God’s Hidden Ones

God's Hidden Ones

(No. 2367)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S DAY, JULY 1, 1894.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, APRIL
8, 1888.

"Your hidden ones." Psalm 83:3.

IT was the desire of Asaph to obtain for his nation help from God.
Israel was exposed to great danger–ten confederate nations had
conspired, with desperate hate, to assail the chosen people. They were
determined to root out the very name of Israel from among the nations!
They joined together in a wicked league for this purpose and they came
from all quarters–north, south, east and west–in order to utterly
devour the little insignificant people whom God had called His own. It
was the Psalmist's desire to bring God into this quarrel, to stir Him
up to take the part of Israel and he, therefore cried, "Keep not Your
silence, O God: hold not Your peace, and be not still, O God. For, lo,
Your enemies make a tumult: and they that hate You have lifted up the
head. They have taken crafty counsel against Your people, and consulted
against Your hidden ones."

Nothing stirs a man more than when his children are assailed. The most
quiet and inoffensive individual grows angry if his little one is
touched. The blood flies to his cheeks and all his manhood is awakened
to defend his child. So the Psalmist pleads with God that this nation
was His own and that, therefore, He must protect it. And he describes
the people by this singular but instructive title, "Your hidden ones."
I am going to enquire what may be meant by this term, "Your hidden
ones," in the desire that some of God's hidden ones may be discovered,
and that the Lord's blessing may rest upon them. First, I shall ask,
Why are they called God's hidden ones? Secondly, What is their special
honor? They are God's hidden ones, they belong to Him and, thirdly,
What then?

I. First, then, Why are they called God's hidden ones?

I think, in the connection in which these words occur, the phrase means
that they were hidden by God with a view to safety. The 10 heathen
nations conspired against Israel, but they could not really harm the
chosen people, for God, Himself had hidden them as a hen hides her
chickens under her wings when a hawk hovers overhead, or as one who has
found a treasure hides it away from the hands of the thief. As the most
precious things are put into cases and kept concealed for safety, so
does God hide away His people and preserve them. God puts His saints
where the enemy cannot find them, or, if he finds them so as to see
where they are, God places them where the enemy cannot reach them.
Sometimes He puts them in the secret places of His pavilion–yes, in
the secret places of His tabernacle does He hide them. As well might
the devil think to destroy an angel as to destroy a child of God! That
same power that protects the perfect ones before the Throne of God
protects believing ones who are on the way there. "Lord, You have been
our dwelling place in all generations," and such a dwelling place that
we have been hidden away in You so that no evil has been able to reach
us!

You remember when Athaliah sought to kill all the seed royal that
Jehoiada, the High Priest, took Joash, who was then a child, and hid
him for six years in the house of the Lord, and there He was safe? Thus
does God take each one of His children and make a Joash of him, and
preserves him from the assault of the enemy so that he cannot be
destroyed. God said to Noah, "Come, you and all your house, into the
ark," and he and his household went into the ark and the Lord shut them
in. They were hidden in that ark of safety from the floods which rose
from beneath and the rain which fell from above–and thus they outlived
the Deluge. So, if you believe in Jesus, God will hide you away from
all the rage of earth and Hell. He will preserve you, you shall be one
of His hidden ones, of whom Christ said, "They shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave
them Me; is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of
My Father's hand." They are God's hidden ones. As the king takes care
of his royal diadem and

crown jewels, so does God watch over those who have made a covenant
with Him by sacrifice. "They shall be Mine, says the Lord of Hosts, in
that day when I make up My jewels." What a privilege is yours and mine,
dear Hearers, if, indeed, we have so believed in Christ that we are
hidden away in Him! "You are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in
God." Rightly do we sing–

"How blest are they who still abide Close sheltered in Your bleeding
side! Who life and strength from there derive, And by You move, and in
You live."

1 think this is the first reason why the Israelites were called God's
hidden ones, because He had put them out of the reach of their
adversaries and concealed them in a place of safety.

