UNDERNEATH – Charles Spurgeon
The Everlasting Arms: Divine Support and Comfort
“Underneath are the everlasting arms.” Deuteronomy 33:27. GOD surrounds His children on all sides—they dwell in Him. The passage before us shows that the Lord is above, for we read, “There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rides upon the heaven to help you, and in His excellence on the sky.” Assuredly He is around them, for “The eternal God is your refuge.” And He is before them, for “He shall thrust out the enemy from before you; and shall say, Destroy them.” Here, according to the text, the Lord is also under His saints, for “Underneath are the everlasting arms.”
“Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations,” and by You, we are surrounded everywhere, as the earth is by the atmosphere— “Within Your circling power I stand. On every side I find Your hand. Awake, asleep, at home, abroad, I am surrounded still with God.” The verse which contains our text should be interpreted somewhat after this fashion—“The eternal God is your dwelling place, or your rest, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” The parallel passage is that verse in the Song wherein the bride exclaims, “His left hand is under my head, and His right hand does embrace me.” The soul has come to its resting place in God and feels itself to be supported by the divine strength. The heart has learned to abide in Christ Jesus, to go no more out forever, but to lean on His bosom both day and night. It is somewhat in the condition of Noah’s dove, which, when weary, was about to drop into the destroying waters, but Noah put out his hand and plucked her to him into the ark. And when she was all safe, in the hollow of his hands, held by her preserver with a firm but tender grasp, she found in that place a refuge which surrounded her and upheld her from below. The hands covered her on all sides and came beneath her too.
Even thus, the hand of God sustains all those who dwell in the secret place of the Most High and abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I am going, however, to take the words just as they stand in our own authorized version and to consider them apart from the context. I ask your most careful consideration of them, for they must be very full of meaning and very emphatic in their force. The words are placed at the end of Moses’ song, and they are its crown and climax. He had wound himself up to the highest pitch of poetic excitement and spiritual fervor, and this passage is the result. He had spoken grandly before, concerning the separate tribes, and the words which fell from his lips are unspeakably rich. But now he is about to close, and therefore, he pours forth his loftiest strains and utters full and deep meanings, the ripest and choicest fruit of a lifetime of communion with God.
As our Lord ascended to heaven blessing His disciples, so did His servant Moses, before climbing to Pisgah, pour out a torrent of benedictions, full and deep, inspired by the divine Spirit. It is not possible, therefore, that the language can be too greatly prized. The words mean all that we can make them mean. The nectar of their consolation is altogether inexhaustible. May God the Holy Spirit help us, to weigh and measure them, and then distil their inner sense, and drink of the spiced wine of His pomegranate. “Underneath are the everlasting arms.”
Where Are the Everlasting Arms?
I shall handle the text in this fashion. Where? “Underneath.” What? “The everlasting arms.” When? They are underneath us now and always. And if it is so, what then?
First, let us attend to the question—WHERE? “Underneath.” Now, “underneath,” is a region into which we cannot see. We glance down and the dead cold earth stops our gaze. When we are heavy in spirit, we fix our eyes upon the ground and look, and look and look, but even an eagle’s glance cannot see far below. We scarcely can peer beneath the thin green sod; the bottom of a grave is well near the full range of mortal vision. The underworld is mysterious. We associate the subterranean with all that is dark and hidden, and because of this, it is often regarded as terrible.
A man scarcely ever fears that which he can see in proportion to his dread of what he cannot see. Therefore, our alarm at the “underneath.” What may be underneath us when we leave this sunlit region for the grave’s overshadowing vault? What will happen to us in eternity? Life will soon end; what is death? What is the immediate result of death? What shall we feel when we are traversing those unknown tracks, and finding our way to the judgment seat of God?
Not knowing except that little which has been revealed to us, we are all too apt to conjecture terrors and invent horrors, and so to begin trembling concerning that which we do not understand. What a comfort it is to be told by the voice of inspiration that, “Underneath are the everlasting arms!”
