The Sure Mercies of David Part VI

                         (a sequel to the Christmas Lesson)

                                          Luke 1:23-38

                              II Samuel 23:5; Haggai 2:5-9

                                   Psalm 72:1-20; 10:1-11

                                       February 2, , 2025

 

Oh! if the world could gather up all her

right desire; if she could condense in one cry all her wild wishes; if all true

lovers of mankind could condense their theories and extract the true wine of

wisdom from them; it would just come to this, WE WANT AN INCARNATE

GOD, and you have got the INCARNATE GOD!  Oh! nations, but ye know it not!

Ye, in the dark, are groping after Him, and know not that He is there.

Brethren, I may add, Christ is certainly the desire of all nations in this

respect, that we desire Him for all nations. Oh! that the world were

encompassed in His gospel! Would God the sacred fire would run along the

ground, that the little handful of corn on the top of the mountains would

soon make its fruit to shake like Lebanon. Oh! when will it come, when

will it come that all the nations shall know Him? Let us pray for it: let us

labor for it.

 

 

 

                                                            Psalm 72

 

This Psalm contains a description of an exalted king, and of the blessings of His reign.

These blessings are of such a nature as to prove that the subject of the Psalm must

be a Divine Person:

 

  • His kingdom is to be everlasting.
  • Universal.
  • He secures perfect peace with God and goodwill among men.
  • All men are to be brought to submit to Him through love.
  • In Him all the nations of the earth are to be blessed; i.e., as we are

            distinctly taught in Galatians 3:16, it is in Him that all the blessings of

            redemption are to come upon the world. Charles Hodge, in

            "Systematic Theology." 1871.

 

 

                                                Ephesians 3:14-21

 

14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus

Christ,

15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,

16 That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be

strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man;

16 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted

and grounded in love,

18  May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and

length, and depth, and height;

19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye

might be filled with all the fullness of God.

20 Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all

that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,

21 Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all

ages, world without end. Amen.

 

 

 

                                                (Ephesians 1:

 

 

9 Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to

His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself:

10 That in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather

together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and

which are on earth; even in Him:

11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated

according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the

counsel of His own will:

12 That we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in

Christ.

 

 

(The first seventeen verses of Psalm 72 have a star beside them in the King James Version

and represent a direct reference to Jesus Christ – CY – 2011)

 

 

TITLE. A Psalm for Solomon. The best linguists affirm that this should be

rendered, of or by Solomon. There is not sufficient ground for the

rendering for. It is pretty certain that the title declares Solomon to be the

author of the Psalm, and yet from v. 20 it would seem that David

uttered it in prayer before he died. With some diffidence we suggest that

the spirit and matter of the Psalm are David's, but that he was too near his

end to pen the words, or cast them into form: Solomon, therefore, caught

his dying father's song, fashioned it in goodly verse, and, without robbing

his father, made the Psalm his own. It is, we conjecture, the Prayer of

David, but the Psalm of Solomon. Jesus is here, beyond all doubt, in the

glory of His reign, both as He now is, and as He shall be revealed in the

latter day glory.

 

DIVISION. We shall follow the division suggested by Alexander. "A

glowing description of the reign of Messiah as:

 

·       righteous, vs. 1-7;

·       universal, vs. 8-11;

·       beneficent, vs. 12-14; a

·       and perpetual, vs. 15-17;

·       to which are added a doxology, vs.18-19; and

·       a postscript, v. 20."

 

 

 

 

                                    Psalm 72:1-17

 

1 Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto

the king’s son.

2 He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with

judgment.

3 The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills,

by righteousness.

4 He shall judge the poor of the people, He shall save the children of

the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor.

5 They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure,

throughout all generations.

6 He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers

that water the earth.

7 In His days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so

long as the moon endureth.

8 He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river

unto the ends of the earth.

9 They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him; and His

enemies shall lick the dust.

10 The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the

kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.

