sergeant sets the soldiers in a row when he is about to drill
them and marshals them, and as the commander-in-chief forms them into
battalions and so on, even so will I set my desires in proper order and
marshal them in battalions before the Mercy Seat, that I may show that
I am not uttering the crude, undigested thoughts of a careless mind,
taking solemn words upon a thoughtless tongue, but that I am speaking
to God that which has caused me thought–which fills me with emotions
and comes from my soul with an intent and a desire, myself knowing what
that intent and desire may be." Oh, let us stand fast in prayer to
direct petitions–short, but seasonable and direct!

We have something else to say of it–it is rightly aimed. The Psalmist
evidently looked straight up to God. He says, "Help, Lord." It is no
roundabout way of praying. It is no crying, "Help, you saints and
intercede for me! Blessed Virgin, plead for me!" It is, "Help, Lord."
Straight to the Throne he goes! There is no knocking at the doors of
second causes and human helps. "Straightforward makes the best runner."
He runs immediately to his God–there is no beating around the bush to
ask that he may have Providential assistance, or that a friend may be
raised up for him, or that in some way he may be delivered–it is
simply this, "Lord, I leave all the rest to You. Only do, You Yourself,
come and undertake my cause. Put Your arm where the weight is. Put Your
shoulder to the wheel. This surpasses my power and I turn entirely from
all creatures to You. 'Help, Lord.'" It is a well-aimed prayer. He knew
to Whom he was speaking, to One full of love and faithfulness, strength
and wisdom–and so he says at once, "Help, Lord."

Nor can you fail to observe that this prayer has in it a confession of
weakness. A man does not cry for help–at least, a man with such a
heart as David had does not cry for help unless he needs it. Shall I
ask of God for that which I already have? No, a sense of need makes me
pray. David has been striving with all his might, but he finds his
strength inadequate to the task. He has been looking about for help
everywhere, but he finds there is no help and, sensible of his own
utter nothingness and vanity, he turns at once to God. It is well when
prayer is steeped in the oil of repentance, when it is dipped in a
sense of need. No prayer speeds so well with God as that which comes
with an empty hand before His Throne. If you bring your pitchers full,
you shall take them all away empty–but if you bring your pitchers
empty, you shall take them away full! "He has put down the mighty from
their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He has filled the hungry

with good things; and the rich he has sent away empty." Lord, help me
always to come as an empty-handed beggar to the Throne of Your mercy,
that I may go away as a full-handed rejoicing saint!

And yet, with a confession of weakness, I think there is also here a
resolution to exert oneself. The very word, "Help," seems to imply that
he did not expect to sit still and do nothing. In the matter of our own
personal salvation, all the work is done for us by the Lord Jesus
Christ, "it is finished." But in the matter of Christian service and
Christian labor, it is not done for us. We are expected, having the New
Life within, to set about working out our own salvation "with fear and
trembling." He who has saved us expects us to run the race as pilgrims,
to fight the fight as warriors, to plow the fields as husbandmen, to
build the walls as laborers together with God and to work in general
for Him in all sorts of ways. Now, if I cry, "Help, Lord!" that means
that I intend to exert myself. You have no right to sit down and say,
"Lord, help me," and not go out to seek work. He will help you–yes,
help you into the jail or workhouse, but no other kind of help will you
get! You have no right, when you have a besetting sin, to fold your
arms and say, "Well, I hope the Lord will help me to overcome it." He
will help you, but remember the old proverb, for it is true, "He helps
those that help themselves." When He has taught you to smite with your
sword against sin, then He will smite too. He works withyou. He works
inyou to will and to do. He does not work in us to sleep and to slumber
after our own carnal propensity, but He works in us "to will and to do
of His own good pleasure." We hold not with salvation by works, but we
do hold with works by salvation. We know that works cannot save–but we
know that a man being saved produces good works. When I pray, then,
"Lord, help! Help, Lord!" it is implied that if it is a case where I
can do anything in the service of God, I shall put the strength which
He has given me into active exercise and then lean upon Him.

