The
Overflowing Cup III
Psalm 23:5
May 4, 2025
The Overflowing Cup
by
Charles Spurgeon
I
will pick up where I left off last week at the line below:
I. SOME MEN’S CUPS
NEVER
RUN OVER. Many even fail to
be filled
because taken to the
wrong source. Such are the
cups which are held
beneath the drippings of the world’s leaky cistern. Men try to find full
satisfaction in wealth, but they never do. Pactolus* fill no man’s cup, that
power belongs exclusively to the river whose streams make glad
the city of
God.
(Psalm 46:4-5) As to money, every
man will have enough when he has a
little more, but contentment with his gains comes to no
man. Wealth is not
true riches (Bro.
Christian’s comment and background), neither are men’s
hearts the fuller
because their purses are heavy. Men have thought to fill
their cups out of the foul pools of what
they call
“pleasure,” but all in vain,
for
appetite grows, passion becomes voracious (wanting or devouring great quantities
of food or having a very eager approach
to an activity), and lust, like a horse-leech,
crieth, “Give,
give.” The horse leech hath two daughters, crying, Give, give.
There are three things
that are never satisfied, yea four things say not, It
is
enough: The grave;
and the barren womb, the earth that is not filled with water;
and the fire that saith not, it
is enough.” (Proverbs 30:15-16) Like the jaws
of death and the maw (mouth or gullet of a greedy person) of the sepulcher,
the depraved heart
can never be satisfied. At the polluted pool of pleasure no cup
was ever yet filled though thousands have been
broken; it is a
corrosive liquor which
eats into the pitcher, and devours the vessel
into which it flows. Some
have tried to fill
their souls with fame: they have aspired to be great
among their fellow-men, and to
wear honorable titles earned in war, or gained in
study. But satisfaction is
not created by the highest renown; you shall turn to the biographies of the
great, and perceive that in their secret hearts
they never gained contentment from the
grandest successes they achieved. Perhaps, if you
had to look out the truly miserable,
you would do better to go to the Houses of
Parliament and to the palaces of those
who govern nations, than to the purlieus of
poverty, for awful misery is full often
clothed in scarlet, and agony feasts at the table
of kings. From the sparkling founts
of fame no cups are filled. Young man, you
are just starting in life, you have the
cup in your hand, and you want to fill it, let us warn you (those of us who have
tried the world) that
it, cannot fill your soul, not even with such poor sickly
liquor as it offers you. It will pretend to fill, but fill it never can. There is a
craving of the soul
which can never be satisfied,
EXCEPT BY ITS CREATOR.
“He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also He hath set the world in
their heart so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the
beginning to the end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
The Septuagint has Σύμ τὰ παντα τὸν αἰῶνα –
Sun ta panta ton aiona – Vulgate, Mundum
tradidit disputationi eorum. The original meaning is “the hidden,” and it is
used generally in the Old
Testament of the remote past, and sometimes of the
future, so that the idea
conveyed is of unknown duration, whether the glance
looks backward or forward,
which is equivalent to our word “eternity.” It
is only in later Hebrew that
the word obtained the signification of “age”
(αἰών – aion - age), or “world” in its relation to time. Commentators
who have
adopted the latter sense here
explain the expression as if it meant that man
in himself is a microcosm, a
little world, or that the love of the world, the
love of life, is naturally
implanted in him. But taking the term in the
signification found throughout the
Bible, we are justified in translating it
“eternity.” The pronoun in “their
heart” refers to “the sons of men” in the
previous verse. God has put into men’s minds a notion of
infinity
INFINITY OF DURATION, the beginning
and the end of things are
alike beyond his grasp; the time to be born
and the time to die are equally
unknown and uncontrollable.
_________________________________________________________
Koheleth is not thinking of
that hope of immortality
which his words unfold to
us with our better knowledge; he is speculating on the
innate faculty of looking backward and forward
which man possesses, but
which is insufficient to solve the problems
which present themselves every
day. This conception of eternity may be the foundation
of great hopes and
expectations, but as an explanation of
the ways of
that no man can find out the
work that God maketh from the
beginning to the end; or, without
man being able to penetrate; yet so that
he cannot, etc. Man sees only
minute parts of the great whole; he cannot
comprehend all at one view, cannot
understand the law that regulates the
time and season of every
circumstance in the history of man and the world.
