Experience and Assurance

Experience and Assurance

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 28, 1890,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Because You have been my help, therefore in the shadow of Your wings
will I rejoice." Psalm 63:7.

In their time of trouble the children of God return to their Father. It
is according to their newborn nature to seek Him from whom it came. The
believing heart is like the needle in the compass–you may turn it
round with your finger east and west–but when you withdraw the
pressure, it will, beyond all doubt, tremble backward towards its pole.
With God, the regenerate heart is in its proper position. A mystic
something draws the new life towards the Source from where it came. We
may, alas, by the force of temptation, or by the demands of business,
or by an overpowering lethargy become indifferent to our highest
love–but this cannot long continue–we can never rest except in God!
The winds of trouble blow the dove of our soul back to the ark. Our
heart repents of its wanderings when they bring it into a dry and
thirsty land where there is no water. Then we long after Divine
refreshments and cannot be quiet till we have them. Then we cry, "O
God, You are my God; early will I seek You"!

The soul, in coming back to God, will be greatly helped by meditation.
Hence the Psalmist says, "My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and
fatness; and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips: when I
remember You upon my bed, and meditate on You in the night watches."
The soul feasts when it meditates! I am afraid these eager days leave
little space for meditation, yet there is no exercise more nourishing
to faith, love and all the Graces. David says, "I remember You; I
meditate on You." A transient thought of God may bless us largely, even
as a touch of the hem of the Savior's garment healed a woman of her
plague. But to meditate upon Him is, as it were, to lean our head upon
His bosom and enjoy full fellowship in His love. Oh, for more
meditation! It would mean more Grace, more joy!

The photographer can take an instantaneous photograph and so can we, by
ejaculatory prayer and vehement desire, obtain immediate help from
Heaven. But in a certain state of the atmosphere the object needs
longer exposure–needs, in fact, that its image should rest longer upon
the sensitive plate before it will completely imprint itself.
Meditation does, as it were, set the Lord long before the soul so that
it receives His image more completely. Happy is he who can say, "I have
set the Lord always before me"! Thoughts of God are as when a man
climbs a hill, looks upon a landscape and cries out exultingly, "How
beautiful is this scenery!"

But if you would have a figure of meditation, you must see that man
standing on the hilltop for a long space of time and marking the
features of the landscape. Look, yonder is the spire of a village
church! Mark the cottages nestling around it! There flows a river and,
hard by, a broad sheet of water, like a looking glass, reflects the
sun. Mark the distant range of hills and the woods and wilds which lie
between. Note well the valley bronzed with a thousand fields of corn
divided like a garden by hedgerows. Such a view as this is instructive
and abides in the memory. He understands the country best who has seen
most of it–and we know the Lord, by His Spirit–far better by quiet
meditation than by any other means.

We not only remember our God once, but we remember, and remember, and
remember, and remember again till memory flowers into meditation.
Thoughts of God crop the herbage, but meditation chews the cud–and it
is the chewing of the cud which yields nourishment. Oh, that you and I
may often cheer our sleepless hours by heavenly meditations, for thus
shall the pure in heart see their God and thus shall they enter into
the closest fellowship with Him! Among our subjects for meditation
should be God's gracious dealings with us. David meditated upon his
whole life in the light of its connection with God. He read his diary
through and specially dwelt upon the points where he had come into
contact with the Invisible and the Infinite. He remembered the help he
had received from Omnipotence. He knew God best by special times of
gracious aid.

After all, it is not what we read in the Bible, but what we feel in the
heart which actually gives us our best acquaintance with God. A hundred
biographies of other men will not make so much impression upon us as
the knowing of God in our own personal experience. If we can say of
Him, "You have been my help," we shall meditate upon Him to good
purpose.