II. Well, now, SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR THE USE OF THIS PRAYER, "Help,
Lord."

There are some articles of merchandise of which we are told on the
label that they will keep in all climates, and will be useful at all
times. I think I may say the same of my prayer. This prayer is a sword
of two edges–it is an article that can be used for a thousand
different things! It is a most handy prayer. It turns every way. You
may use it in all cases, at all times. Let us take one or two.

Temporal circumstances may involve you in difficulty. I suppose,
Beloved, there are many of you who are often in trouble with regard to
Providence. You work and do your best to provide things honest in the
sight of all men, but no one can foresee crushing misfortunes.
Sometimes employment fails. At another time the dishonesty of others
may bring you down from competence to poverty. Sometimes sickness may
fall upon you and you may be disabled. In a thousand ways you may be
brought to feel that you need help in Providential matters. Now, dear
Friend, today you may have been trudging all over the city looking for
a friend. You have written letters and you have gone to all you
know–and you are getting pretty near to the end of all your earthly
hopes. I suggest that, before you leave this sanctuary, you pray this
prayer, "Help, Lord." Use it, appropriate it, expand it according to
your faith and your feelings somewhat thus– "Help, Lord. You did feed
Your servant Elijah by ravens and You made the widow's cruse of oil and
handful of meal to last. 'Help, Lord.' I do not expect a miracle, but I
expect the same help which a miracle would bring me and expect it in
the ordinary course of Providence. If You do not put Your hand out of
Heaven to help me, You will assist me by some ordinary means which
would not, however, have been available if You had not so arranged it.
'Help, Lord.'" It really is marvelous, and most of our lives will prove
it, how good the Lord is in a pinch. Just when you have said, "Now it
is all over with me," then it is that the Lord has appeared for your
deliverance. When your hopes have been like Lazarus in the grave, not
only dead, but something more, for Martha said, "Lord, by this time he
stinks; for he has been dead four days"–yet even then, when Christ has
appeared, there has been a resurrection to your circumstances and your
comforts and you have again been able to rejoice!

Some of you are students of Scripture. Your difficulties are not
pecuniary ones. You turn over, day by day, this precious Book and it is
your desire to understand it, but you are vexed with certain
perplexities. There are things in it which are hard to be understood
and you need to arrive at definite, distinct truth, to know true
knowledge. Let me suggest to you, dear Brother, that when you have
studied the Scripture anxiously and carefully, and sought out the
opinions and judgments of good and gracious men who were taught of God,
that you should never forget to add to all this the prayer, "Help,
Lord. Help, Lord!" There is more got out of the Bible by praying than
by anything else. When a certain Puritan had a dispute upon matters of
doctrine with another, he was observed to speak very fluently and with
great power. While his opponent spoke, he was observed taking
notes–and one desired to see his notes–and what do you think they
were? They were just these words, "More light, Lord! More light, Lord!
More light, Lord!" That is the best way of taking notes–a cry for more
Light of God! All of a sudden, that very text of Scripture which seemed
as hard as a flint, will fly open by a touch of the Holy Spirit's
finger when you have said in prayer, "Help, Lord."

This prayer will well suit those who are engaged in inward conflicts. I
have heard of some Christians who do not believe in inward conflicts.
Brother, take care lest you have to prove them beyond all other men. I
heard today something which reminds me of how different our experience
is at one time from what it is at another. A dear servant of the Lord
was good Mr. Harrington Evans–perhaps a very model preacher, one who
spoke very sweetly of Christ. A Brother was telling me today that he
remembers hearing Mr. Evans say that he hardly liked a Christian to
pray, "God be merciful to me, a sinner." He said, "I do not like it.
The saint is forgiven. I know he sins, still he is thoroughly forgiven
and there is a kind of clank of the chain about the prayer, 'God be
merciful to me, a sinner.'" "Yet," said my informant, "if I am not
mistaken, on Mr. Evans' tombstone are those words, 'God be merciful to
me, a sinner.'" So that what he thought was a clank of the chain once,
he came to look upon as being a most precious and comfortable prayer
after all! And some of our Brothers do, at times, get a little
top-heavy and say, "I do not make confession of sin." More the pity,
Brother–you are making a birch for your own back! You will have it
before long, depend upon it. There is no position for the child of God
so safe, so Scriptural, so true as that of still clinging to Jesus as
you did at the first–still mourning for sin and rejoicing in the
Atonement made for you as a sinner! I must confess that I cannot
ordinarily get that comfort by drawing near as a saint which I can get
by coming to Christ as a sinner! My evidences often fail me and when
they do I give up all seeking after them and go straight away, without
any evidences, to Christ over again as the sinner's Savior and find
fresh joy and peace in believing! May we be kept in such a frame of
mind as this!

