Unless the LORD had been my helper, I would soon have dwelt in the abode of silence. Sermons
I. THE STRANGE BEATITUDE. "Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest." Wherein is the blessedness? We reply: 1. Because of what such chastening often reveals. If he were not really a child of God, he would not endure it; he would start aside and rebel. An infidel told a minister of Christ, who has been stricken with total blindness, that if God served him so, he would curse him to his face. Then this minister - well known to the writer - bore his testimony to the wonderful grace of God, how his soul had been kept in peace, and that he could and did rejoice in God, notwithstanding all his trouble. The text is like the last of the Beatitudes, "Blessed are ye when men shall persecute you," etc. (Matthew 5.). The endurance, and yet more the meek acquiescence in it, are a real revelation from God, that such a man is one of the Lord's very own. To know that is blessedness indeed. 2. Because of what it is followed by. The Lord teaches him out of his Law. We are all of us laggard scholars; some of us are too proud to learn. But God's chastenings have a wonderfully humbling and softening effect, and bring the soul into the blessed and indispensable condition for receiving the teachings of God. 3. Because of what it ministers. "Rest from the days of adversity." They cannot trouble him. A while ago some works were being carried on at Dover pier; the men had to go down deep in diving bells to reach their work. One evening one of the men was drawn up, the day's work being done, and went to his home. It suddenly occurred to him that he had left one of his tools on the stone which he had been working at. That night a furious storm raged, and the sea was lashed into a wild tumult. When at length on the following day the man went back to his work, he made up his mind that he should never again see the tool he had left the previous day. But lo! when he got down to the depths where he had been at work, there was his tool, just where he had left it the night before. The fury of the storm had not penetrated so far down; it only had power on the surface; in the depths beneath all had been quiet and still. So is it with the soul of him to whom God gives rest from the days of adversity. His soul is in the depths of God's love, where no power of adversity can reach. And this has been proved true a thousand times, and will be for us all if we be really the Lord's. And by and by the adversity itself shall depart; it continues only "until the pit be digged for the wicked." Then there shall be rest without as well as within. Now he can have only the inward rest, and blessed indeed is that; but then externally as well as internally he shall be at rest. II. A STERN NECESSITY. The destruction of the wicked; for that is what the words just quoted mean. For until then God's people cannot be perfected, but then they shall. Many object to this stern doctrine. They say God is too merciful ever to let such doom fall upon any soul. But what about his own people? If they cannot enter into God's rest until what is here said is fulfilled, does not this make it altogether likely that it will be fulfilled; yea, that it must be? If mercy to the wicked be cruelty to the righteous, as it is, what is it likely that God will do? There can be but one answer. III. A TERRIBLE ONLOOK. "The pit digged," etc. 1. These words assert the fact that such retribution will surely come. Scripture evermore affirms it. Conscience confirms the Scripture, and observed facts in the constant acting of God's providence - the awful retributions that we see do actually come on the wicked - attest the same awful truth. 2. They tell the nature of this retribution. "The pit." It brings up before the mind the dark horror which awaits sin. 3. Its gradual approach. The pit is not yet dug, but is being made ready. It becomes wider and deeper every day. 4. Those who are preparing it. God and the sinner himself. In an awful sense he is a "coworker with God." 5. Its loud appeal. "Stop the digging!" If man stops, God will; he will not go on if you will not. Turn to him, and he will deliver you out of the horrible pit (Psalm 40:1). - S.C.
