God’s Care of Elijah

God's Care of Elijah

(No. 3264)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 1911.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL
7, 1864.

"And it shall be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have
commanded the ravens to feed you there." 1 Kings 17:4.

WHAT a mighty master of the art of prayer was Elijah the Tishbite! He
was one of those who had the power to shut up Heaven so that it did not
rain. He did not merely prophesy, "As the Lord God of Israel lives,
before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain but according to
my word," but he prayed that it might be so–so that he was not only
the messenger of the drought, but in some sense, the cause of it. It
was his act that stopped the bottles of Heaven! It was his prevailing
prayer which brought down that heavy chastisement upon the sinful
people.

But perceive dear Friends, that though Elias was mighty in prayer, and
could prevail with God, yet he did not therefore escape from
suffering–no, his very prayer in its answer, brought him into
suffering. If there should be a drought throughout all the land, he
himself must feel the pinch as well as the rest of the people. If the
brooks are dried up, they shall be dried up for him, and if there is no
corn in the land, there shall be no corn for him, unless God shall be
pleased to especially interpose on his behalf. Elijah suffers, then, in
the common evil. The effect of his own prayer is, as it were, to bring
down the house of the Philistines upon his own head, as well as upon
theirs.

Let us learn from this, dear Friends, that the highest degree of Grace
cannot save us from affliction, no, that it even includes it! We may
grow in Grace until our faith never staggers. We may progress in the
art of wrestling with God until we know how to grapple with the Angel
as Jacob did at Jabbok with, "I will not let You go except You bless
me"–but the impartial hand of trial will knock at our door as well as
at the door of the chief of sinners! We must still tread the path of
sorrow. Still shall we have to go under the rod of the Covenant and
feel Christ's yoke upon our shoulders. The child of God cannot escape
the rod even though he is an Elijah. He may call down fire from Heaven
to consume the sacrifice, but no fire from Heaven can consume his
trouble! He must bear it, he must pass through it as well as the
weakest and most common of God's people! Let us, therefore, settle it
in our hearts to be resigned to this. If it is the common lot of God's
people, why should we repine? If the Prince, Himself, once went through
the Valley of Humiliation, why should we murmur at following in His
footsteps? God had one Son without sin, but never a son without
affliction. Let us not ask to be the first, but be content to share the
position of those whose inheritance is to be ours forever in the
Paradise of our God.

Tonight, and God grant that it may be for our profit, we shall talk of
our text, handling it in three ways. First, you will perceive that God
is at no loss to supply the needs of His children. When we have talked
of that, I would have you notice, secondly, that God has power to make
all creatures obedient to His will And then thirdly, I shall ask you to
notice that there is a possibility of a creature in some way serving
God and yet remaining an unclean creature–just as the ravens fed
Elijah, but were still unclean ravens, so you and I may be serviceable
in the Lord's cause to some extent and yet, after all, be utter
strangers to the things of Christ!

I. First, then, we certainly gather from the whole incident related
concerning Elijah here, and, indeed, from the whole of the Prophet's
life, that GOD IS AT NO LOSS TO SUPPLY HIS SERVANTS' NEEDS.

This narrative seems to tell us, first of all, that God's people shall
always have enough Do they need drink in a parched land–they shall
"drink of the brook." Do they need food, "I have commanded the ravens
to feed you there." Elijah never had short commons. He had no
luxuries–just bread, meat, and water–but these were enough. No doubt,
Jezebel's priests fed much more sumptuously and many of God's servants
not as well, for we read of Obadiah that he took

the Prophets of God and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them
bread and water. Now Elijah did get on better than this for he had
bread and meat while they had only bread. God, however, was not pleased
to give Elijah dainties. Delicate things are not promised to the
children of God–and His Prophets, at any rate–should not seek after
them. They that fare delicately and are clothed sumptuously are in
kings' houses and are often nothing better than reeds shaken by the
wind. Let us learn, then, from this, that although God will provide for
the needs of His people, yet He has never promised to give them more
than enough. The promise runs, "Your bread shall be given you, and your
water shall be sure," but it goes no further. We are instructed each
day to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," which means, "Give us
a sufficiency." And, indeed, if God's Inspiration had not taught us so
to pray, wisdom would teach us to do it, for Agur's prayer is one which
philosophy might justify as well as Grace–"Give me neither poverty nor
riches: feed me with food convenient for me." It is that middle path of
the, "enough," which is, perhaps, the most pleasant, and certainly the
most safe. "Having food and raiment let us therewith be content."–

"Let others stretch their arms like seas,

And grasp in all the shore–

Grant me the presence of Your love,

And I will ask no more."

