I. REASONABLE. "Because"; none can deny this basis of consolation. It is not founded on God's promise — though that could never be broken — but upon past experience. God has been our help.

II. PERSONAL — "My help."

III. REAL. It is far more than rest or quiescent peace. The psalms are full of the gladness of the Lord. Much joy is superficial. What depths of melancholy there are in hearts that know not God.

IV. RESTFUL.

V. PROPHETIC. What can the future bring for which Christ cannot prepare us? This, then, is to be written on our banners, "In the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice."

(W. M. Statham.)

1. David had experienced Divine help. The Roman used to speak of Deus ex machina; God appearing in an unexpected manner in the midst of a history to rescue the hero, and change the scene. This is no figure of speech in the life of faith. Every now and then we have witnessed a distinct interposition, a stretching out of the Divine hand, an inroad of the supernatural. To us has it been true, "He bowed the heavens also, and came down." Others might think our experience fanatical, if we were to tell it as we see it; but this we cannot help. To us it has been a real manifestation of the Divine thoughtfulness on our behalf. Looking back upon our lives, we cannot help saying deliberately, and as cool statement of fact — The Lord has been our help.

2. David had often experienced this help. He does not make this statement in reference to one solitary incident in his life, or he would have said, "Thou wast once my help"; but he sees a continuity in the lovingkindness of the Lord his God. He means, "Thou hast all along been my help." In doing his duty as patriot and king, God was his help, and enabled him to walk uprightly in his government. In his sufferings the Lord was his help, and enabled him to be calm and brave. In the time of danger God was his help, and kept him from the hand of the enemy. And now, in this psalm, though David is in the wilderness of Judah, and probably hunted by his own son, yet he sings unto the Lord, "Thou hast been my help." I do not want you to stop with David any longer. I beg you, now, to come nearer home, and review your own lives.

3. These helps rendered to David had been very choice ones. He had often been helped in special ways. God had taken great care of him. He was the favourite of Providence, and the darling of Heaven. Has it not been so with some of you? Have you not enjoyed choice morsels of experience? Are there not incidents in your life which you could scarcely tell, lest the hearer should smile at your credulity?

4. God's help has also been continuous to us. In the time of our darkness we could not see the link; but, looking back, we can see it now.

5. Observe also that the Lord has granted us educative mercy. David says, "Because Thou hast been my help." He says not, that He has wrought everything for us, but He has set us working also. You see, if you do a thing for a man, it is well; but if you help him to do it, it may be better for him, for thus he learns the way.

II. EXPECTATION.

1. What we have experienced of God's goodness is a revelation of Himself: God's actions are Himself in motion. If, then, we have experienced God's power, He is powerful; and we know that anything is possible to Him. If I have experienced His acts of faithfulness, I conclude that He is always faithful, and that He will keep His promise and His covenant, and will be true to all those who trust in Him.

2. This reasoning is good, since you have to do with an unchanging God. If you have changeable man to deal with, there will be no logic in your reasoning; but when you think of Jehovah who changeth not, then you may infer great things, and the severest logic will support you. He was my help, He is my help, and therefore He will be my help, even to the end.

3. This kind of argument is very sure to a man's own self, and he is the person most concerned. We know whom we have believed, and we are persuaded that He will not fail us. We know what we do know; and if we cannot tell it to others, we are none the less sure of it ourselves.

4. It is clear that this is an accumulating argument. The young man who has known the Lord twelve months, and experienced a great deliverance, is sure that the Lord is to be trusted. But when he has passed twenty, thirty, or forty years of the same experience, his assurance will be doubly sure. To a believer in Christ every day teems with providences and mercies. This tree beareth its fruit every month, and the fruit feeds faith wondrously.

III. ASSURANCE.

1. Contented assurance. David, grateful for past help, holds himself still, and happily awaits the purpose of the Lord. He manifests no fear, no fret, no hurry, no worry. Neither does be cast his eyes towards man. "Thou hast been my help," saith he; and he looks that way.

2. Patient assurance. It is not ours to hasten the Divine vengeance, nor to wish for a personal triumph; but it is ours to feel the bliss of safety in nearness to God.

3. The assurance of faith. "Because Thou hast been my help, therefore" — what? "In the light of Thy countenance will I rejoice"? No: he had then but little light; he was "in the shadow." The wilderness cut him off from beholding God in the sanctuary. If you cannot see the face of God, His shadow may give you peace. Lord, I will pray to Thee to lift up the light of Thy countenance upon me; but if Thou dost continue to hide Thyself, I will still trust Thee, and be sure that Thou art the same God of grace. Knowing that Thy shadow is full of defence for me, I will rejoice therein.