11 Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him: all nations shall serve

Him.

12 For He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and

him that hath no helper.

13 He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the

needy.

14 He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious

shall their blood be in His sight.

15 And He shall live, and to Him shall be given of the gold of Sheba:

prayer also shall be made for Him continually; and daily shall He be

praised.

16 There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the

mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of

the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.

17 His name shall endure for ever: His name shall be continued as

long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall

call Him blessed.

 

                                    Back to Spurgeon’s Sermon

 

And one other meaning I may give to this: He is the desirable one of all

nations, bringing back the former translation of this text. He is the choice

one of all nations. He is the chief among ten thousand, and the altogether

lovely. He, whom we love, is such an one that He can never be matched by

another, His rival could not be found amongst the sons of men. There is

none like Him; there is none like Him amongst the angels of light; there is

none that can stand in comparison with Him. The desire, the one that ought

to be desired, the most desirable of all the nations, IS JESUS CHRIST  and it is

the glory of the Christian Church, which is the second temple that Christ is

in her, her head, her Lord. It is never her glory that she condescends to

make an iniquitous union with the State. It is her glory that Christ is her

sole King, it is her glory that He is her sole Prophet, and that He is her sole

Priest, and that He then gives to all His people to be kings and priests with

Him, Himself the center and source of all their glory and their power.

 

 

 

                                    (Revelation 1:1-7)

 

1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to shew

unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He

sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:

2 Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus

Christ, and of all things that he saw.

3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this

prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the

time is at hand.

4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you,

and peace, from Him which is, and which was, and which is to

come; and from the seven Spirits which are before His throne;

5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first

begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto

Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood,

6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to

Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

7Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and

they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail

because of Him. Even so, Amen.

8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the

Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

                                                                        (Revelation 1:1-7)

 

I cannot stay longer, though the theme tempts me, but must just give you

the last word, which is this, the visible glory of the true second temple will

be Christ’s second coming. He, Himself, is her glory, whether at His first

coming, or at His second coming. The Church will be no more glorious at

the second coming than now. “What!” say you, “no more glorious!” No;

but more apparently glorious. Christ is as glorious on the cross as He is on

the throne; it is the appearance only that shall alter. “Then shall the

righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father, but they

evermore are brightness itself, in the person of Jesus Christ. Now, brethren,

we are to expect, as long as this world lasts, that all things will shake that

are to be moved. They will go on shaking. We call the world sometimes

terra firma”; it is not this world, surely, that deserves such a name as that;

there is nothing stable beneath the stars; all things else will shake, and as

the shaking goes on, Jesus Christ will, to those who know Him, become

more and more their desire. I suppose, if the world went on, in some things

mending and improving, and were to go up to a point, we should not want

Christ to come in a hurry, we would rather that things should be

perpetuated; but the shaking will make Christ more and more the desire of

the nations. (Do you not think that the California wildfires of this last week

is a shaking?  CY - 2025) “The whole creation groaneth,” is groaning up to now,

but it will groan more and more “in pain together travailing” — the apostle saith

“even until now.”  (Romans 8:22)  The travailing pains grow worse and

worse, and worse, and it will be so with this world; it will travail till at last it

must come to the consummation of her desire. The Church will say, “Come,

Lord Jesus.” She will say it with gathering earnestness; she will continue

still to say it, though there are intervals in which she will forget her Lord,

but still her heart’s desire will be that He will come; and at last He will

surely come and bring to this world not only Himself, the desire of all

nations but all that can be desired, for those days of His, when He

appeareth, shall be to His people as the days of heaven upon earth, the days

of their honor, the days of their rest — the day in which the kingdoms shall

belong unto Christ.  Revelation 11:15 tells us the time is coming when  ....the

kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His

Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.”  CY - 2025)  Oh! brethren,

it is not for me to go into details on a subject which would require many discourses,

and which could not be brought out in the few last words of a discourse. But here