Once more–when the heart comes back to God, riding in the golden
chariot of meditation, the natural instinct is to speak to Him. Hence
my text is not only the Word of God, but a word with God! The Psalmist
does not direct the words of the text to us, but to God
Himself–"Because You have been my help, therefore in the shadow of
Your wings will I rejoice." Beloved, it is a delightful thing to
converse with God! Do you indulge this habit? If the Lord is your
Father, should you not, as a child, speak with Him every day? If you
are married to Christ, should not the spouse speak with her
Well-Beloved? It were very strange if she did not! Private devotion
ought to be a dialogue between the soul and God– by the Scripture the
Lord speaks to us–and by prayer we speak to Him.

Sometimes, you know, in conversation with a friend, you have not much
to say. Very well. You listen while your friend speaks. When prayer is
not urgent, read your Bible and hear what God, the Lord, shall speak.
And when you have heard His voice you will usually find it in your
heart to pray to Him. If the prayer is soon over, because you have
expressed all your thoughts, then let the Lord speak again and you
listen diligently. But do speak to the Lord! Realize His Presence and
then speak to Him as a man speaks with his friend. God has no dumb
children, but He has some who hold their tongues to a fault when they
are with Him. I fear that these same people use their tongues to a
fault when they are away from Him.

O Brothers and Sisters, speak with God! This is the noblest use of
speech. If half our talk with men were silenced and our talks with God
were multiplied 10 times, it would be well. May I ask a question of
every professing Christian? Have you spoken with God this morning? Do
you allow a day to pass without conversation with God? Can it be right
for us to treat the Lord with mute indifference? No! Let us often turn
our hearts and our lips heavenward and say, "Thus will I bless You
while I live: I will lift up my hands in Your name." Does not our Lord
love to hear us speak? Listen to His loving appeal in the sacred
Canticle–"O My doves, that are in the clefts of the rock, in the
secret places of the stairs, let Me see your countenance, let Me hear
your voice; for sweet is your voice and your countenance is comely."

With this as a preface, I now invite you to the text itself, which is a
stanza of David's song unto the Lord. "Because You have been my
help"–This is experience. "Therefore in the shadow of Your wings will
I rejoice"–this is expectation, or, viewing it in a still brighter
light, "I will rejoice"–this is assurance. Here are three subjects to
dwell upon. God help us to climb these three rounds of the ladder of
light–experience, expectation, full assurance! If we stop at the top
when we get there it may not be amiss. But if we have to begin again,
let us rehearse matters in the same order–more experience, clearer
expectation and fuller assurance.

I. First, then, EXPERIENCE–"You have been my help." Experience is the
child of faith and, strange to say, experience is the nurse of faith.
No man can expect to experience the fulfillment of the promise till he
believes the promise. But they believe the promise best who have had
most experience of God's faithfulness. David had experienced Divine
help. He distinctly traced many of his deliverances to Divine help. He
says, "You have been my help." David did not ascribe his success in
life to a powerful patron for he had none. I have heard men sigh for
the bondage of patronage. One has cried, "If I were taken up by some
great man, I should succeed in life."

David had no patronage–on the contrary, he encountered strong
opposition. His brothers pushed him into the rear and even his father
kept him minding the sheep. In later life Jonathan was his friend, but
he was not his patron for that generous prince always felt that David
was his superior. If you have God for your Friend, you need not cringe
before great men, for you shall joyfully say unto the Lord, "You have
been my help." Cursed is he that trusts in man and makes flesh his arm.
But blessed is he that trusts in the Lord and whose hope is the Lord.
Neither does David ascribe his success in life to himself. There is no
doubt that he was a man of genius, cast in a poetic mold and it is also
clear that he was a valiant man, born for deeds of daring and high
enterprise. He was also a man of judgment and counsel and as apt for
government in peace as in war.