(But committing that into God’s hands goes a long
way toward’s joy, peache
and contentment which we
all crave - (CY - 2025) He feels that, as there has
been an infinite past, there will be
an infinite future, which
may solve anomalies
(abnormalities; irregularities) and
demonstrate the harmonious unity
of God’s design, and he must be
content to wait and hope. Comparison of
the past with the
present may help to adumbrate (foreshadow or symblolize) the future,
but is inadequate to
unravel the complicated thread of the world’s history (compare
ch. 8:16-17, where a similar
thought is expressed).
“When
I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done
in the earth: (for also there is
that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:)
Then
I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done
under the sun: because though a man labor
to seek it out, yet he shall not find it;
yea, further; though a wise man think to know it, yet
shall he not be able to find
it. (Ecclesiasties 8:16-17)
In God only
is the fullness of the heart, which He has made for Himself.
Some cups are
never filled, for the excellent reason that the bearers of
them suffer from the grievous disease of natural
discontent. All
unconverted men are not equally discontented, but some are intensely so.
You
can no more fill the heart of a discontented man than you can fill a cup
which has the bottom knocked out. A contented man may have enough,
but a discontented man never can; his heart is like the Slough of Despond,
into which thousands of wagon loads of the best material were cast, and
yet the slough did swallow up all, and was none the better. Discontent is a
bottomless bog into which if one world were cast it would quiver and
heave
for another. A discontented man dooms himself to
the direst form of
poverty, yea, he makes himself so great a pauper that the revenues
of
empires could not enrich him. Are you the victims of discontent?
Young
men, do you feel that you never can be contented while you are
apprentices? Are you impatient in your present position? Believe me that,
as George Herbert said of incomes in times gone by, “He that cannot live
on twenty pounds a year cannot live on forty,” so may I say: he who is not
contented in his present position will not be contented in another though
it
brought him double possessions. If you were to accumulate property,
young man, until you became enormously rich, yet, with that same hungry
heart in your bosom you would still pine for more. When the vulture of
dissatisfaction has once fixed its
talons in the breast it will not cease to tear
at your vitals. Perhaps you are no longer
under tutors and governors, but
have launched into life on your own account, and yet you are displeased
with
providence. (Thus
did I teach 24 lessons on The Danger of Dissatisfaction with One’s Lot in
Life - from May to October of 2024
and I hope that I am getting near in the culmination of that theme for a
while as I hope soon to teach the 17-21 chapters of Judges verbatim -
a
lesson like which I have never tried before - CY - 2025) Young
person, you dreamed that if you were married, and had your little
ones about you, a job and a house, all
your own, then you would be satisfied:
and it had come to pass, but now scarcely anything contents you. The meal
provided today was not good enough for you, the bed you will lie upon
tonight will not be soft enough for you, the weather is too hot or too cold,
too dry or too damp. (Comment on Deuteronomy28 and read vs. 63-67)
63 And it shall come to pass, that as the
LORD rejoiced over you to
do you good, and to multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over
you to destroy you, and to bring you to naught; and ye shall be
plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.
64 And the LORD shall scatter thee among
all people, from the one
end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve
other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even
wood and stone.
65 And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the
sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a
trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:
66 And thy life shall hang in
doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear
day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy
life:
67 In the morning thou shalt say,
Would God it were even! and at
even
thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for
the fear of
thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine
eyes which thou shalt see.
