Keeping the Soul Alive

Keeping the Soul Alive

(No. 3444)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1915.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MARCH
27, 1870.

"None can keep alive his own soul." Psalm 22:29.

SELF-SUFFICIENCY is the sin of nature–all-sufficiency is the supply of
Divine Grace! Ishmael, sent away into the wilderness with his bottle,
is man trusting in himself–Isaac, dwelling by the never-failing wells
of Gerar, is man led by Grace to trust in the unfailing supplies of the
God of all consolation! It is as hard to get man away from self-trust
as it would be to reverse the course of Niagara. He begins by believing
that he can make himself alive–and when he is convinced that this is
not possible, he then tries to entrench himself behind the idea that he
can keep himself alive. No, though man is dead in trespasses and sins
and it is but a rank absurdity to imagine that death can produce life,
yet the sinner still thinks that by something of his own he can create
a soul within the ribs of death, that a sinner may grow into a saint of
himself, that the man who is as full of sin as the leopard is full of
spots, may yet, by his own innate energy, cast off his spots and become
pure! I say that when man is cured of that rank absurdity, he then will
need as much trouble to be cured of another, for even those who are
alive unto God fall, more or less, into the false confidence that they
can keep their own souls alive, and he out of us all who best knows
that he can do no such thing has, nevertheless, sometimes caught
himself acting as if he did believe that he could keep his own soul
alive! To be sound in Doctrine is one thing, but to have that orthodoxy
in the heart is another thing. To believe that I am dependent every day
upon the Grace of God is easy, but to carry that dependence and the
sense of that dependence into all my dealings with God and with
man–this is not nature, but is in itself a work of Grace!

Now, it is upon our entire dependence upon God as Believers that I am
to speak tonight. We have, if we are Believers, been made alive from
the dead. Our souls have been quickened by the life of Christ–we live
with the life that Christ has given to us, but we cannot keep ourselves
alive any more than we could first make ourselves alive. That is the
point to be thought over tonight–may its rich and humbling
instructions be sanctified to us all. First, let me–

I. BREAK UP THIS DOCTRINE A LITTLE.

It is like one of the loaves brought to Christ–it needs breaking and
we will break it up thus. The Believer's life must be dependent upon
God. He cannot maintain it by his own strength because of its very
nature. It is a derived life. We know how plainly our Savior puts this
in the parable of the vine. The life of the Christian is not the life
of the separate plant put into the soil to suck for itself through its
own throat, the nourishment out of the earth. It is the life of a plant
which derives all its sap through the stem–through a root that is not
in itself. It does not bear the root, nor a root, but the root bears
it, so that once you cut away the branch from the vine, you have taken
away the life from the branch, for though the life is in the branch as
long as it is joined to the vine, yet it is not so in the branch,
itself, that it is there at all apart from the vine. You are dead–then
where is your life? Your life is hid with Christ in God, and if you
live at all, this is the reason! "Because I live, you shall live also."
Your life is not in yourselves as a separate life. Your life, the true
life of your soul, is a derived one, and is in Christ Jesus! Another
illustration from the same blessed Word of God gives us the like sense.
We are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. There is
life in my hand–undoubted life–but let that hand be laid down upon
the block, and the headsman's axe separate it from the arm, and there
remains no life whatever in the hand that is separated from the vital
center, the heart. The limb moves and has life in itself, in a certain
sense, but it is derived life, relative life–it only lives at all, in
fact–because it is joined to something else in which its life more
truly dwells. You see then, Brothers and Sisters, that none can keep
his own soul alive, because the soul's truest life is not in itself,
but lies in Another, even in Christ its Head!

