My hand will sustain him; surely My arm will strengthen him. Sermons
I. GOD'S CHOICE OF DAVID DOES APPEAR STRANGE. For what a category of crimes his career as recorded in the Scriptures declares! In cold blood he slays two hundred Philistines (1 Samuel 18:20-27). He leaves his wife Michal to face her father's rage, when she had risked her own life to save his (1 Samuel 19:11-17). He bids Jonathan lie to his father (1 Samuel 20:5, 6). He lies cruelly to Abimelech and the priests at Nob, and then left them to Saul's vengeance (1 Samuel 21:1, 2; 1 Samuel 22:9-19). He deceives Achish (1 Samuel 21:10-15). He would, in revenge, have slain Nabal and all his house (1 Samuel 25:2-38). He lies to King Achish, who had given him Ziklag, by pretending that he had fought against Judah; and, to conceal his lie, he cruelly slaughters the Geshurites and others (1 Samuel 27.). He takes terrible revenge on Amalek (1 Samuel 30:1-17). Instead of punishing Joab, as he ought to have done, he utters terrible imprecations against him (2 Samuel 3:28, 29). He tortures the Ammonites (2 Samuel 12:27-31). He deals cruelly with Mephibosheth, stripping him of all his property, and giving it to Ziba (2 Samuel 16:1-4; 2 Samuel 19:24-30). He violates his oath to Saul, that he would not slay his children; nevertheless, he afterwards gave them up to the Gibeonites, who hanged them (1 Samuel 24:21; 2 Samuel 21:1-9). And then his great sin in the matter of Uriah - a sin in which no element of baseness, treachery, cruelty, and lust was wanting; and yet all the while he was a great psalm singer (2 Samuel 11:2-17). He piously exhorts Solomon to walk in the ways of the Lord; and yet he himself kept his harem crowded with ever more women (2 Samuel 5:13; 1 Kings 2:3). His terrible death bed charge to Solomon to slay Joab and Shimei. His imprecatory psalms (see Psalm 109.). And we have no record of any great good deeds to set off against these other terrible ones. Yes; it must be admitted that the choice of David needs vindication. A loud professor of religion, and yet, etc. II. BUT IT CAN BE VINDICATED. 1. Because the expression so much complained of - David's being "a man offer God's own heart - refers, not to his personal character, but to his official conduct. He was called of God to restore the kingdom which Saul had destroyed, to subdue the Philistines, etc. These purposes he accomplished. So far he was a man after God's own heart. His moral delinquencies are recorded that we may know where the Divine approbation stops short" (F.D. Maurice). But we confess we do not lay much stress upon this. 1 Kings 15:1-5 does not bear it out. We prefer to vindicate the Divine choice of David in another manner. 2. He was worthy when the words were spoken of him, and for a long while after. Had he been always what he afterwards became, such high commendation would not have been given. Then: 3. He knew no better than to do as did all others. As to his life as an outlaw, a kind of Oriental Robin Hood, he was driven to it by the jealousy and hate of Saul; and as to his lies and stratagems, his ferocities and tortures, all such things were held lawful in his day; and, though they shock us as we read of them, they were held as altogether right by his contemporaries. We must distinguish between the vitia temporis and the vitia hominis (Farrar), and not condemn the man for not tieing altogether different from and beyond the public sentiment of his age. 4. What he did know of right he mainly did. See his patriotism, his courage, his military ability, the salvation of his country from ruin. See his delight and his trust in God, and his deep penitence for his sin. And see the unbounded honour and love of his people which he won and kept. Is all this to go for nothing? 5. And remember how he was punished for his sins. In his family. His sons had seen their father indulge himself: why shouldn't they? (Kingsley). And in his nature he was punished; Its bent and bias became horribly sensual. Indulgence increased the evil, and so came about the shameful tragedy of his adultery and Uriah's murder. It was not a sudden fall, he had long been tending that way. And in his character. He never really recovered. He shuffles shamefully to his grave; his courage, his self-control, his nobleness, well nigh all gone. One is reminded of King Lear - Vex not his ghost; oh, let him pass; He hates him, That would upon the rack of this rough world Stretch him out longer." He dies a miserable and pitiful man, his last words being his charge to Solomon about Shimei: "His hoary head bring thou down to the grave with blood." Think of that as the last words of the David of the twenty-third psalm! What a melancholy failing away! There is no favouritism in God. If his children sin, they suffer, and that supremely. God loves them too much to let it be otherwise. III. AND IS FULL OF INSTRUCTION FOR OURSELVES. We learn: 1. Thankfulness that we are born in a more enlightened age; that there would be shame now where there was then no shame. 2. Strong religious feeling and profession are no certain safeguards against sin, but only heighten its guilt. 3. Repentance may be real, yet the results of sin not be recalled. 4. We dare never remit even for one day the waiting of our soul upon God in watchfulness and prayer. 