With all his faults, there is no more royal character upon the pages of
Scripture than David, King of Israel. But he does not sacrifice to his
own sword, or magnify his own bow. We read no word of his about his
being a self-made man. No, rather, he sings, "It is God that subdues
the people under me." Brethren, have there not been instances in your
lives

in which the Lord has evidently interposed to help you? I can see His
hand clearly in places wherein no other help would have been
sufficient. If anyone had to sketch my life, he could not do it fully
unless I were, from my own secret thoughts, to supply certain gaps.
Without God the Believer's life is inexplicable. The Romans used to
speak of Deus ex machinus, God appearing in an unexpected manner in the
midst of a history to rescue the hero and change the scene. This is no
figure of speech in the life of faith.

Every now and then we have witnessed a distinct interposition–a
stretching out of the Divine hand–an inroad of the supernatural. To us
has it been true, "He bowed the heavens also, and came down." Others
might think our experience fanatical if we were to tell it as we see
it, but this we cannot help. To us it has been a real manifestation of
the Divine thoughtfulness on our behalf. Looking back upon our lives we
cannot help saying deliberately and as cool a statement of fact–the
Lord has been our help. There, and there, and there we mark certain
turning points in our life which cannot be accounted for to our own
minds on any other theory than that here the Creator came into contact
with His creature–the Redeemer stooped over His redeemed and the
Comforter worked upon the soul which He indwelt. Yes, "O triune
Jehovah, You have been my help!"

David felt it was so and he avowed it without hesitation. Furthermore,
these words imply that David had often experienced this help. He does
not make this statement in reference to one solitary incident in his
life, or he would have said, "You were once my help." He sees a
continuity in the loving kindness of the Lord his God. He means, "You
have all along been my help." When he was a youth and kept his father's
flock, there came a lion and took a lamb out of his flock–and he, with
dauntless courage–rushed upon the monster and saved the lamb from
between his jaws. Another day a bear pounced on one of his helpless
charge and the brave youth killed it. God helped him in those days of
solitude in the wilderness.

None saw his daring deeds, but he communed with God and worked bravely,
so as to prepare himself to be the shepherd and deliverer of the Lord's
own flock. In his early youth the Lord was his strength and his song.
Soon he was taken away from solitude and introduced into public life
and the Lord was his help. He had a strange introduction to the world.
I might almost say that he was slung out into public life like a stone
from his own sling. A gigantic Philistine stalked before the hosts of
Israel, defying the servants of God to single conflict. Young David
undertook to answer the champion's defiance and then was fulfilled his
brave words to King Saul, "Your servant slew both the lion and the bear
and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them." He ran to
him in the name of the Lord Jehovah, the God of Israel, whom he had
defied and presently he returned to Saul bearing the braggart's gory
head. "Because You have been my help," was David's way of accounting
for his slaying the lion, the bear and the giant.

In later life David had to attend in the court of envious Saul and he
behaved himself wisely. He would confess to the Lord the reason for his
wise behavior in these words, "Because You have been my help." Put upon
difficult enterprises, he achieved them. Jealously envied by the king,
he gave him no ground for a charge, for God was his help. Driven at
length into exile, to become the leader of a band of men hunted like a
partridge upon the mountains, his life was still preserved–the Lord
was his help. While yet a wanderer, he met with a great heart-breaking
trouble. While he had been away from Ziklag, where his men were in
residence, a band of marauders came upon the city, took the women and
children captive and burned the city with fire.

When he and his band came back to the place, each man had to grieve
over his ruined home, stolen substance and wife and family carried off.
The rough men spoke of stoning David, for their hearts were bitter with
a great sorrow. Then we read that, "David encouraged himself in the
Lord his God," and very soon his mourning was turned into dancing– the
captives were recovered, the spoil was reclaimed and the men-at-arms
were glad. Truly David could say, "You have been my help." I cannot go
through all the life of David, but I hope you are familiar with it. In
doing his duty as patriot and king, God was his help and enabled him to
walk uprightly in his government. In his sufferings the Lord was his
help and enabled him to be calm and brave. In the time of danger God
was his help and kept him from the hand of the enemy.

And now, in this Psalm, though David is in the wilderness of Judah and
probably hunted by his own son, yet he sings unto the Lord, "You have
been my help." Beloved Friends, I do not want you to stop with David
any longer. I beg you, now, to come nearer home and review your own
lives. I cannot, of course, give a sketch of the histories of all here
assembled, but many of them will run on this wise–as a Believer in the
Lord Jesus Christ, your life was a hard fight in

the beginning and many a time you were ready to perish. Perhaps you
began very low down in the scale and when you were about to rise,
misfortune dragged you down. Many things were against you, but the Lord
was your help.

In your own person you have suffered sickness, but when you have tossed
upon the bed, in great anguish, God has been your help. You have
experienced trial in your family. There are graves in the cemetery
which you will never forget. Half your heart lies buried beneath the
sod. Yet the Lord has been your help. When you hoped, by industry, to
succeed, the times suddenly turned and swept away your gains. It seemed
as if you could not prosper. You can say today, "I was brought low and
the Lord helped me." You are not in the workhouse. You have not been
through the bankruptcy court. You still find that promise true, "Your
bread shall be given you and your waters shall be sure." You joyfully
say this day, "O Lord, You have been my help."

As for me, the very spot on which I stand bears witness to the loving
kindnesses of the Lord. On this platform I have endured deep distress
of mind while preaching to you and I have feared lest I should not be
able to speak aright in the name of the Lord. But now, concerning these
37 years of my ministry, I joyfully say, "You have been my help." Most
of you, in your various walks of life, will have had occasion, again
and again, to bless the Lord who has been your help.

These helps rendered to David had been very choice ones. He had often
been helped in special ways. God had taken great care of him. He was
the favorite of Providence and the darling of Heaven. Has it not been
so with some of you? Have you not enjoyed choice morsels of experience?
Are there not incidents in your life which you could scarcely tell lest
the hearer should smile at your credulity and you should be found
casting pearls before swine? To some of us, most special mercies have
been vouchsafed and we have treasured them as choice things. I was
rather astonished to learn that in the Hebrew the help is expressed by
much the same word which is used in Genesis to describe the position of
woman to man. God made Eve to be a helpmeet for Adam and here the
Almighty God has been to us as suitable a help as the helpmeet He made
for man!

Some of us have a dear one who has been our best earthly help and that
in the best and happiest manner conceivable–a help exactly answering
to our heart's needs. David had found in his God a help of the kind
which he needed–a help tenderly, wisely, Divinely suited for his every
need. The Lord had answered to His servant's needs and desires and had
been his very present help, yielding wisdom for his folly and power for
his weakness–and comfort for his sorrow. Wonder of wonders, that God
the Omnipotent and Almighty should become a help in all things meet for
man! Is not this a joyous thing? Have we not found it so? Confess this
tender fact to your God and rejoice every day in the quiet of your own
soul, saying, "You have been my help."

God has been to us a very timely help. Has He not appeared in the very
nick of time? Had there been another moment's delay, it had been all
over with us. But in our extremity the Lord found His opportunity. How
speedily He came–

"On cherub and on cherubim Full royally He rode And on the wings of
mighty wind Came flying all abroad. And so delivered He my soul:

Who is a Rock but He? He lives– Blessed be my Rock!

My God exalted be!"

Just when our own life ebbed out, the Divine life flowed in. Just when
joy died within us, hope was born and our spirit revived.

God's help has also been continuous to us. Though at the present moment
there may seem to be a break and we are in the wilderness of Judah
where the Lord is rather thirsted for than seen, yet this is only an
apparent break. Beloved, up to now there has been no pause in the
goodness of God to us! In the time of our darkness we could not see the
link but, looking back, we can see it now. Life has been to us a
continuous chain of love with every link well forged upon the anvil of
power by the hammer of Wisdom. The Lord has never failed us. Did He not
say, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you"? and has it not been so?
Up hill and down dale, in the dark and in the light, in summer and in
winter the constancy of God's help has been proved. His faithfulness is
a fountain of delight to us. The Lord has always been our help!

