NO. 2758<\/b><\/p>\n
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD\u2019S-DAY, DECEMBER 22ND, 1901,<\/b><\/p>\n
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,<\/i><\/p>\n
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON,<\/b><\/p>\n
ON LORD\u2019S-DAY EVENING, SEP. 7TH, 1879.<\/p>\n
\u201cReturn unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.\u201d\u2014 Psalm 116:7.<\/i><\/p>\n
You, who have not believed in our Lord Jesus Christ, have no rest to which you can return, for you have never, found any. May God grant to you the grace to come unto Christ that you may find rest unto your souls! But we, who believe in him, do enter into rest. We are sometimes described as journeying through the wilderness towards Canaan, and the type is quite allowable; but, still, it must not be pressed, too far; for, in another sense, we have already entered into our rest. We have entered the Canaan which our Joshua has given unto us; Moses, by the law, could not lead us into this promised land; but Jesus has brought us into it, and we now have our portion and our inheritance in the covenant blessings which God has provided for his people in Christ Jesus his Son. God\u2019s people, when they are as they ought to be, are in a state of rest even now. I do not mean that they will have rest so far as this world is concerned, for this earth is not our rest, it is polluted; but I do mean that as the apostle Paul writes to the Romans, \u201cThere is therefore now no condemnation to them which are, in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.\u201d I do mean that, as he also says, \u201cBeing justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;\u201d and that peace includes \u201crest, sweet rest,\u201d\u2014especially that \u201cpeace of God, which passeth all understanding,\u201d which, the apostle declares, \u201cshall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n
If I am, at this time, addressing any who have, for a while, lost the enjoyment of this blessed rest, my message to them is, \u201cReturn unto thy rest.\u201d I hope that they will be able to take the psalmist\u2019s words to themselves, and to say with him, \u201cReturn unto thy rest,<\/p>\n
O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.\u201d<\/p>\n
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I. <\/b>The first thing for us to remember is, that The Believer Has His Rest. The psalmist says, Return unto thy rest, O my soul,\u201d There is a position, or an experience, in which the believer\u2019s heart is perfectly at rest. While trying to think how I should describe it, nothing seemed to strike me as a more full and accurate description of the believers rest than the apostolic benediction with which we are accustomed to dismiss our assemblies. He has true rest of heart who abides in the spirit of these words: \u201cThe grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first rest of the heart comes to us through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. <\/i>We generally speak of him as the second Person of the blessed Trinity; but, in the, benediction, he is put first, because, to our experience, he is first. No man comes unto God the Father except by God the Son; so, to us, Christ is first, because that is the way his grace works in us. And, beloved, when you know how to come to Christ for grace;\u2014nay, when you have come to him, and have received from him the grace to cover all your sin;.\u2014the grace to justify you in the sight of God;\u2014the grace of adoption, by which you become a son of God in him who is the Fathers only-begotten and wed-beloved Son;\u2014when you have received the grace of union with Christ, so that you know yourselves to be members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones;\u2014when you know that all his grace is yours, and that he himself is yours, then it is that you get rest unto your souls. Sin cannot any longer disturb you, for it is drowned in the Red Sea of his stoning sacrifice. Your necessities cannot distress you, for they are all supplied by God \u201caccording to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus\u201d Nothing need perplex, or afflict, or worry you any more. All the troubles of thought are ended as you believe what your Lord tells you. All the cravings of your heart are satisfied as you take him to be the Beloved of your soul. All the struggles of your conscience are ended as Christ brings to you peace and rest for ever concerning all your sin. In fact, as soon as you come to him, he gives you, through his abundant grace, rest about everything. This, then, is the first rest of the believer, which comes to him through the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
