You are my hiding place and my shield; I put my hope in Your word. Sermons
The thoughts spoken of here are not mere idle thoughts, but deceitful and double-minded ones. We learn - I. HOLY SOULS HATE THEM. (Ver. 113.) They constitute and create that lukewarmness which is so nauseous in the esteem of Christ (Revelation 3:16). He would prefer that men were cold altogether rather than this (cf. also Elijah, 1 Kings 18:21). This double-mindedness, ever seeking to serve God and mammon, compromising and tampering with truth, well may it excite the hate of holy souls. For: 1. It dishonors God. The man makes profession of religion, and men judge by what they see in him, and, instead of God being glorified, he is dishonored day by day. 2. The Church of God is weakened. Such men spread an awful contagion in a Church; they chili the ardor of fervent souls, they encourage those who are like themselves. 3. The man himself is in fearful peril. He is forever saying, "Peace, peace," when there is no peace. The publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of heaven before him. And who is to arouse and waken him? 4. He enjoys none of the great blessedness which ever accompanies real religion and single-minded service of God. Such as peace of conscience: the Spirit never beareth witness to such that they are saved, and there is often a terrible misgiving, especially at the hour of death. Purity of heart: that cannot be theirs. Calm amid trouble. Power to bless others, etc. For all these and other reasons such double-mindedness cannot but be hateful to all holy souls. II. BUT IT IS A CONDITION VERY PREVALENT, NEVERTHELESS. Men like it: it avoids extremes; they would not be altogether without religion - that would be very sad; but yet they do not want to be considered as enthusiastic or fanatical; it enables them to get on very well with the world, and to maintain a pleasant religious reputation at the same time. No wonder, therefore, that it is common. III. WE ARE SHOWS HERE HOW TO GAIN DELIVERANCE FROM IT. 1. Let God be our Hiding-place and our Shield. When such thoughts assail us, as they often will, let us turn to God. It is not enough to drive away the wrong; we must bring in the right. Therefore "with thoughts of God and things Divine" let us occupy our minds, and so will deliverance come. And we should habitually cherish such thoughts, for so they will serve as a shield to ward off thoughts of an opposite nature. 2. Keep away from evildoers. (Ver. 115.) For they are ever tempting us to such deceitful serving of God: they will inevitably, if we make companions of them, lower the tone and sap the fidelity of our thoughts. 3. Commit yourselves to the Lord for safety, so that you may not be ashamed. Ask him day by day and hour by hour to uphold you and keep you true (vers. 116, 117). 4. Call to mind the dreadful end of such double-mindedness. (Vers. 118, 119.) They are trampled down, they are rejected like dross. 5. Cherish a holy fear lest you should incur a like doom. (Ver. 120.) Therefore bare your heart before him, and pray him to help you always and everywhere to hate all such deceitful and double-minded thoughts. - S.C. Thou art my hiding-place and my shield: I hope in Thy Word. Homilist. I. THE GUARDIANSHIP OF GOD ENJOYED. "Hiding-place" is a place of protection, a place where the enemy cannot discover you. "Shield" is an instrument of protection, that which prevents the arrow or the sword from touching the life. The two expressions mean safe guardianship. What a Guardian is God! 1. His guardianship does not circumscribe liberty. Not like the "hiding-place," it allows ample room for the development of all the powers, and satisfaction for all the desires. 2. His guardianship is sufficient for all purposes. It protects from all evils, material and spiritual, all enemies, human and satanic. With the enjoyment of this guardianship there is "hope in Thy Word." II. DELIVERANCE FROM THE WICKED DESIRED. "Depart from Me, ye evil-doers." 1. The expulsion of evil companions is at once the duty and the interest of all men. "The companion of fools shall be destroyed." "Come out from among them." 2. The expulsion of evil companions is necessary in order to obey God. "For I will keep the commandments of my God." III. THE SUPPORT OF HEAVEN IMPLORED. "Uphold me," etc. The words imply — 1. Consciousness of the ruin of a fall. "That I may live," implying, If I fall I die. A moral fall is soul death. 2. Consciousness of liability of a fall. "Hold Thou me up." I cannot stand without Thee. I totter on the verge of ruin, I am unable to support myself. "Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe." () I. THE RELATION WHICH GOD SUSTAINS TO THE CHRISTIAN. 1. "My hiding-place." God is thus described as a refuge, as a place of security and retreat from the trials and agitations of the world without; just as a vessel may find a hiding-place in the calm and shelter of the haven, guarded and hidden by the rocks. There may be a pirate-ship upon the sea beyond, and a storm may be hurling its fury upon the waves, but within the shelter of the high rooks all is secure and undisturbed. 