Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vols. 13–63

A Psalm written for comfort, but it is not addressed to all mankind, neither, I venture to say, to all Believers, but only those who are described in the first verse.

Verse 1. He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. It is not every worshipper that comes there who shall be thus privileged, but those who dwell there, as Simeon and Anna dwelt in the Temple. So there are some that abide in Christ and His Words abide in them. They live near God. They receive, therefore, choicer favors than those who do but come and go. "He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High." He who has learned to stand in the Holy of Holies, near the blood-sprinkled Mercy Seat, to whom prayer is a matter of constant privilege and enjoyment—he dwells in the secret place! Such a man, living near to God, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. You know when you walk with a friend in certain positions of the sun, your friend's shadow falls upon you, but you cannot expect to have the shadow of your friend unless you are near him. We read in the Song, "I sat down under His shadow with great delight." There must be nearness to get under the shadow! So there must be great access to God—great familiarity with Him—there must be something of the assurance of faith before we shall be able to grip such a word as that which follows in this Psalm. Read it again and if you have not attained to it, labor after it!

2. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God. In Him will I trust Observe the sweetness of making a personal application of any passage in the Word. "I will say." A general Doctrine gives us little consolation till we can make a particular application of it. Oh, for faith-daring, personal faith to say, "I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress"! That was saying a great deal, but it was saying a great deal more when the Psalmist added, "My God." He could not say more than that! God is a refuge and a fortress to me, but He is infinitely more than that. We cannot tell what He is. Rather, we cannot tell what He is not, but we sum it all up when we say, "My God."And surely it is but natural to add, "In Him will I trust." Why, who could help it? If this God is our God, and such a God—such a refuge and such a fortress to His people—surely we must trust Him! Come, if you are troubled tonight—if you have got any doubts and fears—may the Spirit of God enable you to make this the blessed resolution of your Spirit—"My God, in Him will I trust."

3. Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler You cannot see it. You do not know it to be a snare. The bird does not suspect the fowler. "Surely in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird." If the bird knew it was a net, it would not fly into it. You do not know your temptation, young man. No, and the oldest and most experienced Christian is not aware of the traps which the fowler is setting for him. But surely He shall deliver you if you abide near Him— so near that His shadow falls on you! If you dwell in secret with Him, surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler!

3. And from the noisome pestilence. From the noisome pestilence of error which is the worst of pestilences because it preys upon the soul. Foul air which injures the bodily frame is bad enough, but what is that foul teaching which destroys the soul—which would, if it were possible, deceive the very elect? But surely if you live near to Him, He shall deliver you from the noisome pestilence.

4. He shall coveryou with His feathers, and under His wings shallyou trust His truth shall be your shield and buck-ler.It is a marvelous verse! I do not think that any devout man would have been daring enough to use such language as this if he had not been led to do so by the Holy Spirit, Himself. Where the Holy Spirit leads the way, we may safely follow. But it would have been unsafe for mere poetry's sake to talk of God's "feathers" and "wings." Yet see the condescension of God. He likens Himself here to the hen that broods her little ones! O child of God, nestle down closely under the warm breast of Everlasting Love, and hide yourself beneath the mighty wings of the Everlasting and Eternal God! So shall you be secure.

5. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night; nor of the arrow that flies by day. For if this alludes to temporal dangers—

"Not a single shaft shall hit, Till the God of Love sees fit."

And if there is a covert allusion here to spiritual dangers—to the darts of the Wicked One and to the alarms which fill the soul when the Presence of God is withdrawn—if you dwell near to God you shall know no fear of these things, for neither death nor Hell can injure the man that lives in God!

6-10. Nor for the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor for the destruction that waits at noonday. A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shallyou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because you have made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the Most High, your habitation; there shall no evil befall you, neither shall any plague come near your dwelling. And it is very wonderful when men have lived near to God and have received special faith to grasp such a promise as this! How they have outlived the most deadly pestilences! I collected, some time ago, a little list of names of devout men who in the times of pestilence remained in the field to visit the sick and to attend to those who were dying—and it is marvelous that they outlived all—and their names stand now upon the catalog of fame as benefactors of the race. They had special faith given and they used that faith in trusting in God! I have already said that I do not believe that this applies to all Believers, for good men die as well as bad men in days of pestilence, but there are some who dwell near to God to whom the promise comes with special power—and they have been able to do and dare for God without fear—and their faith has been abundantly rewarded.

11, 12. For He shall give His angel charge over you, to keep you in allyour ways. They shall bear you up in their hand, lest you dash your foot against a stone. They get special commandment to take care of the saints of God—the angels—those unseen but swift and mighty messengers of Heaven! When David had the troops paraded before him, when they were going out to fight Absalom, he gave them all a charge that they should not touch the young man, Absalom, and yet, you know, he died. But God's angels keep His commandments, hearkening to the voice of His word and go when He gives them a charge of what to do! He says, "O you angels, this day watch over My people. Keep them in all their ways. Be to them as a nurse who bears up her child in her hands, and if they are likely to meet with even some minor trial, lest they should skip and sin, bear them up lest they dash their foot against a stone." Now comes a glorious promise.

13. You shall tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon you shall trample under feet. God often gives victories like these to His people so that Satan and all the powers of evil are trampled down by the holy child-like confidence of the man who is resolved to serve his God!

14. Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high because he has known My name. He has no merits. He does not claim any. But he loves Me and, therefore, I love him and I will deliver him because he loves Me. Oh, love the Lord, all you saints! Love Him more and more, for this love of yours shall bring to you a sweet reward!

15. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him. Were there ever words fuller of consolation than these? "He shall call upon Me." Divine Grace will take care to give us the spirit of prayer. "And I will answer him." Divine Grace will give the answer!

