A SONG, A SOLACE, A SERMON, AND A SUMMONS – Charles Spurgeon
A SONG, A SOLACE, A SERMON, AND A SUMMONS
“For His mercy endures forever.” Psalm 136:1.
This 136th Psalm was constantly sung in the temple by appointed singers, among whom the names of Heman and Jeduthun are mentioned. These, we are told in the Book of Chronicles, were chosen to give thanks unto Jehovah, whose “mercy endures forever.” This continued service of song was most fitting, for, if Jehovah’s mercy endures forever, our praise should endure forever; if His goodness never ceases, our thanksgiving should never be silent. It seemed to me most appropriate to direct your attention to this text in the closing Sunday of the year because it is a fitting accompaniment to that upon which I addressed you on the first Sunday. [Good Cheer for the New Year, Sermon #728.] You will remember that we then spoke of the ever-watchful mercy of the Lord our God, from the words, “The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.” Having almost reached the close of the year, let us acknowledge that His mercy has been equal to the promise; that God has not failed to fulfill His gracious word, “for His mercy endures forever.” May all your hearts be full of gratitude, and the music of your spirits stand in the stead of trumpets and cymbals which of old proclaimed the joy of Israel when they made mention of Jehovah’s name.
I. A SONG
At the outset, we shall regard the text as A SONG. So it was originally intended to be used. It was a song for all singers, for it was the refrain of each verse, the chorus to be taken up by the whole assembled multitude. I suppose that the practiced singers commenced thus, “O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good,” and then the entire multitude, whether they were taught in psalmody or not, chanted the chorus, “For His mercy endures forever.” Then would the choir again sweetly sing, “O give thanks unto the God of gods,” and a fresh burst of many voices would reply, “For His mercy endures forever.” In imitation of that ancient mode of singing, I shall ask the whole assembly to make a chorus with their hearts, and mentally to bless the Lord whose “mercy endures forever.” Let the young and the old join in the common praise; let the rich and the poor, the instructed and the ignorant, yes, let the saved and the unsaved, each take a part in the choral music, for the psalmist so words the Psalm that even the unconverted may claim a share in it, for he bids us praise God for common mercies; common as we frequently call them, and yet so priceless that when deprived of them we are ready to perish. He bids us sing concerning the great lights whose radiance is universally enjoyed. He bids us extol the Maker of the sun and the moon, for without the cheerful light of the celestial lamps we should live in perpetual darkness, if indeed we lived at all. Let us bless God for the eyes with which we behold the sun, for the health and strength to walk abroad in the sunlight; let us praise Him for the mercies which are new every morning, for the bread we eat, for the raiment which clothes us, for houses which give us shelter; let us bless Him that we are not deprived of our reason, or stretched upon the bed of sickness; let us praise Him that we are not cast out among the hopeless, or confined among the guilty; let us thank Him for liberty, for friends, for family associations and comforts; let us praise Him, in fact, for everything which we receive from His bounteous hands, for we deserve little, and yet are most plenteously endowed. “His mercy endures forever”; every morning’s light proclaims it, the beams of every moon declare it; every breath of air, every heaving of the lungs, every beating of the pulse, are fresh witnesses that “His mercy endures forever.”
But, beloved, the sweetest and the loudest note in the chorus must always be reserved for those who sing of redeeming love. A few verses further down the psalmist writes, “To Him that smote Egypt in their first-born, and brought out Israel from among them, with a strong hand, and with a stretched-out arm, for His mercy endures forever.” Yes, God’s redeeming acts towards His chosen are forever the favorite themes of praise. Many of us know what redemption means.