You have, perhaps, been struggling and trying to rise in the world, and
after long and arduous efforts find yourselfjust where you were. You
did make money fast at one time, but you have lost it all again. Well,
dear Friends, what does this matter, after all, as long as your God is
still faithful to you? He never promised you riches! He did, however,
promise you that you should lack no good thing and if riches had been a
good thing for you, you would have had them! Perhaps you are one of the
hyssops that grow best upon the wall, or one of the ferns that flourish
best down in some shady place. Too much sunlight and exposure might
have been ill for you. Thank God that you have enough just now, and are
a Believer in Christ! Take your case before they Lord and He will
command even the ravens to feed you sooner than that you shall know any
serious lack. I ought to say before I leave this point that Elijah had
enough, but it did not always come to him in the nicest way, for I do
not imagine that the ravens knew how to get bread and meat always cut
into nice shapes. Perhaps they snatched a rough bit of meat here and
perhaps a crust of bread there–and it came in all sorts of ugly
pieces– but still, there it was and it was enough! "Beggars are not to
be choosers," we say, and certainly pensioners on God's bounty ought
not pick holes and find fault with the Lord's providing! Whatever God
gives you, be grateful for–for if too proud to take from the raven's
mouth, it will be well for you to go without until your hunger consumes
your pride! God promises His people enough, but not more than enough,
and even that enough may not come to us in the way we would choose.

Observe again, that though the Lord can provide for His people yet He
often chooses to do it by littles and littles. How did the ravens bring
the Prophet his supplies? They brought him bread and meat in the
morning, and bread and meat in the evening. God did not send him a
great supply at once. Not bread and meat to last him for a week. There
must be daily supplies. Enough for the morning meal, and enough for the
evening repast, but there shall be no stock in hand. And is not this
God's usual method of dealing with His people?–

"Day by day the manna fell, Oh, to learn this lesson well."

Remember, too, the prayer which I quoted just now–"Give us this day
our dailybread." Not, "our weeklybread," not, "our monthlybread," not
"our annual'stores"–but, "give us our daily bread." God is pleased to
give some of His servants in the bulk, but there are many others who
only "live from hand to mouth"–and perhaps though not best for the
flesh, it is best for faith, for we are apt, when mercies come
regularly, to forget from whence they flow! The first three or four
times that manna fell in the wilderness, I daresay the Israelites
thought it a wonderful miracle and never ceased talking of it! But
after a week or two it got so common that at last they said, "Our soul
loathes this light bread." If God were to send an angel to your door
with bread and meat, you would think a great deal of it at first, but
after a dozen times you would think it commonplace and see no miracle
in it. A miracle constantly repeated ceases to be a miracle and falls,
then, into ordinary law. God changes the modes in which He sends our
supplies, that we may more clearly see His hand in them and be
compelled to say, "It is only Jehovah who can add, "Jireh," to His
name, for the Lord alone can provide for His people."

So, then, we are not to ask for a great stock in hand. You will, none
of you, have dying Grace yet, as you have not yet to die. And we do not
get Grace for the furnace until we come to the furnace. The manna of
old, you know, bred worms and stank when it was a day old, and very
often treasures laid up on earth are full of moths and rust, and so God
sends us, day by day, what we need, that there may be neither moth nor
rust, but that we may constantly see His hand and bless His name. There
shall be enough, Brothers and Sisters, but it shall often come by
littles.

