This was a prayer of David. It was offered under peculiar circumstances. He had been treacherously betrayed again and again. He delivered the city of Keilah from the Philistines, and then had to flee from the place, or the men of Keilah would have delivered him up to his enemy Saul. He went to the wilderness of Ziph, and the men of Ziph at once ran to Saul to betray him. Doeg was present when David received some help from Ahimelech the priest, and he set off straightway to inform the king. Everyone seemed to act treacherously with David while he was in his state of wandering. He therefore turned away altogether from men in whom he could put no confidence, and he cried, “Help, Lord.”

Let us spend a few minutes, first of all, in remarks upon the prayer itself; then let us offer a few suggestions as to when it may be used; and close up with some encouragement to expect an answer.

That which strikes you at once is its shortness: “Help, Lord.” Two words, and one of these is rather the direction of the prayer than the prayer itself. It is the very soul of brevity: “Help, Lord.” I may, however, say that it is none too short for all that, for there is a fulness and suggestiveness in it which could not readily be exhausted. It is no fault in our prayers if they be short; and I think, in our public petitions, especially at prayer-meetings, it is a virtue to be aimed at to be brief. Mr. Jay says, with regard to his sermons, that he knew there were some excellences which would cost him much pains to attain; “but,” said he, “there was one I knew to be within my reach, namely, brevity, and therefore I made not the sermon too long.” Praying, indeed, being a more spiritual exercise than even preaching, must not be protracted. It is remarkable, if you remember, that Joshua’s arm never grew weary while he was fighting the Amalekites, but Moses’ hands grew weary while he was up on the mountain in prayer; because prayer is a more spiritual exercise than fighting, and, consequently, the spirit being our weaker part, we feel the weakness the sooner there. Let us not then pray our members into a good frame, and then pray them out again; but when we have expressed our desires with that fewness of words which is proper in the presence of God, let us close our supplications, and let some other brother take up the note. This is a short prayer.

Do you not see, dear friends, that those of you who have been saying, “We do not pray because we have not time,” are guilty of great falsehood? It cannot be want of time. “Help, Lord.” Why, it takes scarcely a second to offer such a prayer as that. It is not want of time; it is want of heart, and want of inclination. People talk about praying as though they wanted an hour to pray every morning and every night. I grant you it would be a very blessed thing if we could get the hour. I wish that, like the Puritans, we could always get an hour for devotion every morning, and likewise at evening; but this is not absolutely necessary. You working men must not say, “We cannot pray because we have not time.” Why, in your work, in the midst of your goings to and fro, if God has given you the heart of prayer, you will be lifting up your soul to God. I think it is a good thing to have some small change of prayer about you. I compare this prayer to our small change. It has been said of some great men that they could not talk in company; when they got upon their feet, and had a prepared discourse, they could speak very much to edification, but in general society they could not edify anyone. Someone said they had gold, but it was all in bullion: it was not minted; they could not put it into shape so that it might be current in society. Well now, we must have the bullion of prayer, so as to be able to wrestle with God by the hour together if needful; but to have the minted small change of ejaculatory prayer, to send a thought up to heaven,-the glance of an eye, a tear-bedewed word to let drop before the throne,-that also is well. I invite you to adopt the prayer, brief as it is, and use it to-night, to-morrow, all your days: “Help, Lord.”

Besides being very short, it was very seasonable. It is well to have seasonable prayer, for those prayers speed best that spring out of an emergency which, as with a fair wind, drives the soul to the throne. The worst of those forms of prayer which are of merely human composition, I think, is that they are very much like those ready-made clothes which we see exposed for sale; they are intended to fit everybody, and yet rarely do they fit anybody. Forms of prayer must, from the necessity of the case, be unseasonable. That is the best prayer which draws its adaptation from my present circumstances, its intensity from my present feelings, and its aspiration from my present faith, so that it makes me cry in just such language, and plead just such promises that I could not plead any other, I could not wish for any other, I could not ask in any other style than I now do. That is a seasonable prayer. David, you see, had been betrayed, deceived; he had met with flattering lips and deceitful hearts. He found all men in his day gone aside from rectitude, and so he turned right away from these broken cisterns that were leaking at every point to cry to the great Fountain that he might have a draught from the cooling stream. “ ‘Help, Lord!’ men will not help me. I am reduced to an extreme so far as the creature is concerned. Now is thy turn, O Thou gracious One! Put out thy mighty arm now that man’s puny arm is broken. ‘Help, Lord!’ Help, I pray thee!”

How distinct this prayer is! There are many, many prayers that one has heard, and when uttered, you could not say what had been asked. If anyone should ask you, “What has that brother been praying for?” you would think, and say, “I really do not know; he has said, ‘Lord, bless us!’ but what particular blessing he desired, I was not able to make out.” Many of our dear brethren edify us with an account of their experience, and with a little exposition of the doctrines of grace, very edifying and proper in any other shape, but as a prayer terribly out of place. The Lord knows your experience, he knows the doctrines of grace, and does not need you to inform him upon those matters. This prayer is to the point, “Help, Lord.” The man know what he wants, and he asks for it. He does not ask wealth, health, long life; he wants help. He has come to a dead lift, and he cannot lift his burden, and he cries, “Help, Lord.” It is one word, but that one word goes straight at once to the mark. What a mercy it is to be able to pray pointed prayers! David said, “In the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee.” Now, according to some scholars, the Hebrew there is, “I will marshal up my prayers.” “As the sergeant sets the soldiers in a row when he is about to drill them, and marshals them, and as the commander-in-chief forms them into battalions, and so on, even so will I set my desires in proper order, and marshal them in battalions before the mercy-seat, that I may show that I am not uttering the crude, undigested thoughts of a careless mind, taking solemn words upon a thoughtless tongue; but that I am speaking to God that which has caused me thought, which fills me with emotions still, and comes from my soul with an intent and a desire, myself knowing what that intent and desire may be.” Oh, let us stand fast in prayer to direct petitions,-short, but seasonable and direct!

We have something else to say of it,-it is rightly aimed. The psalmist evidently looked straight up to God; he says, “Help, Lord.” It is no roundabout way of praying. It is no crying, “Help, ye saints, and intercede for me! Blessed Virgin, plead for me!” It is, “Help, Lord.” Straight to the throne he goes. There is no knocking at the doors of second causes and human helps. “Straightforward makes the best runner.” He runs immediately to his God; there is no beating of the bush to ask that he may have providential assistance, or that a friend may be raised up for him, or that in some way he may be delivered; but it is this, “Lord, I leave all the rest to thee; only do thou thyself come and undertake my cause. Put thine arm where the weight is. Put thy shoulder to the wheel. This surpasses my power, and I turn entirely from all creatures to thyself. ‘Help, Lord.’ ” It is a well-aimed prayer. He knew to whom he was speaking, to One full of love and faithfulness, and strength and wisdom, and so he said at once, “Help, Lord.”