There is a further rest for us who believe, and a very sweet one; it is, in the love of God. <\/i>It comes to us when we hear such a gentle whisper as this, \u201cI have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee;\u201d or this, \u201cSince thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life;\u201d or this, \u201cFear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire: thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior.\u201d Oh, what blessed rest springs out of electing love, and adopting love! What sweet rest we obtain from the assurance that God the Father and God the Son both love us, even as our Lord Jesus said to his disciples, \u201cHe that hath, my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him? Thus is the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given, unto us.<\/p>\n
This glorious fact gives us rest with regard to our position here. We cannot be troubled by affliction, because it is sent to us in love. We cannot be worried about the future, for all its concerns are in the hands of the God of love. We no longer harbour doubt and mistrust, for we know that \u201cGod is love.\u201d O dear friends, when you once come really to know the love of God, it will We you wondrous rest! You will feel that he never smote a child of his except in love, that he never even frowned at one of his children except in love, and that he never was angry with one of his children except in love; and love, perhaps, never rises to a greater climax of affection than when it is forced to show its anger, and so uses the rod more to its own pain than to the suffering of those who feel it. Beloved, I trust that, each one of you, who believes in Jesus, knows what that rest of heart, is which enables you to say, \u201cMy God, my Father, thou canst do nought to me but what infinite love dictates, for I know that thou lovest me even as thou lovest thy firstborn and only-begotten Son.\u201d<\/p>\n
The third rest of the believer is in the communion of the Holy Ghost. <\/i>O beloved, this is the truest rest of the soul,\u2014so far as your actual experience is concerned,\u2014when the Holy Spirit comes, and takes complete possession of you, so that your will does not any longer struggle against the will of God, but sweetly yields to its control; your desires do not wander, but stay at home in full content; and you give yourself up entirely to the divine indwelling, so that Christ dwelleth in you, and you abide, in him, by the power of his gracious Spirit. Then that same blessed Spirit brings to your mind the deep things, of God, which are full of rich comfort for the soul, and the precious things of the everlasting hills of the covenant of grace, which abound in all the blessings that you can possibly want between here and heaven; for it is the Holy Spirit\u2019s special office to be the Comforter of Christ\u2019s people, and he makes the soul either to sit Still at the feet of Jesus, to hearken to his gracious words, or else to run with cheerful yet restful alacrity on his errands, for there is such a thing as rest in running in his holy service.<\/p>\n
Now, dear friend, if you have these three things,\u2014the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost,\u2014I am sure I need not stay to prove to you that, in your experience, you have realized what it is to enjoy rest for your soul. Do you all know what it is thus to rest in the Lord. I thank God that I do; I feel, specially at certain times, that I could not ask the Lord for anything more than he has given me; I could not wish anything altered, I could not desire to be in any other state;\u2014nay, I do not even wish to be in heaven at such times as those to which I am referring. When I sit down beneath his shadow with great delight, and his banner over me is love, and his fruit is sweet unto my taste, it is a little nether heaven,\u2014the vestibule of the palace of the great King. Many of you must know what this rest is, I feel sure that you do.<\/p>\n
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II. <\/b>This fact makes it rather sad work to turn to the second division of my subject, which is that, Sometimes, The Believer Leaves That Rest. He should not do so; it is most grievous that he does; but, alas he does, as many of us are only too well aware by painful personal experience.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, he leaves it through affliction, <\/i>and especially if that affliction comes from man. The psalmist tells us that, in his haste, he said, \u201cAll men are liars.\u201d Perhaps he said some other naughty things, for which he was sorry afterwards; it is not always easy to be calm and prudent when you are provoked, and to be quite restful when everybody speaks ill of you, or tries to lay traps to catch you. But the child of God should try so to master himself that all the dogs that bark can no more, disturb him than the buying of a hound would turn the moon out of her nightly course. Happy and blessed is that man whose heart is fixed, so that he can sing and give praise even though his adversary is all the while speaking bitterly against him. Yet the flesh is very frail, and aches and pains of body, as well as cruel slanders against the character, will sometimes turn the Christian aside from his restful state. He is not quiet and calm; he is in a hurry, the leisure of his heart is broken, and he is in great confusion, freed save us from getting into such a sorrowful condition as that! For, if we had more confidence in our God, we should have less confusion in our own experience. We should be much more restful if we did but do our God the justice of trusting him at all times, for he can never fail us.<\/p>\n