But, next, I think there is another meaning which some of us have, at
times, realized. They are God's hidden ones because He gives them quiet
and peace, even in the midst of turmoil and sorrow. The Psalmist seems
to say, "Your enemies make a tumult, but Your hidden ones are quiet."
Do you not know what this experience means? Have you ever felt it? That
trouble you dreaded so much, of which you said, "I am sure it will
crush me," would have crushed you if you had been left to yourself! But
when it came, you were strangely upheld and kept so calm and placid
that you did not know yourself! When you saw your husband die and those
little children were all around you, and you knew that you were a
widow, how was it that then you were still so trustful? Or, dear
Husband, when you saw your wife, at last, expire, and the light of your
home was quenched, how was it that you still said and meant it, "The
Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the
Lord"? Why, it was because the Lord had made you one of His hidden
ones! He said, "Come home, dear child, come and rest with Me"–and He
shut you away from all the trial and enabled you to find peace in Him.

Do you remember that wonderful poem by Miss Havergal, in which she
speaks of the peculiar calm which prevails at the very center of a
cyclone? The gifted poetess writes–

"They say there is a hollow, safe and still,

A point of coolness and repose

Within the center of a flame where life might dwell

Unharmed and unconsumed, as in a luminous shell

Which the bright walls of fire enclose

In breathless splendor, barrier that no foes

Could pass at will.

There is a point of rest

At the great center of the cyclone's force,

A silence at its secret source.

A little child might slumber undistracted,

Without the ruffle of one fairy curl,

In that strange central calm amid the mighty whirl." Well now, some of
us have, at times, known the experience which is typified in those
lines. Troubles of every sort and size come upon us. We are vexed with
every form of calamity and yet during all that time we are serenely
quiet and perfectly happy. I should think that an eagle, high aloft,
when he sees the sportsman coming with his gun, however far the bullet
may carry, if he knows himself to be quite out of range, would poise
himself upon the wing and look down upon the sportsman with a merry
heart! Let him send his bullet up into the air as far as it can rise,
but the eagle is high above it all–and God gives His children, at
times, such mounting faith that they rise up as upon the wings of
eagles–and the bullets of trouble cannot reach halfway to them! There,
in the clear blue Heaven of fellowship with God, they look down on the
tops of the clouds, and defy all the assaults of man! Happy are they
who have thus become God's hidden ones!

There are green meadows and there are still waters, but I believe they
are mostly to be found in the places where trials most abound! There,
consolations are most plentiful. I hardly think that a man knows the
deeps of the serenity of God unless he has been greatly tried. There
are wonderful sights that none shall see but those who are hidden away
by the Lord in the time of storm and trouble. Oh, the strife of
tongues, the endless babbling of slander! What a blessing not to hear
it, or to hear it as a deaf man that hears not. Oh, the noise of
misrepresentation! Oh, the wave upon wave of actual trouble that may
come to you in business or in the domestic circle! What joy it is to be
kept out of it all, as I said before,

like Noah in the ark–all the world drowned, but you shut up in safety!
And remember that the deeper the floods became, the higher Noah rose
toward Heaven! And so shall it be with you. The more of trial you have
to endure, the more of communion you shall have to enjoy! This is the
happy, happy case of a tried child of God.

There are two meanings, then, of this expression–hidden away for
safety and hidden away for quiet.

But, next, God's people may be hidden away because they are not
understood. The true Christian is a marvel to other men. He is a
stranger and a foreigner among them. He is a plant that never would
have grown on earthly mold unless God had planted it there. The
Christian is a man wondered at! If you are understood, you are in the
wrong. If you are a genuine Christian and are right, you will be
misunderstood by the world–it has not the faculty of understanding the
saints. He who has been made to live unto God lives a life that is
quite incomprehensible to ordinary men. No, let me put it very
plainly–the spiritual life which God gives to those who believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ is altogether beyond the discernment of the carnal
mind! "That which is born of the flesh is flesh" and cannot rise to an
understanding of that which is born of the Spirit, which, alone, is
spirit! Your life is a secret between God and yourself.

So, too, the motive of your life will not be understood by other men.
They feel sure that there is something at the back of it. If you were
to tell them that you lived only for God's Glory, they would laugh at
you! God's Glory–what is that to them? They think, no doubt, that you
make a good thing out of your religion, and herein they prove
themselves to have learned their lesson in the school of the devil, for
he said, "Does Job fear God for naught? Have not You made an hedge
about him, and about his house, and about all that he has, on every
side?" The desire to live so as to please God belongs to every man who
walks with God, but it will not be understood by other men. God's
people are, in this sense, His hidden ones.

Therefore, the comfort that reigns in a Christian's heart is a thing
which he cannot impart to others. If others were to hear the reason of
the Believer's happiness, they would say, "Well, that would not make me
happy! There is nothing in it that would sustain me." And there isn't.
The food on which angels live is not such as common flesh and blood
could feed upon. And the inward comforts of the child of God are such
as the world cannot give because it cannot even understand them.