How many of you are exercised with conflicts tonight? You do not know
which will get the upper hand, good or evil. There is conflict and
combat going on within as though a pitted battle were being fought
there. The soil of your heart is torn up by the prancing of the hoofs
of the enemy horses. You think, "I shall surely perish after all."
Brother, Sister, in your time of conflict here is a prayer for you,
"'Help, Lord. Help, Lord!' Help the newborn babe to conquer the old
man! Help the vital spark to keep its flame alive now that floods are
poured out against it! Let not the dragon swallow up the man-child!
'Help, Lord.' Help! 'O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me
from the body of this death?' Help You me, Lord, and I will yet sing,
'I thank God, through Jesus Christ, my Lord!'"

Will not this prayer suit those of you who are just now desirous to
honor God in your sufferings You have lately fallen into sickness. You
have to be much on your bed and you are afraid that you will get
impatient. I know aged persons are sometimes troubled with the fear
that if they should be long living in infirmity, they might get peevish
and petulant–doubtless it is the vice of old age. Well, at such a
crisis, dear Friends, whether aged or young, this prayer will suit you,
"'Help, Lord. Help, Lord!' Help me if my pains multiply. Help me!" This
is a prayer for dying saints at the stake. How often it has sprung from
their lips! When the flames have leaped up upon them, they have prayed,
"'Help, Lord.' Help me to burn! Help me to be faithful. Suffer me not
to turn aside from my Master! 'Help, Lord.' Now I have more to suffer
than the creature can bear, sustain me, Lord!"

Not less meet is this prayer for those of you who are not suffering,
but working. Most of us, I hope, are workers for Christ. And why should
we ever go out to our work without the prayer, "Help, Lord"? And when
we are in it, we cannot expect to prosper except the desire is still
coming up, "Help, Lord." And when we have done the work, it is a sweet
evening's prayer with which to close the day, "'Help, Lord.' Make my
work to stand. 'Help, Lord.'" I give this prayer to you, my Brothers
and Sisters in the Church, elders and youngsters, overseers and
deacons–to you, Brothers and Sisters, who teach the young of this
flock. To you who are toiling in our classes. To you who preach in the
streets, or go from place to place proclaiming the Word of God. Be this
your prayer henceforth, "'Help, Lord.' Help us to declare the Gospel
faithfully and fully, and to be the means of bringing souls to
Yourself."

Indeed, I do not know where this prayer would not be suitable! There is
Mary just going out to a new situation, leaving her mother's roof, and
she is thinking, "Now I do not know who my master may be, but I am a
Christian and I hope I may be able, as a servant, to show what
Christianity is." I am glad, Mary, you have got that wish. Now pray
before you go into that new situation–"'Help, Lord.' Help! I have not
been all I ought to be. I have not always honored my Lord and Master,
but now please help me to adorn the Doctrine of God our Savior in all
things.'" And there is a dear Brother, perhaps, very young, who is just
entering upon a new sphere of labor. It is labor new to him–his heart
is in it,

but still he does not quite understand it and he wants to do it so that
God may be glorified. Well then, Brother, do not go out of the door
till you have said, "Lord, help. Help, Lord, and sustain me!"

And this is a prayer, I think, that we must take up, all together, in
these days when Romanism is coming back all over the land. "In these
perilous times, when the false prophets and the magicians are abroad
seeking to entrap men with their gaudy ceremonies and their sumptuous
shows, it is for us to protest and to preach the Word, but help, God of
Luther! Help us to deal a death-blow to the dragon! Help, God of
Calvin! Help us to unfurl the banner of the Gospel once again! Help us,
God of Zwingli, to stand steadfast in the day of trial! 'Help, Lord.'
It is only Your right arm that can save England from once again being
under the hoof of the Pope of Rome! Come and deliver Your saints in
this, their day of trial. 'Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases; for
the faithful fail from among the children of men.'"