Overcoming Fear of the Unknown
Poets have usually been in a gloomy humor when picturing the underworld. Imagination is very apt to spin a black and tangled thread. You have read of dark caverns where the bodies of men are fast detained, of which caverns death has the key. Of this, the grim Anglo-Saxon poet wailed the warning note:
“Loathsome is that earth-house,
And grim within to dwell!
There you shall dwell,
And worms shall divide you!”
You have heard of gloomy ruins where the night raven forever sits and croaks. You have heard of corridors where prisoners incessantly rattle their chains to the sorrowful music of sullen groans and hollow moans. We have been afraid of death because of the horrors with which our ignorance has surrounded it, and dismayed at the future because of the mysteries which darken it.
Be comforted. Our text, like a lamp, reveals the abyss of death and lifts up the veil of the future. Follow its gleam and you will see how it dispels the darkness. If you are a child of God, you may descend without fear into the lowest depths, even if like Jonah, you had to cry, “I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me forever,” yet you need not be dismayed, for “Underneath are the everlasting arms.”
The Strength of God’s Support
If you were called to take some such awful journey as Virgil and Dante have fabled in their poems, when their heroes descended into the dread Avernus, you need not tremble, though it were said of you as of them:
“Along the illuminated shade
Darkening and lone their way they made.”
If, I say, you were bound to traverse the sepulchral vaults and all the gloomy dungeons of Hades, yet you need not fear, for “Underneath are the everlasting arms.” Mystery of mysteries!
You are no longer terrible to us because the light of lights is shining upon you. Depths unfathomable, we no longer fear to pass through you, for there is One whose love is deeper than the depths beneath as it is higher than the heights above. And He has said, “I will bring again from Bashan, I will bring them up from the depths of the sea.” We gladly take our journey downward at the call of God. And without fear, we pass through the gates of the tomb and enter the doors of the shadow of death, for “Underneath are the everlasting arms.”
The Importance of Firm Foundations
“Underneath”—the word awakens thought and inquiry. Everything ought to be sound, solid and substantial there. “Underneath” must be firm, for if that fails we fail, indeed. We have been building and our eyes have been gladdened with the rising walls and with the towering pinnacles, but what if something should be rotten “underneath?” Great will be the fall then, if we have built as high as heaven, if sand lies underneath, yielding and shifting in the day of flood.
“Underneath” is the great matter to which the architect, if he is wise, will give his best attention. And truly, brethren, when you and I begin to examine our graces and our professions, that word “underneath” suggests many a testing question. Is it all right with us, as to the root of the matter—“underneath?” If not, the fair flower above ground will wither very speedily. The seed has sprung up hastily, but how is the soil underneath? For if there is no depth of earth, the scorching sun will soon dry up the superficial harvest.
Resting on the Everlasting Arms
“Underneath,” though it is mysterious, is also intensely important and therefore, the great joy of being able to say by faith, “Yes, ‘underneath’ is well secured, we have trusted in God and we shall not be confused. We have relied upon the eternal promises and they cannot fail. We have rested on the infinite merits of the atoning sacrifice of God’s dear Son and we shall never be ashamed of our hope.”
Happy is he who rests upon the everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure, for with him all is safe underneath. And though the earth is removed and the mountains are carried into the midst of the sea, he need not fear, but may patiently hope and quietly wait for the salvation of God. For a period we may be content with superficial pleasures, but there are times of trial when we have to fall back upon something deeper and more reliable. Earthly props give way in their season, and we need superior sustaining power.
The Everlasting Arms as the Foundation of Life
The carnal mind meets with an hour when “the proud helpers do stoop under him” and believers too, in proportion as they foolishly lean upon an arm of flesh, find their confidence departing. Then it is that we feel the value of divine upholding and rejoice that “Underneath are the everlasting arms.” Let us look more closely into this most important matter. “Underneath are the everlasting arms.”
That is, first, as the foundation of everything. If you go down, down, to discover the basement upon which all things rest, you come before long to “the everlasting arms.” The things which are seen are held up by the invisible God. This outward visible universe has no power to stand for a single instant if He does not keep it in being. By Him, all things consist. There are no forces apart from God’s power. No existences apart from His will. He bears up the pillars of the universe. He alone spreads out the heavens and treads upon the waves of the sea. He makes Arcturus, Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south.