4. Continued assurance. We read not, in the shadow of Thy wings have I rejoiced, but, "I will rejoice." He is rejoicing, and means to go on rejoicing. His joy no man taketh from him. He will rejoice so long as he has a God to rejoice in.

5. The best of all is, this is rejoicing assurance. The text does not say "Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I trust," but, "in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice." That is going further than silent submission, or humble trust. David is in the dark; but, like the nightingale, he sings in it.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

1. This implies his necessity. First, as having much work. Secondly, as having many enemies. Thirdly, as having but little strength. Those which are in these circumstances have need of help to be administered unto them. And this is the case and condition of all Christians.(1) They have much work, a great deal of business to be despatched by them, which they are not able very well to run through of themselves. Take the meanest Christian that is, and in the lowest rank and order amongst men, yet he has work enough to do if it be but to save his own soul, to live soberly, and righteously, and godly in this present world. But if he be anything higher, then it is so much the more; in the family as a master, or in the church as a minister, or as a magistrate in the commonwealth. Here, now, the greater occasions and opportunities that there are of doing good, the greater is the work itself, and the more need of help in it.(2) They have many enemies. These two they do usually and commonly go together. Much work to be done, and many enemies to oppose themselves against it (1 Corinthians 16:9).(3) They have but little strength, or, indeed none at all.

2. He hath help afforded him by God Himself.(1) He is a strong helper.(2) He is a ready helper. He is a God at hand, and not a God afar off, aa the Scripture often expresses Him. When trouble is near, He is near too; which is a matter of very great comfort and encouragement to all those that depend upon Him.(3) He is the only help also. There's none can help without Him, nor, indeed, none besides Him. The improvement of this point to ourselves, in a way of application, comes to this purpose —

1. As a word of comfort and consolation to the people of God in all those difficulties and distresses which they are surrounded and encompassed withal; that they have such an One as this to help them, and to relieve them, and to be assistant unto them.

2. We may make use of this point also in a way of excitement, and that to a threefold performance, which is very rationally consequent hereupon.(1) If God help us, let us then also help Him.(2) If God help us, let us then also help ourselves.(3) If God help us, let us then also help one another.

II. THE IMPROVEMENT OF THIS EXPERIENCE.

1. David's purpose or resolution, which he takes up to himself.(1) By the shadow of God's wings we are especially to understand His providence and fatherly protection; and we find mention of it often in Scripture (Psalm 17:18; Psalms 57:1; 36:7). It is an expression of safety. Look, as the chickens are safe while they are under the wings of the hen, even so are God's people safe while they are under His providence and protection; and there is nothing which is such a defence and safeguard and security to them as this indeed is. Those which are kept by Him, they are kept safely, neither shall they need anything to fear in the days of evil and trouble which are upon them. It is an expression of secrecy. The wing hides and conceals those which are kept under it; as it preserves them from danger, so it likewise keeps them from discovery. Thus does likewise this wing of God (Psalm 91:4; Psalm 17:8; Psalm 31:20; Jeremiah 36:28). It is an expression of tenderness and singular affection (Deuteronomy 32:11, 12).(2) While he says that herein he will rejoice, there are these things implied in it, as considerable and pertinent unto it. Recourse unto them. Complacency and contentment in this condition. Thanksgiving and outward expression.

2. The occasion or ground of his resolution; and that is, the experience of God's former goodness to him. This is signified in the connection of these latter words with the former, because, therefore; because Thou hast been my help hitherto, therefore will I rejoice in Thy protection for time to come. Here's the force of David's reasoning; and the reason it holds good upon a twofold consideration. First, in a way of confidence. Secondly, in a way of acknowledgment. I will trust in Thee, and still wait upon Thee in a way of dependence. And again, "Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice." That is, I will publish this protection which I have from Thee in a way of thankfulness. According to the first notion so there is this in it, that good Christians do improve former experiences to future dependence. According to the second notion, so there is this in it, that good Christians, where they do receive mercies from God, will be there careful to acknowledge and to be thankful for them.

(T. Horton, D. D.)

1. A grateful memory. One glad necessity of the new life is, "Thou shalt remember all the way," etc. Unbelief, on the other hand, has a bad memory (Psalm 106:13).

2. A personal possession. "My God." The soul lifts its hand, not to grasp abstract truth, nor a doctrinal system, but a personal God. Mix in holier company, rise to higher employments, the Christian may and shall; but to rise to higher rank is impossible, for here and now we are children of God by faith in Jesus Christ.

