FAITH’S FIRM RESOLVE – Charles Spurgeon
FAITH’S FIRM RESOLVE
“I will go in the strength of the Lord God: I will make mention of Your righteousness, even of Yours only.” Psalm 71:16.
Introduction: A Psalm of David’s Old Age
This is a Psalm of David’s old age, and we will carefully notice the characteristic feature of it. It is not addressed to men concerning God, but it is addressed to God Himself, for He was David’s dearest Friend. Our Psalms and hymns are not for man’s criticism, but for the Lord’s acceptance. This is the tenor of the Psalm—David has been with his God, and he is now ready for anything. This grand old man, in his later days, is exposed to enemies quite as fierce as those he had to encounter in his earlier times, but instead of gathering his friends together, conversing with them, and seeking their counsel, he gets quite alone and begins to cry, “In You, O Lord, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.” Trusting alone in God makes us grandly independent towards men. The man of God shuts the door—he realizes that the Lord is in the chamber with him and speaks to Him, saying, “Be You my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: You have given commandments to save me, for You are my rock and my fortress.” He pours out his heart before God and pleads with Him, “Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength fails. O God, be not far from me: O my God, make haste for my help.” It is a delightful sight! There are two in the room, though you can only see one with the natural eye. The man whom you see discerns another, a great and glorious One, and he talks with Him “as a man talks with his friend.”
Communion with God
Is this a fancy picture to you, my Brother, my Sister? Is this merely a sketch of something that happened ages ago? Have you not often been one in that scene? I know that I have been there, and I trust that it has been so with you. These are the choicest joys we know—these lone communings with Jehovah, our God! That room where we are alone with God is the nearest to Heaven of any place between here and Paradise! I wish that we more often enjoyed communion with closed doors. We might. Why don’t we? Whatever we gain by occupying our time otherwise can, at the best, be compared to silver—but this is the golden way of spending our hours! When we are with God, we have the All-in-All for company, and He fills our minds better than a thousand finite beings could do. The Lord our God has filled our heart and filled our room—and filled the universe for us—and we are overflowing with blessedness!
Private Meetings with God
It is good to come here and mingle with God’s people in public worship. As my well-beloved Brother, Mr. Williams, said in prayer just now—many a Thursday night, the saints of God have come in here burdened, and they have gone away lightened, for God has met with them! Our Thursday nights are little Sabbaths in the middle of the week—resting places between the Sundays—oases in the desert of our toil. But there is something closer and less likely to be a mere form—our private meetings with God. I pray you, make many secret appointments with your Lord and keep them! Have many trysting places where you and your Well-Beloved meet. I am certain that it will be imperative upon you to meet Him whenever you are in sore trouble—your sense of need will drive you to it.
The Need for God’s Presence
I do not know that Jacob ever spent a whole night with God till he was about to meet his brother Esau and was in great fear that he would smite the mother with the children. Then it was that he said—“With You all night I mean to stay, and wrestle till the break of day.” I guarantee you Jacob was a greater gainer by that fright than if he had never heard a whisper of opposition! It was well for him that he had an Esau, with armed men, to drive him to his God. He could say afterward, “It was good for me to have been afflicted.” Anything that brings us into close fellowship with God, however evil in itself, works for us the grandest form of good.
David’s Example: Pouring Out His Heart to God
Now, if there are any here very much like David—if they are growing old and, being aged, they are also surrounded by slander, persecution, and reproach—let them see what David did. If they are met by great difficulties and even by malicious adversaries, let them go where David went! Go and sit before the Lord and pour out your heart before Him. I think I see David sitting there, naturally full of sorrow—an old man, compassed with infirmities and, at the same time, bowed down with troubles—and there he is rejoicing in the faithful God, of whom he says, “O God, You have taught me from my youth: and until this time have I declared Your wondrous works. Now also when I am old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not until I have showed Your strength unto this generation and Your power to everyone that is to come.” He has realized the Presence of his God in secret and his troubles are laid before God in prayer. Gradually they subside. He began to speak very hopefully. Now he rises from hope to a joyful confidence.