Furthermore, the life that is in a Believer is avery dependent life. We
are born in regeneration, but after a child is born it will not live if
the mother's care shall cease. It must be nursed. It must be fed. It
must have a thousand little needs supplied, which, if neglected, would
be pretty sure to end that little life right speedily. When our dear
converts are born to Christ, our anxieties for them are not ended.
Their life is but a frail and feeble thing and though we believe they
shall not die, but live, yet they only live because the great Father of
the Christian family takes care that they shall be supplied with the
unadulterated milk of the Word of God, that they shall be continually
nursed in the ordinances of God's house, that they shall be trained and
instructed and brought up until they come to the stature of men and
women in Christ Jesus. Brothers and Sisters, just as the life of the
baby would not be sustained unless something was done for it which it
could not do for itself, so the life of the Christian is of the same
sort–dependent upon the blessed offices of God the Holy Spirit, and of
the gracious Redeemer who watches over all the children of Grace as a
nurse watches over her child. Yes, but you tell me that this is a great
Truth of God for young Believers, but what of those that become adults
in Christ? I reply that still if the figure does not hold good, yet the
Truth, itself, does, and we will change the figure and come back to the
one we had before. The fully-developed arm will die if separated from
the trunk, just as surely as the infant's arm–and yonder huge branch
of the ancient oak, itself a tree–yet were it sundered from the oak,
must wither. It matters not how great the growth of a Christian, nor
how mature his experience, he still owes all he has and all he is to
his union with Christ–he cannot keep his own soul alive! If I might
use such an allegory, it is something like this–all Believers are
pensioners upon the court of Heaven. They begin, we may say, as
pensioners when they are converted, to draw out of Heaven's bank but a
small pension. They are poor in Grace, poor in faith, poor in
everything–but they draw a pension just as large as they can manage to
live upon. By-and-by they are promoted, and their pension is now not
£50 a year, but £100. By-and-by they are promoted yet again, but as
they are promoted and draw more pension money, they spend more. There
are certain demands upon them which require them to spend whatever they
get! So at last we will suppose that one of them has come to a high
rank and he draws out of the court of the King's Bank at the rate of
£10,000 a year. Yet, my Brothers and Sisters, if at any moment that
pension should be stopped, he is just as poor a man as he that drew his
£50, for, as I have said, he spent it as he received it–and if he is
now rich, he is only rich because of the constant income which his
gracious King is pleased to give him! But if that were stopped, he
could no more keep alive his own soul, though he has come to the first
rank in Grace, than he could who has just commenced to draw from the
Bank of the King of Kings! Your spiritual riches all flow in from
Christ, and if you are once separated from Him, you are naked, and
poor, and miserable, be you who you may!

Still further breaking up this one Truth of God, let me remark that the
Believer's life is always an endangered life. In some way or other it
is always in such danger that no man can keep it alive. I find that
with some Christians, and with myself, one chief spiritual danger is
that of sloth. I mean a tendency to grow lethargic, to stop short where
you are, to be pleased with attainments already reached, to lose
youthful elasticity and ardor. Well now, when is a soul more in danger
than when it falls into spiritual sloth? Then, indeed, the great
arch-enemy comes into the Christian camp, as David and Abishai stole
into the camp of Saul–and as the great dragon, the enemy of
souls–finds a Christian sleeping, he lifts his spear, and if he might
but smite him this once, he would not need to smite him a second time!
Oh, if Sovereign Grace did not hold back that diabolic hand, if he
could but give that one stroke, he would make a full end of the
Christian! Now, as we are, most of us, given to slumber at certain
times, and may be surprised with it, the truth is most sure that we
cannot keep our own souls alive! But if our temptation should not be
that of slumbering, yet who among us does not sometimes get faint? The
most valorous Believer sometimes finds his faith turn to unbelief. When
David was in the midst of battle, we find that the king waxed faint,
and Ishbosheth, the son of Goliath, had almost slain him! And there
have been times when the offspring of some gigantic evil which in other
days we slew, has now been too much for us, and then we feel faint just
when we most needed to be strong! He that never has fainting fits may
laugh at this, but I think he knows but little of spiritual life, for
spiritual men find that all too often these fainting fits come upon
them and then they feel that they cannot keep their own soul alive.
Moreover, if we are neither faint nor slumbering, yet–I think I may
speak for every Christian here–our life is attended with many
temptations. Is there one Christian here who is never tempted? I was
about to say I wish I could pursue his calling, but I think he cannot
have looked at it correctly. There are temptations everywhere! Some of
you work among ungodly associates. Some of you are in places still more
perilous, namely, with those who profess to be religious, but who lie
and whose example is generally more evil than the example of even
outrageously godless men! Oh, there are snares in your business and
there are snares in your pleasures! There are temptations in your
needs, you poor. There are temptations in your plenty, you rich. There
are perils in your knowledge, you