68 And the LORD shall bring thee
into
way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again:
and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and
bondwomen, and no man shall buy you. (Deuteronomy
28:63-68)
You
scarcely ever meet with one of your fellow-men
who is quite to your mind: he is too sharp and rough-tempered, or else he
is too easy, and has “no spirit;” your type of a good man you never see:
the
great men are all dead and the true men fail from this generation. Some of
you cannot be made happy, you are never right till
everything is wrong, nor bearable until you have had
your morning’s growl. There is no
pleasing you. I know men who if they were in Paradise would find
fault with the glades of
shift the position of its trees. If the serpent were excluded, they would
demand
liberty for him to enter, and would grow indignant at his exclusion. (Spectacularly close to the attitude of the so-called
Progressive
Left
today, in their support of evil individuals being deported from our
country - CY - 2025) They would criticize the music of the angels, find fault
with the cherubim, and how weary of white robes and harps of gold: or as
a
last resource they would become angry with a place so
completely
blessed as not to afford them a
corner for the indulgence of their
spiteful censures. For such unrestful minds the cup which runneth
over
is not prepared.
Some, too, we
know whose cup never will run over, because they are
envious. They would be very well satisfied
with what they have, but some
one else has more, and they cannot bear it. If they see another
in a better
position in society they long to bring him down to their level.
I
recommend:
# 1246 - Spurgeon Sermon -
When a Man’s Conduct Comes Home to Him -
this website - CY - 2025,
https://adultbibleclass.com/Proverbs%20ch%2014%20v14%20-%20Spurgeon%20Sermon%20-%20How%20a%20Man's%20Conduct%20Comes%20Home%20to%20Him.htm
Pliers
are vices peculiar to the rich, but this is one of the ready faults of poverty.
Now,
surely, friend, if you find your own lot hard to bear you cannot wish
another man to suffer it too: if your case be a hard one, you should be glad
that others are not equally afflicted. It is a happy thing when a man gets rid
of envy, for then he rejoices in the joy of
others; and with a secret
appropriation which is far removed from anything like theft, he calls
everything that belongs to other men his own, for he is rich in their
riches,
glad in their gladness, and above all happy that they are saved. Some of us
have known what it is to doubt our own salvation, and yet feel that we
must always love Jesus Christ for saving other people. I charge you cast
out envy! The
green dragon is a very dangerous guest in any man’s home.
Remember,
it may lurk in the hearts of very good men. A preacher may not
be able to appreciate the gifts of another preacher, because they seem to
be
more attractive than his own. Good people when they see another useful
are too much in the habit of saying, “Yes, but he does not do this,” or,
“She
does not do that,” and the remark is made, “He is very useful but very
crotchety (ill tempered; peevish);” as if there ever was a man who did anything
in this world that was not crotchety. Their very crotchets (a highly
individual
and usually eccentric opinion or preference/which are uncomfortable
things)
God
often overrules to be the power of the men and women whom He
means to employ in striking out new paths of usefulness. What you call
imprudence (mprudence refers to a lack of
caution or care in one's actions,
often resulting in unwise or careless decisions. It can also mean the state
of being indiscreet or reckless). Essentially, it's the opposite of prudence,
which involves wisdom and caution. Imprudence may be faith, and what
you condemn as obstinacy may only be strength of mind needful for persevering
under difficulties. Bless
God for gracious men as you find them, and do
not want them to be other than they are. When
divine grace has renewed them, help them all you can and make the best use you can of them, and if
their bell does not ring out
the same note as yours, and you cannot change
its tone, and yet you feel
that your note would be discordant to theirs, pray
God to tune your bell to harmony with theirs, that
from the sacred steeple
there may ring out a holy, hallowed, harmonious chime, through the union
of all the bells and all their tones, IN THE SOLE PRAISE OF
GOD!
Envy prevents
many cups from running over.
