NO. 2535<\/b><\/p>\n
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD\u2019S-DAY, SEPTEMBER 19TH, 1897,<\/b><\/p>\n
DELIVERED BY C. H SPURGEON,<\/i><\/p>\n
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON,<\/b><\/p>\n
ON LORD\u2019S-DAY EVENING, APRIL 27TH, 1884.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, LORD, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.\u201d \u2014 Psalm 41:4.<\/i><\/p>\n
This was one of David\u2019s sayings: \u201cI said.\u201d It was a saying that was worth saying, and it is worth re-saying: \u201cI said, Lord, be merciful unto me.\u201d How often he said it, we do not know; the oftener, the better. There is no day too bright for saying it, and there is no night too dark for saying it. \u201cI said, Lord, be merciful unto me.\u201d Every one of David\u2019s sayings was not worth repeating; for he said some things that he had to retract. \u201cI said in my haste,\u201d said he, on one occasion; and, possibly, what he said in his haste he repented of at his leisure. But this saying in our text needs no retracting, it only needs repeating; and, until we enter heaven, we may keep on saying it: \u201cI said, Lord, be merciful unto me.\u201d I have never heard of Christ rebuking anybody for speaking thus. He who said, \u201cGod, I thank thee that I am not as other men are,\u201d received no commendation from the Lord Jesus Christ; but he who said, \u201cGod, be merciful to me, a sinner,\u201d went down to his house justified rather than the other. This is a good saying, a true saying, a humble saying, and a gracious saying; and I say again, the oftener it is repeated, the better: \u201cI said, Lord, be merciful unto me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Observe that this is a saying to the Lord: \u201cI said, LORD, be merciful unto me.\u201d You hear people say, when they are talking and gossiping, \u201cI said to her, and she said to me,\u201d or, \u201cHe said to me, and I said to him,\u201d \u2014 so-and-so and so-and-so. Well\/what does it matter what you said or what they said? Very likely it is not worth repeating, nor the answer that was made to it; much of what is said may be summed up in the Dunottar Castle motto : \u2014 \u201cThey Say. What Do They Say? Let Them Say.\u201d<\/p>\n
It all comes to nothing; it is only breath vainly spent, which would be far more wisely expended, if it were, as the poet Cowper said, \u2014 <\/p>\n
\u201cTo heaven in supplication sent.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
How much better it would be if each one of the parties concerned said, \u201cLord. <\/i>be merciful unto me\u201d! If we would speak twice to God and only once to men, or if we even reached so happy a proportion as at least to say as much to God as we say to our fellow-men, how much healthier, and happier, and stronger, and more heavenly, and more holy should we become! You need not try to recollect all that you have said to your fellow-men, \u2014 probably much of that is best forgotten; but it is good to recollect what you have said to your God, if it be anything like this saying of the sweet psalmist of Israel, \u201cI said, Lord, be merciful unto me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Let this be one of our sayings as well as David\u2019s. As he said, \u201cLord, be merciful unto me,\u201d I am sure I ought to say it, and I think, dear friends, you ought to say it, too. If there is anybody here who thinks that he has grown so good that he does not need to pray, \u201cLord, be merciful unto me,\u201d I am very thankful for once that I am not as that man is, for he must be eaten up with pride. He cannot be right in his heart who will not pray for mercy, and, surely, he has received no mercy who does not feel his need of more mercy. God can scarcely have begun to work in that man who thinks that he needs no longer make confession of sin, or seek mercy from God. David tells us, \u201cI said, Lord, be merciful unto me,\u201d and I advise you to make this one of your sayings also. People sometimes say, \u201cIt is an old saying,\u201d and that is supposed to be its commendation. Well, this also is an old saying. A young man says, \u201cMy father used to say so-and-so;\u201d and I have no doubt that, if you had a godly father, he used to say much that was worth remembering, and worth repeating, and you cannot do better than use your father\u2019s words, especially if they were like David\u2019s on this occasion. Let it be reported of you in your biography, if it is ever written, \u201cThis was one of his sayings; he often said, \u2019 Lord, be merciful unto me.\u2019\u201c<\/p>\n
Notice, also, that this was the saying of a sick man, and of a sick saint. \u201cI said, Lord, Be merciful unto me.\u201d It is not written, \u201cI said, Lord, thou art unmerciful to me in chastening me; thou dealest too severely with me in placing me upon this sick-bed, and causing me to lie here till the bed grows hard as a rock beneath me.\u201d No, there is no complaining here, though there is petitioning; there is no murmuring, though there is supplicating. \u201cI said, Lord, be merciful unto me.\u201d When you get well again after an illness, it will Be a great comfort if you can look back and feel, \u201cI did not complain, but the chief cry from my sick-bed was, \u2019 Lord, Be merciful unto me.\u2019\u201c<\/p>\n