Let us not refuse our sonnets of thanksgiving. Glory be to God, we have been redeemed from the power of our corruptions, uplifted from the depth of sin in which we were naturally plunged. We have been led to the cross of Christ; our shackles of guilt have been broken off, we are no longer slaves, but children of the living God. We can look back to the source of that redemption in the council chambers of eternity where the plan was first ordained and settled; we can look forward to the results of that redemption, and antedate the period when we shall be presented before the throne of God without wrinkle or any such thing. Even now by faith we wave the palm branch and wrap ourselves about with the fair white linen which is to be our everlasting array, and shall we not this day give thanks to the name of the Lord whose redeeming “mercy endures forever”? Child of God, can you be silent? Shall there be one dumb soul here this morning? Awake, awake, you heritors of glory, and lead your captivity captive as you cry with David, “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name.”
Further on, our poet invites the experienced believer to join in the Psalm. Just as some among us, whose voices are deep, can take the bass parts of the tune, so the educated saint, who has been for years in the ways of the Lord, can throw a force and a weight into the song which no other can contribute. We are reminded in the Psalm that the Lord led His people through the wilderness, and smote their enemies, “and gave their land for an heritage: for His mercy endures forever.” You who are men and fathers among us, bless the Lord who has safely led you until this hour. The pillar of cloud, the column of fire, you have not seen, and yet you have been conducted as pilgrims in the desert, safely and well. The heavenly manna has been your food, and the water from the living rock has been your drink. Your mightiest foes have been slain with the sword of the Lord. Temptations sharp and strong have not prevailed against you. Trials incessant you have been able to bear. “Up to now the Lord has helped you.” What is your experience worth if it does not kindle the flames of gratitude? To what end has God manifested all this goodness to you unless you delight yourself in God in the remembrance of it? Remember all the ways by which the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness! Remember how He has hedged you about, and kept off your enemies, and given you peace within your soul, and fed you with the finest of the wheat! If you are silent, you will be most guilty of all the ungrateful ones. Therefore, believer, take the cymbals, yes, the high-sounding cymbals, and with all your might dance before the ark of the Lord your God, and praise and magnify His holy name.
The peculiar point which is brought out in this chorus is the enduring character of divine mercy— “His mercy endures forever.” By this I suppose is intended that God’s mercy, as an attribute and as a rule of His action, is continual throughout all ages. He was a merciful God to our first parents. At the fatal portal of Eden, when they were first driven forth into the world in judgment, the sweet Promise came like the breath of heaven upon them, “The Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.” Abraham and Isaac and Jacob received mercy at His hands; Samuel and David and Solomon found Him gracious, and the prophets and those who loved the Lord in their days knew that He turned not His love from His people. The multitude understood the abounding mercy of the Most High when healing was given by our Lord on the right hand and on the left. In apostolic times the first champions of the faith drank deep at the fountain of God’s love, and afterwards our sires, who upheld the banner of the cross in ages of persecution, trusted in God and bore witness that His mercy endured unto them. It is the same today: God has not quenched the lamp of His goodness: the river of His mercy flows deep and broad as before.
II. A SOLACE
I was musing upon this—God’s mercy through the ages, and I saw as before my eyes the goodness of God conquering the sin of many all along the ages. Did you ever stand upon the field of Waterloo, and see the golden harvest waving there? If so, you have seen how the mercy of God has blotted out the cruelty of man. There where man struggled with his fellow, and dyed the ground crimson with human gore, mercy came and covered all with a robe of emerald, covered with fairest flowers, turning Aceldama into Eden! Moreover, mercy so triumphs over judgment, that before long men look upon the judgments as a noble form of mercy. When our ancient city was consumed by fire, and the distressed inhabitants walked among the ashes of all their precious things, the pulpits rang with the cry of the judgment of God. But what do we say now? Why, that it was a most gracious visitation, destroying pestilence in its lair, and banishing the plague from the land. Thus it is seen that “His mercy endures forever.” If Jehovah shall shake the earth with earthquakes, or dash down the dwellings of men with tornadoes, or make the cruel sea to engulf a navy, the after results teem with blessings to mankind, while the judgment itself vanishes, flowers bloom amid the rifts of the earthquakes, and children play where the hot lava ran from the red lips of the volcano! Mercy still abides, and judgment is but for a little season.