2. Again: under the figure of a "shield," the Almighty is represented as the Defender of His people. Both the figures convey a like meaning of protection; still their application will admit of, perhaps, a variety of difference. We may take the former case as implying refuge in the hour of sorrow and sadness; One to whom we can look in trust and hope at all times, and find in Him a source of peacefulness amid the din and anxieties of the world in which we live. In the latter case we seem to be brought from obscurity and retirement into the open battlefield of life, where the shafts of temptation are flying around us, where the sounds of struggle meet our ears, where latent feelings are awakened and passions roused. Into the "hiding-place" of God the soul retires as into her quiet home away from the noise and stir of life; behind the "shield" of God the soul takes her stand as behind her rampart when the hosts of the enemy are encamped round about her. II. THE BASIS OF CHRISTIAN HOPE — "I hope in Thy Word." There is a twofold and mutual recognition conveyed in this passage. God recognizes man in his helplessness and dependency, and man recognizes God in the mercy, and compassion, and goodness of His character and relationship to His creatures. And thus the basis of Christian hope is to be found in the Divine testimony, conveyed in the writings of Moses and the prophets, of Christ and His apostles. This testimony has also its response in the human heart and life, and so produces its evidence in the actual experience of our common nature. What rule of faith so high — what standard of morals so perfect — what criterion by which we may judge of right and wrong so infallible as the Scriptures? We hesitate not to bring them to the bar of public opinion unbiased by prejudice, for the very freedom of that opinion shall witness in favour of their claims, and give evidence to their truthfulness and authority. They can bear the most powerful tests of human wisdom and judgment, and the more they are examined, the brighter, and broader, and deeper becomes their excellency. () People Heth, Nun, PsalmistPlaces JerusalemTopics Breastplate, Covert, Danger, Hiding, Hiding-place, Hope, Hoped, Secret, Shield, WaitOutline 1. This psalm contains various prayers, praises, and professions of obedience.
2. Aleph.
9. Beth
17. Gimel
25. Daleth
33. He
41. Waw
49. Zayin
57. Heth
65. Teth
73. Yodh
81. Kaph
89. Lamedh
97. Mem
105. Nun
113. Samekh
121. Ayin
129. Pe
137. Tsadhe
145. Qoph
153. Resh
161. Sin and Shin
169. Taw
Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 119:114 1205 God, titles of
5292 defence, divine
5527 shield
8486 spiritual warfare, armour
9612 hope, in God Psalm 119:105-120 5376 law, purpose of Psalm 119:113-115 8720 double-mindedness Library Notes on the First Century:
Page 1. Line 1. An empty book is like an infant's soul.' Here Traherne may possibly have had in his mind a passage in Bishop Earle's "Microcosmography." In delineating the character of a child, Earle says: "His soul is yet a white paper unscribbled with observations of the world, wherewith at length it becomes a blurred note-book," Page 14. Line 25. The entrance of his words. This sentence is from Psalm cxix. 130. Page 15. Last line of Med. 21. "Insatiableness." This word in Traherne's time was often …
Thomas Traherne—Centuries of MeditationsLife Hid and not Hid
'Thy word have I hid in my heart.'--PSALM cxix. 11. 'I have not hid Thy righteousness in my heart.'--PSALM xl. 10. Then there are two kinds of hiding--one right and one wrong: one essential to the life of the Christian, one inconsistent with it. He is a shallow Christian who has no secret depths in his religion. He is a cowardly or a lazy one, at all events an unworthy one, who does not exhibit, to the utmost of his power, his religion. It is bad to have all the goods in the shop window; it is just …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture A Cleansed Way
Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy word.'--PSALM cxix. 9. There are many questions about the future with which it is natural for you young people to occupy yourselves; but I am afraid that the most of you ask more anxiously 'How shall I make my way?' than 'How shall I cleanse it?' It is needful carefully to ponder the questions: 'How shall I get on in the world--be happy, fortunate?' and the like, and I suppose that that is the consideration …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture 'Time for Thee to Work'
'It is time for Thee, Lord, to work; for they have made void Thy Law. 127. Therefore I love Thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold. 128. Therefore I esteem all Thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way.' --PSALM cxix. 126-128. If much that we hear be true, a society to circulate Bibles is a most irrational and wasteful expenditure of energy and money. We cannot ignore the extent and severity of the opposition to the very idea of revelation, even if we would; …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture A Stranger in the Earth
'I am a stranger in the earth: hide not Thy commandments from me.... 64. The earth, O Lord, is full of Thy mercy: teach me Thy statutes.' --PSALM cxix. 19, 64. There is something very remarkable in the variety-in-monotony of this, the longest of the psalms. Though it be the longest it is in one sense the simplest, inasmuch as there is but one thought in it, beaten out into all manner of forms and based upon all various considerations. It reminds one of the great violinist who out of one string managed …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture May the Fourth a Healthy Palate
"How sweet are Thy words unto my taste." --PSALM cxix. 97-104. Some people like one thing, and some another. Some people appreciate the bitter olive; others feel it to be nauseous. Some delight in the sweetest grapes; others feel the sweetness to be sickly. It is all a matter of palate. Some people love the Word of the Lord; to others the reading of it is a dreary task. To some the Bible is like a vineyard; to others it is like a dry and tasteless meal. One takes the word of the Master, and it …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year Inward Witness to the Truth of the Gospel.