is the great hope of that splendid building, the Church, which is desired. Her glory

essentially lies in the Incarnate God, who has come into her midst. Her

glory manifestly will lie in the second coming of that Incarnate God, when

He shall be revealed from heaven to those that look and are waiting for and

hasting unto the coming of the Son of God — looking for Him with

gladsome expectation. And this is the joy of the Church. He has gone, but

He has left word, “I will come again, and will receive you unto myself, that

where I am, ye may be also.” Remember the words that were spoken of the

angels to the Church, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye here, gazing up

into heaven? This same Jesus who is gone up from you into heaven shall so

come in like manner as ye have seen Him go up into heaven.” In propria

persona — in very deed and truth, He shall come: —

 

“These eyes shall see Him in that day,

The God that died for me;

And all my rising bones shall say,

Lord, who is like to thee?”

 

Then shall come the adoption, the raising of the body, the reception of a

glory to that body reunited to the soul, such as we have not dreamed of,

for eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of

man to conceive what God hath prepared for them that love Him. Though

He hath revealed them unto us by His Holy Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all

things, yea, the deep things of God, yet have our ears heard but little

thereof, and we have not received the full discovery of the things that shall

be hereafter. The Lord bless you! May you all be parts of His Church, have

a share in His glory, and a share in the manifestation of that glory at theH

last.

 

Dear hearer, I would send thee away with this one query in thine ear — Is

Christ thy desire, Couldest thou say, with David, “He is all my salvation

and all my desire”? Could you gather up your feet in the bed, with dying

Jacob, and say, “I have waited for thy will, O God”? By your desire shall

you be known. The desire of the righteous shall be granted. Delight thyself

also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desire of thine heart.

But the desire of many is a groveling desire: it is a sinful desire: it is a

disgraceful desire — a desire which, if it be attained, the attainment of it

will afford very brief pleasure. Oh! sinner, let thy desires go after Christ.

Remember if thou wouldest have Him, thou hast not to earn Him — fight

for Him — win Him — but HE IS TO BE HAD FOR THE ASKING!

“Lay hold,” says he apostle, “on eternal life.” As if it were ours, if we did but

grip it. God give us grace to lay hold on eternal life, for Jesus from the cross is

saying, Look unto me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth,” and from His

throne of glory He still is saying, “Come unto me,” exalted on high, “to give

repentance and remission of sin,” and He will give them both to those who

seek Him. Seek Him, then, this night. God grant it for His Son’s sake.

 

 

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Psalm 6:6-7

 

“There be many who say, Who will show us any good?

.......Thou hast put gladness in my heart.....I will both

lay me down in peace and sleep:  for thou Lord, only

makest me dwell in safety.”

 

I. HERE IS AN INQUIRY PUT. “Who will show us good?” By which is meant,

not so much What is good in itself? asWhat will make us happy, and bring

us a sense of satisfaction? Over and above our intellectual (faculties), we

have emotional faculties. The emotions are to the spiritual part of us what

the (physical) sensations are to the bodily part. Among the various fallacies of

some wise men of this world, one of the wildest is that emotion has no place in

the search after, and in the ascertainment of, truth. It would be quite safe

to reverse that, and to say that unless the emotions have their rightful play,

few truths can be rightly sought or found. An equilibrium of absolute

indifference concerning truth or error would be a guilty carelessness. Our

craving after happiness is God’s lesson to us through the emotions, that we

are dependent for satisfaction on something outside us; and when such

satisfaction is actually reached, it is so far the sign that the higher life is

being healthfully sustained. Our nature is too complex to be satisfied with

supply in any one department. Our intellectual nature craves the true. Our

moral nature craves the right. Our sympathetic nature calls for love. (thus the

basic emotional needs love/security/recognition contrasted with our known

physical needs of food/clothing/shelter!  Our conscious weakness and

dependence call for strength from another. Our

powers of action demand a sphere of service which shall neither corrupt

nor exhaust. Our spiritual nature cries out for God, life, and immortality.