Again, our text has another thought, very prominent on its front–the
provision which God sends us may often come in the most unlikely way.
It was a very unlikely way for the Prophet to receive water, to send
him to a brook. Why not to Jordan? It would probably be the last river
to dry up. Why send him to a brook? Above all, why to the Brook
Cherith, for the very name signifies "drought"! Very likely it was the
first brook to dry up. Yet Elijah is sent there! And we have known the
Lord supply His people by the most unlikely means, the first to dry up
has been made the very last. For a year, at most, the Prophet sat among
the rushes, hiding all day, and the water never failed. So God
sometimes uses means which we have despised and enables us "to provide
things honest in the sight of all men." Then, as for Elijah's meat, it
was sent by ravens, as the little hymn says–

"More likely to rob and to thieve, Than give to the Prophet his needs."
Yet these birds that feed on carrion were constrained to bring the
Prophet fresh meat! Strange thing, that these birds of prey should
bring meat to keep alive the servant of God! Their natural propensities
overruled because God commanded them. Ah, God knows how to make our
enemies to minister to our good, both temporally and spiritually. Once
in old Popish times, a good woman condemned to starve, was asked by the
judge in derision, "Now that you are condemned to starve, what can your
God do for you?" She boldly answered, "He can feed me off your table if
He pleases." It so happened that the judge's wife, melted to compassion
by the boldness of one of her own sex, daily abstracted a portion of
her own food to give to the poor woman in prison–and so her life was
prolonged. If the Lord could not feed His people anyway else, I believe
He would use ravens again! But He knows how to use ravens in human
guise and he will bend their wills to serve His people's needs. They
who would be wolves to His sheep, He can make to act as shepherds
leading them into the green pastures!

Besides, if you think of it, the ravens were unlikely to feed the
Prophet, for they were as poor as the Prophet was. They sow not,
neither do they reap, nor gather into barns and yet poor as the
Prophet, they feed him! How frequently have the poor been the best
friends of the poor. Sometimes in life, not knowing poverty, has
steeled the heart, but having known and felt it, opens the heart to
help others in greater need. The ravens owe their own meat, day by day,
to God's providing, and yet He employs them for the supply of His
servant! So, poor saints, deeply dependent on God for their humblest
needs, He enables to help saints yet poorer! His Prophet shall be
sustained by ravens who, perhaps, have little ones that cry for their
food. The Lord will provide! We know not how, but He has His own ways
and methods and, as a quaint old writer said, "when it comes to the
point when the Lord cannot take care of His people underHeaven, He will
take them up into Heaven." And when there is no bread for them to eat
on earth, He will take away the need of eating it and take them where
they shall eat bread in the Kingdom of their Father beyond the skies!

I want to mention this point, too, that this bread came in sufficient
quantity, in little, but unlikely means and yet it surely came. Not
once did Elijah miss his breakfast, not once find that the water had
dried up! Until the appointed time came there it was, sure and certain!
What a strange thing we are so unbelieving! It is strange, is it not,
that a saint who for 40 years has trusted his Father and been upheld,
should ever doubt His faithfulness to the very end? It is strange, I
say, but I must confess how strangely true of myself and how cunningly
old Unbelief still creeps in! Oh, that wicked Unbelief! That wicked
Unbelief! Mr. Bunyan says, "Old Mr. Unbelief was a nimble chap and
could never be taken by the heels, or else the King's officers would
have hanged him!" I wish he could be taken and then there would be a
clear riddance of him, but he somehow manages, in spite of all our
watchfulness, to escape! And we get to doubting after ten thousand
proofs that there is no cause whatever for doubting! Our bread is sure.
Let us write this down, both in spirituals and temporals–"The Lord
will provide."

But observe, also, and then I think I must leave this point, that
Elijah got his bread and meat in the path of obedience. He was told to
go and hide himself. This was not pleasant for the Prophet. I confess I
should not have liked it– to go and creep into a hole in some craggy
rock or lie down and conceal himself among the reeds from every
passer-by.

Everything he had to do from morning to night was to find the most
secluded spot where no one could catch a glimpse of him. And this was
the hero Prophet of God! I would have wanted to be preaching! I would
have said, "Why, there are the people of Israel needing someone to
speak to them. Why, Lord, is it that I am condemned to be dumb? Why
should I be hiding away among the rushes and reeds? Now is surely the
time for me to boldly witness in Your name. The heavens drop no dew and
the earth is dry–now, perhaps, the hearts of men will tremble–now let
your Elijah speak! Lord, give me words of power, clothe me now with
salvation and help me to stir this degenerate people." Would not you
have felt the same? And yet God had commanded him to hide himself! If
he had gone out contrary to the Divine Command I am not sure that he
would have been fed–but being told to hide and, obeying, he found the
path of duty and obedience was the path of Divine upholding and he was
fed. So, dear Friends, let us take care that we abide in the path of
obedience to God and He will faithfully sustain us.