Nor can you fail to observe that this prayer has in it a confession of weakness. A man does not cry for help-at least, a man with such a heart as David had, does not cry for help-unless he wants it. Shall I ask of God for that which I already have? No, a sense of need makes me pray. David has been striving with all his might, but he finds his strength inadequate to the task; he has been looking about for help everywhere, but he finds there is no help, and, sensible of his own utter nothingness and vanity, he turns at once to God. It is well when prayer is steeped in the oil of repentance, when it is dipped in a sense of need. No prayer speeds so well with God as that which comes with an empty hand before the throne. If ye bring your pitchers full, ye shall take them away empty; but if ye bring your pitchers empty, ye shall take them away full. “He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.” Lord, help me always to come as an empty-handed beggar to the throne of thy mercy, that I may go away as a full-handed rejoicing saint!

And yet, with a confession of weakness, I think there is here also a resolution to exert oneself. The very word “Help” seems to imply that he did not expect to sit still, and do nothing. In the matter of our own personal salvation, all the work is done for us by the Lord Jesus Christ, “it is finished;” but in the matter of Christian service and Christian, labour, it is not done for us. We are expected, having the new life within, to set about working out our own salvation “with fear and trembling.” He who has saved us expects us to run the race as pilgrims, to fight the fight as warriors, to plough the fields as husbandmen, to build the walls as labourers together wife God, and to work in general for him in all sorts of ways. Now, if I cry, “Help, Lord!” that means that I intend to exert myself. You have no right to sit down, and say, “Lord, help me,” and not go out to seek work. He will help you,-yes, help you into the jail or workhouse, but no other kind of help will you get. You have no right, when you have a besetting sin, to fold your arms, and say, “Well, I hope the Lord will help me to overcome it.” He will help you, but remember the old proverb, for it is true, “He helps those that help themselves.” When he has taught you to smite with your sword against sin, then he will smite too. He works with you, he works in you to will and to do. He does not work in us to sleep and to slumber after our own carnal propensity, but he works in us “to will and to do of his own good pleasure.” We hold not with salvation by works, but we do hold with works by salvation. We know that works cannot save, but we know that a man being saved produces good works. When I pray, then, “Lord, help! Help, Lord!” it is implied that, if it be a case where I can do anything in the service of God, I shall put the strength which he has given me into active exercise, and then lean upon him.

There are some articles of merchandise, of which we are told on the label that they will keep in all climates, and will be useful at all times. I think I may say the same of my prayer. This prayer is a sword of two edges; it is an article that can be used for a thousand different things. It is a most handy prayer. It turns every way. You may use it in all cases, at all times. Let us take one or two.

Temporal circumstances may involve you in difficulty. I suppose, beloved, there are many of you who are often in trouble with regard to providence. You work and do your best to provide things honest in the sight of all men. But no one can foresee crushing misfortunes. Sometimes employment fails, and at another time the roguery of others may bring you down from competence to poverty. Sometimes sickness may fall upon you, and you may be disabled. In a thousand ways you may be brought to feel that you need help in providential matters. Now, dear friend, you may have been to-day trudging all over the city looking for a friend, and you have written letters, and you have gone to all you know, and you are getting pretty nearly to the end of all your earthly hopes. I suggest that, before you leave this sanctuary, you pray this prayer, “Help, Lord.” Use it, appropriate it, expand it according to your faith and your feelings, somewhat thus,-“Help, Lord. Thou didst feed thy servant Elijah by ravens, and thou madest the widow’s cruse of oil and handful of meal to last. ‘Help, Lord.’ I do not expect a miracle, but I expect the same help which a miracle would bring me, and expect it in the ordinary course of providence. If thou dost not put thy hand out of heaven to help me, thou wilt assist me by some ordinary means which would not, however, have been available if thou hadst not so arranged it. ‘Help, Lord.’ ” It really is marvellous, and most of our lives will prove it, how good the Lord is at a pinch. Just when you have said, “Now it is all over with me,” then it is that the Lord has appeared for your deliverance. When your hopes have been like Lazarus in the grave, not only dead, but something more, for Martha said, “Lord, by this time he stinketh; for he hath been dead four days;” yet even then, when Christ has appeared, there has been a resurrection to your circumstances and your comforts, and you have again been able to rejoice.

Some of you are students of Scripture. Your difficulties are not pecuniary ones. You turn over, day by day, this precious Book, and it is your desire to understand it; but you are vexed with certain perplexities. There are things in it which are hard to be understood, and you want to arrive at definite, distinct truth, to know true knowledge. Let me suggest to you, dear brother, that when you have studied the Scripture anxiously and carefully, and sought out the opinions and judgments of good and gracious men who were taught of God, that you should never forget to add to all this the prayer, “Help, Lord; help, Lord.” There is more got out of the Bible by praying than by anything else. When a certain Puritan had a dispute upon matters of doctrine with another, he was observed to speak very fluently and with great power. While his opponent spoke, he was observed taking notes, and one desired to see his notes, and what think you were they? They were just those words, “More light, Lord! More light, Lord! More light, Lord!” That is the best way of taking notes, a cry for more light! On a sudden, that very text of Scripture, which seemed as hard as a flint, will fly open by a touch of the Holy Spirit’s finger when you have said in prayer, “Help, Lord.”

This prayer will well suit those who are engaged in inward conflicts. I have heard of some Christians who do not believe in inward conflicts. Brother, take care lest you have to prove them beyond all other men. I heard to-day something which reminds me of how different our experience is at one time from what it is at another. A dear servant of the Lord was good Mr. Harrington Evans,-perhaps a very model preacher, one who spoke very sweetly of Christ. A brother was telling me to-day that he remembers hearing Mr. Evans say that he hardly liked a Christian to pray, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Said he, “I do not like it. The saint is forgiven. I know he does sin, still he is thoroughly forgiven, and there is a kind of clank of the chain about the prayer, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’ ” “Yet,” said my informant, “if I am not mistaken, on Mr. Evans’ tombstone are those words, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’ ” So that what he thought was a clank of the chain once, he came to look upon as being a most precious and comfortable prayer after all. And some of our brethren do get at times a little top-lofty, and they say, “I do not make confession of sin.” More’s the pity, brother; you are making a birch for your own back; you will have it before long, depend upon it. There is no position for the child of God so safe, so Scriptural, so true, as that of still clinging to Jesus as you did at the first, still mourning for sin and rejoicing in the atonement made for you as a sinner. I must confess that I cannot ordinarily get that comfort by drawing near as a saint which I can get by coming to Christ as a sinner. My evidences often fail me, and when they do, I give up all seeking after them, and go straight away, without any evidences, to Christ over again as the sinner’s Saviour, and find fresh joy and peace in believing. May we be kept in such a frame of mind as that!