So your hopes and the lamps that light up your life, the world knows
nothing about! Perhaps some of your own brothers and sisters do not
understand your hopes. And when you talk about death with pleasure, and
about the eternal state with delight, they think that you are half
insane! It is because they are altogether insane that they think so.
But if you are one of God's hidden ones, in all these points you will
be a stranger to your own mother's children–you will be one who cannot
be understood! Do not expect to be understood–settle this in your mind
and it will save you a great deal of heartache and disappointment.

There is a third sense, then, in which God's children may be called
hidden ones, because they are not understood.

But there are some of them who are hidden in another sense–they are
very obscure. Some of God's best children have not anything that can
bring them to the light here on earth. Perhaps they may be living among
rich people and, as they are very poor, nobody notices them. There is a
directory containing the names and addresses of the great people who
live in the town, but they have not put poor Mary's name in that
book–and as to John, well, the highest degree he ever had was that he
was a cobbler–and his name, of course, is not in the book, either. The
Lord has many of those hidden ones who are not known among the great
because they are so little in Israel.

Some of God's hidden ones are not known because they are ill. It is now
several months that poor Mary has been lying on a bed. It is years
since William has gone out of the house, at all, and very few ever come
to see these hidden ones. But I bear my witness that some of the best
things I have ever learned from mortal lips, I have learned from
bedridden saints! There are some who wickedly teach that bodily
afflictions are caused by sin. It is a cruel–I was going to say, an
infernal supposition–for some of the holiest people I have known have
been bedridden for ten, twelve, or 15 years, and if I were to say that
I thought they were sinners above others, I should belie my
convictions, for in sitting down to talk with some of them I have found
them to be saints above others!

I shall never forget going some miles, years ago, to see a woman who
had been bedridden for, I think, 20 or 25 years. I went up a ladder to
the room where she was. She was rendered comfortable by the kindness of
those who came to see her. She sat up in bed as best she could and, oh,
I wish that I could preach such sermons as she preached to me when she
spoke about the goodness of the Lord to her, and told me how that poor
chamber was made to glow in the middle of the

night with the delightful Presence of her Lord! She was one of God's
hidden ones–and He has many such! Now, just think of that a minute,
and pray God to bless His dear hidden sick ones at this moment, and ask
Him to cheer and comfort their hearts.

Perhaps there are some hidden ones who come into our places of worship
and have no one to speak to them. I do not think that many such persons
come to the Tabernacle–I hope there never will be. There is a Brother
who was a member, here, and who will be a member, again. He has gone to
live in the suburbs and he attends a very respectable place of worship.
They are very good people but, you know, our friends in the suburbs are
so much more respectable than we are and they know it, too! And there,
in the outer ring of London, it is perfectly amazing what great people
they are–you would not believe it. When they come into the City to
business, they are nothing very particular, but as soon as they get out
to the suburbs, they are wonderful people! This Brother says, "I have
been in and out of the chapel for months and nobody ever speaks to me."
The fact is, I expect, that he keeps a grocer's shop and some of these
people deal with him, so they do not know him on Sunday, of course,
because he is only a grocer!

I hope that you will never get such abominable notions into your heads!
This wretched caste that divides us up into little sets, reminds me of
the Hindus. Keep it up in the world if you are foolish enough to do so,
but do not bring the evil into the Church of Christ! Here, at any rate,
we are Brothers and Sisters. Let us feel that we are one in Christ and
put away from us all that stiffness which would make us keep our petty
nobodies to ourselves! If there is a man who is a really great man, I
always notice that he is the most condescending and gentle man that
there is. But it is your nobody who always makes himself appear
somebody! Now, dear Friend, if you have come in and out of this place
and you have not been noticed by anybody, I pray you to begin to notice
somebody, yourself! And if you have come in and out of any place of
worship and nobody has spoken to you, remember that the Lord has His
hidden ones and you may be one of them. It may be that quite from
inadvertence, not from unkindness, you have not been spoken to, so
begin to break the ice, yourself, by speaking to someone else and may
God bless you so that you may, in that sense, be no more a hidden one!