Doubtless, also, the psalmist meant that mercy continues in its fullness. We make great draughts upon the mercy of God, but we do not diminish it. There are fears that we shall one day exhaust those great storehouses in which the earth’s best fuel is laid up. This may be probable, and is certainly possible—a few hundred years will make a heavy demand upon our mineral treasuries; but quarry as you will in the mines of God’s blessing, neither you nor your children, nor your children’s children shall complain of a deficiency— “Great God, the treasures of Your love Are everlasting mines, Deep as our helpless miseries are, And boundless as our sins.”
May we not also understand by, “His mercy endures forever,” that the patience of God abounds? Have you ever reflected upon the infinite, long-suffering of God? Consider for a moment. The sins of men are all before the Lord. You and I can readily put up with offenses which do not touch us in the quick, or actually under our own eyes, but the sinner’s sin is perpetrated before the countenance of Jehovah. No word is said behind His back, no blasphemy is uttered in secret to Him: and sin affects God as it does not affect us. We have grown so hardened that the heinousness of iniquity is little discerned by us: we take it as a matter of course. But God, who is infinitely pure, is, if I may use such an expression, infinitely sensitive in regard to sin. He knows sin to be sin, and the heinousness of it, which we do not perceive, is all before His mind continually, and yet His mighty patience reigns over all, and bears with men’s iniquities. Remember, too, that these insults against heaven are constantly repeated. The most patient man at last yields to anger: constant dripping will wear away a stone: but here is God insulted, as I have said, to His face thousands and thousands of times a day, and yet keeps His sword in its scabbard, and bids His thunder sleep! A wish would blast the rebels into everlasting torment, but He wills it not. As the Lord lives He says, He has no pleasure in the death of him who dies, but would rather that he should turn unto Him and live. To all this you must add the reflection that all the while rebellious sinners are partaking of God’s mercy—the rebel wears God’s gifts of clothes upon his back, and sits at the table of God’s providence; the breath that is in his nostrils is the gift of divine charity, and yet the wretch uses this breath against his Maker. Can you understand this? Could you bear to be insulted for a single day by one who was receiving all he had from you? Would you not by-and-by, yes, very speedily say to him, “Get out of here! If you are my enemy, why should I treat you as I treat my friend?” Then be it remembered, that God is not only sparing the guilty, but is putting ways of His mercy before them. Some of you are invited to repent as often as the Sabbath dawns; with some of you there are incessant movings upon your conscience; you seldom pass a day without hearing the voice say, “Turn you, turn you, why will you die?” God is always wooing you to come to Him, inviting you by His mercy and threatening you by His judgments, and yet while His long-suffering should lead you to repentance, you add sin to sin, and ripen in your iniquity.
One thing more I would have you remember and I think you will admire the amazing patience of God, namely that He is doing this with millions! Millions! Perhaps a thousand millions at this moment, for I suppose—though no one can ascertain accurately—there are a thousand millions of unregenerate men upon the face of this earth at this very moment, all enemies of God; either worshipping gods of wood and stone, or else such spiritual idols as their imaginations have fashioned, and with all these God is compassed about as with bees; but He does not destroy them: He still has patience, and still He cries, “Come unto Me; repent; believe in My Son, and you shall have eternal life.” Truly “His mercy endures forever,” if you think upon these things.
