The Power of God
HE RULETH BY HIS POWER FOR EVER.” — PS. lxvi.
HE Power of God is a glorious theme: — an Anchor of the Sonl, sure and steadfast, in the season of trial. Perhaps especially, when stooping in parental sorrow over some life passed away in infant feebleness or youthful weakness, we turn, by instinctive contrast, from the drooping of the floweret or the bending of the tender sapling, to the strength and glory of the Tree of Life.
The Psalm from which these words are taken, is one of the many that were inspired by memories of the Sinai wilderness, — the great drama of the Exodus. Our motto-verse is ushered in by the proudest of these memories, “Come and see the works of the Lord.... He turned the sea into dry land. They went through the flood on foot; there did we rejoice in Him..., He ruleth by His ponder for ever” Varied are the figures employed by the sacred minstrel in describing the illustrious event. Jehovah had broken the meshes of the enclosing net (ver. 1 1). From the fire of Egypt’s brick-kilns He had rescued them (ver. 12). Through the furnace they had emerged puri-
26o THE POWER OF GOD.
fied (ver. lo). Through the raging flood of the Red Sea He had conducted them (ver. 6). They had only to “stand still and see the salvation of God” (vers. 5 and 1 2). “For Thou, O God, hast proved us: Thou hast tried us as silver is tried. Thou broughtest us into the net; Thou laidst affiction upon our loins. Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads: we went through fire and through water; but Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place” (vers. 10-12).
An emancipation effected from the territory of the greatest and proudest of the old-world dynasties; — -an enslaved people, in the might of their God, rising in a night, breaking their chains, leaving every memento of bondage and degradation behind them; and after a miraculous march of forty years, at last entering triumphantly the promised land! All this could not have been accomplished without the cognisance of the surrounding nations. Hence the Psalmist, remembering these glorious “works of the Lord and His wonders of old,” breaks out into a lofty appeal to the kingdoms of his own age to recognise the hand of Israel’s Jehovah. (Ver. i), “Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands: sing forth the honour of His name; make His praise glorious. Say unto God, How terrible art Thou in Thy works! through the greatness of Thy power shall Thine enemies submit themselves unto Thee.... //e ruleth by His power for ever”
What a glorious rock-shadow in which to take shelter! What an unspeakably comforting assurance, whether to nations or to individuals, that the same mighty hand which shattered the chains of the Hebrew bondsmen and smote the tongue of the Egyptian sea, may be recognised in every event which befalls His people — every public calamity, every domestic heart-sorrow. Whether it be the bondage and deliverance of a nation, or the preparing and withering of a family gourd, we can write above all, “He ruleth by His power for ever.” Whether He smites or heals, darkens or gladdens, gives or takes away, it is ours to say, in the words of this inspiring hymn (vers. 8, 9), “Oh) bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of His praise to be heard, which holdeth our soul in life’* Life is His. He kindles the spark, and, when He sees meet. He quenches it. Death is but the revocation of His own grant, the lapsing of the lease into the hands of life’s great Proprietor. “He tumeth man to destruction, and saith, Eetum, ye children of men.”
The Psalm is supposed by some to have been specially composed by David on the occasion of that great festival at the end of his reign, when, after having collected material for his projected Temple on Mount Moriah, “all Israel” assembled, at the summons of their aged king, and in response to his appeal “consecrated their service unto the Lord.” What could be more natural than for the minstrel monarch, at such a time, to revert in the first instance to God’s wonderful transactions with them as a nation ever since the hour of the Exodus; and then to pass to a personal retrospect of
His dealings with himself throughout his chequered history, from the morning of his life in the valleys of Bethlehem till now, when the sun was westering and the shadows were falling? He too had to tell of varied sorrows. He too had to tell of ’ early graves,’ ay, and of sadder than early graves. He too had been tried as silver is tried; “” brought through fire and through water,” and had “afiiiction laid upon his loins.” But even in the mingled retrospect, in which all these figures of speech met, — the furnace, the net, the fire, the flood, the sackclothed loins, — he could see mercy — rich, undeserved-mercy, mingUng with and tempering judgment. The dark clouds of his stormy life-career were alternated with glorious sunshine, the dreary spots of the wilderness were far outnumbered by the green. Sheltering palms stood conspicuous amid stretches of barren sand. And remembering how graciously God had heard his prayers in the past, succoured him in trouble, and made his earthly trials conspire for the good of his soul, we can understand how appropriately he records his votive resolve in ver. 13, “I will go into Thy house with burnt-offerings; I will pay Thee my vows which my lips have uttered and my mouth hath spoken when I was in trouble. I will offer unto Thee burnt sacrifices of fatlings, with the incense of rams; I will offer bullocks with goats. Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what He hath done for my soul.” He gives to God all the glory of his past deliverances and triumphs. He takes none to himself. ^’ Sing forth,”
he says, “the honour of His name,. •. wUch suffereth not our feet to be moved.”
The Psalm and its many devout and instructive sentiments was designed for the Church of God and believers in every age. Its lessons are not local but universal. The safe and triumphant passage of Israel through the Bed Sea and the Jordan of old, are pledges of covenant mercy to His people in all times and in all seasons of affliction. Through every sea of sorrow and trouble He makes a passage for them; gives songs in the night, takes off their sackcloth, and girds them with gladness. It is a striking assertion, which we have before alluded to in a previous meditation, but which we may once more note in its place in the triumphant Hymn where it occurs: — “They went through the flood on foot;” — (the place where we might have expected nothing but trembling and terror, anguish and dismay), — “there,” says the Psalmist, “did we rejoice in Him.”