Now I ask you to think, for a minute, of another way in which some of
God's people are hidden ones. I mean this– do you suppose that God has
none of His people in churches and communities that are steeled in
error? If you think so, I do not! It is always a comfort to my heart to
believe that in the great Romish Church there are hundreds of thousands
who have found the Savior and are resting in His atoning
Sacrifice–they are God's hidden ones. I have, here and there, stumbled
upon some of these, myself. And when we have come to speak about the
Cross and the wounds of Christ and His precious blood–all that rubbish
about the Virgin and the saints has been forgotten–and I have found
myself much nearer akin to those hidden ones than I had thought I might
have been!

And there are many books that have been written by persons who are
members of that church which, nevertheless, are full of such a savor of
Grace and holy fellowship with God that we cannot but believe that the
authors of them are God's hidden ones. Yes, and it is a very curious
thing that you will find that just the very persons you would have
least thought would possess the Light of God have, nevertheless,
received it. Have I not been, sometimes, in a place where I thought the
Gospel of Christ had never come and yet I have found clear proofs that
it was there? Not long ago it was so with me. As I passed a certain
spot, I noticed a kind of glitter in the eye of a person who looked at
me. It was a servant in a place where I could not have thought I should
find a friend. And when I came back that way, his greeting to me, was,
"God bless you, Sir! You don't know me, but I take in the sermons every
week and I have found the Savior." Where least I expected it, I
stumbled on a friend and a disciple who was fed on the Word of God that
I have preached! Does it not do your heart good, sometimes, after you
have thought, "Well, I shall never find anybody here with whom I can
sympathize," to meet with just one of the very persons with whom you
have had the best of fellowship for many a day and many a year to come?

God has His hidden ones, also, in the midst of ungodly families. Do not
you, who have to visit those who are joining the Church, sometimes find
yourselves in houses where everything betokens drunkenness and all that
is bad–and yet there is a dear child who has been converted, or
perhaps it is the wife whom God, in Sovereign Grace, has looked upon
and saved? There are many such hidden ones in London. There are some of
them who cannot get out to worship–they are not permitted to come–and
yet they are God's own dear ones, hidden away in ungodly homes. Breathe
a prayer for them, now! Say, "Lord, help Your hidden ones in such cases
as these!" God has a people–I was going to say, up to the

very gates of Hell–He has an elect people, chosen by His Grace, who
know Him, trust Him and love Him although they are not known to the
rest of their Brothers and Sisters in Christ!

Once more, however, all God's people are His hidden ones because all
the saints are, at present, unrevealed. "It does not yet appear what we
shall be: but we know that when He shall appear," that is, the hidden
and veiled Christ, when He shall be manifested, "we shall be like He,"
we shall be manifested, too! There is a great future for you, my
Brother! There is a grand future for you, my Sister. Hardly can you
hold your own, today, against the contentions of the adversary, but be
firm, be true, cry to God for help and you shall not always be hidden
as you now are, in the midst of the dust, strife and conflict–you
shall come out as when the sun shines in his strength! Therefore, be of
good cheer, you who are hidden ones, today–you shall, in due time,
shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of your Father.

II. I must not say more upon the first point, but must turn to the
second question. WHAT IS THEIR SPECIAL HONOR? They are God's hidden
ones. Their peculiar honor is that they are the Lord's.

Will each one of you do himself the favor to put to himself the
question, "Am I the Lord's?" Never mind about the friend sitting next
to you, but let each of you say, "Am I the Lord's?" If so, the Lord
knows you, for, "the Lord knows them that are His." He knows whom He
chose and redeemed. He knows whom He has called. He knows whom He has
justified. He has not done any of those things in the dark. He has a
familiar acquaintance with all that His Grace has done for you.

Remember, also, that though you are hidden, you are not hidden from the
Lord. You are hidden by Him, but you are not hidden from Him. He can
read your thoughts. He sees that hot tear that is beginning to lift the
eyelid. He knows the troubles that are yet to come as well as those
that have come–He reads you as I read the pages of this Bible.

Then, again, some of God's hidden ones are among the very choicest of
His children. I think there are some who are so very dear to God that
He keeps them to Himself. I have known some saints whom God has loved
so much that He has taken away from them all that they loved, that He
might have all their hearts. He loved their love so much that He would
have it all Himself. "Oh!" you say, "perhaps that is the reason why I
have been so tried and why I have so many graves in the cemetery."
Well, it may be–and that you are one of the Lord's hidden ones whom He
has hidden away in His own bosom from every other love–that you may be
altogether His own.