Some men are lazy and will not work–God will not provide for such, for
they are far away from the path of duty. "If they will not work,
neither shall they eat." Some, on the other hand, put themselves by
some great folly, out of a position where their bread would have been
given them. Well, if they run before God's pillar of cloud or fire, and
are not led of Him, they must not expect that they will have His
miraculous protection, for the path of duty is the only one where God
has solemnly pledged Himself to protect His children walking therein! I
believe that if we wait upon the Lord, commit our ways to Him, and
acknowledge Him in them all, and it is our constant endeavor to serve
Him, seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, then all
other things shall be added unto us. But if we choose to run counter to
God's command, we may live to know even the need of bread! David could
say, "I have been young and now am old, yet have I not seen the
righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." David could say that,
but I cannot–and I believe there are many Christian people who cannot
say it. David gave his honest personal experience, but that is not the
personal experience of all observers. If you are the child of a true
servant of God and yet you turn out a vagabond, you will have to beg
your bread as well as other vagabonds–it does not matter how good your
mother and father may have been. If you do not walk near to God,
yourself, you may have your feet yet upon the cold ground and yet have
to cry for bread. If you live in profligacy or vice, or deep indolence,
it will bring you, though the child of godly parents, as surely and
soon to poverty as it will any other child! We must not pride
ourselves, nor trust in any degree upon what our parents were. Personal
faith and a personal seeking of the Kingdom of God and His
righteousness are the only things that will bring us sure
provision–nothing short of these will avail!

I have only to remind you to remember that God is still the same God
and He that helped Elijah will help you. No raven may come flying into
your window, but He will send you bread in another way. He is just as
faithful now as ever! Elijah, remember, was a man of like passions with
you. God help you to exercise this faith and He will never fail you.

II. Now, for the second part of our theme we will notice, with holy
admiration, that GOD HAS POWER TO MAKE ALL CREATURES OBEDIENT TO HIS
WILL.

"I have commanded the ravens to feed you there." These ravens never
croaked out a single objection, but did as they were bidden! Their
instincts did not rebel, but they submitted absolutely to God's will,
and I daresay, were quite as diligent and quite as happy in carrying
the bread and meat to Elijah as they would have been if they had been
taking it to their own young or feasting upon it themselves!

Observe, Beloved, how the whole world is obedient to God. He spoke once
to the great floods of water–they were deep in the caverns of the
earth. He called to them. He lifted up His voice in the clouds from
that great sea beyond the firmament, and deep called unto deep at the
noise of God's waterspouts–up they sprang from the vast caverns where
they slept and down they dashed, not in drops, but in terrible
cataracts, and the whole earth was covered with their floods, until
forty cubits upward, they prevailed over the tops of the mountains! And
when God did but whisper to them and bid them go back to their resting
places, where He would again set them about with bars–back they went
and the waters were relieved from off the earth. The great deep knows
its Master! And He has but to speak and it obeys His behests. The Red
Sea of old knew the power of Moses' rod and when God commanded, the
floods stood upright, as a heap, and the whole depths were congealed in
the heart of the sea! Jordan, too, was driven back–the feet of the
priests did but touch the edge of the stream and straightway the whole
host of Israel marched through as on dry land! Nor were the floods of
earth merely obedient, for celestial bodies have confessed His power,
for Joshua made the sun and the moon stand still while the Lord's
warriors smote their foes! Nor is it inanimate things only that admit
His sway. The lions

crouch at Daniel's feet, the monster fish swallows but does not destroy
the wayward Jonah. Nor do great things only obey Him. The worm at God's
command smote the root of Jonah's gourd, the locusts came upon Egypt
and He sent all manner of flies and lice in all their quarters.
Creatures, however tremendous or minute, are alike moved by the
impulses of the Divine Will and, like an army marching under some
mighty commander in strict order, battalion upon battalion, and rank
upon rank they march to the conflict when God bids them! Are not even
the caterpillar and the palmer-worm, part of God's great host–and do
not they all obey His behests?