I have known some Christians to be driven from their restful state through a want of submission to the divine will. <\/i>O dear friends, when you have, been in sharp trials, when things have gone awry with you, and, especially, if some beloved object of your heart\u2019s affection is taken, from you, then you have had a quarrel with your God! It is a very sad thing that we should ever differ from infinite love, or think that we know better than eternal wisdom, or begin to suspect the, grace of the Most High. It is sorrowful that this should ever be the case with any of us; and we cannot, Without many tears, confess that we have sometimes had a dispute with God about what he has been doing with us. Ant\u2019, then, of course, we could not rest; for, in addition to our other sorrows, our wise and loving Father chastised us for our naughtiness. He would not spare us for all our crying, but he went on with his own designs concerning us even while we were so wilful and rebellious. Perhaps he even chastened us the more because of that rebellion. We may be sure that we shall never truly rest in the Lord while we have a stubborn will; until every desire learns to lay its head in Christ\u2019s bosom, and is fully satisfied with him, we shall never be at perfect peace. There is, for each one of us, a modified agony and bloody sweat until, like our Lord, we can truthfully say to our Heavenly Father, \u201cNot my will, but thine, be done\u201d That want of submission to God lies at the root of half our. We must submit to him; it would be well for us if we did so at, once.<\/p>\n
Some Christians lose their rest through want of contentment. They are very happy in their present condition, for God has greatly blessed them but their eye catches sight of a Christian who is better off than they are; and, straightway, they want to have as much as he has. They are not quite so well dressed as that brother is, and they wish that they were; their wife and family do not look, as the world says, quite so \u201crespectable\u201d as his; and, sometimes, in their folly, they will throw themselves out of a happy position in life, where they have the privileges of the means of grace, and go into a state of spiritual starvation just for the sake of being a little better-off in temporal things, which is both foolish and wrong. Now, until we are perfectly content with what the Lord appoints for us, we shall not have rest unto our souls. Until we can honestly say,\u2014<\/p>\n
\u201cTo thy will I leave the rest,
Grant me but this one request,
Both in life and death to prove
Tokens of thy special love;\u201d\u2014<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
we shall never know what it is to enjoy full rest of heart.<\/p>\n
I fear that there are many Christians who lose their rest, in another way, namely, through the world\u2019s joys. <\/i>Have you ever been, with a party of friends, where there has been a great deal of mirth and very little grace? If so, have you not felt, when you got home, that you could not pray as you were wont to do? Sometimes, you have been taking your recreation properly enough, but you have not carried Christ with you as you should have done; and you have found after a while, that your rest has gone. Laughter and merriment may do you untold harm unless they are sanctified by the Word of God and prayer; if they are so sanctified, they may not cause us to leave our rest.<\/p>\n
Frequently, too, Christian people lose their rest through allowing some conscious sin; <\/i>for Christ and you will not long keep company with one another if you permit anything in your heart, or speech, or shop, or home, that is not according to his mind. His communion is with \u201cthe pare in heart for they shall see God.\u201d But if sin be knowingly harboured, communion with Christ will not be enjoyed. The old Puritan was right when he said, \u201cSinning will make thee leave off communing, or else communing will make thee leave off sinning;\u201d for the indulgence of any known sin is not compatible with a close walk with God. If, beloved, you and I get at a distance from God; if we follow Christ afar off, as Peter did; if we grow cold in heart, if we are neglectful of prayer, if the Word of God is not the subject of our constant study, if we get worldly and carnal, like so many of our fellow-Christians are, we shall soon find that the rest of our soul is gone.<\/p>\n
