| Treasury Of David |
| "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." 1 Timothy 2:5 |
Unless otherwise noted, the following quotations
are from Charles Spurgeon.
"The law of the Lord is the daily bread of the true
believer. And yet, in David's day, how small was the volume of inspiration, for
they had scarcely anything save the first five books of Moses! How much more,
then, should we prize the whole written Word which it is our privilege to have
in all our houses! But, alas, what ill-treatment is given to this angel from
heaven!... Is your delight in the law of God? Do you study God's Word? Do you
make it the man of your right hand -- your best companion and hourly guide? If
not, this blessing belongeth not to you." Psalm I
"The dragon lost his sting when he dashed it into the soul
of Jesus." Psalm III
"Search the Scripture through, and you must, if you read it
with candid mind, be persuaded that the doctrine of salvation by grace alone is
the great doctrine of the Word of God... We hold and teach that salvation from
first to last, in every iota of it, belongs to the Most High God. It is God that
chooses his people. He calls them by his grace: he quickens them by his Spirit,
and keeps them by his power. It is not of man, neither by man, 'not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.' May we all
learn this truth experimentally, for our proud flesh and blood will never permit
us to learn it in any other way." Psalm III
"O sinners, flee ye to the sacrifices of Calvary, and there
put your whole confidence and trust, for he who died for men is the Lord
Jehovah." Psalm IV
"When the wolf licks the lamb, he is preparing to wet his
teeth in its blood." Psalm V
"God's people may groan, but they may not grumble." Psalm
VI
"The best remedy for us against an evil man is a long space
between us both." Psalm VI
"We should never think our prayers complete until we ask
for preservation from ALL sin, and ALL enemies." Psalm VII
"Turn or burn is the sinner's only alternative... The Greek
proverb saith, 'The mill of God grinds late, but grinds to powder.'" Psalm VII
"None but the Lord himself can fully know his own glory.
The believing heart is ravished with what it sees, but God only knows the glory
of God." Psalm VII
"What God's words are, the words of his children should
be." Psalm XII
"God bares the back that the blow may be felt; for it is
only FELT affliction which can become BLEST affliction." Psalm X
"The refiner is never far from the mouth of the furnace
when his gold is in the fire, and the Son of God is always walking in the midst
of the flames when his holy children are cast into them." Psalm X
"Proud hearts breed proud looks and stiff knees." Psalm X
"None but the silliest of geese would go the fox's sermon."
Psalm X
"It is well for us that our salvation and God's honour are
so intimately connected, that they stand of fall together." Psalm XIII
"God's house is a hive for workers, not a nest for drones."
Psalm XV
"Saints not only desire to love and speak truth with their
lips, but they seek to be true within; they will not lie even in the closet of
their hearts, for God is there to listen; they scorn double meanings, evasions,
equivocations, white lies, flatteries, and deceptions." Psalm XV
"He who bridles his tongue will not give a license to his
hand." Psalm XV
"In slander as well as robbery, the receiver is as bad as
the thief." Psalm XV
"Jesus instead of taking reward against the innocent died
for the guilty." Psalm XV
"If the Church would enjoy union with Christ, she must
break all the bonds of impiety, and keep herself pure from all the pollutions of
carnal will-worship, which now pollute the service of God." Psalm XVI
"Some professors are guilty of great sin in remaining in
the communion of Popish churches, where God is as much dishonoured as in Rome
herself, only in a more crafty manner." Psalm XVI
"The lowest heathen are without excuse, if they do not
discover the invisible things of God in the works which he has made. Sun, moon,
and stars are God's traveling preachers; they are apostles upon their journey
confirming those who regard the Lord, and judges on circuit condemning those who
worship idols." Psalm XIX
"God the Holy Ghost must illuminate us, or all the suns in
the milky way never will." Psalm XIX
"There are no redundancies and no omissions in the Word of
God, and in the plan of grace; why then do men try to paint this lily and gild
this refined gold? The gospel is perfect in all its parts, and perfect as a
whole: it is a crime to add to it, treason to alter it, and felony to take from
it." Psalm XIX
"The great means of the conversion of sinners is the Word
of God, and the more closely we keep to it in our ministry the more likely we
are to be successful. It is God's Word rather than man's comment on God's Word
which is made mighty with souls... Try men's depraved nature with philosophy and
reasoning, and it laughs your efforts to scorn, but the Word of God soon works a
transformation." Psalm XIX
"The revealed will of God is never changed; even Jesus came
not to destroy but to fulfill, and even the ceremonial law was only changed as