How many of you are exercised with conflicts to-night! You do not know which will get the upper hand, good or evil. There is conflict and combat going on within, as though a pitched battle were being fought there. The soil of your heart is torn up by the prancings of the horse-hoofs of the enemy. You think, “I shall surely perish after all.” Brother, sister, in your time of conflict, here is a prayer for you, “ ‘Help, Lord; help, Lord.’ Help the new-born babe to conquer the old man! Help the vital spark to keep its flame alive, now that floods are poured out against it! Let not the dragon swallow up the man-child! ‘Help, Lord.’ Help! ‘O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’ Help thou me, Lord, and I will yet sing, ‘I thank God, through Jesus Christ, my Lord.’ ”

Will not this prayer suit those of you who are just now desirous to honour God in your sufferings? You have lately fallen into sickness, you have to be much on your bed, and you are afraid that you will get impatient. I know aged persons are sometimes troubled with the fear that, if they should be long living in infirmity, they might get peevish and petulant; doubtless it is the vice of old age. Well, at such a crisis, dear friends, whether aged or young, this prayer will suit you, “ ‘Help, Lord; help, Lord.’ Help me if my pains multiply. Help me!” This is a prayer for dying saints at the stake. How often it has sprung from their lips! When the flames have leaped up upon them, they have prayed, “ ‘Help, Lord.’ Help me to burn! Help me to be faithful Suffer me not to turn aside from my Master! ‘Help, Lord.’ Now I have more to suffer than the creature can bear, sustain me, Lord!”

Not less meet is this prayer for those of you who are not suffering, but working. Most of us, I hope, are workers for Christ. And why should we ever go out to our work without the prayer, “Help, Lord”? And when we are in it, we cannot expect to prosper except the desire be still coming up, “Help, Lord.” And when we have done the work, it is a sweet evening’s prayer with which to close the day, “ ‘Help, Lord.’ Make my work to stand. ‘Help, Lord.’ ” I give this prayer to you, my brethren in the church, elders and youngers, overseers and deacons; to you, brothers and sisters, who teach the young of this flock; to you who are toiling in our classes; to you who preach in the streets, or go from place to place proclaiming the Word. Be this your prayer henceforth, “ ‘Help, Lord;’ help us to declare the gospel faithfully and fully, and to be the means of bringing souls to thyself.”

Indeed I do not know where this prayer would not be suitable. There is Mary just going out to a new situation, leaving her mother’s roof; and she is thinking, “Now I do not know who my master may be, but I am a Christian, and I hope I may be able as a servant to show what Christianity is.” I am glad, Mary, you have got that wish. Now pray before you go into that new situation: “ ‘Help, Lord.’ Help! I have not been all I ought to be. I have not always honoured my Lord and Master; but now do thou help me to ‘adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.’ ” And there is a dear brother, perhaps, very young, who is just entering upon a new sphere of labour. It is labour new to him; his heart is in it, but still he does not quite understand it, and he wants to do it so that God may be glorified. Well then, brother, do not go out of the door till you have said, “Lord, help. Help, Lord, and sustain me!”

And this is a prayer, I think, that we must take up, all together, in these days when Romanism is coming back all over the land. “In these perilous times, when the false prophets and the magicians are abroad seeking to entrap men with their gaudy ceremonies and their sumptuous shows, it is for us to protest and to preach the Word; but help, thou God of Luther! Help us to deal a death-blow to the dragon! Help, thou God of Calvin! Help us to unfurl the banner of the gospel once again! Help us, thou God of Zwingle, to stand steadfast in the day of trial! ‘Help, Lord.’ It is only thy right arm that can save England from once again being under the hoof of the Pope of Rome. Come thou, and deliver thy saints in this their day of trial. ‘Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.’ ”

By way of encouragement to expect an answer, let me now address you a few closing words.

“Help, Lord.” We may expect that he will do so in the future, because he has done so in the past. You remember your conversion.

“Many days have pass’d since then,

Many changes I have seen;

Yet have been upheld till now:

Who could hold me up but thou?”

You have had much help, dear friend. Were you to write your history, could you recollect all the interpositions of divine providence, and put them down, it would make a strange story. So I sometimes think with regard to myself; yet I am not sure that it would, for I suppose our story would be very much alike. We have all had to say of the goodness and mercy of God, “By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation.” We have had judgment like a sentence of death in ourselves, but we have had deliverance like life from the dead. There have been drops of wormwood, but there have been seas of milk and honey. Our souls have to raise an Ebenezer here, and we expect to raise one more on Jordan’s shore, and to the last to sing, “Surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life.” I know what the devil tells you. He is telling you that you have got into an extraordinary position now, and that, though God helped you before, yet this is a new trial, a wilderness where there is no way. Well, then, “His mercies are new every morning.” In new straits you shall have new mercies. Our God is the same “yesterday, and to-day, and for ever,” but the phases of his mercy are as numerous as the phases of our grief. He has helped you, so go to him, and he will help you again.

Take this thought to console and to comfort you; his relationship as a covenant God to you as a sincere Christian, necessitates his helping you. You have a child; that child is up to his neck in the mire, and he will soon be swallowed up alive in the bog; but he cries, “Father, father, help!” Now, some passer-by, who had a brutal heart, might be regardless of the cry; but you are his father, you cannot resist his cry, “What! not help my child?” Why, every man here feels that I should insult his manhood with the supposition that he could leave his child to perish when he might help him. No, you would fly as on the wings of love to help your child. If we, being evil, would help our children, how much more shall our Father, who is in heaven, help us!

Moreover, he is related to us in another relationship. “Thy Maker is thy Husband.” Let any husband here imagine his wife to be in distress, and she looks him in the face, and says, “My husband, it is a time of emergency, my heart is breaking, help me.” Would she have to ask twice? Not of those of us who have learned the word, “Husbands, love your wives;” and surely God is the best of husbands; and if our heart can but feel the marriage-bond between our souls and Christ, we need not fear but that he will respond to our tears and to our cries. He will say, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God.” “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee: and through the rivers; they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” I might enlarge on this thought, but you can think it out for yourselves. God’s relationships necessitate that he should help us.