3. A present joy. How precarious the present life of man! Riches fly, comforts die, friends fail, thrones reel, crowns fall, death levels; but those things which cannot be shaken remain (Hebrews 12:27).

II. THE EFFECT.

1. Refuge — ample, accessible, friendly.

2. Rest. The helpless leaning on the helper; the sinful on the sinless; the aching, guilty head, resting on the bosom of Christ.

(Homilist.)

II. THE SHADOW OF THE WINGS IN WHICH THOSE TO WHOM THE LORD HAS BEEN THEIR HELP, HOPE HE WILL BE THEIR HELP IN ALL TIMES TO COME. Here is all that favour, and mercy, and kindness, and good-will toward men, which the cherubims with their wings covering the mercy-seat prefigured.

III. THE JOY AND GLADNESS WHICH HOPE OF HELP IN GOD RAISES IN THE SHADOW OF HIS WINGS. This arises —

1. From what pious men see in the shadow of His wings. In all events and occurrences, they see not instruments, but perfections; not men, but God, sanctifying Himself, and magnifying Himself in exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. This view of His administration, under covert of which they have sheltered themselves, raises and enlivens their joy, and creates and confirms their hopes of all things issuing in His glory and their good.

2. From what they hear (Psalm 62:11, 12).

3. From what they believe. Under the wings of the overshadowing providence of God is an eminent seat where His people sit and rejoice in His salvation.

4. From what they receive. The Lord is kind to His people in the shadow of His wings, and lets them want for nothing (Psalm 84:11).

(A. Shanks.)

2. A fountain of joy. The mercy-seat shadowed with the wings of the cherubims brought to his remembrance God, whom he believed to be gracious and merciful, and filled him with joy in committing himself to the care and protection of His overshadowing providence. The same sacred symbol reminds us that "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself," and should fill us with all joy and peace in sheltering ourselves under His care and love.

3. A very present help. In believing, in praying, in doing, in suffering, were ye not helped? and it is your duty and honour to acknowledge it to His praise.

4. A quiet and sure habitation.

5. A treasure which faileth not.

(A. Shanks.)

(F. R. Williams.)

     4690   wings
     4846   shadow

Psalm 63:1-8

     5832   desire
     8618   prayerfulness

1877-1879. "They Helped Every one his Neighbour" --Miss Child, a Fellow-Labourer --The Work in Ratcliff Highway --Strangers' Rest for Sailors --"Welcome Home" --"Bridge of Hope" --Miss
"They helped every one his neighbour"--Miss Child, a fellow-labourer --The work in Ratcliff Highway--Strangers' Rest for Sailors--"Welcome Home"--"Bridge of Hope"--Miss Macpherson's twenty-first voyage to Canada--Explosion on board the "Sardinian"--Child life in the Galt Home--The Galt Home now devoted to children from London, Knowlton to those from Liverpool, and Marchmont to Scottish Emigrants. "They helped every one his neighbour, and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage" (margin, …
Clara M. S. Lowe—God's Answers

Whether Oaths are Desirable and to be Used Frequently as Something Useful and Good?
Objection 1: It would seem that oaths are desirable and to be used frequently as something useful and good. Just as a vow is an act of religion, so is an oath. Now it is commendable and more meritorious to do a thing by vow, because a vow is an act of religion, as stated above ([3078]Q[88], A[5]). Therefore for the same reason, to do or say a thing with an oath is more commendable, and consequently oaths are desirable as being good essentially. Objection 2: Further, Jerome, commenting on Mat. 5:34, …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Out of the Deep of Death.
My heart is disquieted within me, and the fear of death has fallen upon me.--Ps. iv. 4. My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart.--Ps. lxiii. 25. Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.--Ps. xxiii. 4. Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.--Ps. cxvi. 8. What will become of us after we die? What will the next world be like? What is heaven like? Shall I be able …
Charles Kingsley—Out of the Deep

How is Christ, as the Life, to be Applied by a Soul that Misseth God's Favour and Countenance.
The sixth case, that we shall speak a little to, is a deadness, occasioned by the Lord's hiding of himself, who is their life, and "the fountain of life," Ps. xxxvi. 9, and "whose loving-kindness is better than life," Ps. lxiii. 3, and "in whose favour is their life," Ps. xxx. 5. A case, which the frequent complaints of the saints manifest to be rife enough, concerning which we shall, 1. Shew some of the consequences of the Lord's hiding his face, whereby the soul's case will appear. 2. Shew the …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