It is a great mercy if you know when it is gone. It is a terrible thing to lose the joy of the Lord, and the rest of your spirit, and yet hardly to be aware that it is so with you. There is a very simple simile of this state of things, but it is a useful one. You know that a hen, if she has some eggs under her, will keep on sitting. You may take half her eggs away, you may take three-fourths of them away; but she still keeps on sitting, for I suppose she cannot count. Now, there are some Christians who are very much like that hen; they lose the most of their grace, yet they are just as happy as they were before. But, beloved, your spiritual sense ought to be something much higher than the instinct of a poor silly bird; your care of the divine grace entrusted to your charge ought to be something far superior to the care of a sitting hen over her eggs. To lose a little grace, is to lose a great deal. To miss even five minutes communion with Christ, is to, lack an incalculable blessing. Therefore, brethren, if you have lost the blessed rest you once enjoyed, do not be satisfied to remain in that condition. Do not sing, with Cowper,\u2014<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat peaceful hours I then enjoy\u2019d,
How sweet their memory still!\u201d\u2014<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
unless you can also say, with him,\u2014<\/p>\n
\u201cBut now I find an aching void
The world can never fill.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Never be happy unless you are truly resting in Jesus.<\/p>\n
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III. <\/b>That brings us to our third point, which is, that The Believer, When He Has Gone Away From His Rest, Should Return To It, and the sooner he does so, the better. Return at once, dear friends, if you have gone away from your rest. As Noah\u2019s dove came back to him, so fly back to Christ, who is your Noah, your rest, for that is the meaning of the name.<\/p>\n
And I would argue with you to come back, first, because it is quite certain that you can never rest anywhere else. <\/i>A man, who knows not the Lord Jesus Christ, can find rest in many places,\u2014such rest as it is. Give him a large estate, abundance of money, and plenty of worldly friends, and you will find him quite content with those things. Like the mole, which has its home in the earth, he will go and burrow, and make his home there. An eagle cannot do that; and you are one of God\u2019s eagles if you are a believer in Jesus Christ. Neither in wealth, nor in honor, nor in pleasure, nor in conjugal domestic comfort, can you ever find perfect rest. You have eaten the white bread of heaven, so your mouth is out of taste for the brown bread of earth. You might have been satisfied with the world if you had never known Christ, but you are spoilt for that now. A countryman, who has lived all his life in a lonely village where he never heard any music, might be chained when he first listened to one of our street organs; but let him hear some of the sweet strains of true music, then the noise of the street organ jars upon his ear, he cannot endure it. So, beloved, your ears have been attuned to something better than the world\u2019s merriment; that can never satisfy you. To you, there is only one rest; and you must come back to it. Some of you backsliders have come in here to-night; you have not been here lately, and you have been trying to be happy and comfortable apart from God; but, as surely as the Lord loves you, you will have to come back to him; and, the longer you stay away, the more bitter will be your weeping and Lamentation when you do come back. Oh, that you would be wise, and return at once, and never wander away again! You know too much, and you have felt too much, ever to rest except in Christ, so do not attempt it.<\/p>\n
Further, this unrest puts you out of order for everything. I <\/i>should like to put the question to, you, who love the Lord, but are not perfectly at rest in him,\u2014Does not your present state very much spoil your devotions? You cannot pray as you used to do when you had such a sweet sense of the love of God; you know that you have not the power in prayer that you had, God does not hear you now as he Once did. You used to run to him with your request, and come back with the favor you had asked of him; but, now, you ask many times, yet you receive no reply. The reason is, that you are walking contrary to him, and therefore he walks contrary to you.<\/p>\n
Does not this want of restfulness, also decrease your power of working for Christ? You cannot plead with a sinner as you used to do, you cannot speak to the anxious as you once did; for, while your own soul is in the dark, although you may be wishful to give light to others, you feel that you cannot do it. If you wish really to serve the Lord effectively, you must have the joy of the Lord to be your strength.<\/p>\n
Then, besides, do you not think that your want of rest is putting you into a state in which you are very liable to be tempted, and to be overcome? \u201cThe <\/i>conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks;\u201d and they are very sensible conies to do so, for there are many beasts of prey to seek their lives; but they run in to the rock, and so they are safe. If you are out of your Rock, you are, like the coney, exposed to danger, so run back again as quickly as you can. You are never so safe as when you dwell in the wounded side of Jesus, peacefully resting in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost.<\/p>\n