Who will rise up for Me against the evil-doers? or who will stand up for Me against the workers of iniquity? It is hardly possible to read this psalm through without feeling that the inspired voice in it denounces the unbelief of the heathen' world. When a man has come to a deep conviction of the Oneness of Jehovah every other worship is to him an abomination, for such worship must either be an awful rivalry to Him whose glory cannot be given to another, or must involve a total misconception of His nature and a blasphemous corruption of His name.I. CHARACTERISTICS OF THESE EVIL-DOERS. 1. Not more than one-seventh of the human race is even nominally Christian; and among these Christians are reckoned all the populations of Austria, France, Russia, America, and Spain; the Greeks, the Copts, and the Armenians; the priest-ridden inhabitants of Brazil and Mexico, and all the crowds of our English cities; the Sabbath-breakers, the despisers of God's love, the haters of God's law, the drunkard, the harlot, the miser, the dotard, and the fool. Verily, an accumulation of sin, a multitude of evil-doers, are to be found in so-called Christendom! But let us turn from the one-seventh to the six-sevenths of this world's population. Here, notwithstanding all our grievous imperfections, we are passing out of Goshen into Egyptian darkness. 2. Their variety. In one place there is subtle speculation, in another gross vice; here utter indifference, there wild fanaticism; in one tribe crushing ignorance, in another daring philosophy and luxuriant imagination. Some there are who, under the stimulus of history and myth, are virtual adorers of humanity, as the Confucianist and the Northern Buddhist; others, without traditions, or love, or duty, cherish no reverence, and fear no evil. The regiments of the prince of this world wear various uniforms; the mutineers in God's army are widespread and bear divers colours: they speak a hundred dialects or tongues, and are scattered over the whole world. Amid the varieties that we have to contend against, and the sins that we know to be grieving the heart of Immanuel, let us not omit to notice the men who find in the variety of the mutineers some arguments against the legitimacy of the Great King, who give to these forms of evil-doing gentle names, who are hopeless about the work of their reduction, and give it up in despair. 3. Their organization. The differences of which we have spoken in race, position, language, religion, philosophical character, take great leading types, and have prominent characteristics. Take away caste from the Brahmin, and you deprive him of his birthright. Take away caste from the mind of the Hindu, and you take away his living God. The most acute minds, and the best educated of the native populations, fight against all that we can believe to be sacred and holy, with the desperation of men who are contending for the altar, the homesteads, the graves of their fathers. 4. Their depravity. We would not blacken our poor humanity beyond its deserts, but nowhere, not even amid the most polished provinces of India and China, can we find a righteous class, or discover anything approximating a moral elevation — a standard of excellence which can excite the faintest hope that heathenism has within itself the elements of improvement or the seeds of life. Even the few exceptions of men whose virtues have been notorious, whose temptations have been overcome, whose philosophy, whose affections, or whose patriotism have triumphed over their lust, and been mighty enough to redeem them by God's grace from the universal pollution, do after all shed the most terrible light over the corruption that is untouched, and reveal throughout the wide extent of man the presence of a power and of possibilities, of a conscience, a freedom, and a spirit in man which leave him, as the apostle says, "without excuse." II. THE COURSE WHICH GOD HAS TAKEN WITH THESE EVIL-DOERS, AND ALSO WHAT IS INVOLVED IN THE APPEAL HERE UTTERED. "Who will rise up for Me against the evil-doers?" "Who is on the Lord's side? Whom shall we send, and who will go for us?" By these appeals to the heart of His people, God seems to tell us that He is not going to crush, or destroy, or convert, or save these evil-doers by any fiat of omnipotence, by any touch of His imperial sceptre, His method has always been to teach men by men; to uproot error by truth; to overturn and undermine evil influence by good influence; to conquer darkness by light; to drive out hatred by love. He took up the manhood of Jesus into His own Godhead, and made that great light henceforth to rule the day, and He made the reflections of His glory — as all lesser lights really are — to rule the night; and ever since the exaltation of Jesus, when He