men of reading. There are perils in your ignorance, you who read not at
all. There are evils that will pursue you in the street, that will
follow you to your homes, that will even come to your beds! They will
not let you find a shelter anywhere from them, for Satan spreads his
snares wherever he sees God's birds of paradise! Who, then, amidst such
dangers, can hope to keep his own soul alive? Even if we had an
independent life, which I have shown you we have not, yet with such
perils surrounding us, the Psalmist was absolutely correct when he
said, "None can keep alive his own soul."

Once more. Remember that all the supplies of our spiritual life areput,
not in us, but into Christ We are not like the camel that can traverse
the desert and carry with it, its own supply of water for many days.
No, we must drink continually from the flowing Well, Christ Jesus, or
we die. Everything that any one of us shall need between here and
Heaven is ready for us, but it is all in Christ–there is not a grain
of it in ourselves! When the Egyptians were passing through the seven
years of famine and had eaten up all their own food, there was quite
enough corn in Egypt to keep them through the seven years, but it was
all under lock and key in the granary, and Joseph had to keep it all.
And so for the spiritual famine between here and the gates of Heaven
there is enough heavenly corn provided, but it is all in the granaries
of the Covenant, and it is all in the keeping of Jesus! If you want it,
you must go to Jesus for it! There is nothing but emptiness, beggary,
famine and death in all the fields of Nature. You shall ransack heart,
head, memory and judgment through and through–but you shall not find
so much as a solitary meal for your hungry soul to live upon within
yourselves! Only in Christ is there enough! And there is enough in Him
for all of His people, blessed be His name! So, then, because all the
stores are in Christ, and there are no stores in ourselves, the text
comes true again–"None can keep alive his own soul." We have thus
broken up the Doctrine. And here we will pause a minute. Secondly, let
us– II. SEE WHAT OUR EXPERIENCE SAYS TO THIS DOCTRINE.

I will speak of some of the experience of God's servants and I should
not wonder but what I shall be, as it were, holding up a mirror in
which many here will see themselves! Many of us have verified that we
cannot keep our own souls alive in the following way–first, by having
our carnal security all shipwrecked. Do you remember years ago, now, or
it may be only months ago with some of you, that you felt so confident?
You had had a long time of peace and happiness. Whenever you went up to
God's House, the Word was very sweet to you. In private prayer you had
much fellowship with Christ. At the Lord's Table you sat at the King's
banquet and you said to yourselves, "I wonder how it is that so many
Christians are doubting and fearing? I am not. My mountain stands firm.
I shall never be moved." You hardly dared to say that, but you
whispered it to yourselves. You felt grateful to God that it was so,
but I think there was a little self-congratulation–and you looked down
a little upon some of your Brothers and Sisters who were not quite so
joyous and confident as you! Well now, shall I tell the story? It has
happened to me, and I must blushingly tell it. I doubt not it has also
happened to you. Within a very short time a temptation surprised you
and you fell into the trap. God's face was hidden from you–your soul
was troubled and the scene was all changed–and whereas yesterday you
could write yourselves down in big letters with certainty as a child of
God, now you felt that if you were one, you were the meanest of them
all! You could have taken the chief seat in the synagogue yesterday,
but now if there were a mouse hole you would have been glad to creep
into it, and if there were a doorkeeper's place vacant, you would be
happy to take it if you might but still be numbered with the household
of God. I should not wonder but what you were a better man in the last
case than you were before, though you did not think so. Well, it was
then when you began to perceive that you could not keep alive your own
soul, for what you built up so delightfully, turned out to be only just
a card house–and Satan had but to give it one flip with his finger and
over it went! You had piled up your habitation, and you thought it was
all made of strong stone, but it was only rubbishing cement–and the
first frost that came, cracked it from the foundation right up to the
top–and soon it began to totter about your ears! You have passed
through that, and if you have, you know that you cannot keep your own
soul alive!