I have thus briefly introduced to you one of the sayings of a sick saint, \u2014 a sick king, and that king was David, the man after God\u2019s own heart; and I believe that this saying of his was after God\u2019s own heart, and that this prayer was pleasing in the ears of the Most High: \u201cI said, Lord, Be merciful unto me.\u201d So now I will try to show you that our text contains, first, a prayer: \u201cLord, be merciful unto me;\u201d next, a confession: <\/i>\u201cI have sinned against thee;\u201d and then, thirdly, a plea, and a very singular plea it is: \u201cI said, Lord, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.\u201d<\/p>\n
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I. <\/b>First, here is, a prayer: \u201cLord, me merciful unto me.\u201d<\/p>\n
It may mean, \u2014 and I daresay it did mean, at least in part,-\u201dMitigate roy pains.\u201d <\/i>O beloved, when you feel a heart throbbing and palpitating, or when the swollen limb seems as if it were laid upon an anvil, and beaten with red-hot hammers, when the pain goes through you again and again, till even the strong man is ready to cry out in his agony, and the tears start unwillingly to the eyes, this is a good prayer to present to God, \u201cLord, be merciful unto me.\u201d I have sometimes found that, where medicine has failed, and sleep has been chased away, and pain has become unbearable, it has been good to appeal to God directly, and to say, \u201cO <\/i>Lord, I am thy child; wilt thou allow thy child to be thus tortured with pain? Is it not written, \u2019 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him \u2019? Lord, be merciful unto me.\u201d I can solemnly assert that I have found immediate respite from paroxysms of extreme pain in answer to a simple appeal to the fatherhood of God, and a casting myself upon his mercy; and I do not doubt that I am also describing the experience of many others of God\u2019s afflicted children. When grieved with sore physical pain, you will find, dear friends, that the quiet resignation, the holy patience, and the childlike submissiveness which enable you just to pray, \u201cLord, be merciful unto me,\u201d will often bring a better relief to you than anything that the most skilled physician can prescribe for you. You are permitted and encouraged to act thus; when the rod falls heavily upon you, look up into your Father\u2019s face, and say, \u201cLord, be merciful unto me.\u201d<\/p>\n
But that is not all that David meant, I am quite sure, for, next, he must have meant, \u201cForgive; my sins.\u201d <\/i>You can see, by his prayer, that his sins were the heaviest affliction from which he was suffering: \u201cBe merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.\u201d And, believe me, there is no pain in the world that at all approximates to a sense of sin. I said to a dear friend, who is greatly depressed at this time, \u201cI <\/i>should like you to have a little rheumatic gout, just to take your thoughts off your mental anxiety.\u201d \u201cOh!\u201d said she, \u201cit would be a great pleasure to me to have that form of suffering rather than my present depression of spirit;\u201d and I am sure that it is so, and if that depression of spirit is mingled with the thought of sinfulness, and you are afraid \u2014 although, perhaps, in your case there may be no ground for fear because you really are God\u2019s child, \u2014 but if you get afraid that you are not pardoned and forgiven, that fear will cut into you worse than a wound from a sword. It will make your blood boil more than would the poison of a cobra in your veins, for there is nothing so venomous as sin. So David meant, \u201cI said, when I felt my sin, \u2014 I said, when my spirit sank within me, \u2014 Lord, be merciful unto me. Be merciful unto me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sinners\u2019 prayers suit depressed saints. The prayer of the publican is, after all, my every-day prayer. I have what I may call a Sunday prayer, a prayer for high days and holidays; but my every-day prayer, the one that I can use all through the week, the one that I can pick up when I cannot pick up anything else, is the publican\u2019s prayer, \u201cGod, be merciful to me, a sinner.\u201d That prayer is \u201cthe bairn\u2019s prayer,\u201d such as you would teach a child to pray; it is the prayer of the poor harlot, the prayer of the dying thief, \u201cO God, be merciful to me!\u201d It is a blessed, blessed prayer, and I charge you never to cease from using it in the sense that our Lord taught it to his disciples, \u201cForgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.\u201d<\/p>\n