Foolish are those philosophers who think that they can reach the essence and soul from which visible things were evolved, unless they bow before the invisible God. He is the foundation of creation, the fountain and source of being, the root and basement of existence. “Underneath” everything “are the everlasting arms.”
The Everlasting Arms in the Church
Most true is this with regard to His church. He chose her and redeemed her to Himself. The very idea of a church is from the Lord alone. As a temple, He devised her architecture, saying, “I will lay your foundations with sapphires.” And He has built up her every stone by His own power. He sustains her walls against her enemies so that the gates of hell cannot prevail against her, for the foundation of God stands sure. The foundation of every true church is the Lord Himself, the Highest, Himself, establishes her. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved. “Underneath are the everlasting arms.”
The Everlasting Arms of Power and Love
Blessed be God, what is true of the church as a corporate body is true of every member of the church. There abides no spiritual life in the world which is not founded upon the everlasting arms. Beloved, if the life of God is in you, if you search deep and go to the basis of it, you will find that your life is staying itself and drawing its constant nurture, yes, deriving its very existence from the life of the eternal God. Jesus says, “Because I live, you shall live also.” Your life is the life of God in you, for the divine seed is the foundation of all spiritual life.
Beware then, of harboring in your heart anything which has not underneath it the everlasting arms. If there is any hope, let it be founded on the everlasting covenant of God; if there is any joy, let it well up from the everlasting love of God; if there is any confidence, let it be stayed upon the everlasting strength of Jehovah. If there is any service rendered, let it be according to the everlasting commandment.
If in your soul there is any grace, if there is any virtue, if there is any praise, suffer none of these matters to be superficial or pretentious, the creation of your own native strength, but let them all be founded upon the work of the Holy Spirit in your soul. In fact, let it be said of each of them, “Underneath are the everlasting arms.”
Conclusion: Resting in God’s Everlasting Arms
Nothing will serve our turn in the trials of life, the terrors of death, or the solemnities of the last great day, except that which has underneath it the everlasting arms. See how the nations reel when God no longer sustains them—“He removes the mountains and they know not, He overturns them in His anger.” See how those churches fly into apostasy which have not underneath them the everlasting arms. They are quenched as the fire of thorns, and only a smoke remains.
Did not Jesus say, “Every plant that my Father has not planted shall be rooted up”? See how hypocritical professors disappear like the morning mist when the sun rises. Nothing will abide the day of the Lord’s coming unless its foundation is laid in the eternal God. The Lord help us to know what this means, so that we may be like the wise man who dug deep and built his house upon a rock.
Everlasting Arms Beneath Us
Again, we may read the words, “Underneath are the everlasting arms,” in the sense of being the bottom and end and object of everything. If in faith you search into divine providence, however dark and trying it may appear, you will soon find that underneath it are the everlasting arms. Satan may be mining, but God is undermining. Even under the deep devices of hell the everlasting arms are to be found. Satan’s craft is deep to us, but it is very shallow to the Lord, whose wisdom goes far deeper than all the cunning of the prince of darkness. The evils and errors which are in the world should not cause us to despair of the ultimate victory of the truth, for beneath them there is still the immutable decree of the Ever-living and the Ever-blessed.
And that decree shall be accomplished, whoever may oppose it. Has He not said, “I have sworn by Myself, the word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return. That unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear”? His purpose shall stand. He will do all His pleasure. He works all things according to the counsel of His own will. Trace your present trials below their surface, trace them to the deeps, instead of groaning over their outward appearance, and you will find that underneath each trouble there is a faithful purpose and a kind intent.
Yes, beneath the utmost depths of distress and grief, God is still at work in love to your soul, “From seeming evil still educing good and better still, and better still, in infinite progression.” Underneath the best events are the arms of love to make them good and underneath the worst that can happen are the same everlasting arms to moderate and overrule them. As the design and object of all, “underneath are the everlasting arms.”
May you rest in them, for His glory.