III. By way of ENCOURAGEMENT TO EXPECT AN ANSWER, let me now address a
few closing words.

"Help, Lord." We may expect that He will do so in the future because He
has done so in the past. You remember your conversion–

"Many days have passed since then, Many changes I have seen, Yet have
been upheld till now– Who could hold me up but Thee?"

You have had much help, dear Friend. Were you to write your history,
could you remember all the interpositions of Divine Providence and put
them down? It would make a strange story. So I sometimes think with
regard to myself. Yet I am not sure that it would, for I suppose our
stories would be very much alike! We have all had to say of the
goodness and mercy of God, "By terrible things in righteousness will
You answer us, O God of our salvation." We have had judgment like a
sentence of death in ourselves, but we have had deliverance like life
from the dead! There have been drops of wormwood, but there have been
seas of milk and honey! Our souls have to raise an Ebenezer here and we
expect to raise one more on Jordan's shore and to the last to sing,
"Surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life." I
know what the devil tells you. He is telling you that you have got into
an extraordinary position now and, though God helped you before, yet
this is a new trial, a wilderness where there is no way out. Well,
then, "His mercies are new every morning." In new straits you shall
have new mercies! Our God is the same "yesterday, today and forever,"
but the phases of His mercy are as numerous as the phases of our grief.
He has helped you, so go to Him and He will help you again!

Take this thought to console and to comfort you–His relationship as a
Covenant God to you as a sincere Christian necessitates His helping
you. You have a child. That child is up to his neck in the mire and he
will soon be swallowed up alive in the bog, but he cries, "Father,
Father, help!" Now, some passerby who had a brutal heart might ignore
the cry, but you are his father, you cannot resist his cry! "What? Not
help my child?" Why, every man here feels that I would insult his
manhood with the supposition that he could leave his child to perish
who he might help! No, you would fly as on the wings of love to help
your child! If we, being evil, would help our children, how much more
shall our Father, who is in Heaven, help us?

Moreover, He is related to us in another relationship– "Your Maker is
your Husband." Let any husband here imagine his wife to be in distress
and she looks him in the face, and says, "My Husband, it is a time of
emergency, my heart is breaking, help me." Would she have to ask twice?
Not of those of us who have learned the word, "Husbands, love your
wives." And surely God is the best of husbands! And if our heart can
but feel the marriage-bond between our souls and Christ, we need not
fear but that He will respond to our tears and to our cries. He will
say, "Fear you not; for I am with you: be not dismayed; for I am your
God." "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you: and
through the rivers; they shall not overflow you; when you walk through
the fire, you shall not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon
you." I might enlarge on this thought, but you can think it out for
yourselves. God's relationships necessitate that He should help us.

All the attributes of God are involved because they are pledged to the
help of His people. Suppose He did not help us–then the enemy would
say that He could not! That would be a reflection on His power. Or the
foe would say that He wouldnot. That would be an imputation on His love
and, considering His promise, it would be a stain upon His Truth. He
has brought us into our present condition and if He does not deliver us
out of it, then that would be a stain upon His

wisdom–and the enemy would say that He steered the ship where He could
not manage it. But that could never be, so trust Him and fear not! Your
life is secure. He will preserve His children to the end.

But, Beloved, God willhelp us–wehave the promise He has given. It is
very beautiful to notice this in the Scriptures. When you get a prayer
in one chapter, you get a promise in the next which is the very
counterpart of the prayer. I may say that the promise is the type and
the prayer is very often the copy printed off that type. Listen to
this, "Help, Lord." Then listen to this, "I will help you." You know
there is such a promise as this, "I will help you." You say, "Help,
Lord," and He says, "I will help you." Do you believe your God,
Christian? "I will help you." Do you believe Him? You dare not
disbelieve Him! Well, then, lift up your head, brush away those tears,
let those heavy hearts again be exalted and let that dull heart of
yours begin to sing! You have asked for help and He has promised to
give it. The thing is done. Go your way! Rejoice in your God and
remember how He has said, "Delight yourself also in the Lord; and He
shall give you the desires of your heart."