III. A SERMON
May not the endurance of divine grace be faintly pictured in the following scene? Out yonder, just beyond those grinding rocks, there is a vessel rolling and tossing on the jagged granite, and evidently going to pieces. See you not the mariners clinging to the masts? It is not possible that they should escape except by help from the shore. The rocket apparatus has been used, and a rope is fastened to the vessel, and now a cradle is drawn along the rope. What joy! One man is safely landed, but the rope is weak, and it is doubtful whether it will bear the strain. Two at one time are clinging to the rope, and the ship is nearly broken up—will the rope bear them? The wind howls terribly, and the waves lash furiously—will the rope hold out? Another is venturing! Ah, see how the rope dips! The waves have gone over him. Will it be able to sustain his weight and save him? Now, we never have such anxiety concerning the salvation of souls by Christ Jesus, “for His mercy endures forever.” The salvation of God brings every soul to shore that hangs on it, and, when the world is gone to wreck, free grace will bring all who trust it to the eternal shore! Should the biggest sinner out of hell hang upon that rope of mercy, it will bear him up, and bring him safely to land! I would liken God’s mercy to a great temple which strong men have sought to overturn with their utmost might. They have labored to overturn the two great pillars where the house leans. The ancient temple of the Philistines stood firm enough till an unexpected hero entered it—Samson felt for the pillars, and finding them, bowed himself with all his might, and the pillars snapped, and down came the house upon the Philistine lords, and Samson himself perished. Many a Samson-like sinner has gone into the temple of God’s mercy, and bowed with all his might to overturn it, to see if he could not wear out the patience of God and blaspheme himself into swift damnation; and yet these bold and gigantic sinners have never been able to do this, but very frequently these very men have been subdued by divine grace, and have worshipped Him in the temple which they once sought to destroy. Yes, Philistia’s house may bow, but the house of Jehovah stands fast, and “His mercy endures forever.”
There is but one reflection to make the subject of the song complete, namely, that the potency of God’s mercy in delivering His saints is equally immutable. He is always able to deliver His children, so that we may say in the language of the three holy children, “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us out of the enemies’ hands.” There is no possibility that a child of God should be cast into a difficulty out of which the stretched-out arm of Jehovah cannot bring him. He who brought His people of old from the brick kilns of Egypt, and led them through the Red Sea and the howling wilderness, will surely bring all His elect ones out of all their trials safely to their heavenly rest.
IV. A SUMMONS
I now, with much brevity, use the text as A SUMMONS: “His mercy endures forever.” Is not that a most loving and tender summons to the wandering child to return to his Father; to the backsliding professor to approach his God; to the chief of sinners to humble himself before the mercy seat? There is mercy—seek it! There is mercy in Jesus—believe in Him! Bunyan tells us that Prince Emmanuel hung out the white flag upon Mount Gracious. It is still there! Surrender, man, surrender today, and fight no more against yourself, and your eternal interests. Behold the white flag. You have but to trust your Lord, and leave your sin, and He will be merciful to you. When that man of God, Mr. Andrew Fuller, was once preaching in Scotland, the place was very crowded, and numbers were outside. A woman, the worst woman in the town, seeing the crowd, thought she would push into the Kirk to listen to the English minister. He was preaching from the text, “Look unto Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth.” “Ah,” said she, “I have gone far, but I have not gone over the ends of the earth, at any rate, and if God says, ‘Look, and be saved, all the ends of the earth,’ He must mean me.” She did look, and became afterward an honorable woman in that parish, converted by the grace of God.
On this last Sunday morning in the year, I solemnly present those same words as fresh from God’s lips to every unconverted person here, “Look unto Christ, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth.” “Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” May God bring you to obey that gentle summons to come to your heavenly Father and live! Believers, the summons is also meant for you. It says this, “His mercy endures forever,” therefore let your love to souls continue; let your labor for conversions abide; let your generosity to God’s cause abound; let your endeavors to extend the kingdom of Christ endure evermore. At this season, let me say, enlarge your exertions. If you have done much, do more; if you have done little, be ashamed and begin afresh. If God’s mercy continues forever, do not let us talk about resting and taking things easy. No, time is very precious; every hour has six wings, like a cherub, and flies like the lightning’s flash. Let us live and work while we may, “for the night comes when no man can work.”
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON—PSALMS 135 and 136.
Charles Spurgeon