But that is not all that there is in this prayer. I think that David, when he said, \u201cLord, be merciful unto me,\u201d also meant, \u201cFulfil thy promises.\u201d \u201cThou hast said of the man who considers the poor, \u2019 The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.\u2019 Lord, be merciful unto me, and deliver me in the time of my trouble. Thou hast said, \u2019 The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive.\u2019 Lord, be merciful unto me, preserve me, and keep me alive. Thou hast said that thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies; Lord, be merciful unto me, and guard me from my foes. Thou wilt strengthen him upon the bed of languishing; Lord, be merciful unto me, and strengthen me. Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness; Lord, make my bed.\u201d It is a very difficult thing to make a sick man\u2019s bed easy; and I should think that it was still harder to make the kind of bed that David was accustomed to lie upon. We often have a soft bed with plenty of feathers in it, yet, after we have been lying upon it for a month, it gets very hard. No matter if it be a bed of down, it seems as if it were made of stone, and one is apt to think that it is made very badly when it is made exceedingly well But I should think that the mattresses they used in the East must have been so hard that it needed God himself to make soft beds for sick people then, so the Lord comes in with this gracious promise, \u201cI will make all his bed \u201c \u2014 bolster, pillow, covering, and all, \u2014 \u201cI will make all his bed in his sickness. I will help him. I will comfort him. I will make him patient. I will enable him to bear all my will.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, then, you clear saints of God who are in trouble, here is a prayer that is suitable for every one of you: \u201cLord, be merciful unto me.\u201d Should you get very badly off, then plead the promise, \u201cThou hast said, \u2019Bread shall be given him, his waters shall be sure;\u2019 Lord, be merciful unto me.\u201d Are you going down in the world? Remember that it is written, \u201cNo good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly,\u201d and cry, \u201cLord, be merciful unto me.\u201d This prayer comes in appropriately at the back of every promise.<\/p>\n
I know that I am addressing some who are not yet saved, but I wish that this prayer might get into each one of their hearts: \u201cLord, be merciful unto me.\u201d Keep on praying it until you obtain the mercy. Every five minutes in the day, wherever you are, let your heart go beating, \u2014 beat, beat, beat, beat, \u2014 to this tune, \u201cLord, be merciful unto me. Be merciful unto me. Be merciful unto me.\u201d You cannot have a prayer that will better fit your lips.<\/p>\n
So far I have spoken of only half the psalmist\u2019s prayer; the other half of it is, \u201cHeal my soul.\u201d David does not pray, \u201cHeal my eye; heal my foot; heal my heart; heal me, whatever my disease may be;\u201d but he goes at once to the root of the whole matter, and prays, \u201cHeal my soul.\u201d O you sick men, be more anxious to have your soul healed than to have your body cured! What does David mean by this portion of his prayer?<\/p>\n
He means, I think, first, \u201cHeal me, Lord, of the distress of my soul! <\/i>My soul is afflicted with an appalling disease, and is brought very low: \u2019Lord, heal my soul.\u2019 I am so sad, so sorely affrighted, such terrors pass before my eyes, my soul has got morbid, melancholic, despondent, hypochondriacal, \u2019Lord, heal my soul.\u2019\u201c The Lord is the great Soul-healer; therefore go to him with this prayer, \u201cLord, heal me of the distress of my soul.\u201d<\/p>\n
But add also this meaning to the petition: \u201cLord, heal my <\/i>soul of the effect of <\/i>sin.\u201d Every sin brings on another sin; and the continuance in sin makes the tendency to sin stronger. \u201c\u2019 Heal my soul, Lord.\u2019 If I was once a drunkard, and I have given up the evil thing, yet the thirst will come; heal my soul of it. If I have been a man of the world, and have made unrighteous gains, the tendency to do so again will be strong upon me when the opportunity occurs; \u2019 Heal my soul, Lord.\u2019 That I may forget the wanton songs I used to sing, the wanton sights I once delighted in, the wanton lusts that once ate up my life, \u2019 Heal my soul, Lord.\u2019\u201c It is one thing to be forgiven, it is another thing to be delivered from the result of a long life of sin; yet God can do even that, so pray, \u201cLord, be merciful unto me, and pardon me. Heal my soul, and sanctify me.\u201d<\/p>\n
I think that David also meant by this prayer, \u201cHeal me of my tendency to sin.\u201d <\/i>He seemed to say, \u201cLord, I shall sin again if I am not healed. I have an evil tendency in me, and an old nature which is inclined to sin; if thou dost not heal me of this disease, there will be another eruption upon the skin of my life, and I shall sin again.\u201d When a man sins outwardly, it is because he has sin: inwardly. If there were no sin in us, no sin would come out of us; but there it lies, sometimes, concealed. I do not think it is ever a good thing to sin; that cannot be, but I have known a man to be tempted, and to fall into sin, who has discovered by his fall how much of sin there always was in him. It is something like the breaking out of a disease in the skin; it would not have broken out if it had not been there before; and the outbreak, however grievous it is, may be useful by driving the sufferer to seek a cure, and so he becomes thoroughly healed. This is the meaning of David\u2019s prayer, \u201cHeal my soul, for I have sinned. Heal me, that I may not sin again.\u201d<\/p>\n