15, 16. I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him My salvation.Now, it is not a promise to every good man that he shall live for a long period, for some among the best of men die in very early youth. But still they have had a full life, for life must not be measured by years. Oh, how much do some men pack into a little time! How much of life there may be in the man whose course is finished before he is 30 years of age and how little may some live who expand their days into 80 or 90 years! Belzoni's toad—you remember the piece of poetry into which some imaginative person has cast his diary, how once in a thousand years it crept from under a stone and winked with one eye? Well it did not live much in the course of two or three thousand years—it existed. But a man who is full of holy duties and earnest purposes lives long even though the time is short!

Psalm 63. A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah—

Exiled, ill at ease, hunted, exposed to danger. Yet he could sing! And some of the sweetest Psalms came out of the bitterest afflictions. God's songsters are like nightingales that reserve their sweetest music for the night. Whenever you and I come to be in the wilderness, may we refresh ourselves with such a Psalm as this.

Verse 1. O God, You are my God. Everything else has gone, but You are my God. There are gods of the heathen, but You, the true and real Jehovah, are my God. Oh, what a blessed thing it is to take a firm grip of God after this fashion, "O God, You are my God."

1. Early will I seek You. "Oh," says one, "why did he seek God if God was his?" Would you have him seek another man's God, then? No, it is because He is ours that we seek Him and desire His company. If you know God to be your God, you will not be satisfied unless you are living near Him. "Early will I seek You." I will not wait. I cannot wait. I cannot tarry. I must not tarry. Early will I seek You.

1. My soul thirsts for You, my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land, where is no water Thirst is one of the strongest longings of our nature. You can appease hunger for a while, but thirst is awful. There is no staying that. When it is once upon a man, he must have water or die. "My soul thirsts for You. My flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where is no water." No means of Grace. Nothing to help me. No Believers round about me. I am left alone thirsting for my God. And yet it is so precious a thing, so sure a mark of Grace to thirst for God anywhere, that one may be thankful even to be in a dry and thirsty land if one possesses a true thirst after God!

2. To see Your power and Your Glory, so as I have seen You in the sanctuary. He had seen God in His holy place, and he longs to see Him again. They that never knew God do not want to know Him. But they that have known Him desire to know Him more and more! If you do not long for the Bread of Heaven, it is because you never tasted it. He that has once tasted it will sigh and hunger till he is satisfied with it.

3. Because Your loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You. "Better than life." And surely life is better than anything else. "Skin for skin, yes, all that a man has will he give for his life." Life is better than meat. Life is better than riches! And if the loving kindness of God is better than life, then we have a very high price set upon it, but none too high a price. Oh, that you and I may know how sweet, how precious is the loving kindness of God—and then we shall say that it is better than life! And because it is so, my lips shall praise You. Not only my heart, but I will do it openly. I used to speak vanity when I served vanity. Shall I not now speak out for God when I have come to serve Him? My lips shall praise You!

4. Thus will I bless You while I live: I will lift up my hands in Your name. I will confess You. I will rejoice in You. I will work for You. I will encourage myself in You. I will lift up my hands in Your name. Are any of you cast down? Do your hands hang down? Then lift them up in God's name! Nothing else can make you strong. The name of the Lord shall be your strength.

5. 6. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips: when I remember You upon my bed, and meditate on You in the night watches.God's people know what perfect satisfaction means. When God reveals His love to them and Christ draws near in the fullness of His Grace, then they would not change places with all the kings of the earth! Not all the richest dainties that were ever served up at royal banquets are equal to the love of God. My soul, not my body, but my inmost self, my very life, shall be satisfied even as with marrow and with fatness. The oriental's idea of luxury is to eat fat. They will eat what we cannot endure, but we, dear Friends, understand the metaphor and appreciate what is meant by David. God will satisfy us with the best of the best, with marrow and fatness. He will make that satisfaction double as with marrow and fatness—and we shall be so satisfied that we shall have nothing left to do but to praise. "My mouth shall praise." Says our poet—

"All that remains for me, Is but to love and sing, And wait until the angels come To bear me to their King."

He that wrote that verse knew what was meant by this, "My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.''

7. Because You have been my help, therefore in the shadow of Your wings will I rejoice. That is God's logic. One likes to see "therefores" in Scripture. They are inferences drawn with great accuracy. You have beenmy helper. Well, then, You will bemy helper and if I cannot see Your face, I will rejoice in the shadow of your wings! I know that You are there even if I cannot see You. And if I only know that You are there by the shade that You cast over me—that calming, cooling shade which dampens the ardor of my worldly spirit—if this is all that I get from You, yet in the shadow of Your wings will I rejoice!

8. My soul follows hard after You. I am after You, my God, hard after You, following hard after You, longing for You, like a dog at the heels of his master's horse, going with all his might, following hard after You. Oh, this is a healthy condition to be in! If you cannot yet reach your God, yet if you follow hard after Him, it is well with you, for notice the next sentence—

8. Your right hand upholds me. No man follows after God unless God helps him to do so. It comes of the Grace of God! When you are seeking God, it is because God is seeking you—and though you know it not, there is a vast amount of Divine Grace couched in this desire.

9, 10. But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth. They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes. Or jackals, as its name became.

11. But the king shallrejoice in God; everyone that swears by Him shall glory: but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped. Very hard work to stop it, though, for they are always breaking out in a fresh place. They have always some new lie! A shovelful of earth will do it, if nothing else will. Let everyone here who is accustomed to slander or to speak evil of his neighbor listen to this prophetic voice—"the month of them that speak lies shall be stopped." But the mouths that speak the praises of God shall go on singing forever and ever. May such mouths be ours!