MULTIPLIED BLESSINGS
“Thou
art my hiding-place; Thou shalt preserve me from trouble; Thou shalt
compass me about with songs of deliverance.
“I
will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I
will guide thee with mine eye.”—Ps. xxxii. 7, 8.Well,
indeed, may the Psalmist say, “Blessed is he whose transgression is
forgiven,” for every blessing flows into the soul as the
consequence of divine forgiveness. The word in the Hebrew
rendered “Blessed” is in the plural number, to show that there is
not one blessing only, but multiplied blessings and multiplied
mercies, all springing from this one source, the forgiveness of sin.
When David wrote these words he felt the truth of them. He
spoke of a gift which he had himself experienced. He had found
mercy, so he proclaimed its richness. We know how grievously he
fell in the matter of Bathsheba and Uriah, and we remember Nathan’s
visit. It was after that visit that, according to the general
belief, this Psalm was written. He had struggled with the
agonies of unforgiven sin, till at length the message was delivered
to him by the prophet, “The Lord, also, hath put away thy sin.”
[5]
No wonder, then, that he poured out his heart in this hymn of
thanksgiving, commencing with the words, “Blessed is he whose
transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”But
it is not merely a Psalm of thanksgiving, for according to the title
it was a Maschil, a Psalm giving instruction. When David was
pleading for mercy in Psalm li., he said that when he had found
forgiveness himself, he would make it known for the good of others,
“Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways.”
[6]
So now, having been forgiven, he wrote this Psalm of instruction for
others.
“Blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”
These were the words with which David commenced his Psalm, and in
these words he said that to which every forgiven soul will most
heartily add, “Amen.”What
was the peculiar character of that blessedness? We learn from
verses 3 and 4 the awful misery of sin unrepented and unforgiven.
We find how David’s tears were dried up by the burning heat of a
guilty conscience, and how the dreadful burden weighed day and night
upon his soul. Then in the next verse we are taught the secret
of the great transition from misery to peace. We find how he
made up his mind to make no further efforts to conceal his guilt.
He resolved to confess it before God, and no longer attempt to hide
it from man. The result was a complete, assured, and most
merciful forgiveness. “Thou forgavest,” he said, “the
iniquity of my sin.” He was assured of the gift, but what was
the unspeakable blessedness to which, when forgiven, he was admitted?This
we learn from the words of our text in which we find the peaceful
intercourse of the forgiven soul with God. It is that peaceful
intercourse which constitutes the real test of forgiveness, Christ
died, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God: so those who are
made partakers of that atoning work are actually brought to God and
made what the Psalmist calls “a people near unto Him.”
[7]
So it was in the case of David. There was nothing to keep him
any longer at a distance, and in the full peace of complete
reconciliation he enjoyed the unspeakable privilege of communion with
God. The account of this communion is given us in the verses of
our text, in the first of which we have the language of the forgiven
sinner to God, in the second the reply from God Himself.I.
The Language of the Forgiven Soul addressing God.He
that was afar off without any shelter from the rough storm of an
accusing conscience, is now able to look up to the God who has
forgiven him and say, “Thou art my hiding-place.” He finds
his shelter and his safety in the presence of that very God whose law
he had broken. He does not say, “Thou hast provided a
hiding-place,” but “Thou
art my
hiding-place.” He who had been exposed without protection to
the sore buffetings of his own conscience, confirmed as it was by the
just sentence of God’s holy law, had been so completely restored
that he had found in God Himself a hiding-place.In
that sacred hiding-place he realized two results, safety and praise.
When hidden there he was safe, just as our own life is safe when
hidden with Christ in God, and therefore he could say, “Thou shalt
preserve me,” and when hidden there he would live in the very
atmosphere of thanksgiving, so he said, “Thou shalt compass me
about (or surround me) with songs of deliverance.” A song of
deliverance is a song of praise from one that has been delivered.
The Song of Moses was a song of deliverance when he stood on the
shores of the Red Sea after he had seen the hosts of Egypt
overwhelmed in the flood.
[8a]
David’s was a song of deliverance when God had brought him up out
of the horrible pit and established his goings, and had put a new
song in his mouth.
[8b]
The song of the great multitude before the throne is a song of
deliverance, when, brought out of great tribulation, clothed with
white robes and palms in their hands, they sing, “Salvation to our
God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.”
[8c]Observe
the connection between this safety and these songs of deliverance.
The songs are not merely the consequence of the safety, but a part of
it. Hidden in the Lord, we are compassed, or surrounded, by
them. Whichever way we look, whether forward in hope, or
backward in memory, or upwards in trust, there is in every direction
something to call forth the praise, and the spirit of thanksgiving is
in itself a protection against assault.There
is just the same connection between praise and safety in the
description of the restored Zion: “Thou shalt call thy walls
Salvation, and thy gates Praise.”
[8d]
Praise is there represented as part of the defence. The enemy
cannot enter because the gateway is filled by praise. The song
of deliverance is so hearty and so loud that the voice of the tempter
is not heard. And thus it is that the forgiven man, hidden in
Christ Jesus, praises God, because he has been saved, and confirms
his safety by the very act of praising Him. Does not this teach
us a lesson as to our own communion with God? Whatever it is
that weighs on the heart and disturbs the spirit, whatever the storm
be that beats upon us, whether it be care from without or conscience
within, whether it be the pain of trouble or the still greater pain
of the sense of sin, the forgiven man may go straight to Him and say,
“I flee unto Thee to hide me.”