Observe, also, that the Lord has granted us educative mercy. David
says, "Because You have been my help." He says not that He has worked
everything for us, but He has set us working, also. You see, if you do
a thing for a man, it is well. But if you help him to do it, it may be
better for him, for thus he learns the way. It is true that in many
deeds of Divine Grace, the Lord does not help–He does all the work
Himself. He chose us before we chose Him and without our choice of Him
He quickened us. We could not help in our own quickening. He renewed
us–we could not help in our own renewal. He, by His own power, made us
new creatures and changed our hearts and gave us His Holy Spirit–we
could not help in this, for this must be God's own unaided work.

God made the grass, the grass did not help in its own creation–but God
helps the grass to grow–and the grass grows by the Divine power. In
the same manner, after we have come to spiritual life, then God helps
us. Donne says, "God has not left me to myself. He has come to my
succor. He has been my help–but then, God has not left out myself– He
has been my help, but He has left something for me to do with Him and
by His help." We work because He makes us work and helps us in it. We
bring forth fruit as branches of the vine, but He supplies the sap, so
that He says, "From Me is your fruit found."

Lord, You have been my help–I began with stammering a few sentences
for You–but You have opened my mouth to show forth Your praise. Did
you not begin with a faint confession of Christ? And now you dare to
stand in the front of the battle! The Lord has so helped you that you
have been trained for the conflict–"He teaches my hands to war and my
fingers to fight." Help not only promotes the work, but it blesses the
man, himself, by stimulating his powers and developing them! Blessed be
the name of the Lord! He has not carried us like babes, but He has
taught us to walk with Him as men and we are the stronger because we
can say, "You have been my help."

I close this first head when I have noticed the personal experience of
the text–"Because you have been my help." Oh, I like that word my! My
help." If David had said, "Because you were Abraham's help," there
would have been good argument in it, for the experience of another man
ought to encourage our faith. Suppose he had said, "Because You were
Jacob's help," or "Moses' help"? It would have been good reasoning.
But, oh, it strikes more surely and comes more closely home to a man's
heart when he can say, "Because You have been my help." An infidel once
sneered at a poor woman and said, "How do you know the Bible is true?"
She answered, "I have experienced the truth of it." He replied, "Your
experience! That is nothing to me."

"No," she said, "that is very likely. But it is everything to me." And
so it is. My experience may not convince another man, but my experience
has rooted, grounded and settled myself. "But," says one, "Surely, you
are open to conviction?" Yes, I am always open to conviction. But there
are some things upon which no man, nor angel, nor devil will ever alter
my convictions already formed. There are a few things which we know–I
mean things which we have experienced. If we have experienced the truth
of them, then we are past all argument to the contrary–we are sure and
certain, fixed and rooted. It seems to me that there are two books
which a Christian man ought to study–the one is this big Book, the
inspired Word of God. The other is the little book of his own life. If
the Believer lives long enough he will write into that little book all
that there is in the great Book, only he will change the tense.

When the great Book says, "I will do this, and I will do that," we
shall find in the little book, "God has done so-and-so. In my own case
the promise has been fulfilled." The little book will be the echo of
the Inspired volume, the record of the fact that the Lord has done
according to His Word of promise! Thus experience becomes a stay and a
strength to the child of God in times of darkness or controversy. God
grant that you may go on writing up your personal memoirs and thus
confirming the witness of the Spirit! Are not our lives the proof of
God's faithfulness? Is not this the sum and substance of them, "You
have been my help"?

II. And now, secondly, EXPECTATION. David naturally expected that as
God had been his help, so He would be his help. I like a text which has
a, "because," in it followed up with a, "therefore." The text becomes a
syllogism, an argument, a sure statement–because such-and-such a thing
is fact, therefore such another thing must be fact. God, who has helped
us, will help us. Experience becomes argument and the argument carries
conviction with it. What we have experienced of God's goodness is a
revelation of Himself–God's actions are Himself in motion! If, then,
we have experienced God's power, He is powerful and we know that
anything is possible to Him. If I have experienced His acts of
faithfulness, I conclude that He is always faithful and that He will
keep His promise and His Covenant and will be true to all those who
trust in Him.

