SONG FOR THE FREE—HOPE FOR THE BOUND – Charles Spurgeon
SONG FOR THE FREE—HOPE FOR THE BOUND
Introduction
“He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their chains in pieces. Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! For He has broken the gates of brass and cut the bars of iron in two.” Psalm 107:14-16.
My anxious, prayerful desire this morning is that some who have been in the condition described in the text may come out of it into full redemption. They have been too long in prison, and now the silver trumpet sounds—liberty to the captives! Jesus has come into the world to break the gate of brass and to cut the bars of iron in two. Oh, that my prayer might be heard for those who are in bondage! I trust that some of those who are now immured in the dungeon of despondency will say, “Amen,” to my prayer, and, if they are praying inside and we are praying outside—and the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, comes to open the prison doors, then there will be a Jubilee before long.
This passage, of course, literally alludes to prisoners held in durance by their fellow men. What a sad world man has made of this earth! With superfluity of evil, man has multiplied his Bastilles! As if there were not misery enough for the free, he invents cells and chains! One’s blood boils when standing in those living graves in which tyrants have buried their victims out of sight and hearing! Could the most fierce of wild beasts display such cruelty to their kind as men have shown to men? By the horrors of such imprisonments, one must estimate the joy of being set free. To God, it is a glory that, in the order of His Providence, He often provides a way of escape for the oppressed. Cruel dynasties have been overthrown, tyrants have been hurled from their thrones, and then enlargement has come to those who were shut up. Liberated ones should indeed “praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men.”
But the various scenes in this Psalm were intended to describe spiritual conditions. The second verse is a key to the whole song—“Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.” The deliverance here intended is one which is brought to us by redemption—and comes by the way of the great Sacrifice on Calvary. We are redeemed with the precious blood of Him who surrendered His own liberty for our sakes and consented to be bound and crucified that He might set us free. My grateful heart seems to hear Him saying again, as He did in the Garden of Gethsemane, “If you seek Me, let these go their way.” His consenting to be bound brought freedom to all those who put their trust in Him.
I. Who Are These Favored Men?
These favored persons were guilty men, as you will see by the context—“Because they rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the Most High.” Hear this, you sinful ones, and take heart! God has worked great wonders for a people whom it seemed impossible for Him to notice. If they came into prison through rebellion, you would expect Him to leave them there. Yet rebels are set free by an act of immeasurable Grace! The Redeemer has received gifts for men, “yes, also for the rebellious.”
These men were despisers of God’s Word—was there a Gospel of freedom for them? Yes! It is for them that Jehovah, in abounding Grace, has worked miracles of mercy. The persons described by the Psalmist were guilty of overt acts. They were in actual rebellion against the commands of the Most High. Their rebellion was not a single hasty act—their entire lives were a continuance of their wicked revolt. From their childhood, they went astray. In their youth, they provoked the Lord, and in their manhood, they disobeyed Him more and more. They were in open opposition to their Creator, Benefactor, and Lord.
I have no doubt that I am speaking to many who must admit that they have been actual and willful transgressors against the Lord of Love. They have turned unto Him their back, and not the face—they have not been servants, but rebels. The persons here spoken of were as evil in their hearts as in their lives, for they “despised the counsel of the Most High.” Perhaps they intellectually rejected the teaching of Holy Scripture and scorned to receive what the Lord revealed. They refused to yield their understandings to Infallible teaching and judged their own thoughts to be better than the thoughts of God.
The counsel of the Most High, though marked by the sublimity of Him from whom it came, appeared to them to be less high than their own soaring theories, and, therefore, they despised it. To some men, any doctrine is more acceptable than that of Scripture. They gladly hear what doubters say, but they will not hear what God the Lord shall speak. His counsel of instruction, His counsel of command, His counsel of promise—His whole counsel they cast away from them—and they take counsel of their own conceit!
Now this actual and mental sin, when it is brought home to a man’s awakened conscience, fills him with dismay. Because he has transgressed with hand and heart, the convicted sinner is in sore dismay. O my Hearer, are you in distress this day through your own fault? Do you wonder that you are in trouble? Did you expect to go in the way of evil and yet to be happy? Did you never hear those words, “There is no peace, says my God, unto the wicked”?
II. How Has This Deliverance Been Worked?
You that have been set free should tell how you were emancipated! Let me tell my story first. It was the best news I ever heard when it was told me that Jesus died in my place. I sat down in my misery, hopeless of salvation, ready to perish, till they told me that there was One who loved me and for love of me was content to yield His life for my deliverance! Wonder of wonders, He had actually borne the death penalty for me! They said that the Lord of Glory had become Man to save men and that if I trusted Him, I might know assuredly that He had suffered in my place and had blotted out my sins. I marveled much as I heard this, but I felt that no one could have invented news so strange!
It surpassed all fiction, that the offended God should, Himself, take my nature and, in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ should pay my debts, suffer for my sins, and put those sins away! I heard the blessed tidings—there was some comfort even in hearing it—and I believed it and clutched at it as for life. Then did I begin to live! I believe that Truth of God today—all my hope lies there. If any of you wonder that I show zeal for the substitutionary Sacrifice of Christ, you may cease to ponder! Would not any one of you stand up for his wife and children? This Truth is more to me than wife and children—it is everything to me!