Remember, too, that hidden as you are, He has engaged to keep you. His
very hiding of you shows that He means to keep you in safety. You shall
never perish for, "He keeps the feet of His saints." You shall not be
overcome by the enemy, for you are the Lord's. If you belonged to
somebody else, you might be deserted. But as you are the Lord's, you
never shall be forsaken. Human masters sometimes leave their old
servants to perish, but God never deserts His old servants! Even to
hoar hairs and to the end of life He will be with you, and He will bear
you until He brings you Home to Glory, above, to be with Him forever
and ever!

III. I have spoken very briefly on the second point, but our time is
nearly gone, so I must close with this third question. If the Lord has
the hidden ones of whom we have spoken, WHAT THEN?

Well, the first thought that comes to my mind is this–let us rejoice
that the Lord has more people than we know. He has His hidden ones. I
know the tendency to say, as Elijah did, "I, even I, only, am left, and
they seek my life, to take it away." It is not so–the Lord still has
many thousands of knees that have not bowed to Baal. One of the wonders
of Heaven will be to find so many people, there, that we never thought
would get there. We shall say to ourselves, "We did not think that
those people knew the Lord, yet they did!" The Grace of God can live
where you and I could not. I know some people that I would not like to
live with on earth, for they are very strange, yet I hope that they are
God's people. Well, we shall live with them very well in Heaven–they
will be changed before they get there. They will have had their hearts
washed, their whole natures renewed and they will be right enough,
then! The Lord has some very strange people among His chosen ones. If
you had to deal with some of God's people that I know, you would give
me credit for a little patience, at any rate, in dealing with them! You
have need of patience with your own children and God's children are, in
some respects, very much like our children. If you draw a parallel
between them, you will find childish faults and infirmities in the
children of God which have to be borne with, even as we have to bear
with the faults and infirmities of our own children at home.

My next remark is–let us be on the look out for these hidden ones
wherever we are. If you and I have to go and live where we do not wish
to go–away from our dear acquaintances, here–let us believe, when we
get to that distant place,

wherever it is, that God has some hidden ones there. You are going to
Canada, are you? Or you are about to start for Australia? Or, in the
Providence of God, you are to live in some village far away from the
means of Grace. You say to yourself, "Whatever shall I do?" Do? Why,
find the Lord's hidden ones and you shall have company! Though you may
say, "Surely, there is no child of God there," you shall find that
there is someone living there whom you are sent to help–while he is
placed there that he may help you! Wherever you go, do not say to
yourself, "This place is wholly abandoned," but believe that there is a
child of God living there.

I remember reading of a godly man who went into a village, some fifty
years ago, and asked, "Is there a Christian person living in this
place?" He enquired if there was anyone in the village who made a
profession of religion. They shook their heads and said that they did
not know of anybody. "Is there anyone here who fears God?" Then they
laughed. However, after making a good many enquiries, one man said that
there was a hypocritical canting Methodist woman who lived down a
certain lane. He said, "That is the person I want to meet, depend upon
it." He knew at once what they meant–there was one who was different
from the rest and, therefore, she had undeservedly earned those titles!
He went and found that she was a Christian woman walking in meekness
and sorrow because she had no one at all to speak to.

When our missionary, Mr. Thomas, went to Calcutta at the end of the
last century, it is said that he advertised for a Christian and could
not find one. Advertise for a Christian? Well, thank God, we shall not
have to do that! Even if you live in a place where there are very few
Christians, still believe that there are some and look out for God's
hidden ones!

In the next place, since God has hidden ones, let us take care never to
act or speak so as to grieve them. Sometimes, when Christian men get
conceited and proud–and think themselves very great–they speak in a
hard, domineering way that grieves God's people. "No," you say, "/
would not use such language if I knew that one of them was about." Well
then, do not use it at all–because you do not know when they may not
be about, for God has His hidden ones in places where it is least
suspected! Speak as you would wish the very least of God's people to
hear you and do not use vain and haughty language. If you get to be
like the Prophet's bullocks that pushed with horn and shoulder and
drove away the weak ones, God may deal roughly with you and make you to
be as hateful in His sight as they were! Let the remembrance that God
has His hidden ones be a check upon your tongue and upon your whole
conduct.