Again, did you ever feel like this, my dear Brothers and Sisters? The
Sabbath is coming round and on Saturday night you are very glad that
tomorrow is the Sabbath, but somehow or other you do not feel that
interest in spiritual things that you did some months ago. You go up to
the House of God and take your seat. The preacher seems different–
perhaps you half think he must be–but yet you hear of others who are
feeding on the Word and so you conclude that there is a lack of
appetite in yourselves, for you do not seem to enjoy it. Then those
hymns–why, they used to be like archangels' wings to you, and now you
are just criticizing the style of the music and not much else. You do
not drink into the Word when you get home and get your Bible open. Why,
it used to blaze before your eyes! The promises seemed as if they were
written in letters of light–but now that Bible is very dull to you.
You pray you could not give that up, but you rise from your knees as if
you had not prayed–and you feel in all your religious exercises a kind
of dullness and slee-

piness. You go about it all. You cannot give it up and do not want to
give it up. You would not give it up–you would sooner die than give it
up–but still, you cannot stir your soul. I have often felt spiritually
like those poor people who have taken opium, or some other drug, who
have to be walked about by the hour together, for fear lest they should
go to sleep–and I have heard of people sticking pins into them to keep
them awake. I have tried to stick pins into myself in a spiritual sense
to try to wake myself up. What is wrong with me, to be sleeping while
poor souls are perishing? How is it that I do not feel this Truth of
God more? Why does not that Truth of God affect me more? It did
once–why does it not now? Well now, whenever you are in that state of
mind, you have learned this lesson–you cannot keep your own soul
alive. Why, you cannot even wake your soul, much more quicken it! You
cannot even stir it to vigor, with all your attempts, much less, then,
could it be possible for you to preserve spiritual life! That must be a
work of Grace–your experience must teach you that.

And, dear Brothers and Sisters, have you ever found, under a severe
trial, how difficult it is to exercise the Grace that you before
thought you possessed very abundantly? You are just now, perhaps, being
tried in your faith. You used to sing Luther's Psalm–

"Loud may the troubled ocean roar! In secret peace our souls abide."

Well, now the ocean has hardly began to roar. It is only just a little
storm–but the sacred peace–where is that? Why, you are running to
your neighbor to say, "What shall I do? There is such-and-such about to
happen!" Your neighbor might well reply. "Did not I hear you sing the
other day–

'Let mountains from their seats be hurled

Down to the deeps and buried there!

Convulsions shake the solid world–

My faith shall never yield to fear,' and yet here you are! Here you
are!" Ah, yes, we may smile, but we have all been through it. It
reminds me of what an old country man used to tell me. "Ah," he
said–old Will Richardson–"I always find, Sir, that I could do a long
stretch of mowing in the winter! And I often think when the snow is on
the ground and I see my old sickle hanging up, that I'd like to go out
and do some harvesting, and I'd do it with the best of the young'uns,
but, you know, when the time comes for mowing I find that old Will
cannot do much of it, and when the harvest comes round I find that it
is very little that makes a good day's work for an old man like me."
And you and I think like that sometimes. We say, "Oh, if I had a
temptation now, how I could master it!" And then it comes and we find
that we cannot master it. "Oh, if I were tried, how I could stand!" And
we are tried and we cannot stand. Now this ought to teach us that we
cannot keep our own soul alive. Depend upon it, Brother, that the very
Grace which you set most store by is probably that in which you are
most deficient–and that virtue which you could almost wish to expose
to peril because you feel yourself so safe in that respect–is just the
joint in the plating of your armor through which the arrow would find
its way! Boast not of anything! Above all, boast not of your best
things, for they may prove your worst in the day of trial! You have
found it so. It may be so again. "None can keep alive his own soul."