There is one thing more that I must say to those of you who are not thus resting; that is, this unrest can do no possible good.<\/i> I say this to myself as well as to you, for I, too, have sometimes erred in that way. I am ashamed to confess that it is so, for it ought not to have been the case, and I feel that I am more guilty than some of you in having done so; but I never yet have found any good come of a state of unrest. When I have not rested in God about everything, I have nearer found things improve any the more for all my worrying. Suppose a farmer grumbles against God because the wheat is spoiling; does his grumbling save it? Suppose a tradesman begins quarrelling with God because business is dull; he will not bring one more customer to his shop by all his complaining. No; there is no good in grumbling, and no use in complaining; the very best thing that you can do for yourself is just to come back, and rest in God, and say, \u201cIt is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good. I have done, all I can that was right for me to do; but; I know that it is vain for me to rise up early, and sit up late, and eat the bread of carefulness, unless he is pleased to send the increase. So I leave it all with him. I will not fret and worry any longer; I cannot improve matters if I do, so I will just leave everything in the Lord\u2019s hands.\u201d That is a right decision, my brother; for the end of your heart\u2019s controversy will be the beginning of your heart\u2019s rest. So, \u201crest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.\u201d \u201cCast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.\u201d \u201cDelight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.\u201d But if thou wilt be unbelieving, if thou wilt rebel and revolt against thy God, thou shalt be smitten more and more, and no rest will come to thee at all. So, cry, with the psalmist, \u201cReturn unto thy rest, O my soul;\u201d and not only say it, but do actually return at once unto thy rest.<\/p>\n
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IV. <\/b>The last thing about which I am going to speak to you is this. The Believer Has One Excellent Encouragement To Return: \u201cReturn unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.\u201d<\/p>\n
The psalmist tells us in detail what the Lord had done for him; or, rather, he tells the Lord: \u201cFor thou hast delivered my soul from death.\u201d In the fourth verse, he prayed, \u201cO Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my\u2019 soul.\u201d That was a single prayer, but he received a triple answer to it, for God is always \u201cable to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.\u201d So the psalmist proved, it, and he was able to say to the Lord, \u201cThou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.\u201d Now, believer, you ought to come back, and rest in God, because you rove received from him these three marks of his divine favor.<\/p>\n
First, he has delivered pour soul from death. <\/i>You will never die the second death. You are a saved man. As a believer in Christ, for you death has lost its sting. You may die, after a fashion; yet living and believing in Jesus, you shall never see death in the full sense of that term. For you, there are no flaming fires of wrath no pit that is bottomless, no curse of\u201d Depart.\u201d Your soul has bell delivered from death. Now, if that does not make you happy, what will? Why, my dear friends, the fact that God has saved our soul from death ought to fill our hearts with perpetual delight. Suppose I should be starved to death; still, it is a small matter now that my soul is delivered from going to hell for ever. Suppose I had to live in poverty and obscurity, and die like the martyrs at the stake; well, what of that? There is an everlasting crown that fadeth not away, that will abundantly recompense all. \u201cStrike, Lord,\u201d said Luther, \u201cnow that thou hast heard me. Do what thou wilt with me now that thou hast delivered my soul from death.\u201d I know how very poor you are, my dear friend, and what grievous burdens you have to carry; but, still, do not forget that the Lord has delivered your soul from death. You may be very poor, and very sick, and very sad, but you can never be lost. You may be laughed at by the ungodly, but you can never be cast into hell. Blessed be God for this! Surely, that is one thing to make you glad, and to encourage you to return unto, your rest.<\/p>\n
