The New Song On Earth

The New Song On Earth

(No. 2424)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S DAY, AUGUST 4, 1895.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JULY
17, 1887.

"He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many
shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD." Psalm 40:3.

THIS man who talks about his song and seems to be very much struck with
the fact that he has become a singer, was formerly a man of prayer. I
doubt not that he was still praying while he was praising, but he began
to pray before he began to praise. It is not good to go in the choir,
first–we must begin our spiritual experience at the "penitent form."
He who sings without having wept may have to weep, by-and-by, where he
can never sing!

Listen to what this man's experience had been–"I waited patiently for
the Lord and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry." That is where God
gets His singers–out of the place of praying and weeping! Where they
learn to pray they begin to sing. Oh, yes, even in Heaven, itself, the
sweetest voices that praise God and the Lamb belong to those who came
out of great tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in
the blood of the Lamb! Therefore are they before the Throne of God and
serve Him day and night in His Temple. Do not try to get the joy of
Christ without first having sorrow for sin–

"The path of sorrow, and that path alone, Leads to the land where
sorrow is unknown." This man, who says that God has put a new song in
his mouth, began with a new prayer in his heart–"I waited patiently
for the Lord and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry."

Further, this man, who sings so well that he cannot help talking about
it, was once in a very deplorable state where there was no singing for
him, but God brought him up out of it! Hear what he says, "He brought
me up, also, out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay and set my
feet upon a rock, and established my goings." Nowadays people do not
seem to know much about that horrible pit. I wish they did. There are
more gentle, quiet conversions–and I care little how men are converted
so long as they are really converted–but, after all, the old-fashioned
sort of conversions wear best. Men who know from what they are
saved–men who have felt the iron rod of the Law and have been crushed
and broken beneath the millstones of conviction–these are they who
appreciate "Free Grace and dying love" to the fullest and speak of it,
and sing of it! I do not find so much of this singing, now, and the
reason is because there has been so little of the deep experience of
which our good old fathers used to speak.

The Psalmist says, "He brought me up, also, out of an horrible pit out
of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my
goings and, therefore, it is that this new song is in my mouth."–

"Firm on rock He made me stand, And taught my cheerful tongue To praise
the wonders of His hand In a new thankful song."

I. First, notice that we have HERE A MAN AMAZED TO FIND HIMSELF SINGING
for the text is evidently a declaration that God had put a new song
into his mouth and that it was a marvel, even to himself. Here is,
then, a man amazed to find himself singing, and it would not be
difficult to find one like he, here.

What makes you so amazed, my Friend? Other people sing–why is it at
all amazing that you should? He answers, "It is amazing that I should
sing because I have been so used to sighing. Had you seen me, Sir, when
the arrows of God stuck fast in me, you would have heard many sighs,
but never a song! If you had followed me home, you would have found my
pillow wet with tears. But I was no nightingale, I could not sing in
the dark. I woke in the morning almost sorry to think that I had to
face the world, again, and that I had my burden still to bear! And I
chanted no morning hymn and I went about the world still burdened till
night came on again. Those around me talked of vesper hymns, but I had
no such hymns. I had my evening moans and groans, for sin was heavy
upon me, and an angry God seemed to make the darkness about me a
darkness that might be felt! Had you seen me then, you would not think
it strange that I should be amazed that I now sing!" Oh, yes, dear
Hearers, if you have ever known the depths of sorrow for sin, you will
be amazed to think that you can be as happy as you are because Christ
has loosened the burden from your shoulder and made you free, saying,
"Go, and sin no more. Your sins, which are many, are all forgiven you."

Well, my Friend, I can see why you are astonished at your singing. Is
there any other reason? "Yes," he answers, "if you had known me a
little farther back, before I came under the hand of God and was
awakened to a sense of sin, you would have known a fellow that could
sing, but the wonder, now, is that I can sing 'a new song.' I am glad,
Sir that you did not hear me sing in those days, for my songs would
have done you no good. They were very light and trifling, sometimes
lewd and sometimes profane. Oh, how I set my companions in a roar with
my jests! And when I had a little drink in me, how I liked to thunder
out some loose verses and bid the others take up the chorus! And 'jolly
good fellows' were all of us said to be when those hymns of the devil
were upon our tongues." Oh, you are that man, are you? Yet I heard you
sing, just now, and I think you sang it from your heart–

"My heart is resting, O my God, I will give thanks and sing! My heart
is at the secret Source Of every precious thing! And a 'newsong'is in
my mouth, To long-loved music set! Glory to You for all the Grace I
have not tasted yet. I have a heritage of joy That yet I must not see.
The hand that bled to make it mine Is keeping it for me!"