All the attributes of God are involved, because they are pledged to the help of his people. Suppose he did not help them, then the enemy would say that he could not. That would be a reflection on his power. Or the foe would say that he would not. That would be an imputation on his love; and, considering his promise, it would be a stain upon his truth. He himself has brought us into our present condition, and if he doth not deliver us out of it, then that would be a stain upon his wisdom, and the enemy would say that he steered the ship where he could not manage it. But that could never be, so trust him and fear not. Thy life is secure. He will preserve his children to the end.

But, beloved, God will help us; we have the promise he has given. It is very beautiful to notice this in the Scriptures: when you get a prayer in one chapter, you get a promise in the next, which is the very counterpart of the prayer. I may say that the promise is the type, and the prayer is very often the copy printed off that type. Listen to this, “Help, Lord.” Then hearken to this, “I will help thee.” You know there is such a promise as this, “I will help thee.” You say, “Help, Lord,” and he says, “I will help thee.” Do you believe your God, Christian? “I will help thee.” Do you believe him? You dare not disbelieve him. Well, then, lift up your head, brush away those tears, let those heavy hands again be exalted, let that dull heart of thine begin to sing. You have asked for help, and he has promised to give it. The thing is done. Go your way; rejoice in your God, and remember how he has said, “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”

All this I have spoken to Christians, but there would be plenty of room and opportunity, if we had the time, to put this prayer into the lips of the sinner too. In many respects it suits the sinner. “ ‘Help, Lord;’ I have a load of sin, take it from me. ‘Help, Lord;’ I have a hard, stubborn heart, melt it. ‘Help, Lord;’ I am blind, I am lame, I am sick; here I lie at mercy’s gate, ‘Help, Lord.’ ” O sinner, if thou canst only pray this prayer from the bottom of thy soul, and present it through the blood of Jesus Christ, thou shalt have help. I pray thee, do not go to bed to-night, do not shut those eyes of thine in slumber, till from thy heart thou hast uttered this prayer, “Help, Lord; help, Lord;” and every morning rise with it, and every night retire with it, till thou shat have the answer. And then when you have got the answer, you may still go on and plead it in another shape, and in another form; even in the hour of death you may still plead it, “Help, Lord.” When the river Jordan swells up to your chin, you may still say, “Help, Lord.” Till you get up to the throne, and even there I was about to say, one might say, “Now, Lord, I do not want help any longer, except it be to praise thee. Oh, help me to extol thee, to magnify thee! Give me more and more the seraph’s fire, the angel’s tongue. Help me to hymn Messiah’s name, and praise the splendour of his grace, world without end.” I leave you, then, with the prayer, “Help, Lord;” may the Lord help you, for Jesus’ sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

PSALM 18

Verses 1-3. I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.

At first he says, “I will love thee;” then, “I will trust thee;” now he says, “I will call upon thee;” and that calling upon God is specially in the sense of praising him; and when you have just experienced a divine deliverance, how full your spirit is of sacred gratitude!

4-7. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.

God was angry with Saul and with all David’s persecutors because they hunted that good man like a partridge upon the mountains. The prayer of the poor suppliant called down the anger of God upon his adversaries.

8. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.

This is a wonderful picture of the anger of God. The Hebrews always connected manifestations of anger with the nose and mouth just as they ascribed various passions and feelings to the different members of the body. So David says, “There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured.” Does someone ask, “Can prayer move God in this way?” Yes, it seems so. Of course, David had to speak after the manner of men; there is no other way in which men can speak, so he describes God as being thus stirred by the cry of his poor child when it came up into his ears. Nothing brings a man’s temper into his face like an injury done to his child; and God, as a father, cannot endure to have his children hurt. “He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.”

9, 10. He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.

So quick is God to come to the deliverance of his persecuted people.

11-13. He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.

Behold the dread artillery of heaven as God turns his terrible guns against the enemies of his people, and pours out hot shot from his lofty bastion: “hail stones and coals of fire.”

14, 15. Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them. Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.

The psalmist is evidently describing the passage of the Red Sea, and likening the descent of God to his individual help to that memorable descent of God to the rescue of his entire people. And, indeed, God is as great in his help to one as in his help to all; he is never little. When God helps you, my brother, he is a great God, and greatly to be praised, as greatly so as when he comes to the rescue of an entire nation. Therefore sing unto the Lord, whose arm is lifted up for you, even for you, as truly as it was lifted up for Israel when he brought them out of Egypt “with a strong hand, and with a stretched-out arm, and with great terror.”

16. He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters.*

The Lord made another Moses of him. Pharaoh’s daughter gave the name of Moses, that is, one drawn out, to the child who was brought to her, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

17. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me.

Is that the reason why God interposed on David’s behalf? Then let all his weak children find comfort in the fact that, when our enemies are too strong for us, God will come and deliver us. Let us be thankful for burdens that are too heavy for us to bear, and cast them upon the almighty shoulders that can easily sustain them. If we could do without God, we should do without God; but as we cannot, God will come to us, and help and deliver us.

18, 19. They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the Lord was my stay. He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

What a sense of divine love God’s gracious deliverance brings! Perhaps David would never have known how greatly God delighted in him if he had not been in such dire distress, and had not had such a great deliverance.

20-24. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me. I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity. Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.

If God gives you grace to be honest, and upright, and true, and steadfast in the time of temptation, you may be quite sure that he will deliver you; in fact, he has already wrought the greater part of your deliverance in thus keeping you from sin. The worst thing that a trouble can do for a Christian man is to carry him off his feet, and make him forsake his integrity.

25-27. With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright; with the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward. For thou wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down high looks.

If your faith cannot endure testing and trying, it is but poor faith. It will not do to die with if it will not do to live with. But if you cry to the Lord, and he enables you in the time of your distress to be faithful to him, then he will certainly give you deliverance sooner or later.

28-30. For thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. For by thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall. As for God, his way is perfect:

If you practise self-reliance, but not God-reliance, you will be sure to fail. What poor strength that is which does not come from God! Is it worthy of the name of strength at all? Is it not impotence and impudence combined? May God keep us from imagining that we can do anything apart from him! At the same time, may his gracious Spirit work in us the sure confidence that we can do everything he bids us do when he is our Helper! David had that confidence, for he goes on to sing,-

30-37. The word of the Lord is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him. For who is God save the Lord? or who is a rock save our God? It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect. He maketh my feet like hinds’ feet, and setteth me upon my high places. He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms. Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great. Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip. I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them: neither did I turn again till they were consumed.

Remember that this is a soldier’s song,-a song under the old covenant when men might fight as they may not fight now. We must, therefore, spiritualize this ancient war-song as we read it.

38-45. I have wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are fallen under my feet. For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle: thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me. Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies; that I might destroy them that hate me. They cried, but there was none to save them: even unto the Lord, but he answered them not. Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets. Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people; and thou hast made me the head of the heathen: a people whom I have not known shall serve me. As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me. The strangers shall fade away, and be afraid out of their close places.

So it came to pass that the Philistines were afraid of David, and he delivered his people from the attacks of all invaders, and brought them that blessed peace which Solomon enjoyed with them.

46-50. The Lord liveth; and blessed be my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted. It is God that avengeth me, and subdueth the people under me. He delivereth me from mine enemies: yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me: thou hast delivered me from the violent man. Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name. Great deliverance giveth he to his king; and sheweth mercy to his anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore.

NEEDLESS FEARS

A Sermon

Published on Thursday, June 25th, 1908,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Thursday Evening, June 11th, 1874.

“Who art thou that … hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?”-Isaiah 51:12, 13.

Objects often influence us out of proportion to their value because of their nearness. For instance, the moon is a very small insignificant body compared with the sun, yet it has far more influence over the tides and many other matters in the world than the sun has, simply because it is so much nearer to the earth than the sun is. The life that is to come is infinitely more important than the life that now is, and I hope that, in our inmost hearts, we reckon that the things that are seen and temporal are mere trifles compared with the things which are not seen and eternal; yet it often happens that the less important matters have a greater influence over us than those which are far more important, simply because the things of earth are so much nearer to us. Heaven is infinitely more to be desired than any joy of earth, yet it seems far off, and hence these fleeting joys may give us greater present comfort. The wrath of God is far more to be dreaded than the anger of man, yet sometimes a frown or a rebuke from a fellow-creature will have more effect upon our minds than the thought of the anger of God. This is because the one appears to be remote, while, being in this body, we are so near to the other. Now, beloved, it will sometimes happen that a matter, which is scarcely worthy of the thought of an immortal spirit, will fret and worry us from day to day. There is some oppressor, as the text puts it, whom we dread and fear continually, yet we forget the almighty God, who is on our side, who is stronger than all the oppressors who have ever lived, and who has all people and all things under his control. The reason why we act thus is because we think of God as if he were far off, while we can see the oppressor with our eyes, and we can hear with our ears his threatening words. I want, at this time, to be the means in the hands of God of turning the thoughts of his people away from the distress of the present to the joy and comfort which, though more remote, ought still to be more powerful over the mind and heart because of its real intrinsic greatness.

And, first, I want to speak upon this point,-that many fears, which are entertained by good men and women, are really groundless.

“Thou hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy, and where is the fury of the oppressor?” The probable meaning of this verse is that the oppressor never came, so that they never did feel the force of his fury; and, in like manner, many of God’s people are constantly under apprehensions of calamities which will never occur to them, and they suffer far more in merely dreading them than they would have to endure if they actually came upon them. In their imagination, there are rivers in their way, and they are anxious to know how they shall wade through them, or swim across them. There are no such rivers in existence, but they are agitated and distressed about them. Our old proverb says, “Don’t cross the bridge till you come to it;” but these timid people are continually crossing bridges that only exist in their foolish fancies. They stab themselves with imaginary daggers, they starve themselves in imaginary famines, and even bury themselves in imaginary graves. Such strange creatures are we that we probably smart more under blows which never fall upon us than we do under those which do actually come. The rod of God does not smite us as sharply as the rod of our own imagination does; our groundless fears are our chief tormentors; and when we are enabled to abolish our self-inflictions, all the inflictions of the world become light enough. It is a pity, however, that any who are taught of God, and who have had faith in Christ given to them, should fall into so guilty and at the same time so painful a habit as this of fearing the oppressor who does not come, and who never will come.

Some are much troubled by the fear of man. That is exactly the case mentioned in our text: “the fury of the oppressor.” He was a very oppressive man, hard, unfeeling, proud, strong, exacting, and they were afraid of him. In addition to this, he must have been a person of impetuous temper, one with whom you could not reason, and so passionate that they were not merely afraid of the oppressor, but of “the fury of the oppressor.” He is the kind of person whom you do not know how to meet, or how to escape from him. If you flee away from him, he will pursue you in his fury. If you remain quiet, your patience will not make him quiet; and if you resist him, his fury will be so much the greater. That appears to have been the character of the oppressor feared by those with whom the Lord was at that time reasoning; and we have known believers who have been afraid of what such-and-such a powerful man might do if they acted as their conscience told them they ought to act. He would turn them out of their farm, or they would lose his custom from their shop. Perhaps the fearful one is some young person who has a relative who hates religion, and what this relative in power may do she cannot imagine; or the oppressor is an arbitrary employer, and if his work-people do not exactly obey his orders, even though those orders happen to be wrong, they will lose their situations. They may be for months without work, and they and their children may be reduced to starvation. They picture a long vista of trials and troubles that will come upon them because of “the fury of the oppressor.” Now, sometimes, there is a foundation for this kind of fear, for men do act in a very hectoring manner to their fellow-men, and the very persons who talk most about being liberal in their views are generally the greatest persecutors. If I must have a religious enemy, let me have a professed and avowed bigot, but not one of your “free thinkers” or “broad churchmen” as they are called, for there is nobody who can hate as they do; and the lovers of liberal-mindedness who have no creed at all think it to be their special duty to be peculiarly contemptuous to those who have some degree of principle, and cannot twist and turn exactly as they can. There is no doubt that still there are trials of cruel mockings to be borne by those who are true to Christ. “The cold shoulder” is given in society; in other company, hard words are used, and coarse jests are made. Christians must expect to have to bear the opposition of man. It always was so, and it always will be so. If you turn from the way of the world, and practically accuse the world of being wrong, the world will resent it. “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own.”

But, after all, is there not a great deal more thought of this matter than there is any need to be, for “where is the fury of the oppressor?” I have known young Christians afraid of somebody or other, and not daring to avow their conscientious convictions, and when at last they have plucked up courage enough to do so, they have been surprised that the person they expected to oppose them has been quite favourable to them. The wife has been afraid to mention to her husband that she desires to unite with the church, but when he hears of it, he thinks that he too will go and hear the minister. I remember a man and his wife who came to join the church. They were each afraid to tell the other of what they had experienced, and when they met each other on the night that they were present with other candidates, they were greatly surprised to find that, instead of having any reason to be afraid of one another, they had the utmost cause to rejoice in one another. They said that it was like a new marriage to them when each found the other to be in Christ Jesus, yet each of them had thought the other to be so strong in opposition to religion that they had not dared to mention their conversion till thus they made their mutual discovery. Perhaps, dear friend, you have no more need to be afraid than they had. Go on, and the giant that stands in your way may turn out to be only a shadow, or if he really is a giant, God will help you to fight against him, and make you more than a conqueror.