Next, the psalmist says, \u201cThou hast delivered mine eyes from tears;\u201d <\/i>and the Lord has done the same for many of us. We have no cause for grief now. \u201cNo, cause for grief?\u201d exclaims one. No; none whatever!\u201d <\/i>But I have lost my dear mother; shall I not weep?\u201d Well, she loved the Lord; so she is gone to heaven; she is now before the throne of the Most High. So, if thou dost weep because thou hast lost her, then immediately begin to sing with joy because she is up among the angels. \u201cBut I have lost my little child who was so very dear to me.\u201d Oh, well! in that case, thou art mother to one who is praising God day and night; so wipe those tears away. I rather like the idea of a young person, at Brighton, who asked that she might have grey horses to draw her to her funeral. Why not? Why always have black ones? Why not have the white horses of delight? Let those who linger here sorrow that their loved ones have gone, but let them not be so ungenerous as not to sympathize in the eternal joy upon which righteous souls have entered. No; wipe your tears away, for \u201cye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we, believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.\u201d \u201cOh, but!\u201d cries another tried friend, \u201cI have real cause for sorrow because I suffer so much, and I am so poor.\u201d Well, if it is so, it will all be over soon; and remember what the apostle says, \u201cFor our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight, of glory.\u201d \u201cYes,\u201d you say, \u201cbut, still, you do not know how much I suffer.\u201d No, I do not; and you do not know how much I suffer; but I know this,\u2014if the two of us put all our sufferings together, they are not worthy to be compared with the eternal love of the blessed God who sent us all these aches and pains that we feel. They are all sent by him in love, so why should we cry over them? He has wiped our tears away, so let us not weep any more; or, if tears must come, let the salt that is in them tend to our sanctification; but do not let us shed one rebellious tear,\u2014no, not even if all we have in the world were taken from us.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy should the soul a drop bemoan
Who has a fountain near;\u2014
A fountain which will ever run
With waters sweet and clear\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
If I have all things, I have them in my God; and if all things are gone from me, I would find them all again in him.<\/p>\n
Now, lastly, God has also delivered our feet, from falling, <\/i>as he did in the case of the psalmist. I know that one reason why so many do not fully rest is because they are afraid that they shall fall from grace,\u2014afraid that they shall dishonor their profession, and so on. Now, dear friends, I hope that you will never get rid of the godly fear of falling into sin, and never lose that holy insecurity wit regard to yourself; but do not let that feeling extend to your God. You know that, our Lord Jesus Christ, said, \u201cMy sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto, them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no one is able to pluck them out of my Father\u2019s hand.\u201d He has delivered your feet from falling, so he will keep you. Therefore, begin to praise him and bless him this very moment. Cast away that fear of being cast away, and sing Jude\u2019s doxology, \u201cNow unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.\u201d<\/p>\n
No, you have nothing at all to fret about; your soul is delivered from death, your eyes from tears, your feet from failing; so rest, rest, rest, rest! You will glorify God by resting. One of the highest acts of devotion is to rest in the Lord. God grant it to you now, at his table especially, for his name\u2019s sake! Amen.<\/p>\n
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON.<\/p>\n
PSALM 85<\/b><\/p>\n
In my brief comments upon this Psalm, I shall not feel bound to keep to the immediate occasion for which it was written, but shall seek to find a use for it in the present circumstances of God\u2019s saints.<\/p>\n
Verse 1. Lord, thou hast been favorable unto the land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.<\/i><\/p>\n
Whenever you are in a low state of mind or heart, remember God\u2019s past lovingkindnesses. Recall the record of what he has done for his people in ages long gone by, for he is the same God for ever and ever, and, therefore, what he has done in the past, he will do in the future. As the wise man said, \u201cThe thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the Sun.\u201d It is certainly so concerning God\u2019s dealings \u201cLord thou hast been favorable unto thy land,\u201d even when it was stoned with \u2019sin\u2019 \u201cthou hast brought Back the captivity of Jacob.\u201d even when that captivity was brought upon the people by their own fault. Lord, bring back my captivity! Be-favorable unto me; Deliver me from my spiritual declensions, and give me back my joy and peace:<\/p>\n
2. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah.<\/i><\/p>\n
What a sweet subject for our meditation we found, last Lord\u2019s-day morning [See, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 1,492, \u201cThe First Note of my Song.\u201d], in those words of the psalmist, \u201cWho forgiveth all thine iniquities\u201d! Now, if God has indeed blotted out the sin of his people, at a plea this is to use with him for all that we still need from him! Will he pardon us, and yet leave us to perish? Will he pay such a ransom price as the blood of his well-beloved Son to set us free from the bondage of sin, and then will he not help us even to the end? Will he not lift up our heavy heart, and revive our drooping spirit? Ah! that he will if we know how to plead his former mercy, and to urge upon him that, because he has forgiven our iniquity, and covered all our sin, he should now heal our diseases, redeem our life from destruction, and crown us with loving-kindness sad tender mercies.<\/p>\n