Another piece of experience is this. You who love the Master may,
perhaps, have been sometimes in a position in which you have been
fascinated by a temptation. You know the figure I am using now in
connection with the word fascination. Some of those large pythons that
have to be fed upon living animals will have a rabbit, perhaps, put
into, their cage for them to feed upon. We are told that the poor
little rabbit will sit up on its haunches quietly, calmly and still–
because the python has fixed its eyes on the creature and fascinates
it–and if it could escape, if the cage door were open so that it could
run away, it cannot! It feels itself spellbound and sits there,
incapable of that motion by which it might escape–fascinated by the
serpent's eyes. Have you ever been in that position under a sin, and
you would have fallen into it, only just then the spell was broken by
Providence? Something happened that you could not have looked for, and
you escaped because you were a child of God! If you had not been a
child of God, that fascination would have continued till it would have
ended in your destruction! And if you have ever been under that
fascination you will dread ever to expose yourselves to it again. You
will take care to keep out of harm's way again, but you will have
learned at least this lesson, that you may be cast, even in Providence,
in such positions that nothing but the Supernatural Grace of God could
deliver you, and you will then have seen that none can keep alive his
own soul!

But one more illustration taken from our experience. We have seen
others fall into great sin and that observation must have helped us to
see that we could not keep ourselves. I do not wish to revive old
memories for the sake of pain, but I would revive them for the
humiliation they ought to cause us all. Have you ever known a man whose
prayers comforted

and edified you, whose language about the things of God was full of
savor, full of instruction to the young and even of comfort to the old?
Have you ever seen that man earnest, indefatigable, generous? Have you
ever thought to yourselves, "I wish I were half as good as he"? Have
you not known the time when a look from his eyes would have cheered
you, and a good word from his lips would have been a blessing to you?
And yet you heard one day–and it was as though you had been felled to
the earth–you heard that man had been living a life of sin, had been a
hypocrite and deceived the people of God! Well you remember that!
Perhaps you remember that such a thing has happened not once, nor
twice, and there are black marks down in your recollection concerning
such an one, and such an one, and such an one. Did you write down after
that in your diary, "But I should never do the same"? Then you are a
fool, be sure of that! But if, instead of that, you wrote down in your
diary, "Hold You me up and I shall be safe." If you fell on your knees
and said, "Lord, keep me, for–

"Unless You hold me fast, I feel I must, I shall decline, And prove
like them at last,"

then you have learned a good lesson, and you have learned also the
meaning of my text, "None can keep alive his own soul," for that is
what God meant to teach you! May you learn it from others, and not have
to painfully learn it by your own falls into sin. My time has failed
me, yet must I keep you a little longer while I dwell with great
brevity, in the next place, upon–

III. THE PRACTICAL LESSONS OF THE TEXT.

I have shown you the Doctrine and the experience which backs it up. Now
what are the practical lessons? They are these. First, never entertain
a good opinion of ourselves. "What, never believe that I am saved?" Oh,
yes, if you are saved, always believe that! But then, what is your
ground for believing that you are saved? If that lies in your goodness,
then away with it, for it is a bad foundation and the sooner you get
off of it, the better! My dear Brother, you are no better than the poor
publican when he smote upon his breast and said, "God be merciful to me
a sinner," and if you think you are any better than he, you do not know
yourself! You will go down from this Tabernacle without a blessing if
you are able to get higher up than he, and can say with the Pharisee,
"God, I thank You that I am not as other men." Nothing but a heap of
dust and ashes–and a mass of misery and sin–are you but for Sovereign
Grace! "In me," says the Apostle, "that is in my flesh, there dwells no
good thing." That is to say, "In me, inexperienced me, uninstructed me,
unenlightened me, whatever else of good or of virtue may be appended to
the word, me, there dwells no good thing!" Grace, Grace, Grace alone
can keep and must keep us! But as for any absolute personal
acquirement, no confidence can be placed in any of these! Dear Brothers
and Sisters, take care that you have never a good opinion, then, of
yourself.

The next lesson is never get away from the Cross. This Psalm is all
about Christ on the Cross. "None can keep alive his own soul." The life
of souls is in the dying and living Savior. If you can live a day
without feeling the blood of sprinkling, you have lived a dangerous
day! If you feel that you can afford to go into any Christian duty
without a Mediator, you are in danger! Dear Brothers and Sisters,
always sing —

"There is a Fountain filled with blood," and sing it always because you
always need that Fountain and always need the washing!