And, lastly, although God has His hidden ones, let not one of us hide
himself more than is necessary. I speak to some of you who love the
Lord, but who have never come out on His side. God has His hidden ones,
but they ought to come forward and confess Christ. Remember that the
Gospel message is, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved."
"If you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe
in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be
saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the
mouth confession is made unto salvation." To the secret faith of the
heart there ought to be joined the public profession of the lips! Why
should you be ashamed of Jesus? Why should you be afraid to acknowledge
that you belong to Him? Some whom I know, who love their Lord but have
never confessed Him, are like the mice behind the wainscot. They come
out of a night, when the cat is not there, to get some of the
crumbs–and then they run back and hide in their holes. I shall not set
a trap for you, but, at the same time I would like to stop up all the
holes where you hide, so that you who are Christians would be obliged
to come out and admit it! I leave the matter to your conscience, but I
pray the Lord, Himself, to fetch you out if you are His hidden ones,
for His dear name's sake. Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: Psalm 83.

This is a Psalm that is not often read and very seldom expounded, I
should think. According to the title, it is, "A Song or Psalm of
Asaph." Asaph is one of a little group of poets who flourished side by
side with David. This is a patriotic hymn. The nation was about to be
attacked by many adversaries, so, like a true patriot, the poet desired
that God would give the victory to His people, and deliver them. You
may regard this Psalm as a prophecy–it reads like a prayer or wish of
the writer and, no doubt it is, but it may also be read as a prophecy
of what will happen to the enemies of God's people.

Verses 1, 2. Keep not Your silence, O God: hold not Your peace, and be
not still, O God. For, lo, Your enemies make a tumult: and they that
hate You have lifted up the head. God's enemies are making a noise and
the Psalmist's prayer is that

the Lord, Himself, will speak and answer them. God's voice made the
heavens and the earth–"He spoke and it was done; He commanded and it
stood fast." A single word from Him will win the day! The poet's prayer
is not, "Grant a leader bold and brave," but, "Lord, speak, speak!"
"For, lo, Your enemies make a tumult." The enemies of Israel were the
enemies of God. If they were our enemies, only, we might keep silent,
but as they are also the enemies of God, our loyalty to the Lord
compels us to cry unto Him to speak against them!

3. They have taken crafty counsel against Your people, and consulted
against Your hidden ones. Craft goes with power in plotting against
God's people. The seed of the serpent are like he from whom they came,
and of him it is said, "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast
of the field which the Lord God had made." And the seed of the serpent
are full of crafty counsel and subtlety. This, the Psalmist mentions in
his prayer, and then he looks to God to frustrate their minds, to
baffle their craft and, by His wisdom, to save His people.

4. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation;
that the name of /srael may be no more in remembrance. So terrible was
the anger of these nations against God's people that nothing would
content them but the destruction of Israel–the blotting out of its
very name from the memory of men! And I am sure that if the world could
have its way, it would extinguish the Church of Christ. You notice, in
these days of boasted liberality and pretended charity, that the
charity is only for error–for the old Gospel there is no charity! The
cry concerning it is, "Let it be cut to pieces! Let it be destroyed! It
is an old nuisance, put it out of the way." This is how the enemies of
God would have it, "that the name of Israel may be no more in
remembrance."

5. For they have consulted together with one consent: they are
confederate against You. There were many nations of heathens and they
were agreed in nothing except in their hatred of Israel. There they
were agreed, as Herod was the friend of Pilate while Christ was under
examination, but not at any other time. The Psalmist mentions ten
different nations which had banded themselves together against God's
chosen people Israel. Ten against one is heavy odds, but then God was
on the side of Israel! One man with God is in the majority, however
many there may be on the other side, for God counts for more than all
who can be against Him!

6. The tabernacles of Edom. These descendants of Esau, Jacob's twin
brother, ought to have been the best friends of Israel, but they were
the worst of their enemies. How often does it happen that kinship in
blood makes no kinship in Grace! "A man's foes shall be they of his own
household."

6. And the /shmaelites. These, again, were near akin to the seed of
Abraham and Isaac, but the Ishmaelites were always among the most
bitter enemies of Israel.

6. Of Moab. Moab was descended from a daughter of Lot.

7. And the Hagarenes. Perhaps descended from Hagar by some other
husband.

7. Gehal, andAmmon, andAmalek. All these were hereditary enemies of
Israel–Amalek especially so, for God had determined that there should
be war with Amalek throughout all generations.

7. The Philistines–These were the old enemies of Israel. Remember how
Samson fought with them and what tugs of war David had with them?