The Joint Heirs and their Divine Portion
I would invite you, my brethren in Christ Jesus, this morning, to do three things; first, let us consider the terms of the will--"joint heirs with Christ;" secondly, let us go forth and view the estates--what it is of which we are joint heirs; and when we have done so, let us proceed at once to administer, for God hath made his children administrators as web as heirs. I. First, then, there is A LEGAL TERM IN THE WILL UPON WHICH THE WHOLE MATTER WILL HINGE. We are called "joint heirs with Christ"--what …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 7: 1861

By all Things' is Meant the Redemptive Attributes and Power of Christ.
Thus, then, we may understand all things to have been delivered to the Saviour, and, if it be necessary to follow up understanding by explanation, that hath been delivered unto Him which He did not previously possess. For He was not man previously, but became man for the sake of saving man. And the Word was not in the beginning flesh, but has been made flesh subsequently (cf. Joh. i. 1 sqq.), in which Flesh, as the Apostle says, He reconciled the enmity which was against us (Col. i. 20, ii. 14, Eph. …
Athanasius—Select Works and Letters or Athanasius

Spiritual Hunger Shall be Satisfied
They shall be filled. Matthew 5:6 I proceed now to the second part of the text. A promise annexed. They shall be filled'. A Christian fighting with sin is not like one that beats the air' (1 Corinthians 9:26), and his hungering after righteousness is not like one that sucks in only air, Blessed are they that hunger, for they shall be filled.' Those that hunger after righteousness shall be filled. God never bids us seek him in vain' (Isaiah 45:19). Here is an honeycomb dropping into the mouths of …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

Introduction. Chapter i. --The Life and Writings of St. Hilary of Poitiers.
St. Hilary of Poitiers is one of the greatest, yet least studied, of the Fathers of the Western Church. He has suffered thus, partly from a certain obscurity in his style of writing, partly from the difficulty of the thoughts which he attempted to convey. But there are other reasons for the comparative neglect into which he has fallen. He learnt his theology, as we shall see, from Eastern authorities, and was not content to carry on and develop the traditional teaching of the West; and the disciple …
St. Hilary of Poitiers—The Life and Writings of St. Hilary of Poitiers

The Secret Walk with God (ii).
He that would to others give Let him take from Jesus still; They who deepest in Him live Flow furthest at His will. I resume the rich subject of Secret Devotion, Secret Communion with God. Not that I wish to enter in detail on either the theory or the practice of prayer in secret; as I have attempted to do already in a little book which I may venture here to mention, Secret Prayer. My aim at present, as I talk to my younger Brethren in the Ministry, is far rather to lay all possible stress on …
Handley C. G. Moule—To My Younger Brethren

Appendix 2 Extracts from the Babylon Talmud
Massecheth Berachoth, or Tractate on Benedictions [76] Mishnah--From what time is the "Shema" said in the evening? From the hour that the priests entered to eat of their therumah [77] until the end of the first night watch. [78] These are the words of Rabbi Eliezer. But the sages say: Till midnight. Rabban Gamaliel says: Until the column of the morning (the dawn) rises. It happened, that his sons came back from a banquet. They said to him: "We have not said the Shema.'" He said to them, "If the column …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life

Covenanting Confers Obligation.
As it has been shown that all duty, and that alone, ought to be vowed to God in covenant, it is manifest that what is lawfully engaged to in swearing by the name of God is enjoined in the moral law, and, because of the authority of that law, ought to be performed as a duty. But it is now to be proved that what is promised to God by vow or oath, ought to be performed also because of the act of Covenanting. The performance of that exercise is commanded, and the same law which enjoins that the duties …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

The Marks of the New Birth
"So is every one that is born of the Spirit." John 3:8. 1. How is every one that is "born of the Spirit," -- that is, born again, -- born of God? What is meant by the being born again, the being born of God, or being born of the Spirit? What is implied in the being a son or a child of God, or having the Spirit of adoption? That these privileges, by the free mercy of God, are ordinarily annexed to baptism (which is thence termed by our Lord in a preceding verse, the being "born of water and of the …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

Concerning Salutations and Recreations, &C.
Concerning Salutations and Recreations, &c. [1273] Seeing the chief end of all religion is to redeem men from the spirit and vain conversation of this world and to lead into inward communion with God, before whom if we fear always we are accounted happy; therefore all the vain customs and habits thereof, both in word and deed, are to be rejected and forsaken by those who come to this fear; such as taking off the hat to a man, the bowings and cringings of the body, and such other salutations of that …
Robert Barclay—Theses Theologicae and An Apology for the True Christian Divinity

Psalms
The piety of the Old Testament Church is reflected with more clearness and variety in the Psalter than in any other book of the Old Testament. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament