Psalm 86:17 Show me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because you, LORD, have helped me, and comforted me. Webster defines a token thus: "Something intended to represent or indicate another thing or event." The rainbow was the "token" to Noah that a second flood would not destroy the world (Genesis 9:1-17). The blood on the doorposts of the Israelites was a "token" that their firstborn would be spared when the destroying angel passed over the land (Exodus 12:13). The going down of the shadow on the sun-dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward, was a "token" or sign that fifteen additional years would be added to Hezekiah's life (Isaiah 38:7, 8). God grants to His people tokens for good. 1. A deep sense of sin is a token for good — the precursor of salvation. Sinners must be made sorrowful for their sins, or they cannot be saved. 2. Prayerfulness. Do you feel a strong impulse to pray for the prosperity of the Church, or for one of its individual members; for your family, or for your personal growth in the Divine life? It is "a token for good," the work of the Spirit within you, a sure precursor of some blessing which God has in store for you. 3. A spirit of inquiry into the meaning of God's Word. Luther received "a token for good" when reading an ancient manuscript in his cell. He saw what a treasure of light and life there was in the Bible compared with the traditions of the Papacy. He discovered the doctrine of justification by faith, which he calls "the test of a standing or falling Church." He also found that millions of people were ready to receive its blessed light. 4. In the prosecution of our work God gives "tokens for good." A preacher saw no good done, and resolved to quit the scene of his labours, but he was encouraged by the dream of a man with a small hammer striking a large head, which after a long time flew into a thousand pieces. 5. Dark and distressing dispensations of Providence are often a "token for good." Health decays: business fails. Temporal loss often leads to spiritual gain. If God takes away one blessing He confers another more fitted to promote our well-being than that of which He deprived us. The drying up of the streams of earthly comfort lead men to seek the water of life. (H. Woodcock.) Parallel Verses KJV: Shew me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because thou, LORD, hast holpen me, and comforted me. |
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