5. The judgments of God against our sin are his mercy to our soul. 6. He who forgave the contrite David forgives still. - S.C. II. A good government for the world is DESTINED TO BE ESTABLISHED (ver. 3). The Supreme here pledges in the most solemn way the establishing of a government in the world of which David's is a most imperfect type, viz. the moral reign of Christ. This reign will be the reign of truth and love, and will one day be commensurate with the race. III. A good government for the world will be REARED BY MERCY AND FAITHFULNESS. "Mercy" and "faithfulness" are to be the elements of which it is to be composed. As all the great mountains in nature are built up of certain elements, all grand and beneficent institutions in the world are built of mercy and faithfulness. (Homilist.) I. THE BUILDER. Strangers when they visit this great metropolis, and see some of its remarkable buildings, such as St. Paul's Cathedral, for instance, very naturally ask, "Who was the builder of this beautiful edifice?" The answer would be, "Sir Christopher Wren." 1. A wise builder. 2. A mighty builder. II. THE NAME OF THE BUILDING. The house of mercy. 1. A very beautiful name. 2. A most just and proper name. Every little child who goes to the door of this House of Mercy, and asks admittance, is instantly received; and, when admitted, that child receives from Him who raised the building the choicest mercies — the mercy of pardon, the mercy of acceptance, the mercy of adoption, the mercy of holiness, and of a title to heaven. III. THE FOUNDATION OF THE BUILDING. Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 3:11). IV. THE APARTMENTS OF THE BUILDING. 1. The storeroom, containing precious food. The bread of life, etc. Also medicine for the sick and diseased. The balm of Gilead, etc. 2. The wardrobe, containing the robe of righteousness, the garments of salvation, etc. 3. The armoury (Ephesians 6:13-17). 4. The library, containing books of history; books of doctrine; books of promises; books of threatening (these are all bound in black, and are very dreadful-looking books, though of great importance); books of precepts; books of songs, and oh, what beautiful songs! the songs of David, and other sweet singers of Israel; books of prophecy; and books of experience, such as the Psalms, Lamentations, and Job. V. THE EXCELLENCIES OF THE BUILDING. It is — 1. Ancient. 2. Large. 3. Commodious. 4. Beautiful. 5. High. 6. Durable.If you look at a building in this city which is ten years old you will see that it shows the effects of the elements upon it; it hears traces of the frost and smoke and rain. But there is no change in this beautiful building. It is very commodious. There is every comfort within these walls for every one without exception. It is filled with light. It is warm. There is no cold winter within that noble edifice. VI. THE INHABITANTS OF THE BUILDING. 1. All forgiven. 2. All sons and daughters of the living God. 3. All beautiful — no deformity there. 4. All happy. VII. THE ROAD TO THE BUILDING. Every one who enters is convinced of three things: — 1. That he is a sinner. 2. That he is in danger of hell. 3. That he will never be saved till he enters this Building of Mercy. VIII. THE DOOR OF THE BUILDING. The righteousness of Christ — what He did, became, and suffered. IX. THE SERVANTS EMPLOYED TO INVITE SINNERS TO ENTER THE BUILDING. (A. Fletcher, D.D.) Thy faithfulness God draws us into the conscious knowledge and enjoyment of His faithfulness —I. BY KEEPING THE PROMISES OF HIS GRACE TO US. II. BY ENGAGING US IN SPECIAL WORK. Though we have omnipotence on our side, God will employ the last ounce of our strength. He will not spare us thought, anxiety, trouble, endurance, labour, no, nor even some measure of disappointment — nothing that can conduce to make us workmen that need not be ashamed, and soldiers who can endure hardness. (J. P. Gledstone.) That is a Christmas psalm chosen for the day, and it is the psalm of dauntless courage, for it is a song that sings always the lovingkindness of the Lord; it goes up out of the darkness of desolation, it sees no cause for cheerfulness ringing it round as it sings. The singer stands, he tells us, in the heart of a great dismay. The cause of God is in ruin and contempt and impotence and misery. And yet, and yet he has but one song, and he must sing it out in defiance of his generation. No dishonour shall defeat it, no darkness shall choke it, no doubt or hesitation, no soreness or anger shall cloud his upward look or hold down the outpouring of his soul. The old words shall sing out from his lips which have never yet failed down all the long years. We would turn to this singer of long ago to ask him how it was that he retained his heroic confidence. What was his secret, in the thick of those old-world troubles, by force of which he still sang on this unswerving chant of victory? Can he pass the secret on to us who need it so sorely?1. First, he relies absolutely on a word that God has once uttered, on a pledge that God has given to him (vers. 3, 4). God has said it, God has sworn it. That is what he relies on! This looks so simple, but to estimate it aright let us recall that we touch here on that elementary conception of God which differentiated the Jew's religion from all others. The Jew laid hold of God by this primary title, that He was a God who kept His word. A righteous God, so he called Him, and by righteousness he meant a God whose word can be trusted, and a God who never failed His pledge. This is the vital significance of the Jew that he was the first who took God seriously, the first to believe that God meant what He said, that what He spoke He spoke with a real and fixed purpose, and having spoken He held Himself bound by His own pronouncement. 