7. With the inhabitants of Tyre. What were they doing in warring
against God's people? They were merchants, shippers. Yes, but it
sometimes happens that when worldly craft is in danger, men of trade
and commerce can be as bitter against true religion as anybody else!

8. Assur also is joined with them: they have helped the children of
Lot. Selah. Here is a mention of the growing power of Assyria. What a
host there was! What a band of enemies against God's people! Oh, dear
Friends, I trust that none of us will have our names written in this
black list! Be not enemies of God and of His Truth, for, if so, you
will wage a losing battle! Let the gunnysack fight with the flame, or
the dust with the wind–they will speedily be overcome–and woe be unto
the man who contends with his Maker! What can he do? Let us, Brothers
and Sisters, be on God's side. God grant, by His Grace, that we may
never lift a hand against His cause! Now comes the prayer or prophecy
of the poet.

9. 10. Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin,
at the brook of Kishon: which perished at Endor: they became as dung
for the earth. In those great battles, the enemies of the Lord and His
people were utterly cut in pieces. Mighty men as they were, they left
their corpses to manure the soil.

11. Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yes, all their princes
as Zebah, and as Zalmunna. These were four princes who were slain by
Gideon and his allies–two of them bore the names of wolf and
raven–cruel names, but war is always a cruel thing. But what had they
done, these men of arms, these mighty warriors? The Psalmist tells us–

12. Who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.
They were not content with their own houses–they wanted God's houses.
And there are some men who can never rest unless when they are doing
mischief to the cause and Cross of Christ! Woe unto them, for the fate
of Oreb and Zeeb shall be theirs in due time!

13. O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind.
Or rather, "You shall make them a wheel," never still. The real
translation, I think, would be, "Make them like those light dry flowers
which are blown by the wind across the plains." Mr. Thomson, in his
Land and the Book, speaks of the branches of the wild artichoke which
form a sphere or globe a foot or more in diameter, and he says that he
has seen thousands of them come wheeling along. Isaiah calls them, "a
rolling thing before the whirlwind." A puff of wind would come and take
them in one direction and then a contrary wind would drive them in
quite another direction! They are so light, downy, gossamer-like, that
they never can rest.

Now this is just what happens to many men who set themselves against
God and His Grace. They are like rolling things never at
rest–believing nothing, knowing nothing, hoping nothing, comforted by
nothing–they are like a wheel. Oh, that we may never know, by personal
experience, what this means! "Make them like a wheel, as the stubble
before the wind"! You know how that is–the stubble is blown up, down,
to the right, to the left, whichever way the wind blows. Are any of you
like that, tonight? Have you no stability? Have you no good hope for
the future? When you think about death and eternity, are you like the
stubble before the wind? If so, God have mercy upon you, and bring you
to the only place where you can obtain salvation and stability!

14. As the fire burns a forest and as the flame sets the mountains on
fire. Travelers tell us that they have, sometimes, seen the sides of
mountains all ablaze where the timber, growing old, and everything
being dry in the heat of summer, a chance spark has set the whole on
fire. This is what God will do with His enemies. He will as certainly
and as readily destroy them as the forest is burnt with fire, or the
mountain's side is consumed by the raging flames! Who will stand
against God? Who will dare attempt it? Consider His great might and
flee from His wrath!

15. So persecute them with Your tempest. Or, "You will so follow them
up with Your tempest."

15, 16. And make them afraid with Your storms. Fill their faces with
shame, that they may seek Your name, O LORD. That is the prayer which
we might pray, tonight, for all those who are denying the Godhead of
Christ and His great Sacrifice of the Cross–and for all who reject the
Inspiration of Scripture and the blessed Doctrines of Grace. "O Lord,
fill their faces with shame, that they may seek Your name!" Oh, that
men did but know their own character! If they did but feel ashamed of
their own sin, they might be led to seek the name of God.

17. Let them be confused and troubled forever. Or rather, "They shall
be confused and troubled forever." That is an awful passage, "Confused
and troubled forever."

17, 18. Yes, let them be put to shame and perish: that men may know
that You, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, are the Most High over all the
earth. You notice that when I read the Scriptures, wherever I find the
word, LORD, in capital letters, I read it as Jehovah, for so it should
be. I wish that the translators of the Revised Version had had the
courage of their convictions and had so translated it, for we need that
grand name back–Jah, Jehovah. Let me entreat You never to trifle, as
some do, with that sacred word, Hallelujah, or, Hallelu-Jah–praise to
Jehovah!