All this I have spoken to Christians, but there would be plenty of room
and opportunity, if we had the time, to put this prayer into the lips
of the sinner, too! In many respects it suits the sinner. "'Help,
Lord.' I have a load of sin, take it from me. 'Help, Lord.' I have a
hard, stubborn heart, melt it. 'Help, Lord.' I am blind, I am lame, I
am sick. Here I lie at mercy's gate, 'Help, Lord.'" O Sinner, if you
can only pray this prayer from the bottom of your soul and present it
through the blood of Jesus Christ, you shall have help! I pray you, do
not go to bed tonight, do not shut those eyes of your in slumber till
from your heart you have uttered this prayer, "Help, Lord. Help, Lord!"
And every morning rise with it. And every night retire with it till you
shall have the answer! And then when you have got the answer, you may
still go on and plead it in another shape, and in another form–even in
the hour of death you may still plead it, "Help, Lord." When the river
Jordan swells up to your chin, you may still say, "Help, Lord." Till
you get up to the Throne of God and even there I was about to say, one
might say, "Now, Lord, I do not need help any longer, except it be to
praise You. Oh, help me to extol You, to magnify You! Give me more and
more the seraph's fire, the angel's tongue. Help me to hymn Messiah's
name and praise the splendor of His Grace world without end."

I leave you, then, with the prayer, "Help, Lord." May the Lord help
you, for Jesus' sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM 11.

Verses 1-3. I will love You, O LORD, my strength The LORD is my rock
and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength in whom I will
trust; my buckler, and my horn of my salvation, and my high tower I
shall call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be
saved from my enemies. At first he says, "I will love You," then, "I
will trust You." Now he says "I will call upon You," and that calling
upon God is especially in the sense of praising Him. And when you have
just experienced a Divine deliverance, how full your spirit is of
sacred gratitude!

4-7. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men
made me afraid. The sorrows of Hell compassed me about: the snares of
death prevented me. In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried
unto my God: He heard my voice out of His Temple, and my cry came
before Him, even into His ears. Then the earth shook and trembled; the
foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because He was
angry. God was angry with Saul and with all David's persecutors because
they hunted that good man like a partridge upon the mountains! The
prayer of the poor suppliant called down the anger of God upon his
adversaries.

8. There went up a smoke out ofHis nostrils and fire out ofHis mouth
devoured: coals were kindled by it This is a wonderful picture of the
anger of God. The Hebrews always connected manifestations of anger with
the nose and mouth just as they ascribed various passions and feelings
to the different members of the body. So David says, "There went up a
smoke out of His nostrils and fire out of His mouth devoured." Does
someone ask, "Can prayer move God in this way?" Yes, it seems so. Of
course David had to speak after the manner of men–there is no other
way in which men can speak, so he describes God as being thus stirred
by the cry of His poor child when it came up into His ears. Nothing
brings a man's temper into his face like an injury done to his child.
And God, as a Father, cannot endure to have His children hurt. "He that
touches you touches the apple of His eye."

9, 10. He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under
His feet And He rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yes, He did fly upon
the wings of the wind. So quick is God to come to the deliverance of
His persecuted people!

11-13. He made darkness His secret place; His pavilion round about Him
were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. At the brightness that
was before Him, His thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire.
The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave His voice;
hail storms and coals of fire. Behold the dread artillery of Heaven as
God turns His terrible guns against the enemies of His people and pours
out hot shot from His lofty bastion– "hail stones and coals of fire."

14, 15. Yes, He sent out His arrows, and scattered them; and He shot
out lightning, and discomfited them. Then the channels of waters were
seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at Your rebuke,
O LORD, at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils. The Psalmist is
evidently describing the passage of the Red Sea, and likening the
descent of God to His individual help to that memorable descent of God
to the rescue of His entire people. And indeed, God is as great in His
help to one as in His help to all! He is never little. When God helps
you, my Brother, He is a great God, and greatly to be praised, as
greatly so as when He comes to the rescue of an entire nation!
Therefore sing unto the Lord, whose arm is lifted up for you, even for
you, as truly as it was lifted upon Israel when He brought them out of
Egypt "with a strong hand, and with a stretched-out arm, and with great
terror."