intends to reach the hearts and conquer the wills of men by His love, He calls the sons of men, the brethren of Jesus, to His help against the mighty. III. THE RESPONSE WHICH IS MADE TO THIS APPEAL. Science, commerce, luxury, a polished language and unlimited resources, have had their day and utterly failed, having miserably succumbed in revelry, suicide and hell. Never let us hope that we can save Africa with cotton, or India with railways; the Moslem is not softened by a telegraph, nor the Dyak of Borneo purified by geometry. God calls for other helpers; and lo! by the side of all these shadowy forms, an angel of light (Revelation 10:1, 2). The thunders utter their voices, and "another angel appears, having the everlasting Gospel," etc. Wheresoever this power has gone it has gained victories. Every sanctuary, every log-cabin where the name of Jesus has been breathed, is a scene where a battle has been fought against evil-doers, and a victory has been won. With whatsoever individual, class, or nation it comes fairly into contact, the evil is driven out, the tendencies to good sublimed and purified. It is the Gospel which shows the only way of meeting the clamour of insulted conscience, and supplies motives strong enough to lift the soul into harmony with its own moral law. (H. Reynolds, B.A.) (The Quiver.) Christian World. During one of the great battles of the American Civil War a recruit who had lost his company in the tumult of strife approached General Sheridan and timidly asked where he would "step in," "Step in?" thundered Sheridan, in a voice that frightened the already terrified recruit almost as much as the roar of cannonading and musketry. "Step in anywhere; there's fighting all along the line." An accident occurred recently that very forcibly brought Sheridan's words to mind. A heavy piece of machinery was being moved into a building by means of a block and tackle. Suddenly one of the ropes parted and the machine began to slide backward. The two men who had charge of the work sprang to stay its progress, but it was more than they were capable of doing. "Give us a lift," one of them shouted to a bystander. "Where shall I take hold?" asked the man thus addressed, unmindful of the fact that both men were exerting every muscle to control the machine and that there was not a second to lose. "Grab hold anywhere!" yelled the mover. But another had already seen the necessity for instant action, and rendered the necessary assistance. It may be that we are in a field of Christian enterprise where we are unaccustomed to work, and are timidly asking where we shall "Step in." We may find our answer in the words of Sheridan, "Step in anywhere; there's fighting all along the line."(Christian World.) People Jacob, PsalmistPlaces JerusalemTopics Abode, Almost, Death, Dwelt, Helper, Inhabited, Quickly, Silence, Soul, UnlessOutline 1. The prophet, calling for justice, complains of tyranny and impiety.8. He teaches God's providence 12. He shows the blessedness of affliction 16. God is the defender of the afflicted. Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 94:17Library Of the Knowledge of TruthHappy is the man whom Truth by itself doth teach, not by figures and transient words, but as it is in itself.(1) Our own judgment and feelings often deceive us, and we discern but little of the truth. What doth it profit to argue about hidden and dark things, concerning which we shall not be even reproved in the judgment, because we knew them not? Oh, grievous folly, to neglect the things which are profitable and necessary, and to give our minds to things which are curious and hurtful! Having … Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ Against Vain and Worldly Knowledge A Prayer for the Spirit of Devotion The Abrogation of the Saybrook Platform Joy a survey of the third and closing discourse of the prophet Out of the Deep of Suffering and Sorrow. In Death and after Death How they are to be Admonished who Lament Sins of Deed, and those who Lament Only Sins of Thought. Temporal Advantages. Division of Actual Grace Letter Xlvi (Circa A. D. 1125) to Guigues, the Prior, and to the Other Monks of the Grand Chartreuse The Roman Pilgrimage: the Miracles which were Wrought in It. But, Say They, How is the Flesh by a Certain Likeness Compared unto The... Question Lxxxi of the virtue of Religion The Knowledge of God The Chorus of Angels Christian Meekness Psalms Links Psalm 94:17 NIVPsalm 94:17 NLT Psalm 94:17 ESV Psalm 94:17 NASB Psalm 94:17 KJV Psalm 94:17 Bible Apps Psalm 94:17 Parallel Psalm 94:17 Biblia Paralela Psalm 94:17 Chinese Bible Psalm 94:17 French Bible Psalm 94:17 German Bible Psalm 94:17 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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