Another lesson is never neglect the means of Grace. If you cannot keep
alive your own soul, then do not neglect the means through which God
helps your soul to live. If you could live without food, why then, you
would not come to the table at the time of meals, but as you cannot
keep alive your soul, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves
together as the manner of some is. I have known some who have said,
"Oh, well, I can do as well at home. I can read this good book or
that." Sir, I know what it always comes to–it comes to bringing
leanness into the soul and, by-and-by, if persisted in, it ends in
apostasy, and proves that the man never had the Grace of God at all! I
find that I cannot do without the means of Grace, and I believe that if
I cannot, you cannot, my Brothers and Sisters.

But there is a further lesson–never rest on the means of Grace, for
even by their use you cannot keep alive your soul! Do we live on
sermons, live on hymns, live on other people's prayers? Oh, no! The
sermon is only useful because it is like a ladder to help you to climb.
The prayer of another is only useful because it may be like a torch
from another altar to set your sacrifice on a blaze. Never neglect the
means, but never depend upon the means. Go above the means to the God
of the means, and do not be satisfied with the mere means of Grace, but
try to get the Grace of the means!

So let me add again, and I will sit down, never run into temptation. If
you cannot keep your soul alive on safe ground, what can you do in the
midst of pestilence? Those Christian people who are always saying,
"Well, I do not see

the harm of this," and, "I think I may do that"–I am afraid their
Grace must be very problematical–they cannot have any at all, or they
would not talk in that way! A man who wishes to be living and healthy,
but who feels his life to be in jeopardy, will not run any unnecessary
risks. Go you not into the path of temptation, for even while the devil
tempts you, you may expect Divine help, yet if you tempt the devil to
tempt you, I do not know that there is any promise that God will help
you! Bless God daily, dear Friends. Bless God daily if you are kept. As
you cannot keep alive your own soul, if your soul is kept alive, bless
God for it! Oh, I think that the children of God, when they get to
mourning and saying, "I have not as much faith as So-and-So, I have not
the love of the Apostle Paul, I have not the joy of such-and-such a
Christian," they would do quite as well if they were to sit down and
say, "Lord, while I mourn that I have not these things, I do bless You
if I have half a grain of faith, for that will keep me out of Hell." If
you have not got sunlight, do be thankful for candlelight. Ah, the day
may come when you will be glad to get the slightest evidence, so while
you have got it, thank God for it! We ought to lament that we have not
more Grace, but we ought to be thankful that we have any at all! If I
am not a full-grown man in Christ, and ought to be, I ought to mourn
over my dwarfed estate! But if I am a child of God at all, there is
something to be thankful for! Praise His name, then! Lift up the notes
of song, you mournful ones! Yes, let every Believer bless the name of
the Lord!

And so let us close by saying this–if God has kept you alive, and you
bless His name for it, show your gratitude by helping others."None can
keep alive his own soul," but often a word from a Brother may be a word
from the great Father of us all. A gentle admonition from a matron may
help a young Sister. A word of wisdom from a father in Christ may help
the young Brother. Oh, watch over one another! Be pastors to each
other. "Bear you one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of
Christ." I am sure that in this great London of ours, much of our
safety against a wicked world will lie in keeping our ranks close. I
know that young men coming up to London, even if they have the Grace of
God in their hearts–if they get isolated and separated, are very
likely to be led astray. Therefore, if there is any young Christian in
the Tabernacle tonight who is spending his first Sunday evening in
London and does not know anybody here, I say, my dear Brother, hook on
to one of our classes! Lay hold of somebody tonight that belongs to the
Church and try to make friends with him, for none of us can keep alive
his own soul, and it is not good for man to be alone! God may mean by
joining you with this Church and bringing you into some of the various
classes, to bless you and keep your soul alive!