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
You are getting nearer to those arms now. Friends and wealth came between you and the almighty arms. But now you must lean on them alone. The creature fails and you must rest on the Creator. You will have sweeter fellowship now than you ever had, since there is nothing to come between you and your Lord.
“Ah,” says one, “but I am sinking in spirit. I am greatly depressed.” Still, underneath are the everlasting arms. Your soul is sinking, like Peter in the waves, but a hand is outstretched to save you. You cannot sink while your heavenly Father’s hand is near. Go on sinking if the Lord so wills it. Sometimes the greatest sweetness in life is found amid intense bitterness. I never have in my soul a more solid and real joy than when I have been cast into the dust with fearful depression of spirit.
I stay myself upon my God and Him only, and then I touch the confines of bliss, though trembling all the while. I hardly know how to express the unrivaled sweetness of resting upon the Lord alone. When you are flung altogether upon God, then your soul enters into the most divine peace. The natural spirits have gone. Everything that sprang from the vigor of youth and the natural elasticity of the mind has departed. Now you come right upon God and lie naked in His hands.
And then there is cast into your cup a foretaste of heaven which the soul sits down and humbly sips to herself, for the secret she can never tell. No ear would understand her if she did. “Underneath are the everlasting arms.”
Trust in God’s Everlasting Support
And so, dear friends, if you should sink both in circumstances and in spirits and your experience should happen to be a very downcast one, it will still be well. If now you have to discover the corruption of your nature, which you knew little of before, if now your experience, instead of being that of the brethren of the higher life, should be one of humiliation, of prostration of spirit, of deep self-loathing, still underneath you are the everlasting arms.
If you are not to climb to Pisgah with Moses, but must dive to the bottom of the mountains like Jonah, still underneath are the everlasting arms, even at the lowest point of your going down. So it shall be forever and forever, for the arms are everlasting in their position as well as their power. Now you have come to die. You have gathered up your feet in the bed. The death sweat stands upon your brow. You are sinking so far as this life is concerned among the sons of men, but underneath you shall then be the everlasting arms.
Comfort in the Hour of Death
Beautifully, Bunyan has described confidence in death when he pictures the pilgrims passing the river. Christian cried out to young Hopeful, “I sink in deep waters, the billows go over my head, and all His waves go over me.” Then, said Hopeful, “Be of good cheer my brother, I feel the bottom and it is good.”
Thus, beloved, shall it be with you. You shall feel the bottom of death’s chill river, but you shall say, “It is good,” for underneath are the everlasting arms. Then comes the last plunge and we shall be as when a man stands on the edge of a precipice and leaps over into the clouds below him. You need not fear to take your last farewell and drop into your Father’s arms, for underneath you shall be the everlasting arms.
And oh, how sweetly shall you be caught up together with the Lord in the air, pressed to the bosom of the great Father and borne upward into the heaven of heavens where you shall behold the face of the Well-Beloved and find yourselves entranced in His company forever and forever. O heir of glory, underneath you there is no hell. Underneath you there is no annihilation. Underneath you are the everlasting arms. Therefore commit your spirit unto your faithful Creator and then welcome life or death, for all is well with you.
What Then? The Strength of God’s Arms
IV. Lastly, let us reply to the query, WHAT THEN? If underneath us are the everlasting arms, what then? First, let us look underneath. My brothers and sisters, you have been going on with great discomfort, sighing and crying because your way is rough, and because sometimes you think it dangerous and fear that you will slip into a chasm and perish.
Now, instead of complaining after this fashion, and fearing the road, stop a little and begin to examine—“What is underneath me? What is the bottom of my hope?” You hypocrites dare not examine. You formalists dare not search. You are afraid to ask questions and to open your eyes lest you should see too much. But those who are honest and sincere in the way of our Lord are not afraid to be tested. You who are under any anxiety will do well to pull right up and say, “I have been troubled with doubts and fears, and I will no longer endure it. I will know the end of this. I will search myself and know my ways and pray the Lord to let me see the worst of my case. For I long to know what there is underneath.”
