I have in review,

Confirms his good pleasure

To help me quite through.”

We will close this catalogue with one more choice mercy, for the prophet tells of God’s giving his people rest after all. He describes him first as leading them through the deeps like a horse in the wilderness, where the horse would not stumble. A horse on our stony streets or on rugged roads may stumble, but a horse out on the smooth expanse of desert sand is quite another creature, and he flies like the wind in ecstasy of freedom, fearing no fall. Thus the Lord has made his people to enjoy liberty and safe standing in an even place. The prophet next uses another figure: he says, “As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest.” This is an exceedingly delightful metaphor. As the cattle descend into the vales to feed under the shady trees, by the flowing brooks, so God makes his people to rest. Have you never seen the cattle and horses make their way to the stream in the heat of the day, and stand there knee deep in the water, merrily swinging their tails to chase away the flies, looking, as they lick their foals or calves, or drink long draughts of the pure liquid, so perfectly content with all around them that we may well conclude that they there find all the heaven which cattle can desire? Even so we that have believed, when we trust our God, when we rest in Jesus, leave the sun’s heat and find the cool brooks of the Spirit’s gracious influences, wherein we bathe ourselves, and rest in sweet content, for we that have believed do enter into rest. Jesus is our peace, and he hath given to us the peace of God which passeth all understanding, which doth keep our heart and mind through Jesus Christ.

What a catalogue have I laid before you. If you begin to sing according to this music score, when will you get to the end of it? Oh, prepare your voices, get your harps ready, let every string be well tuned. Here is noble music for you; music which will last you till you get to heaven, and then methinks you may go over it again, for what sweeter, nobler work shall you require than to make mention of the lovingkindnesses of the Lord?

But now we must turn to the second head. Isaiah calls our particular attention to certain points worthy of special mention.

And, first, in the text he directs our thoughts to the fact that whatever has been bestowed upon us by God reveals his lovingkindness, his goodness, his mercy, his compassion. In fact, all that we have received has come to us by the way of free grace. Do we need to be told this? I fear we do, but if our sense of our own unworthiness be clear, if we know what worse than nothings we are, what a mass of sin and corruption we are by nature, we shall never think that we receive anything from God by the way of merit. Still our proud hearts need to be told over and over again that all the blessings we enjoy come to us by the free and sovereign grace of God. Hence the prophet heaps up words. Notice them: “The lovingkindnesses of the Lord;” “the great goodness of the Lord;” the “mercies” of the Lord. O believer, nothing of all this goodness is deserved by thee. The bread on thy table is flavoured with grace; thy meat has mercy for its sauce. Every drop of water which cools thy tongue tastes of mercy. Charity clothes thee; infinite love feeds thee; and as for thy spiritual blessings, where are thy streams found, whence do they gush but from the inexhaustible fountain of eternal love? Let others boast, if they dare, of what they have done for themselves; let others talk of the dignity of human nature, let them glory in the worthiness of their own actions; God forbid that we should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the love which shone from that cross to such poor, unworthy ones as we are. Those are charming bells indeed, free grace and dying love. Through the ivory gate of grace all mercies come to sinners. Through this window of agates, this gate of carbuncles, every good gift is handed out to men. That is the first noticeable thing.

The next is the consequent praise which is due to God on account of this. Does he not say, “I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord and the praises of the Lord.” O praise the Lord, praise him for every mercy you possess. We ought to keep count of God’s goodness, keep account, I say, by rendering new notes of praise for each new favour; if we did this we should never leave off singing. We should never have time for complaining if we gave to God due praise for every mercy received. Oh for a praising heart; for a praising heart is a happy heart. The occupation of heaven should be the occupation of heavenly men, even while they are here. God help us to keep to this.

“I will praise thee every day

Now thine anger’s turned away.”

I will magnify thy name as long as I live, for as long as I live thy mercies magnify me.