Ah, you have come up, have you, and taken a job in London. And you come
out on Sunday evenings, and your mother told you to come here, and you
are glad to listen to my voice tonight. Well, next Sunday afternoon, my
Sister, there is Mrs. Bartlett's Bible Class downstairs where you will
meet with many Sisters in Christ who will be glad to talk with you and
cheer you. Perhaps if you do not go into that class, you will be quite
lonely, and by degrees grow cold and get laid aside. You will not be
able to stand alone, very well, so come and get a hold of some of your
Sisters in Christ, and by God's Grace, though you cannot depend upon
them, yet they may be the means in God's hand of helping you to stand!
Soldiers, close your ranks! Each man to his fellow stand firm for
Christ! The enemy is doing all he can to break our solid ranks. Let us
be true to one another, and true to the great Captain who is at our
head! Up to where the blood-red Cross is the banner to which we all
shall rally, let each man turn their eyes, and then next, let each man
look right and left upon his fellows and help to hold up such as begin
to stagger in the dreadful battle–and who knows but that thus we may
help to keep ourselves upon our feet, for he that helps others shall be
helped himself! He that waters others shall be watered himself. God
grant it may be so with you all, and may Jesus make and keep alive all
our souls! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM27.

Very much of the language of David used here, I trust we can make our
own. May the Spirit of God lead us to understand, by experience, what
he has written.

Verse 1. The LORD is my light and my salvation. I find no comfort
anywhere else but in Him, and expect salvation from none but Himself.
"The Lord is my light and my salvation."

1. Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom
shall I be afraid?Who can stand against Him? What strength can resist
His strength? What darkness can baffle His light? What foes can prevent
His salvation?

2. When the wicked, even my enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up
my flesh, they stumbled and fell "They wanted to destroy me
altogether–to eat me right up." If they did not destroy me, it was not
from lack of heart to do it,

nor even from lack of power, for there were many of them. But I had not
to fight, for they fell before they reached me. "They stumbled and
fell."

3. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear:
though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident Let them
come on. They fell before–they will fall again. Let them come on. God
was strong enough to meet them and overthrow them once. He will do it
again! Therefore, why should we fear? Ah, dear Brothers and Sisters,
those who have had the most experience of the Divine fullness will rest
most confident that nothing can harm them!

4. One thing have I desired of the LORD that will I seek after; that I
may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold
the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His Temple. He only wished to
be always like a child at home–live in God's house–no temporal
structure, but wherever he was, he wished to feel that he was near to
God– that all places were the mansions of the great Father, so that he
might always have his eyes fixed upon the beauty of the Lord, and his
ears always open to listen to the voice of the Lord. Ah, if we can once
get ourselves wholly given up to God, it will take our thoughts off the
various oppositions we meet with–and we shall no more be afraid!

5. 6. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in Hispavilion: in
the secretplaces of His Tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me up
upon a rock And now shall my head be lifted up above my enemies round
about me: therefore will I offer in His Tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I
will sing, yes, I will sing praises unto the LORD. It is a blessed
resolution, not always easily carried out, but still it ought to be.
Our life ought to be singing. It used to be sinning–it ought now to be
singing, since the sin has been put away. Oh, happy are the men that
know their God! If the whole world would be full of storms, yet may
they rest in peace! Get near to God–acquaint yourself with Him and be
at peace! The remedy for all trouble is dwelling near to God!

7, 8. Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me,
and answer me. When You said, Seek you My face, my heart said unto You,
Your face, LORD wiil I seek Are we always mindful of Divine monitions?
When the still small voice in the heart says, "Seek you My face,"
Brothers and Sisters, do we always at once respond and say, "Your face,
Lord, will I seek"? I am afraid we are often as the horse and the mule
which have no understanding–and need to have the bit, and the bridle,
and the rod. But happy are those who have a sensitive nature–quickly
feel the movements of the Spirit of God!

9, 10. Hide not Your face far from me; put not Your servant away in
anger: You have been my help: leave me not, neither forsake me, O God
of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD
will take me up. He prayed, you see, and it looked a little unbelieving
when he said, "Leave me not, neither forsake me." But it was not so,
for at once he confessed that he did not think that God would leave
him, even when our father and mother, who are the last to leave us,
should do so. "Then the Lord will take me up."

11-14. Teach me Your way, O LORD, andleadme in a plain path because
ofmy enemies. Deliver me not over unto the will ofmy enemies, for false
witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I
had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in
the land of the living. Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and He
shall strengthen your heart: wait, I say on the LORD. I suppose he
meant that last sentence to be his own personal recommendation, derived
from his own experience. "Wait, I say, on the Lord." He had tried
it–proved its wonderful power as the restorative to his heart, and so
he says–"Wait, I say, on the Lord."