So,
once more, in the best of men unbelief is sure to prevent the cup
running over. You cannot get into the
condition of the psalmist while you
doubt your God. Note well how he puts it. “The Lord is my shepherd, I
shall not want.” He has no fears, or forebodings, or doubts;
he has given a
writing of divorce between his soul and anxiety, and how he says, “My cup
runneth over.” What are you fretting about, my sister? What is the last
new subject for worry? If you have fretted
all your life, your husband, your children, and your servants have had a sad time of it. Your
husband feels with regard to
you, “Good woman, I know nothing in which I could find fault with her, except that she finds
fault with others, and that she grieves when there is no cause for grieving.” May the Lord be
pleased to string your harp so that it may not give forth such jarring notes as
it now does,
but may yield the joyful music of praise. Your great need is a more
childlike faith in God. Take
God’s word and trust it, and, good sister, your
cup will run over too. What is your trouble, brother? You were
smiling just
now at the thought of how some women are troubled, for you thought,
“All,
they do not have the cares men have in business!” Little do you
know. There is a burden for women to carry which is as heavy as that of
their husbands and brothers. But what is your distress? Is it one that you
dare not tell to God? Then what business have you
with it? Is it one which
you cannot tell to God? What is there in your heart that forbids your
unburdening it? Is it one
which you refuse to tell to God? Then
it will be a
trouble and a curse to you, and it will grow heavier and
heavier till it will
crush you to the earth. But, oh, come and tell your great Helper!
You
believe in God for your sons, believe in Him about your property,
believe
in
God about your sick wife or your dying child, believe in God about your
losses and bad debts and declining business. A bosom bare before the Lord
is
needful to perfect satisfaction. I have proved God, and I speak what I do
know: I have had a care that has troubled me, which I could scarcely
communicate to another without, perhaps, making it worse: I have done
my best, and I have prayed over it but have not seen a way of escape, and
at last I have left it with God, feeling that if He did not solve it, it
must go
unsolved. I have resolved that I would have nothing more to do with it,
and when I have done that the difficulty has disappeared, and in its
disappearance I have found an additional reason for confidence in God, and have been able again to say, “My cup runneth over.”
We must walk
by faith with both feet. Some try to walk by faith with the
left foot, but their right foot they will not lift from the earth,
and therefore
they make no progress at all. Wholly
by faith, wholly by faith must we live.
He who learns to do that will soon say, “My cup runneth over.”
I have
not time to enlarge, although much more might be said, for there are cups which never have run over, and never will.
II. But now, secondly, WHY DOES OUR CUP RUN OVER? Assuming that
we have really believed in Jesus, and
that not with a wavering faith, but in
downright solemn earnest, then
joy will follow our faith. Our cup runs
over, first, because, having Christ, we
have in him all things. “He that
spared not his own Son, but freely delivered
him up for us all, how shall he
not with him, also, freely give us all
things?”
“This
world is ours, and worlds to come:
Earth is our lodge, and heaven our
home.”
Between
here and heaven there is nothing we shall want but what God has
supplied. The promise is, “Seek ye
first the
righteousness, and all these things
shall be added to you.” As the old
Puritan
puts it, earthly comforts are like paper and
string, which you need
not go to buy, for you will have them
given to you when you purchase
more valuable things. Seek the
all these things shall be added unto you.
Our God is not like the Duke of
Alva,
who promised to spare the lives of certain Protestants and then
denied them food, so that they died of
starvation. He does not give his
eternal life and then deny
us that which is needful to the securing of it. He
will give us manna all the way from
gushing rock to follow us
all the time we are in the wilderness. “To good
thing will I withhold from them that walk
uprightly.” “Thy shoes shall be
iron and brass, and as thy days so shall
thy strength be.” I had climbed a hill
the other day, and as I went down the
steep side a sharp stone made a
tremendous gash in my shoe, and
then I thought of that promise, “Thy
shoes shall be iron and brass.” If the road
be rough a strong shoe shall fit
the foot for it. As with the Israelites,
their feet did not swell, neither did
their garments wax old upon them, so shall
it be with you. You shall find
all things in God and God in all things.
But
there is another reason why our cups run over. They run over because
the infinite God himself
is ours.
“The Lord is my shepherd.”; “My God,”
the psalmist styles him. One of the most
delightful renderings ever
employed in a metrical
translation of the Psalms is that of the old Scotch
version of Psalm 42.
“For yet I know I shall Him praise,
Who graciously to me
The health is of my countenance;
Yea, mine own God is He.”
I am greatly impressed and encouraged by what God said to Abraham,
before
his name
was changed:
“Fear
not, Abram, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” (Genesis
15:1)