2. Secondly, to justify his own confident assurance, he corroborates his belief in the verbal consistency of God by looking to that other handiwork of His, the vast fabric of ordered Nature. There it moves in its superb persistence, the immovable witness to the unchanging loyalty of God. Everywhere among the sequence of infinite changes God's original creative word holds on changeless and true (vers. 8-11). Surely if a Jew had been allowed to know what we know of all that science tells us of the uniformities of Nature, of the persistence and conservation of force, he would have seen in these disclosures, not as we so stupidly do, the terms of a godless mechanism, but exactly the phrase that would best report his assurance of an imminent God. Everything that told him of the immutable permanence of a natural law beneath and through all change spoke to him directly of God Himself. Uniformity, persistence, conservation, yes, that is what he desires to find with all his soul in the world that God has made. That is the evidence he clings to of a God who keepeth His promise, whose word never faileth, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. 3. Thirdly, he finds the like witness yielded by the solid securities of history. "Thou hast subdued Egypt" — God has done it, and if He has done it, surely not in vain, surely not without a fixed and final purpose! A historic act like that is a pledge put down by God: "Hath He begun and shall He not finish?" Here again it is the faithfulness of God to which the appeal is made. "He keepeth His promise for ever," the promise sealed by His deeds; He will prove Himself consistent; if He take one step He will follow it by another; if He gives a decision He will hold to it. That is the significance of the actual deeds done in history. They are stakes laid down which cannot be withdrawn. They lay the honour and the power under obligation, and He cannot afford to retract. And God is honourable; He has a reputation which lie will keep clear at all hazards. And God has made His choice; He has laid down His stakes, He has taken His side, He has ventured His honour, He did it when He brought up Israel out of Egypt. He has done it since throughout the long story of His people whom He had fathered and shepherded, on whom He set His name; He has consummated this by the further steps taken when He went to give Israel a king and chose David for the kingdom. "Thou spakest," our psalm goes on, "Thou spakest sometimes in visions and said, I have found David," etc. All this has been done — it is down in the pages recorded in history which cannot be blotted out. What is done cannot be undone, and what God has done binds God as it binds a man. His will has gone out of it, He will never gainsay. That is the Divine freedom, that He binds Himself by His own deeds and His own words. His truth once more is His troth, His righteousness is the assurance that He will never fail to justify Himself. No, even if the witness of Nature were to fail, yet the witness of God's own acts in history would abide. God is true, God keeps His word. We want nothing further wherewith to meet the year before us. There may be anxieties and the sense of social trouble and a cloudy outlook, but nothing shall rob us of our song. (Canon Scott Holland.) A learned minister, attending an aged Christian in humble life, when in his last illness, remarked that the passage in Hebrews 13:5, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee," was much more emphatic in the original language than in our translation, inasmuch as it contained no fewer than five negatives in proof of the validity of the Divine promise, and not merely two, as it appears in the English version; intending by this remark to convey to him that, in consequence of the number of negatives, the promise was expressed with much greater force in the original language than in the English. The man's reply was very simple and striking: "I have no doubt, sir, that you are quite right, but I can assure you that if God had only spoken once I should have believed Him just the same."People David, Ethan, Psalmist, RahabPlaces JerusalemTopics Abide, Arm, Established, Strength, Strengthen, Support, SurelyOutline 1. The psalmist praises God for his covenant5. For his wonderful power 15. For the care of his church 19. For his favor to the kingdom of David 38. Then complaining of contrary events 46. He expostulates, prays, and blesses God. Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 89:21Library Continual Sunshine'Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance.'--PSALM lxxxix. 15. The Psalmist has just been setting forth, in sublime language, the glories of the divine character--God's strength, His universal sway, the justice and judgment which are the foundation of His Throne, the mercy and truth which go as heralds before His face. A heathen singing of any of his gods would have gone on to describe the form and features of the god or goddess who … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture December the Ninth National Blessedness September the Sixteenth the Steadfastness of the Lord The People's Christ The Blessing of God. A vision of the King. The City of God. Index of Subjects. Unity of Moral Action. Letter Lv. Replies to Questions of Januarius. The Promised King and Temple-Builder "He is the Rock, his Work is Perfect. For all his Ways are Judgment. A God of Truth, and Without Iniquity, Just and Right is He. Atonement. Second Sunday in Lent The Justice of God Covenanting Provided for in the Everlasting Covenant. His Future Work Assurance Of the Name of God The Poetical Books (Including Also Ecclesiastes and Canticles). How Shall one Make Use of Christ as the Life, when Wrestling with an Angry God Because of Sin? The Firstborn. The First Commandment The Call of Matthew - the Saviour's Welcome to Sinners - Rabbinic Theology as Regards the Doctrine of Forgiveness in Contrast to the Gospel of Christ The Being of God Links Psalm 89:21 NIVPsalm 89:21 NLT Psalm 89:21 ESV Psalm 89:21 NASB Psalm 89:21 KJV Psalm 89:21 Bible Apps Psalm 89:21 Parallel Psalm 89:21 Biblia Paralela Psalm 89:21 Chinese Bible Psalm 89:21 French Bible Psalm 89:21 German Bible Psalm 89:21 Commentaries Bible Hub |
    |