The third thing to be noticed is the uniform nature of all God’s dealings with us. Observe, “according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us.” We are to praise God in all and for all. “In everything give thanks” is a Christian precept. I do not like, when I am looking back on my past life, to consider exclusively two or three remarkable mercies, and say, “I will bless the Lord for these.” No, I will bless him for my whole career. Did he take away my comforts? Did he send me that which I judged to be evil? Shall we pick and choose the subjects for our praise? Shall we bless the Lord who gives and not the Lord who takes? “The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away,” said Job, “and blessed be the name of the Lord.” Mention his providences altogether, for all things work for good. No man knows which is the best part of his life; perhaps that portion which we think to be the worst has been of the most service to us. God knows what is best for us. Let us praise him according to all that the Lord hath bestowed upon us, blessing him for bitters and sweets, for blacks and whites, for storms and calms, blessing him alike for all. That should be a special note in our song.

The next notable point is the grandeur of the goodness which is shown in every mercy. Observe the words, “the great goodness toward the house of Israel,” as if we had received no little goodness, but all was great goodness. Is there a favour that we enjoy from God which we can dare to despise? Ingratitude makes little of much, but gratitude sees much in little. Whatever comes to us is great goodness. But oh, beloved, we need not continue to talk about it, for surely upon the very surface we can see the great goodness of electing love, the great goodness of redeeming love, the great goodness of converting love, the great goodness of pardoning love, the great goodness of upholding love, the great goodness of sanctifying love, the great goodness which has sent a Saviour to prepare heaven for us, and the great goodness which is preparing us that we may enter into the heaven. God’s goodness is all great; nothing little comes from our gracious God. O great sinner, is there not a gleam of hope for you in this? A great God full of great mercies for a great sinner. Why, that is the very God you want. Fly to him by the way of the great Saviour!

Yet again, we ought to take peculiar note in our song of the condescending tenderness and pity of God, for such is the force of the next expression, “which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies,”-a clearer rendering would be “according to his compassion.” You know a man may be very good to another, but he may not be tender. There is a way of pitching a shilling to a beggar in the street just as if he were a dog; God never gives his mercies to us in that way. A doctor may cure us, but be so rough about it that we may be glad to get rid of him, but the Lord heals lovingly and tenderly. I have often said in this place, and I venture to repeat it, that I do not know any word in any language which can be compared with that word “lovingkindness.” Thank God, we are Anglo-Saxons, and therefore can say-“lovingkindness.” Unrivalled word! It is marrow and fatness. Lovingkindness! What a mouthful it is! How it seems to sweeten the soul as it goes down. The Lord has always dealt graciously with us. He has been as tender as a nurse with her child. He has given us the mercy suitable to our condition. When he has been teaching us he has not taught us too much at once, but little by little as we have been able to bear it, for he knows our frame. He screens off strong light from weak eyes, he feeds the famished with food convenient. We received the gospel at first not in the glory of its sublime doctrines but in the simplicity of the plainer truths. With tenderness did God instruct us, and in every other part of his dealing towards us the like tenderness is seen wherein he hath abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence. For this we extol him.

One other special note demands to be heard, and that is the multitudinous displays of his love. “According to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses,” of all shapes, and at all times, and in all ways, and from all points of the compass. “The multitude of his lovingkindnesses.” Now I am lost. I cannot call in the arithmetician, it is not possible for him to calculate here. Sometimes we have before us a long line of figures which must be multiplied, and the brain aches in the very attempt, but you shall never calculate the multitude of the Lord’s tender mercies-this is an endless task. Look over the fields in spring when they are covered with the yellow kingcups and white daisies, and green grass in abundance till the meadows look as though God had spread a field of the cloth of gold for a celestial coronation. Count these flowers if you can, tell their petals, and their leaves, and the blades of the green grass, and the drops of dew which hang upon them; then look upwards to the trees, count the myriad leaves which make the forest; detain the dust which stirs in the summer’s gale, count all the grains which make the mountains, all the sands which form the sea-shore, and all the drops which compose the sea; have you done? Ah, then, you have but begun to estimate the multitude of the lovingkindnesses of the Lord. O, my soul, bless thou the Lord! Why be silent?

“Why should the mercies he has wrought

Be lost in silence and forgot?”

Break forth, my spirit, break forth my whole nature; all that is within me be stirred up to magnify and bless his holy name; for he is God, and his mercies are unsearchable, past finding out are his favours. Glory be unto his name!

We close after occupying two or three minutes in hinting at the practical reasons why we should thus mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord.

First, we should do this that we may have pleas in prayer. This is the best way of praying. “Lord, thou hast done this for thy servant, thou hast done that for thy servant, therefore I beseech thee do more.” This is not after the manner of men, for when we once relieve a man’s necessities we say to him, “Do not come again;” but every gift which God gives is an invitation to come again, and the best way in which we can show our gratitude is to seek for further gifts.

“The best return for one like me,

So wretched and so poor,

Is from his gifts to draw a plea,

And ask him still for more.”

You will pray well when you can mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord.

Next, these memories will act as stays to your faith. When you grow doubting and troubled, and I suppose you do sometimes, then you can remember the Lord’s former favours; and since he cannot change, you will be confident that he will do the like again. Oh, rest ye in him; of what he has been to you he will be to the end. As long as the world standeth trust ye him, and he will bring your desires to pass.

Then, next, these remembered mercies will minister to your present happiness and comfort. The thought of what God has done for us is enough to make us happy now. If the Lord were not to give me another mercy, I am bound to praise him for what he has given me already. Blessed be his name, since first I stood a beggar at his door, and he stayed my soul’s hunger with himself, and gave me his own flesh to eat, and blood to drink, the sacred nutriment of my hungry spirit, I scarce have been able to ask for anything before it has come to me. O Lord, thou dost daily load us with benefits till we sink under the burden of obligation, and yet we are so happy.

The thought of all this, dear brethren, would have the other practical influence of making us love God more, and obey him better. Duty becomes pleasure when gratitude rules the hour.

“’Tis love that makes our willing feet

In swift obedience move.”

Has he done so much for me; then what is there that I could not do for him if his grace would help me?

To mention the Lord’s goodness enables us, dear friends, to cheer others, for when we make mention of the lovingkindnesses of God to ourselves we do not know who may be standing by. There may be some mourner there for whom the gates of consolation have been closed for long, but when he hears what God has done for one of his people, he plucks up heart and says, “I will even see whether he would not do the like for me.” Tell of God’s lovingkindness, be not slow in speech about these things, this will render your conversation such as becomes an heir of heaven. Do you not use much idle talk? I am afraid we all do. Do you not often complain when there is nothing to complain of? Do you not murmur? Are you not far too ready to break forth in words of lamentation? Waste not your breath on such base uses, but consecrate it all to praise. Tell what his hand hath given, what his lip hath spoken. Tell how he has blessed you with countless mercies, and it will make the daughters of despondency rejoice, and the sons of mourning lift up their heads.

Last of all, make mention of the lovingkindnesses of God, because it will glorify him, and this should always be your master motive. The Christian lives to honour his God. Oh tell what the Lord has done, that men may praise him. The sons of men are apt enough to forget him; keep them in remembrance of him. They are apt enough to speak hard things concerning him; tell them of his lovingkindnesses, and make them know what a good master he is whom you serve. Din it into their ears, make them hear it, tell them again and again and again of the great goodness of the Lord to you. Can you give me any reason why you should not mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord? Can you tell me any company in which you ought to be in which you could not mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord? I know some persons who ride hobbies, and you cannot be long with them before they will introduce them. They may be very inappropriate but somehow or other they bring the conversation round to their favourite theme. I would have you ride this hobby without fear. Rather I would have you take this noble steed and ride it through all companies; make them feel that it is your manner and habit to tell of God’s goodness, and that you cannot help it. Bring it in somehow. Methinks you never need be short of reasons for praise. Tell men of his goodness in sending the cool wind in this hot summer, or tell them of his goodness in sending the heat to ripen the harvest; tell them of his mercy which sends the rain that the grass may spring up again, or of his love which withholds the rain till the reapers’ work is done. If all this congregation went out to-day to tell of the lovingkindness of the Lord towards his people, we should have such gospel preaching throughout all London as was never known before. The Lord rinse your mouths out, brethren, if you have a bitter way of talking about other people, or about his providence, and lead you henceforth to glory in his holy name. Amen and Amen.

Portion of Scripture read before Sermon-Psalm 106

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-78, 152, 224.

Mr. Spurgeon tenders his earnest thanks to many Sermon readers who have most kindly sent him help towards his College Buildings. He still needs about £5,000 to complete the work, and if all who have profited by the Sermons will do as a generous few have done, the amount will soon be raised. Mr. Spurgeon will personally acknowledge all amounts sent to him at Nightingale-lane, Clapham.