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II. <\/b>The second part of our subject is, A Confession: \u201cI have sinned against thee.\u201d I do not want simply to have these words in my mouth, to tell them to you; I wish that I could put them into your mouths, O you unconverted ones, that you might say them to God! Let us briefly consider what is meant by this confession, \u201cI have sinned against thee.\u201d<\/p>\n
First, it is a confession without an excuse. <\/i>David does not say, \u201cI have sinned against thee, but I could not help it,\u201d or, \u201cI was sorely tempted,\u201d or, \u201cI was in trying circumstances.\u201d No; as long as a man can make an excuse for his sin, he will be a lost man; but when he dare not and cannot frame an excuse, there is hope for him. \u201cI have sinned against thee,\u201d is a confession without an excuse.<\/p>\n
Further, it is a confession without any qualification. <\/i>He does not say, \u201cLord, I have sinned to a certain extent; but, still, I have partly balanced my sins by my virtues, and I hope to wipe out my faults with my tears.\u201d No; he says, \u201cI have sinned against thee,\u201d as if that were a full description of his whole life. He bows his knee, and just confesses unto God, \u201cLord, I give up everything in the way of self-defense or self-justification; \u2019I have sinned against thee.\u2019\u201c<\/p>\n
But notice, also, that this confession is without affectation. <\/i>When some people say, \u201cWe have sinned,\u201d you can tell by their manner that they think they are by their confession complimenting God. You talk with them, and they say,\u201d Oh, yes, sir; we are all sinners!\u201d Yes, they are all sinners, like the monk who said that he had broken all the commandments, and was the wickedest man in the world. So one of his companions asked him if he had broken the first commandment., another asked about the second, then the third, the fourth, the fifth, and all the rest, and to each one he kept saying, \u201cNo, I never broke that in my life.\u201d They inquired about the whole ten, and he declared that he had never broken one of them; yet this was the man who had confessed that he had broken all ten, and there are men who say that they are sinners, yet they do not mean it; and a sham sinner will only have a sham savior; that is to say, a man who only pretends to be a sinner, and does not realize his guilt in the sight of God, will not have a Savior. Christ died for nobody but real sinners, those who feel that their sin is truly sin.<\/p>\n
\u201cA sinner is a sacred thing,
The Holy Ghost has made him so;\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
and if I am happy enough to meet with a man who puts himself down with real sinners, I bid him believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and expect, that, by so doing, he will find a real Savior who will cleanse him from sin by his precious blood.<\/p>\n
I wanted you to notice that there was no affectation about David\u2019s confession of sin, for, in the next verse, he says, \u201cMine enemies speak evil of me.\u201d He was not going to confess sin which he had not committed; and when men spoke against him, he said, \u201cThey speak evil of me.\u201d Well, but, David, how can they speak evil of you when you confess that you are so bad? \u201cAy!\u201d says he, \u201cbut I have not done that with which they charge me; I confess that I have sinned against God, but I have not sinned against him in the way they say I have. So far as their charges are concerned, I am innocent and pure. What I confess is that I have sinned against God.\u201d I like a man, when he makes a confession of sin, not to be carried away into the use of proud expressions without meaning, but to speak with judgment, and to acknowledge and confess only what is true. This is the excellence of David\u2019s confession, that he owns to what no sinner will ever admit till the grace of God makes him do it: \u201cI have sinned against <\/i>thee.\u201d Hear him again in the fifty-first Psalm: \u201cAgainst thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.\u201d Hear the prodigal: \u201cFather, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.\u201d The essence of sin is that it is sin against God. It is wrong to do any harm to your neighbor; but, after all, you and he are only two subjects of the great King and Lord of all. It is high treason to sin against God; and, often, that sin, of which men think the least, God thinks the most. That spiritual sin, of which some say, \u201cOh, that is a mere trifle! \u201c \u2014 that forgetting of the Creator, that ignoring of the only Redeemer, this is the sin of sins, the damning sin which kindles the flames of hell; and it is a good thing, and a right thing, when a man\u2019s confession of sin has David\u2019s confession as the very core of it, \u201cLord, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.\u201d<\/p>\n
