Psalm 31:24 Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all you that hope in the LORD. I. AN APPROVED COMPANY. The text is addressed to — 1. Men of hope. They have not yet entered into possession of their full inheritance; they have a hope which is looking out for something better on before; they have a living hope which peers into the future beyond even the dark river of death, a hope with eyes so bright that it seeth things invisible to others, and gazes upon glories which the unaided human eye has never beheld. Have you this good hope? 2. They hope for good things, for this is implied when the psalmist speaks of those that hope in the Lord, for no man hopes for evil things whose hope is in the Lord. 3. If you are the persons spoken of in the text, this hope of yours is rooted, and grounded, and stablished in the Lord: "all ye that hope in the Lord." You have not a hope apart from the ever-blessed Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 4. Some of them do not get much beyond hope, "All ye that hope in the Lord." This passage picks up the hindermost, it seems to come, like the men with the ambulance, to look after the wounded, and carry them on at the same pace as those who march in the fulness of their strength. II. There is AN OCCASIONAL WEAKNESS apparent in many of those that hope in the Lord. 1. It is a dangerous weakness, for it is a weakness of the heart. They lose their courage, their joy departs from them, and they become timorous and fearful. 2. This weakness occurs on many occasions. (1) In the battle of life. (2) In times of temptation. (3) In the midst of great labour for the Lord.The best of men are but men at the best; and, therefore, who wonders if their heart sometimes faileth them in the day of suffering, in the hour of battle, or under the broiling sun, when they are labouring for their Lord? 3. If this weakness of the heart should continue, it will be very injurious. (1) At the present time, I believe that it restricts enterprise. (2) It endangers the success of the best workers. (3) It pleads many excuses. III. A SEASONABLE EXHORTATION. I like the way this is put. It is not alone, "Be of good courage"; there is an "and" with it: "and he shall strengthen your heart." At the same time, the exhortation is not omitted. It does not say, "He shall comfort your heart, therefore you need do nothing." They err from the Scriptures who make the grace of God a reason for doing nothing; it is the reason for doing everything. 1. If you want to get out of diffidence, and timidity, and despondency, you must rouse yourselves up. Do not sit still, and rub your eyes, and say, "I cannot help it, I must always be dull like this." You must not be so; in the name of God, you are commanded in the text to "be of good courage." 2. Do you not think that your God deserves to be trusted? What has He ever done that you should doubt Him? 3. If thou art not of good courage, what will happen to thee? I would not have you deserve the coward's doom, and speak of it as "retiring." No, get not into that class; be thou rather like that soldier of Alexander, who was always to the front, and the reason was that he bore about with him what was thought to be an incurable disease, and he suffered so much pain that he did not care whether he lived or died. Alexander took great pains to have him healed, and when he was quite well, he never exposed his precious life to any risk again. Oh, I would rather that you should be stung into courage by excessive pain than that you should be healed into cowardice! Christ ought not to be served by feather-bed soldiers. IV. A CHEERING PROMISE. "He shall strengthen your heart." God alone can do this. 1. Sometimes by gracious providences. 2. By the kindly fellowship of friends. 3. By a precious promise. 4. Beside all that, God the Holy Spirit has a secret way of strengthening the courage of God's people, which none of us can explain. Have you never felt it? You may have gone to your bed, sick at heart, "weary, and worn, and sad," and you wake in the morning ready for anything. Perhaps, in the middle of the night, you awake, and the visitations of God are manifested to you, and you feel as happy as if everything went the way you would like it to go. Nay, you shall be more happy that everything should cross you than that everything should please you, if it be God's sweet will. You feel a sudden strengthening of your spirit, so that you are perfectly resigned, satisfied, prepared, and ready. ( C. H. Spurgeon.). Parallel Verses KJV: Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD. |
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