"I have more understanding than my teachers, for Thy testimonies are my study; I am wiser than the aged, because I keep Thy commandments."--Psalm cxix. 99, 100. In these words the Psalmist declares, that in consequence of having obeyed God's commandments he had obtained more wisdom and understanding than those who had first enlightened his ignorance, and were once more enlightened than he. As if he said, "When I was a child, I was instructed in religious knowledge by kind and pious friends, who …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII A Bottle in the Smoke
First, God's people have their trials--they get put in the smoke; secondly, God's people feel their trials--they "become like a bottle in the smoke;" thirdly, God's people do not forget God's statutes in their trials--"I am become like a bottle in the smoke; yet do I not forget thy statutes." I. GOD'S PEOPLE HAVE THEIR TRIALS. This is an old truth, as old as the everlasting hills, because trials were in the covenant, and certainly the covenant is as old as the eternal mountains. It was never designed …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856 The Dryness of Preachers, and the Various Evils which Arise from their Failing to Teach Heart-Prayer --Exhortation to Pastors to Lead People Towards this Form Of
If all those who are working for the conquest of souls sought to win them by the heart, leading them first of all to prayer and to the inner life, they would see many and lasting conversions. But so long as they only address themselves to the outside, and instead of drawing people to Christ by occupying their hearts with Him, they only give them a thousand precepts for outward observances, they will see but little fruit, and that will not be lasting. When once the heart is won, other defects are …
Jeanne Marie Bouvières—A Short Method Of Prayer And Spiritual Torrents Of Deeper Matters, and God's Hidden Judgments which are not to be Inquired Into
"My Son, beware thou dispute not of high matters and of the hidden judgments of God; why this man is thus left, and that man is taken into so great favour; why also this man is so greatly afflicted, and that so highly exalted. These things pass all man's power of judging, neither may any reasoning or disputation have power to search out the divine judgments. When therefore the enemy suggesteth these things to thee, or when any curious people ask such questions, answer with that word of the Prophet, …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ Seven-Fold Joy
"Seven times a day do I praise Thee because of Thy righteous judgments."--Ps. cxix. 164. Mechthild of Hellfde, 1277. tr., Emma Frances Bevan, 1899 I bring unto Thy grace a seven-fold praise, Thy wondrous love I bless-- I praise, remembering my sinful days, My worthlessness. I praise that I am waiting, Lord, for Thee, When, all my wanderings past, Thyself wilt bear me, and wilt welcome me To home at last. I praise Thee that for Thee I long and pine, For Thee I ever yearn; I praise Thee that such …
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen and Others (Second Series) And in Jeremiah He Thus Declares his Death and Descent into Hell...
And in Jeremiah He thus declares His death and descent into hell, saying: And the Lord the Holy One of Israel, remembered his dead, which aforetime fell asleep in the dust of the earth; and he went down unto them, to bring the tidings of his salvation, to deliver them. [255] In this place He also renders the cause of His death: for His descent into hell was the salvation of them that had passed away. And, again, concerning His cross Isaiah says thus: I have stretched out my hands all the day long …
Irenæus—The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching The Christian Described
HAPPINESS OF THE CHRISTIAN O HOW happy is he who is not only a visible, but also an invisible saint! He shall not be blotted out the book of God's eternal grace and mercy. DIGNITY OF THE CHRISTIAN There are a generation of men in the world, that count themselves men of the largest capacities, when yet the greatest of their desires lift themselves no higher than to things below. If they can with their net of craft and policy encompass a bulky lump of earth, Oh, what a treasure have they engrossed …
John Bunyan—The Riches of Bunyan Excursus on the Choir Offices of the Early Church.