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III. <\/b>Now I close by noticing A plea, and a very singular plea it is. The psalmist\u2019s prayer is followed by a confession, and, strangely enough, the confession is the argument of the prayer. Listen to the text again: \u201cI said, Lord, be merciful unto me: heal my soul.\u201d Why? \u201cFor I have sinned against thee.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
That is a very startling and remarkable way of pleading, but it is the only right one. It is such a plea as no self righteous man would urge. <\/i>The Pharisee keeps to this strain, \u201cLord, <\/i>be merciful unto me, for I have been obedient, I have kept thy law.\u201d O foolish, self-righteous man, do you not see that you are shutting the door in your own face? You say, in effect, \u201cBe merciful unto me, for I do not need any mercy.\u201d That is what it practically comes to, and therefore you are contradicting your own prayer. If you have kept the law from your youth up, and you have been so good and so obedient, you do not need any mercy from God; why, therefore, do you ask for it? No man who thinks himself better than his neighbors, strictly upright, honorable, and worthy of reward, will ever bow his knee, and cry to God, \u201cHave mercy upon me, for I have sinned against thee.\u201d He pleads, on the contrary, \u201cHave mercy upon me, for I am a most respectable man; I pay everybody twenty shillings in the pound; I have brought up my family most admirably; have mercy upon me.\u201d I say again, he asks for charity, and then says, \u201cI do not want it; give me of thy charity, O God; but I am not one of the poor beggars that crawl about the street, I am as well-to-do as anybody.\u201d None but the poor will value the charity of men, and none but the guilty will value the charity of God. If you are not a sinner, Christ as a Savior has nothing to do with you. He came into the world to save sinners; and as for you who count yourselves righteous, this is what he says about you, \u201cI came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.\u201d As Mary sang, \u201cHe hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.\u201d Let them food themselves if they have such an abundance as they say. This, then, is the sort of plea that a self-righteous man would not urge.<\/p>\n
This is, further, such a plea as a carnal reasoner could not urge, <\/i>for he could not spy out any reason or argument in it. \u201cAm I to appeal to my God for mercy, and for soul-healing, on the ground that I have sinned? Why!\u201d says he, \u201cthere is no plea in that.\u201d But he who has been to Christ\u2019s school, and learnt the logic of the cross, will know that there is no argument equal in force to this: \u201cLord, I have sinned, I need mercy; give it me, Lord. I have sinned, and therefore I have no right whatever to expect anything of thee; therefore, glorify thyself by the freeness and spontaneity of thine abounding grace. Lord, <\/i>I have sinned, and this sinning has destroyed me; therefore, have pity upon me. This sinning is like a deadly disease within my soul; therefore, great Physician, come and heal me. This sinning has killed me; therefore, make me alive. This .sinning has damned me; therefore, come and save me.\u201d That is the best pleading in all the world; and, after all, it is the common pleading that men make use of with their fellow-men. When one comes begging of me, what does he say? In nine cases out of ten, he tells me what is not true; that I can vouch for, but I always notice that he never pleads thus: \u201cNow, sir, I want you to give me help because I do not need it very much; I am not at all badly off, I have about as much already as I want; but I thought that I would take to begging because it is a genteel kind of occupation.\u201d You never hear him talk like that. I remember giving a man, who came begging of me with bare feet, a pair of patent leather boots. They were nearly done with, but I thought that he might make some use of them, and he put them on; but he was not so foolish as to go begging in them. At the first gateway he came to, he pulled them off, and I met him, ten minutes afterwards, without the boots, except that he had them slung over his back, ready to sell to the first likely customer. He knew that rags are the best livery for a beggar; if he would succeed in his calling, then the fouler and the more ragged he looks the better for him, for so he appeals to our sense of pity. At any rate, that is the way to beg of God. Do not go and smarten yourself up, and say, \u201cLord, I am pretty decent as I am; be merciful unto me.