Communion with God Leads to Joyful Praise
The old man goes on talking there, as some would say, “to himself.” But we know better—he was conversing with his God—and before that hallowed interview is over, he has reached such a happy state of mind that he says, “My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto You.” His fingers long to join his lips and he is looking for his psaltery and his harp that instrumental music may aid his tongue and that so he may praise God with all his might! Communion with God is a great maker of music so that he who went into the chamber halting, comes out leaping. He that meets God with tears in his eyes comes forth from holy solitude with songs in his mouth. May it be so with you! When you are far away from any house of prayer where you are likely to hear what will comfort and bless you, go to God straightway and tell Him all that is in your heart. Forget minister and congregation and go straight to Him who is far greater than churches and pastors! Pour out your troubles where they will meet with Divine sympathy. Confess your trust into His ear who is never weary of His people’s voice and you shall have found the greatest strength that is to be found this side of Heaven! And you shall sing, “You shall increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side.”
Faith’s Resolve: “I Will Go”
Taking as my text this particular verse in David’s talk with God, I want you to notice, first of all, his resolve—“I will go.” Secondly, his reliance—“I will go in the strength of the Lord God.” And thirdly, his message, which he intends to deliver always—“I will make mention of Your righteousness, even of Yours only.”
I. His Resolve
“I will go,” he says. From this, it is clear that he will not sit still. Look! He has come a long way already, and he is getting weary and faint. The flesh suggests to him that he has had enough of it, while the devil hints to him that he has done too much already, and that the best thing he can do now is to give up struggling, battling, warring, and contending, and just sit down and let things go as they will. Do you not hear the advice of Unbelief, “Let affairs drift. You cannot help yourself, old man! You have got into a very sad condition. Give up your confidence in Heaven. Perhaps you have been under a delusion all these years, and trust in this God of yours is sheer fanaticism. Do not go on with it! Be reasonable, like the many that are round about you who are criticizing and amusing themselves—and while professing everything—are believing nothing. Give up the contest and drop the sword with which you contend for your Master and let things go as they may.” So whispers Satan. So murmurs the flesh. So advises the worldly friend.
The brave old man gets up and cries, “No, I will go! I will not sit still. I will not give it up. I have not finished my life’s work. I have more to do. I have further testimony to bear for my Master. I shall not idly quit the field, but still bear the battle’s brunt. I shall not quit the pilgrimage—I will go, even now, though it is with tottering footsteps. Bring me my staff. I will go with the rest of the chosen company.”
II. His Reliance: “I Will Go in the Strength of the Lord God”
He would go glorying in strength already received. David means that while others put on their garments and array themselves in beauty, he will put on the strengths of Jehovah (it is in the plural), and they shall make garments for him. It is a wonderful picture to me. While others glory in another strength, he takes God’s might as it has been displayed in his past career and he puts it on as his armor.
Our own strength is much less as our years increase, but it is not so with the Lord strong and mighty! Where we could have traversed a county, we now weary with a mile. Old men find that they cannot do what they once did, but God can do all things evermore. Our own strength is a cistern soon drained dry, but we need not thirst for we can tap the great “deep that lies under.” Our faith knows how to bore an Artesian well when surface water fails.
III. His Message: “I Will Make Mention of Your Righteousness, Even of Yours Only”
David’s message would be to bear testimony to the righteousness of the Lord God. Here was enough work for a lifetime. The only testimony that he was going to bear for the rest of his life would be a testimony to the righteousness of God. Bear your testimony to the righteousness of God in Providence. Stand to it that the Lord never does wrong. He is never mistaken, but whatever He ordains is, and must be, unquestionably right. Bear witness, next, to His righteousness in salvation, that He does not save without an Atonement. Make mention of the righteousness of Christ, which covers you from head to foot. “Jesus, Your blood and righteousness, My beauty are, my glorious dress.”
There is no other righteousness worth talking about—if you will mention the righteousness of God, you will do much good. Make mention of the righteousness of God to convince men of their unrighteousness. Talk of it to win their admiration for the Lord Jesus.
Conclusion
May we always, as David did, make mention of God’s righteousness, and may our hearts be full of it all our days. To Him be glory forever. Amen.