16. He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters. [See
Sermon #1432, Volume 24–divine interpositions] The Lord made another
Moses of him. Pharaoh's daughter gave the name of Moses, that is, one
drawn out, to the child who was brought to her, "because," she said, "I
drew him out of the water."

17. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from those who hated me;
for they were too strong for me. Is that the reason why God interposed
on David's behalf? Then let all His weak children find comfort in the
fact that when our enemies are too strong for us, God will come and
deliver us! Let us be thankful for burdens that are too heavy for us to
bear and cast them upon the almighty shoulders that can easily sustain
them. If we could do without God, we would do without God, but as we
cannot, God will come to us and help and deliver us!

18. 19. They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was
my stay. He brought me forth also into a large place; He delivered me,
because He delighted in me. What a sense of Divine love God's gracious
deliverance brings! Perhaps David would never have known how greatly
God delighted in him if he had not been in such dire distress and had
not had such a great deliverance.

20-24. The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to
the cleanness of my hands has He recompensed me. For I have kept the
ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all
His judgments were before me, and I did not put away His statutes from
me. I was also upright before Him, and I kept myself from my iniquity.
Therefore has the LORD recompensed me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in His eyesight If God gives you
Grace to be honest, upright, true and steadfast in the time of
temptation, you may be quite sure that He will deliver you! In fact, He
has already worked the greater part of your deliverance in thus keeping
you from sin! The worst thing that a trouble can do for a Christian is
to carry him off his feet and make him forsake his integrity.

25-27. With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful; with an
upright man You will show Yourself upright; with the pure You will show
Yourself pure; and with the forward You will show Yourself forward. For
You will save the afflicted people; but will bring down high looks. If
your faith cannot endure testing and trying, it is but poor faith. It
will not do to die with if it will not do to live with it. But if you
cry to the Lord and He enables you in the time of your distress to be
faithful to Him, then He will certainly give you deliverance sooner or
later.

28-30. For You will light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my
darkness. For by You I have run through a troop; and by my God have I
leaped over a wall As for God, His way is perfect If you practice
self-reliance, but not God-reliance, you will be sure to fail. What
poor strength that is which does not come from God! Is it worthy of the
name of strength at all? Is it not impotence and impudence combined?
May God keep us from imagining that we can do anything apart from Him!
At the same time, may His gracious Spirit work in us the sure
confidence that we can do everything He bids us do when He is our
Helper! David had that confidence, for He goes on to sing.

30-37. The word of the LORD is tried: He is a buckler to all those who
trust in Him. For who is God says the LORD? Or who is a rock says our
God? It is God that girds me with strength, and makes my way perfect He
makes my feet like hinds 'feet, and sets me upon my high places. He
teaches my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by my arms.
You have also given me the shield of Your salvation: and Your right
hand has held me up, and Your gentleness has made me great You have
enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip. I have pursued
my enemies, and overtaken them: neither did I turn again till they were
consumed.Remember that this is a soldier's song–a song under the old
covenant when men might fight as they may not fight now. We must,
therefore, spiritualize this ancient war song as we read it.

38-45. I have wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are
fallen under my feet. For You have girded me with strength unto the
battle: You have subdued under me those that rose up against me. You
have also given me the necks ofmy enemies; that Imight destroy them
that hate me. They cried, but there was none to save them: even unto
the LORD, but He answered them not. Then did I beat them small as the
dust before the wind: I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets.
You have delivered me from the strivings of the people; and You have
made me the head of the heathen: a people whom I have not known shall
serve me. As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers
shall submit themselves unto me. The strangers shall fade away, and be
afraid out of their close places. So it came to pass that the
Philistines were afraid of David and he delivered his people from the
attacks of all invaders, and brought them that blessed peace which
Solomon enjoyed with them.

46-50. The LORD lives, and blessed be my rock; and let the God ofmy
salvation be exalted. It is God that avenges me, and subdues the people
under me. He delivers me from my enemies: yes, You lift me up above
those that rise up against me: You have delivered me from the violent
man. Therefore will I give thanks unto You, O LORD, among the heathen,
and sing praises unto Your name. Great deliverance gives He to His
king; and shows mercy to His anointed, to David, and to his seed
forevermore.