\u201d No; but go in your rags, go just as you are, in all your sin, and filthiness, and weakness, and poverty, and insignificance, and so appeal to the pity and the mercy of God. This is sound common sense that I am talking. Suppose there had been a battle, and I were a soldier who had been wounded, and lay upon the plain, and the surgeon and the men with the ambulance were going round to see who needed their help; if they came to me, I do not think I should say, \u201cWell, <\/i>doctor, I have got a bullet in here somewhere; but it has not gone in very far, I daresay it will be all right; you can leave me here.\u201d Oh, no! I should say, \u201cI am afraid, doctor, that this bullet is very near my heart; you had better let your men pick me up, and attend to me quickly, or I may be dead very soon.\u201d I certainly would not try to make myself out to be better than I was, and I would be glad to be attended to at once; and what folly it is when a man tries to comfort himself, as a sinner, by looking up an his filthy rags of self-righteousness, and saying, \u201cLord, I do not think there is very much the matter with me.\u201d O soul, if you did but know it, the whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint, from the crown of your head to the soles of your feet you are covered with wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores. There is but a step between you and death, \u2014 between you and hell, if you have never been washed in Jesus precious blood. Therefore, do not set up your lying pretences; do not paint yourself up, like Jezebel, for you cannot in that way make yourself beautiful in the sight of God. You must go to him with all your wrinkles, and all your foulness, and everything else that is hideous, and say, \u201cLord, I have no beauty, I have no merit, nothing to plead, nothing to urge, but my guilt. \u2019Heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.\u2019\u201c Then you shall be saved. When a man cannot pay to God a penny in the pound of all his debts, then he will be frankly forgiven all; but as long as he promises that he will make a composition, and do his best to pay what he owes to divine justice in the hope that Jesus Christ will make up the rest, there is no hope for him. The Lord Jesus Christ will not be a mere make weight for you. Do you think that you are to get into the scale, with your beautiful righteousness, and that you are to be accounted somebody of great importance, and that Christ is to do the little that you cannot do; that it is to be \u201cChrist & Co.,\u201d or rather, \u201cSelf & Co.,\u201d and that you are to be the head of the firm, and Christ to be a kind of sleeping partner? He will not do it; it would be a disgrace to Christ to yoke you with him in such a fashion. You might as soon yoke a gnat with an archangel as think of your going in to help Christ to save you. To join a filthy rag from off a dunghill with the golden garments of a king or a queen, cannot be permitted. Christ will be everything, or else he will be nothing; you must be saved wholly by mercy, or else not at all. There must not be even a trace of the fingers of self-righteousness upon the acts and documents of divine grace. It must be all of grace; \u201cand if by grace, then is it no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace.\u201d There can be no more mingling of the two together as the ground of hope than oil will mix with water, or fire will burn beneath the sea. You cannot be saved by your own merits. Oh, then, I implore you, breathe this prayer to God, \u201cLord, be merciful unto me; pardon me, for thou dost have mercy upon sinners, and here is one. Thou dost heal the sick, and here is one. Lord, I trust thee; I lay my sins on Jesus, I lay my soul-sickness at his dear feet. Lord, save me.\u201d It is all done if you trust Jesus; you are a saved man. Just before I came in to this service, I saw a young brother whom I mean to propose to the church, and who last Sunday came to me, after the morning sermon, and said, \u201cSir, I am saved, and I know I am;\u201d and as I spoke to him, I thought that I knew it, too. Why should there not be many others in the same blessed condition? What is the use of preaching, what is the use of this crowd coming together, and going away again, unless men believe in Christ? Look unto Jesus, and be ye saved. If you look, you shall be saved now. The Lord lead you to look at this very moment, and unto him be praise for ever and ever! Amen.<\/p>\n
EXPOSITION C. H. SPURGEON.<\/p>\n
PSALMS 41, AND 42.<\/b><\/p>\n
You will see, dear friends, from these holy songs, that the saints of God in those olden days were not screened from trials and troubles, but were tempted in all points like as we are. If we happen to be in similar trying circumstances, let us take comfort from their experiences; the footsteps of the flock that has gone before should make the sheep feel that it is not lost.<\/p>\n
Psalm 41 To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David.<\/i><\/p>\n
Verse 1. Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.<\/i><\/p>\n
