Surely then you will delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God. Sermons
I. THE INTERIOR EXPERIENCE. "Delight in the Almighty." 1. God gives joy. As we have but to acquaint ourselves with God to be at peace (ver. 21), so we have but go appreciate his intentions go see that he does not wish us to be in distress. 2. This joy is in himself. We have to learn by experience how this is the case, for no words can express it. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,... the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9). But Christian experience shows how real this Divine joy is. (1) The joy of pardon. The soul has been estranged from God, darkened with the gloom of the wrath of Heaven; now the cloud is broken up and God smiles forgiveness. (2) The joy of love. This is mutual - the soul loving God in exchange for his love. (3) The joy of trust. No fear need disturb the soul that is at peace with God. Its confidence is a source of deep gladness, because it dispels the most terrible alarms. (4) The joy of service. It is a happy thing to be working for God, especially when we perceive that we can be "fellow-workers with God." He is the inspiring energy of all our work. (5) The joy of communion. To be walking with God is itself a joy. The blessedness of the pure in heart who enjoy the vision of God is deeper than any earthly delight. II. THE SPIRITUAL ATTITUDE. "And shall lift up thy face unto God." 1. Confidence. While we fear and distrust God we cannot look up to him. We rather shrink from his gaze and hide ourselves, like Adam and Eve in the garden. We may even cry go God for help without daring go look up, like the publican in Christ's parable (Luke 18:13). It is happy for the soul when the shame of sin and the fear of doubt are removed by the forgiving love of God, so that the child can look quite naturally and confidently into the face of his Father. 2. Contemplation. To lift up the face to God is go gaze upon him as well as to submit go his gaze. This is no vision of the eye of sense, for God is Spirit, and must therefore be always invisible to the bodily eye. But the spirit of man may contemplate the Divine Spirit. Theology tries to do this, but theology consists of purely intellectual conceptions. There is a deeper contemplation of sympathy which is only possible go the soul that is in living communion with God. 3. Expectation. Our contemplation should be an act of pure worship in which we forget ourselves, rejoicing only in the beauty of God's goodness. Yet personal wants will make themselves felt, and when they do, there is no one more ready or able to supply them than our Father in heaven. Therefore it is natural to look to him for help in prayer, patience, and hope. (1) Prayer, because the help should be sought from God; (2) patience, because it may not come immediately; and (3) hope, because it can be anticipated with the assurance that God will not disappoint his children. 4. Beatification. The face that is lifted up-to God is illumined by the glory of God. His light falls upon it and glorifies it. There is a great blessedness springing directly from communion with heaven. If we looked up more, our countenances would be brighter. CONCLUSION. Observe that these blessings follow a penitent return to God, and are conditioned by it. "Then thou shalt have thy delight," etc., pointing back to ver. 23. - W.F.A.
For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty. These words can be raised to a higher level than that on which Eliphaz placed them, and regarded as describing the sweet and wonderful prerogatives of the devout life. So understood they may rebuke, and stimulate, and encourage us to make our lives conform to the ideal here.I. LIFE MAY BE FULL OF DELIGHT AND CONFIDENCE IN GOD. When we "delight" in a thing or person, we recognise that thing or person as fitting into a cleft of our hearts, and corresponding to some need of our natures. Without delight in God there is no real religion. The bulk of men are so sunken and embruted in animal tastes, and sensuous desires, and fleeting delights, that they have no care for the pure and calm joys which come to those who live near God. Above these stand the men whose religion is a matter of fear or of duty or of effort. And above them stand the men who serve because they trust God, but whose religion is seeking rather than finding, it is overshadowed by an unnatural and unwholesome gloom. He is the truly devout man who not only knows God to be great and holy, but feels Him to be sweet and sufficient; who not only fears, but loves. True religion is delighting in God. The next words, "Thou shalt lift up thy face unto God," express frank confidence of approach to Him. The head hangs down in the consciousness of demerit and sin. But it is possible for men to go into God's presence with a sense of peace, and to hold up their heads before their judge. There is no confidence possible for us unless we apprehend by faith, and thereon make our own the great work of Jesus Christ our Lord. II. SUCH A LIFE OF DELIGHTING IN GOD WILL BE BLESSED BY THE FRANKEST INTERCOURSE WITH HIM. Three stages of this blessed communion are possible. First a prayer, then the answer; and then the rendered thank offering. And so, in swift alternation and reciprocity, is carried on the commerce between heaven and earth, between man and God. The desires rise to heaven, but heaven comes down to earth first. Prayer is not the initial stage, but the second, in the process. God first gives His promise, and the best prayer is the catching up of God's promise, and tossing it back again whence it came. III. SUCH A LIFE WILL NEITHER KNOW FAILURE NOR DARKNESS. To serve God and to fall into the line of His purpose, and to determine nothing, nor absolutely want anything until we are sure that it is His will, — that is the secret of never failing in what we undertake. IV. SUCH A LIFE WILL BE ALWAYS HOPEFUL AND FINALLY CROWNED WITH DELIVERANCE. Even in so blessed a life as has been described, times will come when the path plunges downward into some valley of the shadow of death. But even then the traveller will bate no jot of hope. The devout life is largely independent of circumstances, and is upheld and calmed by quiet certainty, that the general trend of its path is upward, which enables it to trudge hopefully down an occasional dip in the road. And the end will vindicate such confidence. Continuous partial deliverances lead on to, and bring about, final full salvation. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) 1. The man who experiences this delight is glad that there is a God. We delight to see God in the shadow of every passing cloud, in the colouring of every opening flower, in the glitter of every dewdrop, in the twinkling of every star. 2. To go a step further, the delight of the believer in his God is a delight in God as He really is; for there are in the world many false gods of men's own manufacture. Remember that your own thoughts of what God is are far from being correct unless they are drawn from His own revelation. We would not tone down a single attribute, we would not disturb the equilibrium of the Divine perfections; but we delight in God in all those aspects of His character which are mentioned in His Holy Word. 3. Further, he that delights in God delights not only in God as He is, but in all that God does, and this is a higher attainment than some have reached. "It is the Lord," said one of old, "let Him do what seemeth Him good." 4. Practically put, this delight in the Almighty shows itself in the Christian when nothing else remains to him. If he be stripped of everything, he cries, "The Lord is my portion." You will see this delight in God exhibiting itself in frequent meditations upon God "Delight thyself in the Lord." This will give you pleasure in the midst of pain. This will show itself in your life, for it will be a pleasure to do anything to exalt the name of God. I call your attention to the special name by which Eliphaz describes the ever-blessed God: he says, "Delight thyself in the Almighty." Is it not singular that he should choose a term descriptive of omnipotence as the paramount cause of the believer's delight? God is love, and I can readily understand how one might delight himself in God under that aspect; but the believer is taught to delight himself in God as strong and mighty. What a mercy it is that there is a power that makes for righteousness! Surely, when you see omnipotence linked with righteousness and mercy, you will delight yourself in the Almighty. Think also of the Lord's almightiness in the matter of the keeping, preserving, defending, and perfecting of all His people. Now, let us turn with intense satisfaction to the other expression used by Eliphaz: "Thou shalt lift up thy face unto God." What does it mean? Does it not mean, first, joy in God? When a man hangs his head down he is unhappy. Does it not signify, also, that this man is reconciled to God, and clear before Him? How can he look up who is guilty? Does not our text indicate fearlessness? Fear covers her face, and would fain hide herself altogether, even though to accomplish concealment the rocks must fall upon her. May it not also signify expectation? "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help." Strive after this sacred peace: delight in the Almighty, and lift up your faces unto God. II. WHEN CAN WE REALISE THIS? 1. First, a man can realise all this when he knows that he is reconciled to God. 2. Yet even this could not effect our delight in God unless there was something else; so there must be, in the next place, a renewed nature. Our old nature will never delight in God. 3. In addition to this, you will delight in God much more fully when the Spirit beareth witness with your spirit that you are born of God. The spirit of sonship is the spirit of delight in God.We shall delight ourselves in God, and lift up our face when we do as Eliphaz here tells us. 1. First, when we live in communion with Him. 2. Then, further, we must, if we are to know this delight, lay up God's words in our hearts (ver. 22). 3. There must be added to this delight in the Word a constant cleansing of the way." If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles." There must be purification of life, or there cannot be fellowship with the Lord. 4. In addition to this, there must be a constant trust. "Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou shalt have plenty of silver" (ver. 25). He who does not trust God cannot delight in Him. You cannot lift up your face to Him while you think Him untrue. A childlike confidence is essential to a holy joy. 5. Let us abide in continual prayer (ver. 27). ( C. H. Spurgeon.) People Eliphaz, Job, OphirPlaces Ophir, UzTopics Almighty, Delight, Delightest, Face, Lift, Lifted, Mighty, Ruler, Surely, Thyself, YeaOutline 1. Eliphaz shows that man's goodness profits not God5. He accuses Job of various sins 21. He exhorts him to repentance, with promises of mercy Dictionary of Bible Themes Job 22:26Library December 29 MorningUnderstanding what the will of the Lord is.--EPH. 5:17. This is the will of God, even your sanctification.--Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.--This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.--We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal … Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path Knowledge and Peace What Life May be Made Whether all Things are under Divine Providence Whether God is Everywhere by Essence, Presence and Power? Whether Everything is Subject to the Providence of God? The Doctrine of God The Case of the Christian under the Hiding of God's Face. Bands of Love; Or, Union to Christ. "I Drew them with Cords of a Man, with Bands of Love: and I was to them as they that Take Off the Yoke on their Jaws, and I Laid Meat unto Them. " --Hosea xi. 4. A Holy Life the Beauty of Christianity: Or, an Exhortation to Christians to be Holy. By John Bunyan. Covenanting Enforced by the Grant of Covenant Signs and Seals. Epistle xxxix. To Eulogius, Patriarch of Alexandria. Covenanting According to the Purposes of God. 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