Ah, now I am amazed, too, that such a man as you once were should be
singing such a song as that! O Brothers and Sisters, there are some of
us here who are amazed at ourselves when we think of what we used to
be! Some of you forget the dunghills where you grew, but if you have
any honesty in you, you cannot but feel the tear starting up between
your eyelids at the recollection of how God has changed you. What a
miracle of mercy you are! Surely it took almighty power to make a saint
of such a sinner as you were! The utmost bound of infinite love must
have been reached in the case of some who are in this House of Prayer
praising redeeming love and wishing that they had a thousand tongues
with which to shout the Savior's praise! Yes, Friend, I can see why it
is that you are amazed that a new song is put into your mouth! The time
past well suffices us to have sung the songs of Belial–now let us sing
unto the Lord with all our strength, and tell all around what great
things His Grace has done for us!

Still, my Friend, you who are so much amazed at yourself, you tell me
that you marvel to find yourself singing because you so lately were
sighing and, farther back, were singing such a different tune. Is there
any other wonder in it? "Well, yes, Sir, my greatest wonder is because
I am singing a new song. It is a totally new song–it is new to me, for
I knew nothing of it, once. I ridiculed what I did not understand! I
cast scorn on what I had not the candor to wish to know. I said that
religion was all cant and that religious people were all hypocrites. I
did not know this for a fact, but I said it, all the same. I did not
want to know anything about Christ Crucified and the Gospel of His
Grace. I said that these were only terms that were used by fanatical
people and had no meaning in them. And as to the songs of Zion, why,
Sir, I sometimes spoofed them to give a little zest to my profane
merriment. But, as to singing them, myself, I felt that could never be
the case."

Yes, Beloved, there are some who are now singing of Free Grace and
dying love who, years ago, would not have believed it possible even if
a Prophet of God had told them it would be so! They would have spat at
any man who would have said, "And you, too, will take up the cross, and
follow the Nazarene." Yet tonight they are singing a song altogether
new to them! These low notes of penitence, the deep bass of confession
are all new to them–and these highest notes, the jubilates that rise
even to the skies–are all new to them. None of this score did they
ever read in their days of sin! They never tuned their harps to such
Psalms as this in the time of their unregeneracy. It is all new to you.
Do I not remember when it was all new to me? Yet I heard it when I was
a child. I was never away from the hearing of it, but when I came to
know it, it was just as new to me, nursed on the lap of piety, as it
was to you who lived in the midst of a wicked world, for I was blind in
the light as you were blind in the dark! I was deaf in the midst of
music and you were only deaf in the midst of discord. There was but a
slight difference between us, after all, and truly are we amazed to
think that we should be singing a new song!

It is not only called a new song because it is new to us, but because
it is so uncommon. Rich and rare things are often called new in the
Bible. There is a New Covenant, there is a new Commandment. I will not
quote the many things in Scripture that are called new because they are
so rare. And, oh, the praises of God are, indeed, rich and rare! If an
angel, fresh from Heaven, were asked his judgment of the various kinds
of music played or sung below, I know what he would say. Your finest
operas and your noblest lyrics concerning things of time and sense
would be but doggerel in his ears and discord to his heart! But the
hymns in which we praise our dying, yet risen Lord–the Psalms in which
we exalt the God of Heaven and earth–these would be music, indeed, to
him, and he would write these down as truly sweet! Yes, and so it is to
us! Dull is the song that does not praise our Lord! But the burst of
united Psalmody from a vast congregation that exalts Him brings tears
to our eyes, as Augustine says it did to his–when he heard the singing
at Milan. When first he entered the church, there, to hear the many
simple folk praise God, touched his soul. But if it is not so–if the
music is not to the praise of the Lord–there is no thing rich and rare
in it for us. Oh, believe us, we have learned a rare song now that we
have learned to praise the Lord our God!