David delivered others, <\/i>and God will deliver him. When he is poor and needy, God will think upon him, even as he considered the poor and the needy when they cried unto him.<\/p>\n
2, 3. The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.<\/i><\/p>\n
God will be condescendingly gentle to such as are kind and gentle to the poor. If we love God first, and then exhibit the result of that love in our care for the poor and the needy, we shall certainly be recompensed, for he that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord, and the Lord will pay him back, \u2014 sometimes in his own coin, and oftener in a coin of heavenly currency. Let us take note of this, and let us never harden our heart against the poor and the needy in the time of their extremity.<\/p>\n
4. I said, Lord, be merciful unto me:<\/i><\/p>\n
David had been very kind to the poor at all times; but when he gets into trouble, he does not plead that, he just mentions it, but the main stress of his pleading is quite in another direction, namely, for mercy: \u201cI <\/i>said, Lord be merciful unto me.\u201d<\/p>\n
4, 5. Heal my soul; for have sinned against thee. Mine enemies speak evil of me, When shall he die, and his name perish?<\/i><\/p>\n
But good men do not die to please wicked men, and sometimes, when the good men have been dead, and buried, and their memory has been insulted by the wicked, they have risen up again in their posthumous influence Good men live too long for the wicked, but they live as long as God wills that they should; they are immortal till their work is done. The story of Wycliffe is but a typical case of what has often happened. When the monks gathered round his bed, and expected that their opponent would soon be gone, he said, \u201cI <\/i>shall not die, but live,\u201d and so he did; and even after he had died, he continued to be a living power in the land; indeed, we know not how much of the blessings we enjoy is the result of the light that was shed upon England by \u201cthe morning star of the Reformation.\u201d<\/p>\n
6. And if he come to see me, he speaketh vanity: his heart gathereth iniquity to itself; when he goeth abroad, he telleth it.<\/i><\/p>\n
Those are bad visitors to the sick who, when they speak, talk only nonsense or that which galls the sufferer; and then, when they go out, begin to tell an idle tale against him to his injury.<\/p>\n
7-9. All that hate me whisper together against me: against me do they devise my hurt. An evil disease, say they, cleaveth .fast unto him: and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more. Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, \u2019hath lifted up his heel against me.<\/i><\/p>\n
Many a child of God has had his character whispered down by slanderers, many a man has had a hard time of it through the evil speaking of men of the world; yea, even the Lord of saints and the King of pilgrims knew what it was to find a traitor in his most familiar friend, and to receive the basest ingratitude from one who had eaten of his bread. Do not be carried away with too much sorrow if you are slandered or betrayed; better men than you have suffered through this fearful evil Therefore, take the trouble to your Lord, and bear it with such patience as he will give you.<\/p>\n
10, 11. But thou, O LORD, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them. By this I know that thou favorest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cHe may think that he shall triumph over me, he may even begin in his mind to divide the spoil; but he shall never really get it: \u2019Mine enemy doth not triumph over me.\u2019\u201c<\/p>\n
12, 13. And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me before thy face for ever. Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen.<\/i><\/p>\n
That is the sick man\u2019s praise; it is full of fervor and full of life. Let us never rob God of the revenue of his praises; let us not have such a cupboard love for him that we only praise him when he gives us good things. Let us bless his name just as much when he takes away, when he afflicts, when he chastises. That is true praise which comes from the bed of affliction, and from a heart that is sore broken with sorrow.<\/p>\n
Now in the next Psalm we find the good man in trouble again.<\/p>\n
Psalm 42:1. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cAs the hart panteth\u201d or \u201cbrayeth.\u201d And if such be your soul\u2019s panting after God, you shall have what you pant for. Sooner or later, God will manifest himself in grace to the man who cries after him in this fashion.<\/p>\n
2. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God : \u2014 <\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cMy soul, my very soul, thirsteth for God, the living God.\u201d<\/p>\n
2, 3. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?<\/i><\/p>\n
That is another of the taunts of the ungodly. ust now, they said, \u201cWhen shall he die and his name perish?\u201d Now they cry, \u201cWhere is thy God? You said that he would help you; you were sure that he would comfort you; you were confident that he would draw near to you; and now you are crying and panting after him, and have not got what you want: \u2019 Where is thy God?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