Confidence in God’s Everlasting Arms
If you are believing in Jesus Christ with a sincere heart, and resting in the atoning sacrifice and the covenant of which His blood is the seal, you can afford to search underneath. For you will find all things solid and eternal. It is well to look underneath an outward providence when it frowns darkly upon you, for it conceals the eternal purpose of love.
The sorrows which you see are but, as it were, a napkin hiding the precious treasure of eternal grace and therefore, you can say to yourself in all ill weathers, “All is well, for all is well underneath. The eternal purpose is working out my lasting good.” Do not be afraid to search underneath, my trembling brothers and sisters. But when you do so and find the everlasting arms to be there, then, sing unto the Lord with all your might.
Leaning Heavily on God
The next inference is, if underneath us are the everlasting arms, let us lean heavily. We are afraid to lean too hard on God. To be careful not to encroach on a friend is a very proper disposition. Do not spoil a generous friend by drawing upon him so heavily that he will dread to see you again. I wish some people had a little more of that disposition, as far as I am concerned, but this is not a right feeling when you have to deal with the Lord.
Never fear that you will weary your God. Never say to yourself, “I will ask as little as I can.” Why, He says, “Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.” Never say, “I will trust Him a little. I will take Him a part of my cares and rest a portion of my trials upon Him.” No, lean with your whole weight. Do not keep a spare ounce for your own carrying. That will break your back. Bring all the tons and the pounds and the ounces and the pennyweights and cast them all on God.
He loves His children to treat Him with entire confidence. All your weight will not trouble Him. You know Aesop’s fable of the polite little gnat which apologized to the ox for burdening him when he lighted on his horn, and the ox replied that he really did not know he was there. Your God will not tell you that, for He counts the very hairs of your head, but He will tell you that your load is no burden to Him.
Leaning on God’s Everlasting Arms
Why, if you had 50 kingdoms burdening your brain and if you carried the politics of a hundred nations in your mind, or were loaded with all the cares of a thousand worlds, you might safely leave them with the Wonderful Counselor, and go on your way rejoicing. Lean hard, brothers and sisters, for underneath you are the everlasting arms.
Rising Confidently in God’s Power
The next thing is then, let us rise confidently. Do not be afraid of ascending to heights of love. Do not be afraid of having a high ambition for a wholly consecrated life. Be not afraid of high doctrines, or high enjoyments, or high attainments in holiness. Go as high as you like, for underneath you are the everlasting arms.
It would be dangerous to speculate, but it is safe to believe. Some men are always going downward, turning diamonds into gas and hallelujahs into howls. They are trying to get rid of precious truth and to substitute for it some new theory or the other. Let us be brave in the other direction and seek to comprehend with all saints what are the heights and depths, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge.
You may climb, my dear young brothers and sisters, nor fear to fall even if you reach the masthead of truth, for underneath are the everlasting arms. Once more, let us dare unhesitatingly and be very courageous for the Lord our God— “Through floods or flames, if Jesus leads, I’ll follow where He goes” for underneath are the everlasting arms.
Trusting God’s Strength in Every Task
Are you called upon to lose everything for Christ? Go on and leap like Curtius into the gulf for your Lord Jesus, for underneath you are the everlasting arms. Does your Master call you to an enterprise which seems impossible? Nevertheless, if God has called you to it, attempt it, for He renders to every man according to his work.
Remember what the Negro said—“If Massa Jesus say to me, ‘Sam, you jump through that brick wall,’ I jump. It is Sam’s business to jump— it is Massa’s work to make me go through the wall.” So it is with you. It is yours to leap forward when the captain gives the watchword, and in confidence to attempt what mere nature cannot achieve, for the supernatural is with us. The best of all is, God is with us. Underneath us are the everlasting arms.
Conclusion: Resting in God’s Everlasting Arms
Less reliance upon self and more reliance upon God, less counting of the barley loaves and fishes, and a greater readiness to bring them to His hands who can multiply them till they shall feed the thousands, this is what we need. God grant us grace to trust in His almighty power and sing from now on and forever, “underneath are the everlasting arms.”