And, truth to tell, there is a wonder about our new song because it is
always new. Do you ever tire–you who love your Lord–do you ever tire
of Him? You who praise Him, do you ever weary of singing His praises?
You may very well weary of me, poor creature that I am–I who have
addressed you so many hundreds of times–but you never weary of my
subject when I talk of Jesus! You may very well weary of the monotony
of any human voice, but you can never be tired of the many-stringed
harp which is to be found in that one name, the name of Jesus! His
name, fresh? Oh, I think it is newer to me, now, than when I first
heard it! It may seem a paradox, but the Gospel is, to me, fresher, the
longer I know it! Did not my heart leap at the sound of Christ's name
nearly 40 years ago? Yes, but not as it does now! The music of His name
will refresh our soul in death with a new depth of sweetness! It is all
new as you go on in Jesus!

You seem, sometimes, to fancy that you are coming to an end, but there
is no end to this music! Did you ever sail up or down the Rhine? If so,
standing in the steamboat you thought you were in a lake rather than in
a river–and you wondered how you could proceed any farther. You turned
a corner and the river opened up before you with a fresh stretch of
beauty and where it seemed to end, again, the end was all a delusion,
for it still went on and on! So is it with the song which the Lord has
taught us–it is always fresh and always new! We may make it say, as
the poet made his brook to sing–

"Men may come, and men may go, But I go on forever"

and so does the sweet melody of Jesus' precious name! It is a new song,
a new song altogether!

Yet, again, if you wonder that we call it new, let me remind you that
it is new because it seems to have awakened us into a newness of life.
I have seen men excited–look at them whenever there is an
election–but there is a far better kind of excitement than that which
is produced by politics! When a man comes to know Christ and to love
Him, it wakes him up from the crown of his head to the sole of his
feet. We steady-going people, you know, try to be very serene and
quiet, and our worship is apt to get terribly stiff and dull–but if we
could let our souls have their liberty, if we could speak and sing as
we feel–what a noise we would make sometimes! There would be
hallelujahs and hosannas, indeed, and it is amazing that we can
restrain them, for the Gospel of Christ somehow brings out of a man new
faculties which he does not know of himself till a glorious breeze of
Everlasting Life has blown through him! Then odors which otherwise had
lain asleep, odors such as God delights in, are poured forth on every
side! This is, indeed, a new song, for it makes us new! God grant, dear
Friends, that many of you may so continually sing it that you may know
what I mean–and a great deal more than I can say! That is a wonderful
thing, then–a new man singing a new song!

There is yet a further wonder. My Friend, you have been telling us that
you marvel that you have a new song. What is it that makes you so
surprised? You have told us much–tell us a little more. And he
answers, "Well, Sir, I wonder at my new song because it is raised unto
our God–'even praise unto our God.'" It should not be, but still it
is, a marvel when a man praises his God. We are by nature so averse to
this sweet exercise that when we come to do it, and to do it heartily,
it is a marvelous thing! Look. We praise God's Grace; we sing–

"Grace! 'Tis a charming sound! Harmonious to the ear!"

And each saved man among us feels it to be so in his case. We praise
God's power! What power He has put forth in bringing us up out of our
graves of sin and turning us from darkness to light and from the power
of Satan unto God by that same mighty power which He worked in Christ
when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand.
Yes, every man whom God has saved praises His Grace and His power.

The pith of the song is this–"praise unto our God." You cannot praise
another man's God. At least there is no sweetness in such a song. But
there is a blessed melody when it is "praise unto our God"–our
Covenant God, the God who belongs to us, the God who by a perpetual
Covenant has given Himself up to us to be our possession forever–
"praise unto our God." I like to have it put in the plural. My soul can
praise my God, but the highest note is reached when many of us,
together, can praise "our God"–yours and mine! We who are Brothers and
Sisters in Christ. We who know each other and love each other find a
peculiar sweetness in our new song when it is "praise unto our God." If
you all knew the sweetness of bringing others to Christ, more of you
would live for it and be prepared to even die for it.