Is it not a sad, sad, strange thing that man is the only creature that
refuses to obey his Creator?I know that in the sense of the decree,
God's will is done, and even Judas fulfils that to which he was
appointed, but so far as his will is concerned, man remains a stout
rebel against God! The raven, commanded to carry bread and meat, does
it, but man bid to believe in Christ, and to repent of his sins, to
bring forth fruits meet for repentance, refuses to do it! Oh, the
stubbornness of human nature! We are worse than ravens! There is no
creature that in this can be compared with man. Bunyan's well-known
wish, that he had been a frog or a toad rather than a man might well be
the wish of us all while we are in a state of sin for they know no
rebellion against God! And we are full of it, as the sea is full of
salt. "The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib, but
Israel does not know, My people do not consider." Are there any here in
an unregenerate state? I fear there are. If so, let those ravens rebuke
you! How is it that to the God who made you, who feeds you–that to the
Christ who says, "Come unto Me, you weary, and I will give you
rest"–that to that Spirit who alone can quicken you, you should be
enemies and strangers? May a sense of your ingratitude fill your hearts
with penitence and make you humble yourselves before God!

III. But lastly, we have in the case before us a very notable instance
of how POSSIBLE IT IS FOR CREATURES TO SERVE GOD AFTER A FASHION, AND
YET STILL REMAIN UNCLEAN CREATURES.

We read in the book of Leviticus that "the raven after his kind is
unclean." Before these ravens brought Elijah's food they were unclean
and after they had done it, they were still unclean. Elijah did not
refuse the bread and meat because unclean birds brought it. No! Oh no,
and I will not refuse a good and profitable saying even if the Devil
spoke it! I would not prefer–I would not do it, in fact–to sit under
the ministry of a man known to be evil, but if I happened to be where I
heard him preach and I heard him say good things, I would not reject
those good things because they came out of a raven's mouth! I would not
choose to have my bread and meat from a raven, but if I knew that it
was bread and meat and that God had sent it, I would eat it, even
though a raven brought it. But see, too, how possible it is for us to
carry bread and meat to God's servants and do some good things for His
Church and yet still be ravens! There may be some Sunday school
teachers here who are not members of the Church. I believe this will
not apply to teachers in our school, but it will to many other schools.
I am not clear as to whether unconverted teachers should be tolerated
at all, whether it is not altogether wrong and whether David's words
may not be applied to such, "Unto the wicked God says, 'What have you
to do to declare My statutes?" But if you are such a teacher, dear
Friend, do not, I pray you, conclude that because of your teaching you,
yourself, are saved! You may even be blessed in your teaching to the
conversion of some of the children under your care and yet, unless you
have personally trusted Christ as your Savior and been brought into
vital union with Him, you may lead the children to Heaven and be
yourself cast out! Beware, I say, lest in your teaching you imagine
yourself to be a Christian!

It is just the same with all the officers of the Church. Shall I take
the ministry just now? Oh, my Brothers, how easy it is to preach, yes,
to win souls through God's Grace and yet, after all, to be a castaway!
There have been authentic cases of men who have seemed to be very
zealous and to burn with the pure celestial fire, who have no doubt
been the means of directing others to Heaven, but have not been,
themselves, saved! Too many ministers are like the signposts on country
roads–they hold out their hands and point the way, but never take the
road themselves! They, like the post, still stand where they always
did! God deliver us from being signposts on the road to Heaven and not
going there ourselves! The builder uses many poles that are not part of
the permanent building, but as soon as the house is up, down goes the
scaffolding. So God may permit us to be scaffolding for His Church, and
when that Church is completed, He may take us down and we may be
consumed in the fires of Hell. Oh, may the Lord grant that this may
never be so with any one of us! Deacons and Elders of Churches, the
same may be said of you! If bearing the vessels of the Lord you are not
clean, have not been washed in the great laver of the Savior's
Atonement, remember that this bearing the Lord's vessels will not save

you! Just as the carrying of bread and meat by the ravens did not put
them in the list of clean birds, but left them still unclean.

Now this is a very solemn subject and applies to many of you now
present. I do not know, but I am afraid that the worst place into which
an unconverted sinner can go is into a Church. While you make no
profession of religion and are still in the gall of bitterness, and in
the bond of iniquity, we seem to know where you are and we think you
know where you are. You are evidently not on the Lord's side. But
inside the Church and yet not converted, though you thought you
were–what a terrible evil this is! You have been seen by the Elders
and they have carefully questioned you. The pastor has seen you and
used his best judgment and been satisfied with you. The Church has
heard your verbal confession of faith and been content to receive you.
You have been baptized upon a profession of your faith and yet if you
are not soundly converted, the most dangerous place for you is in the
Church! We cannot get at you. When we preach, our shots miss you. When
we talk to the sinners, you say, "Ah, that is not me, I am a
Christian." You are numbed, you see, with God's child-ren–you have "a
name to live," and yet you are dead! If I were sick in a hospital, I
should like to have my disease correctly stated over my bed, but I
should not like a card of convalescence to be there if deadly maladies
were still eating out my vitals! I would not discourage your making a
profession. If you love Christ, keep His commandments and declare that
love! These are not the times when we can have a concealed
Christianity. Profess it before men! Other men profess their infidelity
readily enough. Be not ashamed of your Master, but oh, beware, beware
lest you only are baptized into deeper sin, lest you eat and drink
damnation to yourselves, not discerning the Lord's body when you come
to His Table!

Oh, Beloved, I would be very earnest with you and most earnest with
those of us who occupy prominent positions in the Church of God! We are
so apt to think we may take our religion for granted. Take nothing for
granted, my Brothers and Sisters–but our own possibility of
self-deceit! Do not believe anything about yourselves unless you have
God's ipse dixit for it. I love for myself to live upon God's naked
promise. I cannot get farther than this, "He that believes on Him is
not condemned." I do believe on Him! My soul does rest on Him! I have
no other hope and no other confidence! There can be no erring here–if
you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart, you are
saved! Yet, remember, some make a profession of doing this who are not
saved. Oh, for God's sake, for Christ's sake, for His blood's sake, for
His wounds' sake, for your own soul's sake do not deceive yourselves!
If faith does not make you holy, it is not worth a gnat! If your faith
does not make you hate sin and wean you from it, it is not the faith of
God's elect! We expect not sinless perfection this side the grave, but
we do expect perfection in desire, perfection in intention, perfection
in heart in regard to this matter! We would not tolerate sin–if we
could get at it we would hew it in pieces as Samuel hewed Agag before
the

Lord!

O Beloved, let these Truths of God rest upon your minds and hearts!
While there is comfort in the subject for the Christian as to
Providential circumstances, yet there is also a word of
self-examination both to him and to the unsaved sinner with regard to
spiritual matters. May the Lord bring us all to His right hand in Glory
everlasting, and His shall be the praise forever and ever! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM118.

May the Good Spirit, who taught the Psalmist to indite these words,
help us to feel their inward meaning!

Verse 1. O give thanks unto the LORD; for He is good: because His mercy
endures forever Now, do that, dear Friends. Before we read another
verse let us do that. In your hearts think of the goodness and mercy of
God to you–to each one as an individual–and give Him thanks now! No
murmuring, no coldness of heart. Cast out everything and give God
thanks at this moment. It is the least we can do. It is to our own
benefit to be grateful. How can we be holy if we are deficient in that
simple matter? "Oh give thanks unto Jehovah, for He is good, because
His mercy endures forever.''

2. Let Israel now say that His mercy endures forever And if there is an
elect out of the elect, who live still nearer to God and are doubly
consecrated to His service–

3. Let the house of Aaron now say that His mercy endures forever But
let not the praise be confined to these joyous ones. Let the whole
Church take it up!

4. Let them now that fear the LORD say that His mercy endures forever
You have tried it–you have proved it! The mercy of God has followed
you in all your devious paths. It will follow you even to the end. "His
mercy endures forever."

5. I called upon the LORD in distress. "I"–nothing like coming to
particulars and personalities. "I."

5, 6. The LORD answeredme andset me in a largeplace. The LORD is on my
side. I willnot fear what can man do to me.?"What is man? He is but as
the dust before God. And when God is with us and takes care of us, what
can man, who is as a moth, do to God's preserved ones?"

7-9. The LORD takes my part with them that help me: therefore shall I
see my desire upon them that hate me. It is better to trust in the LORD
than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the LORD than
to put confidence in princes. Now he goes on to detail his experience
of trouble and of deliverance.