3, 4. Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger. Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cLet us have a special application of the general mercy. Thy wrath to thy children has passed away; so let us no longer sit down, and cower beneath it, fearful of its terrors. Lord, bring us back to thee! Our heart desires conversion, but thou alone canst give it to us to the full. Turn us, O God of our salvation, and we shall be turned.\u201d<\/p>\n
6. Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cThou mightest well do so if thou wert dealing with us only according to the strict requirements of thy righteous law; but we are thy children, Lord; and is a father always angry with his children? Thou hast forgiven us our iniquity; and, therefore, the great cause of thy wrath against us is gone. Now, O Lord, reveal thy love to us! Let us not any longer be under the sense of our guilt, or feel the absence of the joy and peace which thou givest unto those whom thou forgivest.\u201d<\/p>\n
6. Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cWe have got down very low, great God. We have been, these last six days, mixing with the world, and perhaps we have forgotten thee. Come to us, we pray thee. Give us fresh life; \u2019revive us again.\u2019 Many a time hast, thou, spiritually, raised us up as from the grave\u2019s mouth; wilt thou not do it again? All that thou hast done for us in the past will be lost if thou dost not continue thy mercy to us. \u2019Wilt thou not revive us again?\u2019 Thou lovest to see us happy, and thou art thyself the happy God; oh, make us happy, too, by reviving us, \u2019that thy people may rejoice in thee\u2019!\u201d<\/p>\n
7. Shew us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us thy salvation.<\/i><\/p>\n
So far, the Psalm is a prayer. Now the psalmist seems to stop, and wait for the answer to his supplication. Beloved, always do that when you pray. When you have spoken to God, wait for him to speak to you. Do not let it appear that your prayer needs no answer; but really expect a reply to it, and then, in patience and in silence, wait for it.<\/p>\n
8. I will hear what God the LORD will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.<\/i><\/p>\n
For, if they do, their darkness will return, and they will again have to mourn their Lord\u2019s absence. Peradventure, the rod will fall more heavily upon them, and their souls will sink into a deeper despondency. For a Christian to be a fool once, is a sad thing; but for him to turn again to folly, is a multiplied form of iniquity which God will surely punish.<\/p>\n
9. Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land.<\/i><\/p>\n
O beloved brethren and sisters, lay hold on that salvation which is nigh unto you, and exalt in it; and, even now, let your spirits feel the glow of his glory shining in your soul!<\/p>\n
10. Mercy and truth are met together;<\/i><\/p>\n
But only at one place,\u2014the cross of, Calvary, where Jesus died; there, \u201cmercy and truth are met together;<\/p>\n
10. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.<\/i><\/p>\n
Through Christ\u2019s death, sin has been punished, sinners are saved, God\u2019s law is vindicated, and the depths of his mercy are displayed: \u201cRighteousness and peace have kissed each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
11. Truth shall spring out of the earth;-<\/i><\/p>\n
Promises, which lay hidden in God\u2019s Word, like seeds buried in the earth, shall spring up before our eyes, like flowers carpeting the earth with beauty: \u201cTruth shall spring out of the earth;\u201d\u2014<\/p>\n
11. And righteousness shall look down from heaven.<\/i><\/p>\n
As if so pleased with the state of things brought about by the atoning sacrifice of Christ that it flung up the windows of heaven to look down and see this great sight: \u201cRighteousness shall look down from heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n
12, 13. Yea, the LORD shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase. Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps.<\/i><\/p>\n
May God thus revive us, by his Holy Spirit, for Christ\u2019s sake! Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NO. 2758 INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD\u2019S-DAY, DECEMBER 22ND, 1901, DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD\u2019S-DAY EVENING, SEP. 7TH, 1879. \u201cReturn unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.\u201d\u2014 Psalm 116:7. You, who have not believed in our Lord Jesus Christ, have no … Continue reading “\u201cRETURN UNTO THY REST.\u201d”<\/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-4087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4087","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=4087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4087\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}