[9a]
And if hidden in Him, can anything really hurt us? Is not His
salvation a sufficient wall? Shall anything that can really
hurt us enter in by those gates which He has closed with praise?
In holy peace, then let the songs of deliverance rise before Him.
Let the unspeakable blessedness of the divine safety call forth the
notes of thanksgiving. If the sweet note of praise was heard by
the prisoners from the inner dungeon at Philippi,
[9b]
shall it not be heard by the whole church of God from those who have
found a hiding-place in their Lord?II.
The Lord’s Reply to the Forgiven Man.Such,
then, was the language of the forgiven man to the God who had
forgiven him. What reply did he receive? “I will
instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will
guide thee with Mine eye.” You will observe that what is here
promised is His own divine guidance and instruction, and you will see
at once how appropriate such a promise was under the peculiar
circumstances of the case. David had grievously fallen.
He had been walking, in former times, in God’s way, but had turned
aside in a most awful manner. We do not know what was the
preparatory process in his mind. Perhaps he had forgotten his
weakness; perhaps he had grown self-confident and fell. But we
see what God promised now that he was restored. He undertook in
future to keep him Himself, by His own instruction and His own
guidance. The Lord Himself undertook to guide him, and so keep
him safe from the danger of another fall.There
are two points in this promise. It was
in the way, not
about the way, that
God promised to guide him. When he was walking in the narrow
way God under took to walk with him there, and to hold him fast in
His own right hand till the journey should be complete, and the rest
reached at the end. Let us all learn the lesson that God’s
teaching is only found in the path of God’s commandments. If
we choose to walk in some way of our own choosing, we must not expect
the guidance of the Lord.Observe
also what I may term the delicacy of the promise and the intimacy of
the relationship. God says, “I will guide thee with Mine
eye.”When
David was living in a state of impenitence, the strong hand of God
was upon him day and night. But now a look is enough. No
force is needed. The heart is tender, the ear is open, the eye
is fixed on the Lord Jesus, and the least intimation of His will is
sufficient. The passage seems to describe the eye of the Lord
watching over His children, and the eyes of His children fixed on the
Lord. When the Lord Jesus looked on Peter, Peter must have been
looking on Him, and one look melted his heart. And so when the
Lord is guiding us, there is no need of strong or violent discipline,
of the wind, the storm, or the earthquake, for the still small voice
is enough. What is needed is that we should be living looking
unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, seeking to know His
will, drinking in His word, watching the guidance of His providence,
applying the principles of Scripture to common life, and so not
waiting till conviction is forced upon us, but, with a tender heart
and a ready mind, seeking hour by hour to do His will. It is in
such an attitude of mind that we can realize the sacred promise, “I
will guide thee with Mine eye.”Such,
then, was the intercourse of this forgiven man with God. How
close, how intimate, how sacred, how blessed, the communion!
And how complete must have been the forgiveness that prepared the way
for it. It seems almost impossible to believe that this was the
same man on whom God’s hand had been heavy day and night, the same
whose bones had waxed old through his roaring all the day long, now
forgiven, now brought into happy intercourse with God. Does not
the passage teach a wonderful lesson to every soul that has been
mercifully forgiven in Christ Jesus? When we think of the
precious blood of Christ, and how the Lord laid on Him the iniquity
of us all, can we suppose for a moment that the forgiveness bestowed
on us is less complete, or the restoration less perfect, than that of
David? Since, then, in his case, the insuperable barrier of his
guilt was so completely broken down that he was admitted to this
sacred and intimate fellowship, why should any one of us remain at a
distance? Why should not we, even we, go before the same Father
to find in Him our hiding-place, and receive from Him the same
blessed assurance, “I will guide thee with Mine eye”? May
He accompany us through life with that loving guidance and watch over
every step we take till, by His great grace, we are safe from danger.
THE SAVIOUR SEEKING THE SINNER
“What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of
them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go
after that which is lost, until he find it?”—St. Luke xv.
4.
There are many amongst us truly
and conscientiously seeking the Lord whose souls are ill at ease,
and whose hearts are far from peace. They are feeling after Him, if
haply they may find Him; but they are like blind men groping for
the wall, for they have not found Him, and they have no firm
resting-place for their faith. They have been reading many passages
about seeking the Lord, and have endeavoured to seek Him, but they
are sorely discouraged.
Let us, therefore, change the
subject, and instead of considering how they are to seek the Lord,
let us see how the Lord seeks them. Let us look at the Divine side
of the transaction, and instead of being absorbed by the subject of
the sinner seeking the Saviour, let us look at the boundless grace
of God which is shown by the Saviour seeking the sinner.
It is the great subject of this
chapter, which contains three illustrations of the one subject, and
thus forms an illustrated comment on His words, “The Son of man is
come to seek and to save that which was lost.”[13]According to those words He came for the lost, and came not
only to save them when they should succeed in finding Him, but to
seek them in order that He may save. He does not save without
seeking, nor does He seek without saving. Let us glean some
lessons, from the combination of the three illustrations, as to the
loss of the sinner, and the seeking of the Saviour.
The
Loss.
In all three cases the
recovered one is said to have been lost. The sheep was lost. The
coin was lost. The son was lost.
If we study the illustrations
in detail we shall see that there are three ways described in the
chapter in which this loss is brought about.
It is brought about, in the
case of the lost sheep, through simple ignorance and the folly of
pursuing each passing object of attraction. The wandering sheep has
no particular intention of going wrong. It does not set off with a
deliberate wish to run away; it is simply led on step by step by
any attraction that lies beside its path. And is not this the case
with thousands of those who have wandered from the Shepherd’s
care?