I have had some very happy days in my life, but my happiest times have
been such as I had one day last week when I shook hands with somewhere
about a hundred persons who called me their spiritual father. It seemed
to them to be quite a grand day to touch my hand, while to me, the
tears standing in my eyes as I saw each one of them–it was as the days
of Heaven upon earth, for I had never seen all those people before!
Perhaps some of them had been in this House of Prayer, now and then,
but I did not know them. They had read the sermons and as I went from
village to village, and found them standing at their doors, begging me
to stop just to hear how such a sermon was "blessed to me," and, "my
old father read your sermons and died in peace after reading
them"–there, I could have died of joy, for this is the truest
happiness we can have on earth! Seek sinners, my Brothers and Sisters,
seek their conversion with all your heart and soul! If you would be
happy men and women, and would sing the sweetest song that could be
sung on earth, let it be, "praise unto our God"–not yours alone, but
the God, also, of those whom Infinite Mercy shall permit you to bring
to the same dear Savior's feet!

There is one more wonder about this song and then I shall have finished
what I have to say about this friend of ours. You tell us that you sing
and that you sing a new song–what is the greatest wonder about that
song? "Why, Sir, to tell you the truth, I do not know which is the
greatest marvel. There is a world of wonders in my singing this new
song, but there is one point I have not told you, and that is this–'He
has put a new song in my mouth.'" Oh, I see, then–you did not learn it
from anybody? You did not make it up yourself? "No, no, no. A thousand
times, no! It was God that put it into my mouth." Well now, when God
puts a song into a man's mouth, that is a grand thing, for the devil,
himself, cannot get it out! If God puts a new song into a man's mouth,
he has a right to sing it and he ought to sing it–and he must sing
it–therefore, let him sing it!

Magnify the Lord if He has done this great thing to you, if He has put
this new song into your mouth! All that we ever do for ourselves never
has the sweetness in it of that which God does for us. You may labor
and toil and tug, and all the wage you get you may hold in the hollow
of your hand–and it shall melt in the morning sun! But if God shall
give it to you of His free, rich, Sovereign Grace, it shall be within
you a well of water springing up into everlasting life! And neither
life, nor death, nor things present, nor things to come shall ever take
it away from you! If God has put this new song in your mouth, that is
the best thing you can tell us about it!

And so, my good Friend, I will ask you no more questions. Sing away,
sing away, as long as ever you like! Sing praise unto our God–

"Sing, though sense and carnal reason Would gladly stop the joyful
song! Sing and count it highest treason For a saint to hold his
tongue."

II. Now, secondly, and very briefly, we have here, dear Friends, A MAN
WHO IS RESOLVED TO KEEP ON SINGING, for, you notice, he says, "He has
put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see
it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord." So that this man means to
keep on singing. I must have you back, again, old Friend, and ask you
why it is that you mean to keep on singing?

He answers, first, "Because I cannot help it." When God sets a man
singing, he must sing! Good Rowland Hill once had, sitting on the
pulpit stairs, a person who sang with such a cracked, squeaking voice
that it put the dear man out of heart. And this person with the cracked
voice, of course, sang more loudly than anybody else! So Mr. Hill said
to him, while the hymn was being sung, "Be quiet, my good man. You make
such a dreadful noise that you put us all out." "Oh," said the man, "I
am singing from my heart, Mr. Hill!" "I beg your pardon, my Friend,"
said the preacher, "go on, go on, go on with your singing if it comes
from your heart!"

So we would not stop any man, whatever his voice is, if he sings from
his heart! But, what is more, we not only say that we would not stop
him, but we could not stop him if we wanted to. If, as men say, "murder
wills out," I am sure that Grace will! You cannot put salvation into a
bottle and put the cork in! It will burst the bottle, for it must come
out! If God has put a song into your mouth, you must sing it.
Therefore, again I say, sing away!

But, my Friend over yonder, do not sing before everybody–perhaps it
would be casting pearls before swine. "Oh," he says, "but I must! I
mean to sing before many." Why? "Well, I used to sing before many in my
evil days. I was not ashamed to sing for the devil–when I ought to
have been ashamed, I was not. And now that I ought not to be ashamed, I
will not be ashamed and I will sing! Besides, why should I be so tender
and considerate of their nerves? They are not thoughtful about mine."
The ungodly sometimes complain of us for preaching outdoors. They say
that it disturbs them. Bless their dear delicacy! What a noise they
make at night, sometimes, when they keep us from sleeping while they
noisily declare that they, "won't go home till morning"! Surely, we may
sing as loudly as they do! And when we sing songs of Zion, we can well
reply to them that when they are quiet, and will suspend their music,
we may consider when we will suspend ours!