to its shadow, the substance intended by it is eternal." Psalm XIX
"He best knows himself who best knows the Word." Psalm XIX
"Why, if we could receive pardon for all our sins by
telling every sin we have committed in one hour, there is not one of us who
would be able to enter heaven, since, besides the sins that are known to us and
that we may be able to confess, there are a vast mass of sins, which are as
truly sins as those which we lament, but which are secret, and come not beneath
our eyes." Psalm XIX
"We ought to trust in God for the promotion of the
Redeemer's kingdom, for in Jehovah the King himself trusts: all unbelieving
methods of action, and especially all reliance upon mere human ability, should
be for ever discarded from a kingdom where the monarch sets the example of
walking by faith in God." Psalm XXI
"Never tolerate slight thoughts of hell, or you will soon
have low thoughts of sin." Psalm XXI
"God wrought our deliverance alone, and he alone shall have
the praise." Psalm XXI
"For as we can only appropriate the word through the
Spirit, so we shall ordinarily receive the Spirit through the Word; not indeed
only by hearing it, not only by reading it, not only by reflecting upon it. The
Spirit of God, who is a most free agent, and who is himself the source of
liberty, will come into the heart of the believer when he will, and how he will,
and as he will. But the effect of his coming will ever be the realization of
some promise, the recognition of some principle, the attainment of some grace,
the understanding of some mystery, which is already in the word, and which we
shall thus find, with a deeper impression, and with a fuller development,
brought home with power to the heart." Psalm XXIII, Thomas Dale, M.A., in "The
Good Shepherd", 1847
"Do you find in the Father's election, in the Son's
atonement, and in the Spirit's quickening all the grounds of your eternal
hopes?... Those do us but sorry service who try to dissuade us from meditating
upon election and its kindred topics." Psalm XXV
"Gospel privileges are not for every pretender. Art thou of
the seed royal or no?" Psalm XXV
"It is no less true than wonderful that through the
atonement the justice of God pleads as strongly as his grace for the salvation
of the sinners whom Jesus died to save." Psalm XXV
"He who fears God has nothing else to fear." Psalm XXV
"Saints have the key of heaven's hieroglyphics; they can
unriddle celestial enigmas. They are initiated into the fellowship of the skies;
they have heard words which it is not possible for them to repeat to their
fellows." Psalm XXV
"The designs of love which the Lord has to his people in
the covenant of grace, he has been pleased to show to believers in the Book of
Inspiration, and by his Spirit he leads us into the mystery, even the hidden
mystery of redemption." Psalm XXV
"There is no less a secret of godliness, than there is of
any other trade or profession. Many profess an art or a trade, but thrive not by
it, because they have not the secret and mystery of it; and many profess
godliness, but are little the better for it, because they have not the true
secret of it: he hath that, with whom God is in secret in his heart; and he that
is righteous in secret, where no man sees him, he is the righteous man with whom
the secret of the Lord is." Psalm XXV, Michael Jermin, DD, 1591-1659
"Those who would be transfigured with Jesus must not be
disfigured by conformity to the world." Psalm XXVI
"A man who does not hate evil terribly, does not love good
heartily... What God hates we must hate." Psalm XXVI
"We are never in greater danger than in the sunshine of
prosperity. To be always indulged of God, and never to taste of trouble, is
rather a token of God's neglect than of his tender love." Psalm XXX, William
Strather
"The cause of God is never in danger: infernal craft is
outwitted by infinite wisdom, and Satanic malice held in check by boundless
power. He changes not his purpose, his decree is not frustrated, his designs are
accomplished. God has a predestination according to the counsel of his will, and
none of the devices of his foes can thwart his decree for a moment." Psalm
XXXIII
"Election is at the bottom of it all. The divine choice
rules the day; none take Jehovah to be their God till he takes them to be his
people." Psalm XXXIII
"Consider thy ways, O man, for God considers them!" Psalm
XXXIII
"To Jehovah, and not to second causes our gratitude is to
be rendered. The Lord hath by right a monopoly in his creatures' praise." Psalm
XXXIV
"He who praises God for mercies shall never want a mercy
for which to praise. To bless the Lord is never unseasonable." Psalm XXXIV
"No really good thing shall be denied to those whose first
and main end in life is to seek the Lord. Men may call them fools, but the Lord
will prove them wise. They shall win where the world's wiseacres lose their all,
and God shall have the glory of it." Psalm XXXIV
"Want sanctified is a notable means to bring to repentance,
to work in us amendment of life, it stirs up prayer, it weans from the love of
the world, it keeps us always prepared for the spiritual combat, discovers
whether we be true believers or hypocrites, prevents greater evils of sin and