How many there are who can endorse this as their experience, that “there,” in their very seasons of distress and sadness, they have been enabled, as they never did before, to triumph and rejoice! How near their God in covenant is brought! how brightly shine His promises! In the day of their prosperity they cannot Bee the brilliancy of these. Like Jacob at Jabbok, it is when their earthly sun goes down that the Divine Angel comes forth, and they wrestle with Him and prevail. It was at night, “in the evening,” Aaron lit the sanctuary lamps. It is in the night of trouble the brightest lamps of the believer are often kindled. It was in his loneliness and exile John had the glorious vision of his Redeemer. There is many a Patmos still in the world, whose brightest remembrances are those of God’s presence and upholding grace and love, in solitude and sadness. How many pilgrims, still passing through these Bed Seas and Jordans of earthly affliction, will be enabled in the retrospect of eternity to say, — full of the memories of God’s great goodness, — “THERE” — in those dark experiences, with the surging waves on every side, deep calling to deep, Jordan, as when Israel crossed it, in * the time of overflowing ’ (flood), — yet “there did we rejoice in Him!”
It was when the disciples wore in their hour of extremity, during the storm on Gennesaret, giving themselves up to the hopelessness of despair, that, “in the fourth watch of the night,” when darkness was deepest and danger greatest, the great Deliverer appeared on the crested wave — “Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea!” It was, as we have already seen, when the bereft of Bethany had, as they imagined, consigned the fond treasure of their affections to everlasting silence; and, as they were sitting in the pillaged home, wondering at the mysterious delay on the part of the One Being who could alone have arrested that winged arrow which had laid low the pride of their hearts; — at that crisis-hour the great Conqueror of death appeared, to “evive the smouldering ashes of their faith, and reanimate the joy and prop of their existence!” Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence!” And even when He does not appear visibly to snccour; when some treasured comfort is vdthdrawn; or when deliverance from some threatened earthly trial or threatened evil is not vouchsafed; when cradles are emptied and youthful voices silenced, it is in order that we may the more surely find our only and all-sufficient Portion in Him. The shelter of the canvas tent is removed. But it only the more endears to us the shadow of the Great Rock. Observe the difference between the failing of the worid’s consolations and refuges and joys, and those of the true Christian: — When the worldly man mourns his dried-up brooks, or his stripped and dismantled tents, he has lost his all — he has nowhere else to turn; there is nothing left him but the waterless channel — the dreary outlook of blighted desert, — the tear of despair — the broken heart — the grave! In the case of the believer, when one blessing is withdrawn, his God has other spiritual comforts for him in reversion. He may have too good cause to appropriate the words, as descriptive of his domestic joys — “And it came to pass, after a while, that the brook dried up “(i Kings xvii. 7);” Suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment “(Jer. iv. 20). But” happy is the man who hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.” “Sing forth,” then, to revert to the exhortation of the writer of this psalm, “the honour of His name, and a66 THE POWER OP GOD.
make His praise glorious.” There are, we repeat. Boasons, those whose eyes fall on these pages only know too well, when we cannot tune this harp of broken strings, — when the summons of the 5th verse is more appropriately ours, ‘’ Come, and see the works of God: He is terrible in Hia doing towards the children of men;” when wo have to say unto Him, ‘’How terrible art Thou in Thy works! “But while justice and judgment are the habitation of His throne, mercy and truth go continually before His face. While “God hath spoken once, yea, twice ,have I heard this, that POWER belongoth unto God; also unto Thee, O Lord, bolongoth MERCY.” “We went through fire and through water, but Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place!”
Occupying now the glorious place of security, which can alone bo found in Christ and His finished salvation, lot us commit the keeping of our souls, and of all near and dear to us, to Him for the future in well-doing; knowing that there will be no floods or fires sent but what He appoints; and, if sent, let us seek to be able to say, “Thy will be done!” That so we may come at lost to stand without fault before the throne, with every flood passed, every fire quenched, every tear dried. With room found for all whom death has severed firom us in that “wealthy place” above; and confident then, at least, that the Divine dispensations and dealings were for our good, we shall be able to utter the invitation of this inspired minstrel, at the close of his song, — “Come, and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what He hath done for my soul.”
ALMIGHTY POWER AND SUFFICIENT GRACE.
“Give us day by day our daily bread.** — LvKZ xl. 3. ‘* Je eternal Qod U thy refuge and underneath are the everUuting amu.”-
DcuT. xxxiii. 37.
I know not ere nightfall
What comforts may perish.
What trials may blight all
I now fondly cherish.
Bat this doth sustain me,
Whate*er is betiding,
Let pleasure or pain be,
*Tis all Thy providing:
On Thee ever casting
The cares that surround me,
Thine arms everlasting
Beneath and around me;
Then shall I go boldly
Each day to my calling;
Thy grace will uphold me,
And keep me from falling.
“Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy ttrength be,’
Deut. xxxiii. 25.
How many linger on life’s way,
Forecasting vain their future sorrow;
He who gives needed strength to-day
Will give it for that unknown morrow.
“Soificient is My grace for thee; “
Be this the cure for care’s corrodings, — “As is thy day, thy strength shall be,”
May well disperse all dark forebodings.
Then gamer no redundant store,
Nor for the future seek to borrow,
Enough for present use — no more;
So “take no thought about to-morrow.”
“He hath iaid, Ivill never leave thee norftiTeahe tAM.” — Heb. ziiL 5.
Evening shades fall fast around me;
Cherished ones no more surround me:
Grone for ever! —
“I will never,
Never leave thee nor forsake.”
Hushed are voices full of gladness;
Must I float in lonely sadness
Down Time’s river? —
I will never.
Never leave thee nor forsake.’’
Earth’s most treasured joys may perish;
From the gourd I fondly cherish
Death may sever! —
“I will never,
Never leave thee nor forsake.”