Suppose I have watched His ways for 40 years and have found Him to be
the same yesterday and today? Then I conclude that He is Immutable–the
same in my age as in my youth–the same in my adversity as in my
prosperity. I infer from the fact that God has been good to me that He
will be the same to me all my days. Very well, then. As I am the same
person, at least as far as my weakness and my necessity are concerned,
I will go to God in the same way. The Lord is the same God in every
respect–my need is the same as ever it was–His supplies are the same
as ever they were! His will to bless me is still the same and His
promise to bless me is the same, for it stands guaranteed in His
blessed Word. Therefore I will have the same faith and the same hope in
God. Looking back and making sure that the Lord has been my help up to
now, I draw the conclusion that He will be my help to the end of the
chapter.

This reasoning is good, since you have to deal with an unchanging God.
You could not reason in that way in reference to man. No. You say, "I
cannot go to my friend, Brown, for help, for I have been to him
already." You do not argue that you may freely go again because you
have been already. Far from it. You say, "I have received as much from
him as I could reasonably expect and I must not become a burden to
him." Or else it happens that your friend grows weary of you and
answers you coldly–and so you feel that you can go no more to him.
Earthly friends can be drawn upon so much that their generosity is
exhausted and they feel that you are unreasonable in your requests. If,
therefore, you have changeable man to deal with, there will be no logic
in your reasoning.

But when you think of Jehovah who changes not, then you may infer great
things and the most severe logic will support you. He was my help, He
is my help and therefore He will be my help, even to the end. This kind
of argument is very sure to a man's own self and he is the person most
concerned. We know whom we have believed and we are persuaded that He
will not fail us. We know what we do know and if we cannot tell it to
others, we are none the less sure of it ourselves. The Lord has been
our help in very remarkable ways which put His graciousness beyond a
doubt. And so our expectation is large and unquestioning–we look for
endless, perfect, prompt and final deliverance from all evil. There is
a force about personal experience which, to the man himself, is
irresistible and the conclusion that comes from it is to him as certain
as the existence of God. The hammer of Thor, which would have broken
the globe, is not more mighty than the argument ofpersonal experience
before which all difficulties of faith are dashed in pieces.

It is clear that this is an accumulating argument. The young man who
has known the Lord 12 months and experienced a great deliverance, is
sure that the Lord is to be trusted. But when he has passed 20, 30, or
40 years of the same experience, his assurance will be doubly sure! To
a believer in Christ every day teems with Providences and mercies. This
tree bears its fruit every month and the fruit feeds faith wondrously.
Every year is crowned with the loving kindness of the Lord and so, in
old age, the faithfulness of God is a fact which is no more argued, but
enjoyed! When the Believer dies he has nothing to do but to die. He is
assured by an argument which has grown out of 40 years' observation. He
knows that God will help him, for He has helped him!

I stood by the side of a dear old friend and fellow helper yesterday.
He is in his 92nd year and has taken to his bed through weakness.
Instead of seeking sympathy or speaking to me in a doleful style, he
pleasantly observed, "You see I am higher in the world than when you
came last time, for I have left the parlor and come upstairs. Very soon
I shall not be higher in the world, but higher than the world." He said
this with that same twinkle of the eye which I have noticed in him in
the days of his strength when he was equally full of Grace and wit.
There was no fear of death to daunt or dampen his spirit! He knew
nothing of such a feeling. "Ah," he said, "Isaiah was right when he
described our experience in the passage, 'They that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.'

"He begins flying, then goes to running and then to walking. But the
Prophet calls this renewing his strength. It looks like losing strength
and speed, does it not? Ah, but (he said) you know flying is not a
suitable thing for daily life– it is all very well for young people,
but it does not suit everyday life. Running is for another period, but
it is not a practical pace for a continuance. Quietly walking with God
is a safe, lasting, everyday pace. You can keep on at that as Enoch
did, till you walk away with God. I have now got to my walking days,"
said the grand old man. Then he went on to expound the Scripture by
other Scriptures. "John says, 'I write unto you, little children,
because your sins are forgiven you.' That makes them mount up with
eagles' wings above the guilt of sin!

"To the young men he says, 'I write unto you, young men, because you
have overcome the Wicked One.' In that case there has been struggling
and exertion, like the running without weariness. But when he gets to
the fathers, he says, 'I

write unto you, fathers,' not concerning a high joy, or a successful
struggle, but 'because you have known Him that is from the beginning.'
That is a walking, quiet, solid knowledge and it is the best of all."

What a happy talk we had! We were two merry men sitting on the brink of
Jordan communing together with happy hearts–he of 92 talking to me
concerning all the way whereby the Lord had led us both since we knew
each other these 34 years and more! Oh, yes, it is a blessed, blessed
thing to grow in Grace as we grow in years and to increase our argument
for faith as we increase our experience!

That argument will remain unchanged in death. When the earth shall
rock, the stars shall fall and the heavens shall be rolled up by the
hand of God like a worn-out vesture. When the Great White Throne shall
be seen and the sentence of the righteous Judge shall be heard, our
confidence will still be the same–"You have been my help, and nothing
shall separate me from Your love"!

III. Lastly, and somewhat briefly, ASSURANCE. Here comes the richest
cluster which grows out of our subject. The Psalmist says, "Therefore
in the shadow of Your wings will I rejoice." Here is, first, contented
assurance. David does not say, "I am in trouble and I must get out of
it somehow and therefore I must sin rather than fall under the hand of
the enemy." No, he is quiet and patient. He does not make haste and
demand immediate deliverance–he quietly waits the Lord's time and
rests under the all-covering wings. You hear no loud outcries from
him–as of one struggling against fate.

The children of God, like sheep, are dumb before their shearers. David,
grateful for past help, holds himself still and happily awaits the
purpose of the Lord. He manifests no fear, no fret, no hurry, no worry.
Neither does he cast his eyes towards man. "Fou have been my help," he
says–and he looks that way. "My soul, wait you only upon God, for my
expectation is from Him." But where is Joab? Where are the three
mighties? Where are all the royal bodyguard? The enemy is cruel and
thirsting for blood–does David piteously beseech his watchmen to keep
well their ward? No, he is calm and peaceful and sweetly says, "You
have been my help; therefore in the shadow of Your wings will I
rejoice."

David exhibited a very patient assurance. He likened himself to a young
eagle beneath the mighty wings of its mother–"In the shadow of Your
wings will I rejoice." You thought he would have said, "You will drive
Your mighty talons into my adversaries and tear them to pieces." Or,
"You will strike them as an eagle destroys its prey." No, he is not
eager for the Lord to act–he is biding his time–no, waiting on the
Lord's time. He is quite content to be under His wings. What the great
eagle may do, he leaves to the future while he nestles down in perfect
quietness. May God give us patience always to possess our souls in Him!
It is not ours to hasten the Divine vengeance, nor to wish for a
personal triumph. It is ours to feel the bliss of safety in nearness to
God.

Note, next, that it is the assurance of faith. "Because You have been
my help, therefore"–what? "In the light of Your countenance I will
rejoice"? No–he had, then, but little light–he was "in the shadow."
The wilderness cut him off from beholding God in the sanctuary. If you
cannot see the face of God, His shadow may give you peace. Lord, I will
pray to You to lift up the light of Your countenance upon me, but if
You continue to hide Yourself, I will still trust You and be sure that
You are the same God of Grace. Knowing that Your shadow is full of
defense for me, I will rejoice therein. Notice also, it is continued
assurance. We read not, in the shadow of Your wings have I rejoiced
but, "I will rejoice." He is rejoicing and means to go on rejoicing!
His joy no man takes from him. He will rejoice so long as he has a God
to rejoice in.