Still, my Friend, do you think that it is worth while to sing at this
rate? "Yes," he says, "I do, for I believe that it is good for them to
hear it." Do you? What good can it do them? And he answers me thus.
"Look at your text, Sir, and you will not need to ask me that question!
What does your text say?" "Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust
in the Lord." It is good to preach the Gospel, but it is better to
preach and sing the Gospel! I mean, dear Friends, that if you and I, in
our daily lives, were to sing the Gospel more–especially by a holy
cheerfulness of character–we would bring the Truth of God home to a
great many who now turn aside from it, and do not feel its power! Sing
of Christ your Lord! Proclaim His love to you! Proclaim how you were
converted! Tell how He brought you up out of the horrible pit, out of
the miry clay–and as you do it, others will long to experience the
same deliverance and so will be drawn to the Savior by your sweet
testimony to His Grace. There are many more flies caught with honey
than with vinegar and there are many more sinners brought to Christ by
the gracious tidings of His love than ever will be driven to Him by all
the threats of His Law. I do not know a better soul-trap than a happy
Christian experience! This will catch them–therefore be sure to use
it. Sing, sing, sing unto the Lord a new song! Sing His praise unto the
ends of the earth, for many will see it, and fear, and put their trust
in the Lord!

If I had come here, tonight, knowing that there were persons here that
were ailing, and were to say, "Now, listen. I will tell you how I
suffered from your same illness," you would be sure to attend to me.
And if I then mentioned a certain remedy, and said, "I took it and I
have experienced a very remarkable cure," you would listen with both
ears and you would ask, "Where is that remedy to be purchased?" You
would begin thinking whether you could get some of it tomorrow morning,
especially if you were very ill, yourselves, as I had been, and you
would go away thankful to think that you had met with someone who,
through his own experience, could guide you to a perfect cure!

Well now, that is exactly what I want you to do with regard to
yourselves, you who are sick of sin, and care, and fear, and grief. I,
too, as a youth, was sick of sin and I was made to feel it–and to
endure great grief on account of it. I sought to be delivered from it.
I gave up many things in which I had indulged and I hoped, by
self-denial, that I would come to peace. But I did not, I was as far
off as before I began! I said that I would very diligently attend the
means of Grace and I did so. Thrice on the Sabbath I was found
somewhere or other hearing the Word of God. But mere sermon-hearing
brings no peace. Then I said that I would read good books. How I
remember reading Alleine's Alarm and Doddridge's Rise and Progress, and
Baxter's Call to the Unconverted. And how they plowed me, and brought
tears into my eyes–but I found no rest to my soul by all the godly
books I read–the best that could be read. Whatever was proposed to me
that looked likely to bring me rest, I was eager to try. I was willing,
I am sure, to become a monk, or anything else beneath the sun that
would promise peace to my spirit, for I wanted to be right and longed
to be at peace with God.

At last, I found rest. The preacher pictured Christ upon the Cross,
bleeding for sinners. And he said, in his Lord's own words, "Look unto
Me and be you saved, all you ends of the earth." And I looked! It was
all I could do–it was all I was asked to do–I looked! It was but a
look, yet in that moment all my fears were ended, my doubts were
solved, my burden was removed, and I, too, could say, "He has put a new
song in my mouth. He brought me up out of an horrible pit, out of the
miry clay and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings."

Now, after trying and testing this salvation for a good many
years–well near on to forty–I have only this to say of it. It is a
simple salvation, but it is as sound as it is simple! It is fitted for
the poorest of us, but it is as enriching as it is suitable to our
poverty! The weakest may look to Jesus, but by looking he shall soon be
ranked among the strongest! He who is at death's door may look to Jesus
Crucified, but the life that look brings is life everlasting which
shall never die! There is the remedy and I have tried it! That is all I
can say to you except that I beg you to try it yourselves. Try it
yourselves! Look to Christ. Look to Christ! Trust Jesus, that is
all–trust, simply trust! It seems as if this could not be all, but it
is. You with the broken heart, trust! You with the heart that will not
break, trust to have it broken! You that are deeply penitent,
trust–not in your repentance, however–but in Christ! And you that can
not repent, but wish to repent, look to Christ for repentance!