4. When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me :-<\/i><\/p>\n
That is not a good thing to do; if you do pour your soul out, do not pour it into yourself again. There is little gain when you merely empty your grief out of yourself into yourself. I have known many a man lay his burden down, and then take it up again directly. That is poor economy; the way to get rid of the sorrow is to pour out your hearts before God. There is no wisdom in doing what the psalmist says he did: \u201cI pour out my soul in me:\u201d \u2014 <\/p>\n
4, 5. For I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me?<\/i><\/p>\n
You see, the psalmist here talks to himself. Every man is two men; we are duplicates, if not triplicates, and it is well sometimes to hold a dialogue with one\u2019s own self. \u201cWhy art thou east down, O my soul?\u201d I always notice that, as long as I can argue with myself about my depressions, I can get out of them; but when both the men within me go down at once, it is a downfall indeed. When there is one foot on the solid rock, the other comes up to it pretty soon.<\/p>\n
5. Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cI know I shall; he will yet look at me. I shall not always be in the dark; wherefore, let me begin at once to praise him.\u201d It is well sometimes to snatch a light from the altars of the future, and with it to kindle the sacrifices of the present: \u201cI shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.\u201d<\/p>\n
6. O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.<\/i><\/p>\n
From the little hill I will think of all thy former love, \u2014 all the sacred spots where thou hast met with me, all the lonely places where thou hast been my comfort, and all the joyful regions where thou hast been my glory. I will think of these, and take comfort from them, for thou art an unchanging God.; and what thou didst for me aforetime, thou wilt do for me again and yet again.<\/p>\n
7. Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.<\/i><\/p>\n
Here is a great storm; here is a man, not merely on the sea, but in the sea; with not only some waves beating upon him, but with all of them going over him; and those not common waves, but God\u2019s waves. That is a Hebraism for the biggest waves, Atlantic billows; all these have gone right over him, yet see how he swims. Hope in God always crests the stormiest billow.<\/p>\n
8, 9. Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life. ∙ will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?<\/i><\/p>\n
See what liberties saints take with God; how they reason with him, how they argue with him; and God loves them to do so. Are you not pleased with your child when he urges reasons why you should do this or that for him? You are glad to see that he has mind enough to think of these things, and confidence enough in you to expect you to be affected by his pleadings; and the Lord loves his people to discourse with him. \u201cPut me in remembrance,\u201d saith he, \u201clet us plead together.\u201d \u201cCome now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord.\u201d If we reasoned more with God, we should reason less with ourselves. There is a good reason for reasoning with God, but it is often unreasonable to reason with yourself.<\/p>\n
10, 11. As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God? Why art thou cast dowry, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: .for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.<\/i><\/p>\n
It is curious to see the duplicate man here; he talks to himself as \u201cthou \u201c, and yet he says \u201cI.\u201d \u201cHope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance.\u201d First, he said, \u201cI shall yet praise him for the held of his countenance;\u201d now it is\u201d the health of my countenance.\u201d When God helps us with his countenance, then our own countenance soon grows bright and healthy. \u201cWho is the health of my countenance,\u201d says the psalmist; and then he comes to the sweetest note of all, \u201cand my God.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor yet I know I shall him praise,
Who graciously to me,
The health is of my countenance,
Yea, mine own God is he.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Oh, sweet word that! May each of us be able to reach it! Amen.<\/p>\n
HYMNS FROM \u201cOUR OWN HYMN BOOK:\u201d \u2014 537, 594, 607.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NO. 2535 INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD\u2019S-DAY, SEPTEMBER 19TH, 1897, DELIVERED BY C. H SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD\u2019S-DAY EVENING, APRIL 27TH, 1884. \u201cI said, LORD, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.\u201d \u2014 Psalm 41:4. This was one of David\u2019s sayings: \u201cI said.\u201d It was … Continue reading “A SINGULAR PLEA IN PRAYER.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3865\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}