Some have a fear of another kind,-not of any opposition to themselves, but they are afraid of the Church and the truth being utterly destroyed by the opposition of men. Have you not many times noticed a kind of panic going through the churches through some supposed discovery in science, or some new doctrinal error that has appeared? One Christian has met another, and begun tremblingly to talk about what was going to happen. “The old times were so much better than these;” they begin with that note; and here is a new danger, how are we to meet it? It was anxiously asked, a few years ago, “How are we to meet these discoveries of geology?” Yet we hardly ever hear about them now; or, if we do, we do not trouble about them. Then Dr. Colenso had made certain calculations which were very terrifying to timid folk, and Huxley tried to prove that we had descended or ascended from monkeys; but who cares about their theories now? Yet I have met with nervous people who greatly feared the fury of this tyrant, Science, which was utterly to destroy us; but what has it ever done against the truth?

At this time, as you are well aware, it is the belief of a great many people that, owing to the spread of Ritualism, the candle that Latimer lit will be blown out, and we shall all be in the dark, or at least shall have nothing better than candles made at Rome to light us. I constantly receive magazines that prophesy the most terrible times; according to them, some of us will no doubt be roasted alive at Smithfield. Well, I know that the devil can blow very hard, but I do not believe that he can blow out the candle that God lights; much less can he blow out the sun of the gospel which has burned on now for over eighteen hundred years. Blow away, devil, as hard as you can, but you will never be able to blow out this light, but it will still shine on to the end of time. You may blow away a cloud or two which obscure the light, but the light itself will be as bright as ever.

It may be that, in the place where you live, there has come up a new doctrinal error. Somebody has discovered that men are nothing but a species of large ape, and that only those who believe in Christ are immortal, all the rest will die out eventually; annihilation is to be their doom. Many are dreadfully frightened by that doctrine, but I believe it to be too contemptible to alarm anybody who studies the Scriptures. It is a very pretty toy, and many will play with it; after a certain time, there will come another pretty toy, and they will play with that; and so it will be till Christ himself comes, and breaks up all these toys, and brings his Church back to the grand old truth which will stand firm notwithstanding all the assaults of men or devils. But you and I need not fear, beloved, because of any of these things; what is there, after all, to cause us to tremble for the ark of God? Just nothing at all. Never let any member of this church get whining in this way, and saying that the gospel will die. The heavens and the earth will pass away, but the Word of the Lord shall endure for ever; that which the Lord hath declared in this blessed Book of his shall stand fast throughout eternity.

Another fear which sometimes comes over truly godly people is that, perhaps, after all, they shall fall from grace, and perish. There may come a temptation which will find out their weak point, and overthrow them. The vessel has sailed well hitherto, though not without many tossings and perils; but, mayhap, it will strike upon a rock, and be utterly broken in pieces. They know how weak and frail they are, and how many temptations surround them; how treacherous and cunning the devil is; how potent is the world with its many allurements. David feared that he would perish one day by the hand of Saul, and these fearful souls, as they pass into some fresh phase of life, or encounter some new trial, dread lest, after all, grace should not be sufficient for their needs, and they should come to a miserable end. I know this fear; who among us has not felt it? Who among us can honestly examine his own heart, and not feel it? Yet, dear friends, there is really nothing in it to trouble the true child of God. If our religion be a religion of our own getting or making, it will perish; and the sooner it goes, the better; but if our religion be a matter of God’s giving, we know that he never takes back what he gives, and that, if he has commenced to work in us by his grace, he will never leave it unfinished. Were the covenant founded upon works, it would fail; if it depended upon ourselves, it would surely break down; but if it be the “everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure,” it cannot fail. If the promise is the promise of God who cannot lie, he will surely keep it unto the end. We ought not, therefore, to be burdened with this anxiety, but simply go on in the path of daily watchfulness and humble dependence upon the preserving power of the Lord Jesus Christ, and so we shall find that we shall get safely to heaven after all.

We have known some, too, who have been afflicted with fear of want coming upon them as to pecuniary matters. One says, “The giant of poverty will surely seize me! I have not enough laid by to furnish me with a sufficient maintenance.” I have known some even dread because they had not enough for their own funeral; as if that would not be sure to be settled somehow. The living will surely take care to bury the dead. I have known others say, “If I were to be out of work; if such-and-such a thing were to happen; if So-and-so were to die, what should I do?” Ah! and if we fret over all the “ifs” that we can imagine, we shall certainly never be without fretfulness; but where is your dependence, Christian, for this world? Have you placed it upon man? Then I wonder not that you are full of fear; but why do you not trust your body where you trusted your soul? If you have trusted Jesus to be the Saviour of your immortal spirit, can you not also trust him to be the Provider for this poor flesh of the things which perish? God feeds the ravens; will he not feed you? Up till this moment, the commissariat of the universe has never failed, but the myriads of living creatures have received from his hand all they have required; then is he likely to forget you? He has never done so yet; your bread has been given you, your water has been sure, why should he change his custom, and leave his own dear child to starve? “Oh, but!” say you, “the brook Cherith is dried up.” Yes, but when the brook dried up, God sent his servant Elijah to Zarephath, where there was a widow woman who would sustain him. When one door shuts, another opens; and if one well gets dry, the water bubbles up somewhere else. The means may change, but the God of the means changes not. He will supply your needs. Stand in your proper place, do your duty, obey his will, and he will not fail you, but bring you safely to the place where fears shall never come to you any more.

Another fear (and I will mention but this one,) is the fear of death. Some even among God’s people hardly dare think of dying. It is a dreary necessity with them that they must die, and they fret and trouble about it quite needlessly; but, beloved, if we had perfect peace with God, we should not fear dying. I have known some who have thought that they would rather be translated, but I would rather not. If I were walking out to-morrow evening, and I saw horses of fire and chariots of fire standing ready to take me up, I should feel a great deal more troubled about getting into a fiery chariot than about going home, and lying down to die. If my Lord and Master shall choose to let me live till he comes, and so prevent my death, his will be done, but the Spirit saith, “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord,” so let us be content with that blessedness. But there is a fear of death in some good people’s minds, and they cannot always shake it off; yet, beloved, there is nothing in it. If you are in Christ, you will never know anything about dying. I do not believe that Christians feel anything in death. If there are pains, as there often are, they are not the pains of dying, but of living. Death ends all their pains. They shut their eyes on earth, and open them in heaven. They have shaken off the cumbrous clay of this mortal body, and found themselves disembodied, in a moment, before the throne of the Most High, there to wait till the trumpet of the resurrection shall sound, and they shall put on their bodies once again, transformed and glorified like to the body of their Lord. Get rid of that fear of death, beloved, for it is not becoming in a Christian. The believer’s heart should be so stayed upon the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the resurrection and the life, that he should leave himself in his Heavenly Father’s hands to live or die, or to wait till the Lord shall come, just as the Lord shall please.