Trust! Trust! Trust as the drowning man trusts to the life buoy, as the
shipwrecked mariners trust to the lifeboat. Trust! Trust in God
Almighty, Incarnate in the bleeding Man of Sorrows, for it is God that
hangs on the Cross in the body of the Nazarene. Trust in Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, and the Son of Mary–and as surely as He lives, as
surely as God lives, you shall live and live forever! Heaven and earth
may pass away, but that Word shall never pass away, "He that believes
on the Son has everlasting life." May you have it tonight! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM 33; 1 JOHN 1 .

Verse 1. Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous, for praise is comely for
the upright. False gods were worshipped with dolorous sounds,
accompanied by cutting with knives and with lances, but our God is the
happy God and He would have His people happy. "Rejoice in Jehovah, O
you righteous." The praises of God are very beautiful when they are
sung by holy people, "for praise is comely for the upright." But the
praises of God on the lips of godless men are altogether out of place.
I wonder how Christians can allow those to lead their praises in the
sanctuary who never can, from their hearts, praise God? They who sing
to the worldling all the week should not be employed to sing to the God
of the holy on the Sabbath! Surely, "Praise is comely for the upright."
Hymns and Psalms sung by the ungodly are but as sweet spices laid upon
a dunghill–but–"praise is comely for the upright."

2, 3. Praise the LORD with harps: sing unto Him with the psaltery and
an instrument of ten strings. Sing unto Him a new song; play skillfully
with a loud noise. Under a dispensation of types and shadows, the use
of musical instruments seemed to be necessary and suitable, but in the
early Christian Church, in her purest ages, these things were discarded
as tending towards Judaism. And at this day, the sweetest singing in
the world is heard in the assembly which utterly renounces the use of
every musical instrument! Yet I believe that there is Christian liberty
about these things and, for my part, I like to think of Luther with his
lute and of George Herbert with his harp. If they were helped to praise
God the better, let them have the music! Yet the singing is never
sweeter than when it is all song–and there is no better music than
that which comes from hearts and tongues that are alive–and that know
what sounds they make and why they make them. Anyhow, let us sing unto
Jehovah! Hang not your harps on the willows, suspend not your music!
Praise God somehow, praise Him anyway, but praise Him!

4. For the Word of the LORD is right. Praise Him for His Word, then. It
is truth, it is righteousness. If we had nothing else but the Bible for
which to praise God, there would be reason enough for giving Him
endless praise for bestowing upon us such a priceless treasure!

4. And all His works are done in truth. Praise Him for His Providence.
There is never a mistake in what He does– "All His works are done in
truth."

5. He loves righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the
goodness of the LORD. Therefore praise Him. So good a God should not be
without your gratitude.

6. By the Word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of
them by the breath of His mouth. Praise your Creator, then, the Maker
of the universe!

7-9. He gathers the waters of the sea together as an heap: He lays up
the depth in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the
inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke and it was
done; He commanded and it stood fast. These are simple but grand words!
The work of creation was very wonderful and it was all worked by the
Word of the Lord. There were no angelic agencies. "He spoke and it was
done; He commanded and it stood fast."

10. The LORD brings the counsel of the heathen to nothing. They plot
and they contrive, but He baffles them! Men may think and scheme as
they will, but God has His way, after all!

10, 11. He makes the devices of the people of no effect. The counsel of
the LORD stands forever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations.
His decrees stand fast. Jehovah still reigns and still He must reign
forever and ever.

12. Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom He
has chosen for His own inheritance. There is the reason why they are
blessed–it is all owing to God's electing love! "The people whom He
has chosen." If God has chosen them, they are blessed people, indeed!
Whom He determines to bless none can effectually curse.

13. The LORD looks from Heaven; He beholds all the sons of men. As we
look out of a window and see the people passing in the street below,
"He beholds all the sons of men," whether at the pole or at the
equator! None are hidden from His Omniscient eyes.

14. 13. From the place of His habitation He looks upon all the
inhabitants of the earth. He fashions their hearts alike. Not that
their hearts are alike, but it means that He only fashions all their
hearts–they were all made by Him. There is no understanding so great
but He made it and there is no mind so feeble but still He made it–

"He fashions their hearts."

13,16. He considers all their works. There is no king saved by the
multitude of an host. See what vast companies of soldiers Darius
gathered together, yet Alexander smote them–and Napoleon led into
Russia more than half a million of men, yet they melted away like snow!