I am a damned man for all eternity if Christ did not die for me! I will put it no more softly than that. If my Redeemer had not borne my sins in His own body on the tree, then I would have to bear them in my own body in the place of endless misery! I have no shade of a hope anywhere but in the Sacrifice of Jesus! I cannot, therefore, give up this Truth of God—I had sooner give up my life!
I heard that the Son of God had suffered in my place that I might go free. I believed it and I said to myself, “Then I have no business to be sitting here in darkness and in the shadow of death.” I shook myself from my lethargy. I arose and went out of my prison—and as I moved to go out, a light shone round about me and my fetters fell clanking to the ground! What glorious musical instruments they were! The very things that had galled me so long, now brought me joy!
III. What Shall Be Done About It?
If such people as we have described have been brought into liberty, what is to be done about it? I do not want to tell you what to do. I would have you do it by instinct. Gladly would I, like Miriam, take a timbrel and go first and bid all the sons and daughters of Israel follow me in this song—“Sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously. He has brought out His captives and set His people free.”
It naturally suggests itself to the liberated spirit to magnify the Lord. So the Psalmist put it, “Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness!” First, then, if the Lord has set any of you free—record it. See how David wrote it down. Write it in your diary. Write it so that friends may read it. Say, “The Lord has done great things for us.” When you have recorded it, then praise God. Praise God with all your heart. Praise God, everyone of you! Praise God every day! When you have praised God, yourselves, then entreat others to join with you!
The oratorio of God’s praise needs a full choir. I remember, years ago, a bill connected with a religious service of a very pretentious character, and on this bill it promised that the Hallelujah Chorus should be sung before the sermon. The friend who led the singing for me at that time came in to me and asked if I could spare him. “See here,” he said, “a person has come from the service which has been advertised to say that they have nobody to sing the Hallelujah Chorus. The minister wants me to go down and do it.” I answered, “Yes. By all means go! If you can sing the Hallelujah Chorus, alone, don’t throw yourself away on me.”
Then we smiled and, at last, broke out into a laugh—it was too much for our gravity! Surely, for a man to think that he can sufficiently praise God, alone, is much like attempting to sing the Hallelujah Chorus as a solo! The Psalmist therefore utters that great, “Oh!” “Oh that men would praise the Lord!” I do not think he said, “men,” for the word, “men,” is in italics—the translators are accountable for it. He means, “Oh that angels! Oh that cherubim and seraphim would praise the Lord! Oh that all creatures that have breath would praise the Lord for His goodness!”
Even that would not be enough—let the mountains and the hills break forth before Him into singing—and let all the trees of the forest clap their hands. Let the sea roar and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. With a great, “Oh!” With a mighty sigh over the holy business which was far too great for himself, David felt moved to call upon all others to praise the Lord!
I close with that, my Brothers, my Sisters—you that have been saved, praise God! Praise Him with the blessings He has lavished on you. I described them in three ways. With your light praise Him—the more you know, the more you see, the more you understand—turn it all into praise. Next, with your life praise Him—with your physical life, with your mental life, with your spiritual life—with life of every sort, even unto eternal life, praise the Lord. Liberty has been given us—let our freedom praise Him. Be like that man who was made straight, who went out of the Temple, walking and leaping and praising God. God has made you free, feel free to praise Him!
And if men will not give you leave to praise, take French leave. Yes, take heavenly leave and praise God anywhere and everywhere! Listen how they sing the songs of Bacchus and of Venus in the streets and even wake us up in the night—therefore why may we not sing God’s praises in the same public fashion? We must praise Him! We will praise Him! We do praise Him! And we shall praise Him forever and ever! Praise Him with the heart He has changed, with the lips He has loosed, with the lives He has spared!
A little while ago you could not speak a cheerful word, but now you can rejoice in God. Let those lips, from which He has taken the muzzle of dumb despair, be opened in His praise. Praise Him with all the talents He has lent you. If you have any power of thought, if you have any fluency of speech, praise Him! If you have any voice of song, praise Him. If you have health and strength, praise Him. Let every limb of your body praise Him—those members which were servants of sin, let them be instruments of righteousness unto God! Praise Him with your substance. Let your gold and silver, yes, and your bronze, praise Him! Praise Him with all that you have and with all that you are—and with all that you hope to be. Lay your all upon the altar. Make a whole burnt-offering of it. Praise Him with all the influence you have. If He has delivered you from the shadow of death, let your shadow, like that of Peter, become the instrument of God’s healing power to others!
Teach others to praise God. Influence them by your example. Fill your house with music from top to bottom—perfume every room with the fragrance of living devotion! Make your houses belfries and be, yourselves, the bells forever ringing out the loud praises of the Lamb of God. He bore your sins—you bear His praises. He died for you, therefore live for Him! He has heard your prayers—let Him hear your praises! Let us together sing “hallelujah to God and the Lamb.” Let us stand upon our feet and with one voice and heart let us sing— “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow, Praise Him all creatures here below! Praise Him above, you heavenly host Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!”
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON—Psalm 107:1-32.