My second observation is this. There are some fears which would die at once if we dared to question them.

Did you notice that the text is a question? “Who art thou that … hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?” Did you ever question your fears, my dear friends? I mean you, Miss Despondency over there, and you, Mr. Much-afraid. Did you ever question your fear? If not, catechize it now, put it through the catechism. Suppose it is the Church of God that is afraid of the oppressor, let the Church ask, Where is the oppressor of which she needs to be afraid? Is it a doctrinal error? Well, the Church was once over-run with Arianism, and it did seem as if the heretics had killed the doctrine of the Deity of Christ; but the Lord was pleased to raise up his valiant servant Athanasius, and very soon Arianism was put to the rout. The Church of Christ scarcely perceives the scars of all the conflicts through which she has passed. That which threatened to destroy her has never really injured her, but she has come out of the furnace all the purer. As for persecution, has it not commonly proved that the more the saints have been persecuted the more they have prospered, and that the blood of the martyrs has been the seed of the Church? Suppose there should again come martyr days, suppose there should again come days of heresy; well, the Church has had such days before, yet she has survived them. The grand old vessel has been in many a tornado and storm before now, yet she has not even lost a spar or split a stitch of her canvas. Why therefore should she be afraid now?

Ask the question again, “Where is the fury of the oppressor?” And the answer comes, it is under the control of God. Even Satan, your fiercest foe,-God created him, God governs him, God can do with him just as he pleases. Then as to that poverty of which you are afraid, it will not come unless God permits it; and if it does come, the Lord can alleviate it. You are afraid you will lose a very dear child; but you will not lose her unless the Lord takes her. You are fretting because you fear that a special friend of yours will soon be taken away; but he cannot be taken away till the Lord takes him. What are you afraid of? Is it your own death? Learn to sing good old John Ryland’s verse,-

“Plagues and deaths around me fly,

Till he bids I cannot die;

Not a single shaft can hit

Till the God of love sees fit.”

Then, again, the Lord asks, “Where is the fury of the oppressor?” as if it was so soon gone that one might look in vain for it. Some man oppresses you; well, he shall die, perhaps soon. The trouble that now frets you will be gone in the twinkling of an eye. If not soon so far as this life is concerned, yet, when you get to heaven (and that will not be long), how short a time will your trial seem to have lasted! “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment,” says the apostle, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” You fret about your trouble, and worry yourself continually concerning it, but the text seems to ask you, “Where is it?” It is a meteor that flashes across the sky, and is gone. Ask your troubles such questions as these, and they will soon vanish

I will ask you a few more questions. You have fears with regard to a great trouble that threatens you. Well, will it separate you from the love of Christ? If you cannot answer that question, let Paul answer it for you: “I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” You say that your enemies slander you; but will Christ believe them? They are trying to take away your character; but will your Lord think any the less of you? Will he be deceived by their falsehoods? You say that friends are forsaking you; but will they take Jesus away, and make him forsake you?

You say that your enemies are doing all that they can to destroy you, but can they destroy the divine promises? The Lord has promised to give unto his sheep eternal life; can they take that promise from you, or make it of no value? They may frown at you, but can they keep you out of heaven? They may threaten you, but can they make the covenant of grace to be of none effect? While eternal things are safe, we may well be content to let other things come or go just as God wills.

Again, can anyone do anything to you which God does not permit? And if God permits it, can any real harm come to you? “Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?” “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Then how can anything work for your hurt if you are really the Lord’s? Can anyone curse those whom God blesses? Are you like those foolish persons who are afraid of a witch’s curse, or of some spell that the wicked may cast over you? Even Balaam said, “Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel.” Balak might summon Balaam to his aid, and the two together might stand and look on Israel, and wish to curse them, but they could not curse those whom God had blessed. If all the devils in hell could fill your house, and seek to injure you, there is no need for you to fear or tremble more than Martin Luther did when his friends were afraid for him to go to Worms, but he said, “If there were as many devils there as there are tiles on the roofs of the houses, I would face them all in the name of God.” And you may say the same. If earth were all in arms abroad, and hell, in one vast hurly-burly, had come up to join with the world against you, you might still say, “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge;” and charge them in the name of the Most High, and put them all to rout, for greater is he who is with you than all those that are against you.

Now, lastly, dear brethren and sisters in Christ, if these fears are groundless, and if a few questions will scatter them, I appeal to you who are cast down to cry to God to deliver you from this state of bondage.

If there be no ground for your fears, what is the use of tormenting yourself for nothing at all, and if God is indeed with you, do you not dishonour him by your fretfulness and your fears? What would you think of a little child, in its mother’s arms, who was always afraid that it was not safe there? Would it not look as if there were some defect in the child’s loving confidence in its mother?

“Safe in the arms of Jesus,”

you may well be-

“Safe from corroding care.”

He is able to keep that which you have committed unto him; so, if you do not trust him, you really dishonour him. The commander of an army, who saw his soldiers turning white with fear and trembling as they marched to the conflict, would say within himself, “These soldiers of mine are no credit to their leader;” and will you, who have a Captain who is so well able to protect you, show the white feather? Shall a cowardly spirit be permitted in the service of God? Shall the Captain of our salvation have to lead a craven host to the fight with the powers of darkness? I have sometimes thought, when I have heard about the fears of God’s people concerning the times in which we live, and what is going to become of us, that surely they did not know that the King is in the midst of us, that the Lord is as a wall of fire round about us, and the glory in our midst; for if they did but know that he is our Protector and Defender, they could not be so cast down as they are.

Besides, you who are of a fretful spirit, often grieve other Christians. There are others who are like you, and they get worse through coming into contact with you. Your complaint is one that is catching. Every now and then, I meet with Christians who like to hear sermons that make them miserable. I had a letter from one, some time ago, who said that, as soon as he came here, and saw how cheerful the people looked, he felt certain that he was not among the tried people of God, so he went away, and turned into a little place where there were only fifteen or sixteen people, and he heard a good deep-experience sermon about the corruption of the heart, and there he felt at home. For my part, I like such texts as these, “Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say, Rejoice.” We have plenty of troubles and trials, and if we like to fret over them, we may always be doing it; but, then, we have far more joys than troubles, so our songs should exceed our sighs. We have a good God, who has promised that, as our days, so shall our strength be.