16. A mighty man is not delivered by much strength. Sooner or later, he
dies, however strong he is.

17. A horse is a vain thing for safety. It throws its rider, or falls
upon him, or is killed with him.

17, 18. Neither shall he deliver any by his great strength. Behold, the
eye of the LORD is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His
mercy. Beautiful expression! I always like that mixture of fear and
hope. An old fisherman used to compare it to his net. "Fear," he said,
"is the weight that sinks it, and hope is the cork that floats it." To
make a perfect character, there must he both fear and hope! The man
that never fears may begin to fear, but he that is all fear is a
miserable creature. God help him to begin to hope!

19. To deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine.
When others die of want, the Lord will take care of them that fear Him.
I remember a story of the siege of Rochelle, when the city was in such
straits that the people had to eat cats, dogs, rats and all manner of
filthiness. There was one Christian woman, who, having some stores, fed
the poor therewith, whereat her friends said she was a fool, for she
would soon be starving. They asked, "Who is to take care of you when
all is gone?" She answered, "The Lord will provide for me." At last her
stores were exhausted. She went to beg from her friends, but they
refused her. She was nearly famished when, strange to tell (as we put
it), someone, unknown to her, shot down a sack full of wheat at her
door! She never knew who it was, and then she said to her friends, "God
has provided for me," and, while others died, she lived, for she had
practiced holy charity. She had feared God and given to her
neighbors–she had not selfishly hoarded what she had–and the Lord
rewarded her. Let me read these two verses again. "Behold, the eye of
the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy;
to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine."

20. Our soul waits for the LORD: He is our help and our shield. Notice
the three, "ours." Personal possession is the very soul of piety–all
else is mere verbiage. Not, "What do you hear?" but, "What do you
have?" Not, "What do you talk about?" but, "What do you possess?" That
is the thing–"Our soul waits for the Lord: He is our help and our
shield."

21. For our heart shall rejoice in Him because we have trusted in His
holy name. If you do but trust in His holy name, you shall, one day,
rejoice in Him. Trust Him in the dark and you shall see the Light of
God! Trust Him in famine and you shall surely be fed.

22. Let Your mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in You.
Let us each one pray that prayer now–"Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon
us, according as we hope in You." Amen. Now turn to the First Chapter
of the First Epistle of John, that you may see what an Apostle had to
say concerning joy.

1 John 1:1. That which was from the beginning which we have heard,
which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our
hands have handled, of the Word of Life. You know who that is, who it
is that John had heard, seen, looked upon and handled even Jesus
Christ, our Lord and Savior!

2, 3. (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear
witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the
Father, and was manifested unto us), that which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us and
truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
The Father delights in His risen Son, no more to suffer and to die,
having accomplished all His work. And I am sure that we have fellowship
with the Father in that rejoicing! Then think what is the joy of
Christ, who has passed through the shades of death, and risen from all
the gloom of the sepulcher no more to die! I trust, dear Brothers and
Sisters in Christ, that we have fellowship with Him, for we, also, have
risen with Him unto newness of life!

4. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
"There," the Apostle seems to say, "if you have doubts, they will kill
your joy. Doubt is a great joy-killer, but we have seen Him, we have
heard Him, we have handled Him who is the Fountain of all true joy! Let
no doubts come into your hearts, for these are well-attested facts of
which we speak. "We live still," says John–though, perhaps, when he
wrote, he may have been the last survivor of the eleven–"we live
still, by our testimony concerning Christ, to confirm your faith, that
your joy may be full."

5-7. This, then, is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare
unto you, that God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we
say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie, and
do not say the truth: but if we walk in the light, as He is in the
Light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus
Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. That is, if we walk in the
brightest light we can ever know, and if our fellowship with God is the
highest that can be enjoyed this side Heaven, we shall still need the
cleansing blood of Jesus and, blessed be God, we shall still have it
and we shall still find that it "cleanses us from all sin!''

8. If we say that we have no sin., we deceive ourselves, and the truth
is not in us. We are walking in darkness when we thus talk of light. It
is easy for a blind man to talk of light though he cannot see it and
there are some who boast of very superior light who, nevertheless, are
so much in the dark that they cannot even see their own sin.

9, 10. If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have
not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us. The Lord
bless to us the reading of his Word! Amen.