Who can show us “good” that will meet all these wants? Such is the inquiry.

 

 

How to  separate sin from sinners — the sinner

from his sins?    Matthew 13:49-50

 

winnow the chaff from the wheat

 

 

 

                        Why? or, Hard Facts and Puzzling Questions

                                                (vs. 1-18)

 

Whether or no this psalm was originally a part of the ninth is a question

which, as may be seen, is discussed by many expositors. The mere absence

of a title to it is, however, a very slight indication in that direction; while

the contrast, almost violent, between the two psalms seems to be sufficient

to show that they could scarcely have been penned by the same writer at

the same time. The ninth psalm is a song of praise over the great

deliverance God had wrought in bringing about the destroyer’s destruction.

This is a mournful wail over the ill designs and too successful plans of the

wicked on the one hand, and over the long silence of God on the other.

The ungodly are at the very height of their riotous and iniquitous reveling;

and the Divine interposition is passionately and agonizingly implored. We

have no clue whatever to the precise period of disorder to which reference

is here made. Perhaps it is well that we have not. There have been times in

the history of the world and of the Church, again and again, when

designing and godless men have been, as it were, let loose, and have been

permitted to play havoc with God’s people, while the righteous were

mourning and the wicked were boasting that God did not interpose to

check their cruelties and crimes. And it will be necessary for the student

and expositor to throw himself mentally into the midst of such a state of

things, ere he can appreciate all the words of a psalm like this. For it is one

of those containing words of man to God, and not words of God to man.

We have therein:

 

·         terrific facts specified;

·         hard questions asked;

·         a permanent solace; and

·         a forced-out prayer.

 

I. TERRIFIC FACTS. (Vs. 2-11.) Let every phrase in this indictment be

weighed; it presents as fearful a picture of human wickedness as any

contained in the Word of God. It sets before us:

 

·         pride,

·         persecution,

·         device,

·         boasting,

·         ridicule,

·         denial of Providence,

·         hardness,

·         scorn,

·         evil-speaking,

·         defying and denying of God,

·         oppression and crushing of the poor,

·         a glorying in deeds of shame, and

·         expected impunity therein.

 

And what is more trying still is, that God seems to let all this go on, and keeps

silence, and stands afar off, and hides Himself in times of trouble.  Such trials

were felt by the Protestants in their early struggles; by the Covenanters in times

of persecution in Scotland; by faithful ones on the occasion of the St. Bartholomew

Massacre; by the Waldenses and Albigenses; by Puritans and Independents under

Charles I.; by Churchmen under Cromwell; and by the Malagasy in our own times;

and it is only by the terror of such times that psalms like this can be understood.

 

II. HARD QUESTIONS. Of these there are two. One is in the first verse.

 

1. Why is God silent? As we look at matters, we might be apt to say that if

God has indeed a people in the world, He will never let them fall into the

hands of the destroyer; or that, if they are oppressed by evil men, God will

quickly deliver them out of their hands, and will show His disapproval of

their ways. But very often is it otherwise — to sight, and then faith is tried;

and it is no wonder that Old Testament saints should ask  “Why?” when

even New Testament saints often do the same! But we know that to His

own, God gives an inward peace and strength that are better marks of His

love and better proofs of his timely aid than any outward distinction could

possibly be. Take, e.g., the case of Blandina in the times of early

persecution; and the cases of hundreds of others. And besides this, it is by

the Christ-like bearing of believers under hardships such as these, that God

reveals the reality and glory of his redeeming grace (see 1 Peter 4:12-14).

 

2. A second question is: Why doth the wicked contemn God? Ah! why does

he? He does contemn God in many ways.

 

(a) His inward thought is, “There is no God” (v. 4).

(b) He denies that God will call him to account (v. 13).

(c) He denies that God watches his actions (v. 11).