“Why should the children of a King

Go mourning all their days?”

“Ah!” says one, “but this is a howling wilderness.” Yes, if you howl in it, it will howl in response; but if you sing, it will sing too. Remember the ancient promise, “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.”

“Then let our songs abound,

And every tear be dry:

We’re marching through Immanuel’s ground

To fairer worlds on high.”

And once again, do you not think that a dull, heavy, murmuring spirit is a great hindrance to the unconverted? If they find you in this state, they will say, “This person’s religion does not appear to do him much good.” Worldlings often say that Christians are the most miserable people in the world. I think that is a great mistake on their part, and that they do not really know us; for if they knew some of us, they would find that we have cheerful spirits notwithstanding a good deal that might depress us. Do not any of you Christians let the worldling say that Christ is a hard master. I should not like to drive a horse that was all skin and bone, for people would say that it was because his master kept him short of corn. I should not like to have, in my house, a servant who was always wringing her hands, and whose eyes were usually full of tears. Visitors would say, “Her mistress is a vixen, you may be sure of that;” and if professing Christians are always seen to be in a wretched, unhappy state, people are sure to say, “Ah, they serve a hard master! The ways of Christ are ways of unpleasantness, and all his paths are misery and wretchedness.” Sinner, that is not true; but it is true that “light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart,” and we earnestly wish that you would come and prove the truth of it for yourself. Believing in Jesus, you would have a perfect peace, and a bliss that nothing can destroy; you would have a little heaven below, and a great heaven above. You would be able to take your troubles to your God, and leave them there; and you would march along with songs of rejoicing till you come to that blessed place where there are pleasures for evermore.

May God bless you, for Christ’s sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon.

ISAIAH 43:1-19.

Verse 1. But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel,

The Lord reminds us that he first created us, and that he afterwards moulded us; we are like Jacob by nature, but he has made us Israel by grace.

1. Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.

Redemption is a deep well of comfort. If the Lord has indeed bought us with his blood, he will not think lightly of us; and if he has called us by name, and declared that we belong to him, we may rest assured that he will not lose his own property, but that he will preserve it to the end.

2. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.*

The Lord does not promise us immunity from trial and trouble; we shall have to go through waters and rivers, and shall have to pass through fires and flames; it is through much tribulation that we must enter the kingdom of God; but he does promise that no harm shall come to us from it all. “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God;”-that waters, rivers, fires, and flames bring us benefits and blessings, and that they shall none of them bring a curse upon us.

3, 4. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable,†

God puts honour upon his beloved ones; they were in themselves dishonourable, for they had nothing of goodness about them until the Lord imparted it to them.

4. And I have loved thee:

God loved his ancient people Israel; he has always loved his Church; and he loves believers still.

4, 5. Therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. Fear not: for I am with thee:-

It is enough for a child that his mother is near him, or that his father is with him; then is it not enough for you, O child of God, that God is with you? Israel was scattered when Isaiah wrote this prophecy, and would be afterwards scattered far and wide over the face of the earth; so God gave this comforting assurance, “Fear not: for I am with thee:”-

5, 6. I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;*

God’s chosen ones have wandered very far away from him, but the great Shepherd of the sheep, who bought them with his blood, will gather them, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd.

7. Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.

Three expressions are here used concerning the man who is called by God’s name. First, “I have created him,”-made him out of nothing. Then, “I have formed him,”-fashioned him, made him into his proper shape. The last sentence may be read, “Yea, I have completed him.” When God begins his work in us, we are in the rough; as he goes on working in us, we gradually take the form of his dear Son; and by-and-by he will complete us, and then we shall wake up in his likeness. Blessed be his name for this!

8. Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears.

Some think that the Lord refers here to those who were once blind, but to whom he has given eyes; and to those who were deaf, to whom he has given ears. Many of us are of that order. One thing I know is that, whereas I was once spiritually blind, now I can see; and another thing I know is that, whereas I was once spiritually deaf, now I can hear the voice of God.

9. Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled:-

As though there was to be a great debate as to who God is, and what God is, he first summons all his people whose blind eyes and deaf ears he has opened, and then he calls for all the nations to be gathered together, and gives them this challenge:-

9. Who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth.

Where else have we any true knowledge of God except in his Word and among his people? The myths and mysteries of the heathen, how dark, how indistinct and shadowy they are! What true prophecy did their oracles ever give? Ask Greece and Rome, the most polished of the ancient nations, what did their so-called gods ever foretell? Let them bring any holy book of theirs which reveals the future, and which is true.

10. Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord,-

The chosen people of God have become witnesses for Jehovah that he, and he alone, is the true God; that he, and he alone has truly foretold the future. Let the heathen prove that their gods have done the same if they can; we know that they cannot. “Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord,-

10. And my servant whom I have chosen:*

That great Servant of God, you know his name, even Christ Jesus the faithful and true Witness, bears better witness for God than the whole nation of the Jews, or the Lord’s chosen people in all ages, can bear.

10, 11. That ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour.

Look the whole world over, and see where there is any Saviour for sinners except Jesus Christ. Does any other religion even profess to have a Saviour? Destroyers they have, but where is their Saviour?

12. I have declared, and have saved,

“I said that I would save, and I have saved.”

12. And I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.

When, in Hezekiah’s day, the idols had been destroyed, God told Hezekiah that he would deliver him from Sennacherib, and he did so.

13. Yea, before the day was I am he;

When there was no day, there was the Ancient of days.

13. And there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it? (who shall hinder it?)

“When he makes bare his arm,

What shall his work withstand?

When he his people’s cause defends,

Who, who shall stay his hand?”

14. Thus saith the Lord, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.

Up the broad river Euphrates, and down to the Persian Gulf, Babylon and Chaldea gloried in their greatness, but God sent the Medo-Persian power to break them in pieces for the sake of his people, that Cyrus might let them go free.

15-17. I am the Lord, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King. Thus saith the Lord, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters; which bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power; they shall lie down together, they shall not rise: they are extinct, they are quenched as tow.

Like the wick of a lamp, soon put out. Here is, probably, an illusion to the overthrowing of Egypt at the Red Sea; they came out with their horses and chariots, but they were made to lie down together in the sea. God overcame his people’s enemies then, and he can and will do the same to the end of the chapter.

18. Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.

Do not look merely upon what God has done; but look to the future, and remember that he is able to do the same again.

19. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

O dear child of God, have you got into the wilderness, and have you no comfort there? Are all your wells dried up? God will work a new miracle for you, you shall have a new manifestation of his gracious power.