10, All nations compassed me about: but in the name of the LORD will I
destroy them. David was a warrior. His business was to fight and he was
attacked on every side by all sorts of people. He was shut in and the
Lord was with Him–and he broke his way through.

11, 12. They compassedme about; yes, they compassedme about: but in the
name of the LORD I will destroy them. They compassed me about like
bees; they are quenched as the fire of thorns. Thorns crackle and
blaze, and then it is all over with them! So it shall be with the
adversaries of the Believer. "They are quenched as the fire of thorns,
for in the name of the Lord will I destroy them."

12, 13. For in the name of the LORD I will destroy them. You have
thrust sorely at me that I might fall "You"– the same great and
leading name.

13,14. But the LORD helpedme. The LORD is my strength andsong, andis
become my salvation. What a poet this man is! Thanksgiving is the tone
of a true poet. When a man's heart gets warm and he begins to adore his
God for His boundless mercy, the strain cannot grovel. Gratitude lends
its wings better than the fabled Pegasus, and up the mind rises in a
majesty of Glory. "Jehovah is my strength and song, and He has become
my salvation."

15, 16. The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacle of
the righteous: the right hand of the LORD does valiantly. The right
hand of the LORD is exalted: the right hand of the LORD does valiantly.
He drops into triplets. This is no accident. We meet with these
triplets often in the Old Testament. Why three? Why not four? Ah, you
know, who can sing, "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the
Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world
without end."

17, 18. I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.
The LORD has chastened me sorely. You notice David's rendering of the
13th verse. To the enemy he says, "You have thrust sorely at me, that I
might fall." When he thinks it over, he says, "The chastening hand of
God is in this, even in my enemy's wicked and malicious attacks. And so
he reads it over again, "The Lord has chastened me sorely, but He has
not given me over unto death." The Roman magistrates had a bundle of
rods with an axe tied up in the middle. The children felt the rod, but
not the axe. "You have chastened me sorely, but You have not given me
over unto death."

18-21. But He has not given me over unto death. Open to me the gate of
righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the LORD: this
gate of the LORD, into which the righteous shall enter I will praise
You: for You have heard me, and have become my salvation.Another grand
verse! Answers to prayer are the notes of our music. If God has heard
you pray, take care that He hears you praise! Mercies for which we are
not thankful will curdle into curses. Take care that you praise God
when He fills you with His good things, yes, and praise Him if He does
not! Bless a taking God as well as a giving God. Is He not equally God
whatever He does? Now David sings of himself, but the Spirit of God
inspired him to sing of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of David.

22, 23. The One which the builders refused is become the head
cornerstone. This is the LORD'S doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. The
Jewish rulers would not have Christ. They cast Him aside as a stone
which would not fit their wall, especially because He was a
cornerstone. They wanted to stand as a lone solitary wall. They did not
want to have the corner turned even for the Samaritan–much less for
the poor Gentile. But you and I must bless God that while Christ is
laid upon the wall of the Jew as a cornerstone, He turns a corner for
us poor Gentiles that we may be built into the same Temple of God. He
has become the Cornerstone.

24. This is the day which the LORD has made.This Sabbath day–this
Gospel day–"the day that Jehovah has made."

24, We will rejoice and be glad in it Now, heavy hearts, try and rise
to that! This is not the day of doom–this is not the day of curses. It
is the day of mercy and of love. We will rejoice and be glad in it.
Hosanna! Let us cry Hosanna!

25, 26. Save now, I beseech You, O LORD: O LORD, I beseech You, send
now prosperity. Blessed be hie that comes in the name of the LORD. And
again Hosanna!

26, 27. We have blessed you out of the house of the LORD. God is the
LORD, which has showed us light Blessed be His name! We were in the
dark before, but He has brought light to our spirit. The light of
knowledge, the light of joy, the light of delight He has brought to us.

27, Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar. Do
that, Beloved. Give yourself up to Christ again. Bind yourselves
again–

"'Tis done; the great transaction's done! I am my Lord's–and He is
mine. High Heaven that heard the solemn vow That vow renewed this day
shall hear."

Present it to your God. "Bind the sacrifice with cords, even with cords
unto the horns of the altar."

28, 29. You are my God, andl willpraise You: You are my God, I will
exalt you. Ogive thanks unto the LORD; for He is good: for His mercy
endures forever'