The best of all is this is rejoicing assurance. The text does not say,
"Because You have been my help, therefore in the shadow of Your wings
will I trust," but, "in the shadow of your wings will I rejoice." That
is going further than silent submission or humble trust. David is in
the dark, but, like the nightingale, he sings in it! When the Lord
seems to hide Himself, the soul remembers what the Lord was and
resolves to be glad in Him as He was seen before. David lamented for
Absalom, but he rejoiced in God! He rejoiced that the wings of the Lord
safely preserved him and though they cast a shadow over him he would
rejoice in the shadow as the evidence that the wings were really there!

O child of God, rejoice in the Lord in the dark! There is no honor to
you in rejoicing when everything goes well with you–your faith wins
credit if it leads you to rejoice in God when everything runs counter
to your comfort. I may be speaking to some dear Brother who, in his
business, finds things going very cross and the current of his affairs
sets strongly in the wrong direction. Now is the time to show the
difference between the joy of the spiritual life and that

which merely comes of the natural life. Rejoice in God and prove that
your joy flows from the upper springs. "Rejoice in the Lord always and
again I say, Rejoice."

In conclusion, let me remark it is little wonder that so many do not
understand trusting in God, for they have never tried it. Answers to
prayer and fulfillment of Divine promises seem to them as idle tales.
If we were to tell them what God has done for us, they would not
believe us. There is William Huntington's, "Bank of Faith"–well, I
would not endorse every word of it, but I see no reason why it should
not be accepted as a truthful narrative. When anybody calls it a "Bank
of Nonsense," as I have heard them do, I have answered, "It is because
you do not know any better. Many other Believers could write books
equally marvelous."

Still, unbelievers will be sure to mock, for it is out of their line
altogether. Years ago, a Red Indian went down to Washington and when he
returned to his tribe he began telling them the wonders he had seen
among the pale faces. At last he told them that he saw a canoe fastened
to a great ball rise up into the sky. One of his brother Indians shot
him dead with his rifle–and leaping into the middle of the ring
declared that such a liar was not fit to live another minute– and
therefore he had killed him. The statement was quite true, but as it
was outside of Indian knowledge, the man was shot. So the experience of
a Christian is so far removed from the worldling's line of things that
he ridicules it–but it is true for all that.

Thousands of us can bear testimony to the Truth of the Gospel and we
wish, above all things, that you would try it yourself! When you hear
that those who trust in the Lord are delivered, I wonder some of you do
not want to know our Savior. Yesterday a poor person called on a
brother minister and asked for a ticket to go to the gentleman who was
curing rheumatism. My friend knew nothing about the gentleman. "Oh,"
she said, "he is at Croydon and he has been curing people who have been
ill for years." The preacher knew nothing of any tickets, but the
person said that her father had failed to see the gentleman and he
would try again.

Just so–from every quarter people will come where there is hope of
being healed. How strange that men will seek help for their bodies and
not for their souls. There is One who can help in every case of
soul-sickness, why not go to Him? We have been healed. Why do you
doubt? He will be a faithful helper to all those who put their trust in
Him. Why do you not seek Him? We are honest people who bear witness of
His helping us–why do you not believe us, so far as to try the Lord
Jesus for yourselves? If you will not believe us, believe in God's own
Book and say, "I will look to Jesus for help."

Oh, that you would trust the precious Jesus and His precious promises
and His precious blood by that precious faith whose very trials are
more precious than gold! Then shall you find every help you need
between this spot and Glory's gate. The Lord bring you to Jesus at once
for His name's sake! Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON– Psalm 63. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN
HYMN BOOK"–916, 34 (VER. I), 734.