and slaughtered mighty kings--His loving devotion endures forever. Sermons
I. THE IDEA OF PROVIDENCE FITTED THE OLDER CONCEPTION OF GOD. It belongs to the apprehension of God as Creator, Sustainer, Ruler. He is Lord of the whole world of things, and is thought of as controlling all things in the interest of his own special people. He is the Universal Provider, and our fathers delighted in stories of remarkable providential interpositions, guidances, and arrangements. And still no man can read his own life, or watch the lives of others, without being impressed with the wonder-working ways of Divine providence, which make the "unexpected" the thing that happens. Constantly in life we find things are brought round for us which we could in no way have mastered or arranged. "There's a divinity that shapes our ends, II. THE NEWER CONCEPTION OF GOD GLORIFIES HIS PROVIDENCE. Christ has brought to men a comprehensive name for God. It includes the very essence of every previous conception and name, but puts man into a new and more directly personal and affectionate relation with God. He is our Father. And his providence is his fatherly care of our every interest. Has a child any such providence as his father is to him? And yet a child never thinks of, or speaks of, his father as providence. And in the measure in which we can enter into the idea of God as our Father, we shall find that we lose out of use the term "providence," but keep all the reality of it, and indeed glorify it, as we lose the impersonal and therefore cold element, and see it to be the wisdom and power and activity of our Father, which is beautified and sanctified by his love for us his sons. - R.T. 1. It appears in their own destruction.(1) If there be no future state it puts an end to their miseries.(2) If there be, as we believe there is, a state of future punishment, the sooner the incorrigible sinner dies the better for himself; the longer he lives the more guilt he contracts, and the greater his guilt the greater his agonies in a world of retribution. 2. It appears in the relief afforded to the race. When such demons in human flesh are cut down, the world breathes freer, obstacles are swept from its path of progress; when the Pharaohs are engulfed the human Israel can march forward to promised lands. II. THE PRAISES OF GOD CELEBRATED ON ACCOUNT OF THE PERPETUITY OF HIS MERCY. 1. Because Divine mercy will always work for good. Therefore, the longer it continues, the better. 2. Because the future ages of the world will require mercy. There will be much for mercy to do on this planet yet, before the race will be brought hack into harmony with God. 3. Because we ourselves shall ever be dependent on mercy. (Homilist.) I. IT IS WELL TO DELIBERATE LONG OVER THE MERCIFUL SIDE OF GOD'S JUDGMENTS. We might have thought it more natural if we had read, for His justice, or, for His vengeance endureth for ever. But though terrible for these tyrants, it was a great mercy for others. When tyrants die nations have time to breathe. When lions fall, or the wolves are slain, the deer and sheep have time to rest. Not mercy to the one man, perhaps, to Nero, Caligula, Tiberius or the like, but to the millions who groaned under his abominable rule. And so of huge systems of error and superstition which have oppressed men. They have passed away, and others shall, "for His mercy endureth for ever." II. EACH MERCY DESERVES TO BE REMEMBERED. See with what special point and emphasis each instance is put. They are thus given — 1. Because each mercy we have received is undeserved. In the very chapter which tells of these victories of Israel their murmurings and the fiery serpents that chastised them are told of also. It was to these people God gave these repeated victories. 2. Not one could be dispensed with. Had the Lord stopped when Sihon was slain, what would have become of Israel? 3. There was a peculiarity about each mercy. You never had two mercies from God that were quite alike. 4. But if any mercy deserves to be particularly remembered, it is early mercy. The children of Israel had not got their hands into fighting yet. They were young recruits. And so with ourselves, how we ought to remember God's mercy to us in the beginning of our career. III. EACH MERCY DOES REALLY IN ITSELF DESERVE SEPARATE CONTEMPLATION. How we dwell in detail and fulness on our troubles. Should we not do so also with our mercies? When I have got some trouble of my own, I think I generally find myself turning it inside out and showing every bit of it — every point of it — upside down, the wrong way up, the right way up, and all ways. Ought I not to do the same with my mercies? IV. CONTINUED BENEFITS ARE A SPECIAL PROOF OF ENDURING MERCY. For God to give one mercy might not prove that His mercy endureth for ever, but when no sooner is one given than another follows, and another follows that, the unbroken succession of wave upon wave in ceaseless regularity does show that His mercy endureth for ever. And is not this what so many of us have to tell of? V. THE OVERRULING OF TRIALS IS A SUBJECT TO DWELL UPON WITH DELIGHT. Israel did not expect to have the territory of Sihon and Og. Their land was on the other side Jordan, but since they attacked them as unexpected foes, they got out of them unexpected territory. Unexpected trials often issue in unexpected advantages. VI. THAT ALL THIS SHOULD BE FOR THE SAME PERSONS FURTHER SHOWS THAT "HIS MERCY," ETC. For whom does Sihon, does Og, fall but for Israel? All is for them, undeserving, evil, full of provocation as they were. Is there one of us who might not justly be in hell before the clock ticks again, if it were not that His mercy endureth for ever? Do any say, "My sins are strong, how can I master them?" Cannot He who slew great kings, yea, famous kings, cannot He slay them? ( C. H. Spurgeon.) People Amorites, Egyptians, Og, Pharaoh, Psalmist, SihonPlaces JerusalemTopics Age, Death, Endures, Endureth, Everlasting, Famous, Forever, Honourable, Killed, Kindness, Kings, Love, Loving, Lovingkindness, Loving-kindness, Mercy, Mighty, Noble, Slay, Slew, Steadfast, Unchanging, YeaOutline 1. An exhortation to give thanks to God for particular mercies.Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 136:1-20 1085 God, love of Library Pilgrim SongGerhard Ter Steegen Ps. cxxxvi. 16 Come, children, on and forward! With us the Father goes; He leads us, and He guards us Through thousands of our foes: The sweetness and the glory, The sunlight of His eyes, Make all the desert places To glow as paradise. Lo! through the pathless midnight The fiery pillar leads, And onward goes the Shepherd Before the flock He feeds; Unquestioning, unfearing, The lambs may follow on, In quietness and confidence, Their eyes on Him alone. Come, children, on and … Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen, Suso, and Others The Last Discourses of Christ - the Prayer of Consecration. The Minstrel Gethsemane Psalms Links Psalm 136:18 NIVPsalm 136:18 NLT Psalm 136:18 ESV Psalm 136:18 NASB Psalm 136:18 KJV Psalm 136:18 Bible Apps Psalm 136:18 Parallel Psalm 136:18 Biblia Paralela Psalm 136:18 Chinese Bible Psalm 136:18 French Bible Psalm 136:18 German Bible Psalm 136:18 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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