(d) He lulls himself in imagined perpetual security (v. 6).

 

Thus the life of such a one is a perpetual denial or defiance of God. And all

this is attributed

 

(a) to “pride” (v. 4);

(b) to love of evil as evil (v. 3).

 

And yet the psalmist, seeing through the vain boast of the ungodly, may

well peal out again and again the question, “Why does he do this? “for the

implied meaning of the writer is, “Why does he do this, when, in spite of all

his proud glorying in ill, he knows that God will bring his wickedness to an

end, and will call him to account for it? This is the thought which connects

our present division with the next.

 

III. PERMANENT SOLACE. However hard it may be to interpret the

ways of God at any one crisis, yet the believer knows that he must not

judge God by what he sees of His ways, but ought to estimate His ways by

what he knows of God. And there are four great truths known about God

by the revelation of Himself to man.

 

1. Jehovah is the eternal King (v. 14).

2. God is the Helper of the fatherless (ibid.).

3. God is known as the Judge of the oppressed (v. 18; compare

     chps. 103:6; 94:8-23).

4. God hears His people’s cry (v. 17).

 

When believers know all this, they have a perpetual source of relief even

under the heaviest cares. God’s plan for the world, in His government

thereof by Jesus Christ, is to redress every wrong of man, and to bring

about peace, by righteousness (ch. 72:2-4 [this a reference to a part of

last week’s, now this week’s lesson - CY  - 2025]).

 

IV. FERVID PRAYER. (vs. 12, 15.) Times of severest pressure are

those which force out the mightiest prayer (Acts 4:23-30). Luther, etc.;

Daniel (Daniel 2:16-18; 9:1-19). The true method of prayer is thus

indicated, viz. to ascertain from God’s revelation of himself, what he is and

what are his promises, and then to approach him in humble supplication,

pleading with him to reveal the glory of his Name, by fulfilling the promises

he has made; and when our prayers move in the direct line of Gods

promises, we are absolutely sure of an answer (but see ch. 65:5;

Revelation 8:4-5; Deuteronomy 33:26-29). Today (we think - CY - 2025) is a

day of God’s concealing Himself; but HIS DAY OF SELF-REVEALING

IS DRAWING NIGH! 

 

 

 

 

 

II. A QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED. “Wherefore,” etc.?

Because “he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it” (Psalm 10:11).

Men persuade themselves that, as they forget God, so He forgets them.

That is all they desire. An ungodly man’s notion of forgiveness is mere

omission to punishment; neglect of justice; indulgence, not because it is right

not to punish, but merely because the thought of punishment is too

dreadful and painful. “God,” he says, “is too merciful to punish.” He does

not consider or understand that, as it is impossible for God to forget

anything, so there would be no true mercy, but the reverse, in the neglect

of justice. This is what is meant by “will by no means clear the guilty,” even

in the very proclamation of Divine mercy (Exodus 34:6-7).

 

 

I. Psalm 10:2-11.) Let every phrase in this indictment be

weighed; it presents as fearful a picture of human wickedness as any

contained in the Word of God. It sets before us:

 

·         pride,

·         persecution,

·         device,

·         boasting,

·         ridicule,

·         denial of Providence,

·         hardness,

·         scorn,

·         evil-speaking,

·         defying and denying of God,

·         oppression and crushing of the poor,

·         a glorying in deeds of shame, and

·         expected impunity therein.

 

EDIT

 

 

And what is more trying still is, that God seems to let all this go on, and keeps

silence, and stands afar off, and hides Himself in times of trouble.  Such trials

were felt by the Protestants in their early struggles; by the Covenanters in times

of persecution in Scotland; by faithful ones on the occasion of the St. Bartholomew

Massacre; by the Waldenses and Albigenses; by Puritans and Independents under

Charles I.; by Churchmen under Cromwell; and by the Malagasy in our own times;

and it is only by the terror of such times that psalms like this can be understood.