Nothing is more marked in the lives of the early followers of Christ than the abiding sense which they had of the Divine Presence. Prayer was not to them an occasional exercise but an unceasing practice. If then the Psalmist sang in the old dispensation "Seven times a day do I praise thee" (Ps. cxix. 164), we may be quite certain that the Christians would never fall behind the Jewish example. We know that among the Jews there were the "Hours of Prayer," and nothing would be, à priori, more …
Philip Schaff—The Seven Ecumenical Councils The Daily Walk with Others (I. ).
When the watcher in the dark Turns his lenses to the skies, Suddenly the starry spark Grows a world upon his eyes: Be my life a lens, that I So my Lord may magnify We come from the secrecies of the young Clergyman's life, from his walk alone with God in prayer and over His Word, to the subject of his common daily intercourse. Let us think together of some of the duties, opportunities, risks, and safeguards of the ordinary day's experience. A WALK WITH GOD ALL DAY. A word presents itself to be …
Handley C. G. Moule—To My Younger Brethren The Talking Book
In order that we may be persuaded so to do, Solomon gives us three telling reasons. He says that God's law, by which I understand the whole run of Scripture, and, especially the gospel of Jesus Christ, will be a guide to us:--"When thou goest, it shall lead thee." It will be a guardian to us: "When thou sleepest"--when thou art defenceless and off thy guard--"it shall keep thee." And it shall also be a dear companion to us: "When thou awakest, it shall talk with thee." Any one of these three arguments …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871 How to Read the Bible
I. That is the subject of our present discourse, or, at least the first point of it, that IN ORDER TO THE TRUE READING OF THE SCRIPTURES THERE MUST BE AN UNDERSTANDING OF THEM. I scarcely need to preface these remarks by saying that we must read the Scriptures. You know how necessary it is that we should be fed upon the truth of Holy Scripture. Need I suggest the question as to whether you do read your Bibles or not? I am afraid that this is a magazine reading age a newspaper reading age a periodical …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 25: 1879 The Obedience of Faith
"Is there a heart that will not bend To thy divine control? Descend, O sovereign love, descend, And melt that stubborn soul! " Surely, though we have had to mourn our disobedience with many tears and sighs, we now find joy in yielding ourselves as servants of the Lord: our deepest desire is to do the Lord's will in all things. Oh, for obedience! It has been supposed by many ill-instructed people that the doctrine of justification by faith is opposed to the teaching of good works, or obedience. There …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891 Faith
HABAKKUK, ii. 4. "The just shall live by faith." This is those texts of which there are so many in the Bible, which, though they were spoken originally to one particular man, yet are meant for every man. These words were spoken to Habakkuk, a Jewish prophet, to check him for his impatience under God's hand; but they are just as true for every man that ever was and ever will be as they were for him. They are world-wide and world-old; they are the law by which all goodness, and strength, and safety, …
Charles Kingsley—Twenty-Five Village Sermons What the Truth Saith Inwardly Without Noise of Words
Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth.(1) I am Thy servant; O give me understanding that I may know Thy testimonies. Incline my heart unto the words of Thy mouth.(2) Let thy speech distil as the dew. The children of Israel spake in old time to Moses, Speak thou unto us and we will hear, but let not the Lord speak unto us lest we die.(3) Not thus, O Lord, not thus do I pray, but rather with Samuel the prophet, I beseech Thee humbly and earnestly, Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth. Let not Moses …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ That the Body and Blood of Christ and the Holy Scriptures are Most Necessary to a Faithful Soul
The Voice of the Disciple O most sweet Lord Jesus, how great is the blessedness of the devout soul that feedeth with Thee in Thy banquet, where there is set before it no other food than Thyself its only Beloved, more to be desired than all the desires of the heart? And to me it would verily be sweet to pour forth my tears in Thy presence from the very bottom of my heart, and with the pious Magdalene to water Thy feet with my tears. But where is this devotion? Where the abundant flowing of holy …
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