punishment to come; it makes us humble, conformable to Christ our Head,
increaseth our faith, our joy, and thankfulness, our spiritual wisdom, and
likewise our patience." Psalm XXXIV, Richard Young
"Were we more hopeless, helpless, and fatherless, we should
find more mercy from the hand of Jesus Christ. O that God would awaken and shake
some sin sleeping soul this day! O that this doctrine thus opened might be as a
thunderbolt to let some of you see the inside of yourselves! O poor sinner, thou
hast an unsupportable burden of sin and guilt lying on thy soul, ready to press
thee down to hell, and yet you feel it not; thou hast the wrath of God hanging
over thy head by the twined thread of a short life, which it may be thou mayest
not be free from one year, nay, perhaps not one month, but thou seest it not; if
thou didst but see it, then thou wouldest cry out as he did in Bosworth field, A
horse! a horse! a kingdom for a horse! So thou wouldest cry out, None but
Christ! nothing but Christ! ten thousand worlds for Christ!" Psalm XXXIV, James
Nallon
"Christ's bones were in themselves breakable, but could not
actually be broken by all the violence in the world, because God had fore
decreed, a bone of him shall not be broken. So we confess God's children mortal;
but all the power of devil or man may not, must not, cannot, kill them before
their conversion, according to God's election of them to life, which must be
fully accomplished." Psalm XXXIV, Thomas Fuller
"Every saint of God shall have this privilege: the accuser
of the brethren shall be met by the Advocate of the saints... Let us not fail to
leave our case into the Lord's hand. Vain is the help of man, but ever effectual
is the interposition of heaven... in judgment they shall have a divine advocate,
in warfare a divine protection." Psalm XXXV
"Woe, woe, woe, unto those who touch the people of God;
their destruction is both swift and sure." Psalm XXXV
"There are only such limits to human malice as God himself
may see fit to place." Psalm XXXV
"There cannot be a greater evidence of a wicked heart, than
for a man to be merry because others are in misery." Psalm XXXV, Thomas Brooks
"I will suggest a remedy whereby thou mayest praise God all
the day long if thou wilt. Whatever thou dost, do well, and thou hast praised
God... In the innocency of thy works prepare thyself to praise God all the day
long." Psalm XXXV, Augustine
"Those eyes which have no fear of God before them now,
shall have the terrors of hell before them for ever." Psalm XXXVI
"Not even to save his elect would the Lord suffer his
righteousness to be set aside. No awe inspired by mountain scenery can equal
that which fills the soul when it beholds the Son of God slain as a victim to
vindicate the justice of the Inflexible Lawgiver. Right across the path of every
unholy man who dreams of heaven stand the towering Andes of divine
righteousness, which no unregenerate sinner can ever climb. Among great
mountains lie slumbering avalanches, and there the young lightnings try their
callow wings until the storm rushes down amain from the awful peaks; so against
the great day of the Lord's wrath the Lord has laid up in the mountains of his
righteousness dreadful ammunition of war with which to overwhelm his
adversaries." Psalm XXXVI
"God's dealings with men are not to be fathomed by every
boaster who demands to see a why for every wherefore. The Lord is not to be
questioned by us as to why this and why that. He has reasons, but he does not
choose to submit them to our foolish consideration... Yet as the deep mirrors
the sky, so the mercy of the Lord is to be seen reflected in all the
arrangements of his government on earth, and over the profound depth the
covenant rainbow casts its arch of comfort, for the Lord is faithful in all that
he doeth." Psalm XXXVI
"No inward intelligence of ours leads us to receive the
Spirit's light... Vain are they who look to learning and human wit, one ray from
the throne of God is better than the noonday splendour of created wisdom." Psalm
XXXVI
"It is well when the petition is but the reflection of the
promise... although a continuance of mercy is guaranteed in the covenant, we are
yet to make it a matter of prayer. For this good thing will the Lord be enquired
of." Psalm XXXVI
"The defeat of the ungodly and of the powers of evil is
final, total, irretrievable. Glory be to God, however high the powers of
darkness may carry it at this present, the time hastens on when God shall defend
the right, and give to evil such a fall as shall for ever crush the hopes of
hell; while those who trust in the Lord shall eternally praise him and rejoice
in his holy name." Psalm XXXVI
"Evil men instead of being envied, are to be viewed with
horror and aversion; yet their loaded tables, and gilded trappings, are too apt
to fascinate our poor half opened eyes. Who envies the fat bullock the ribbons
and garlands which decorate him as he is led to the shambles? Yet the case is a
parallel one; for ungodly rich men are but as beasts fattened for the
slaughter." Psalm XXXVII
"The restoration of the Jews will be one of the first
things at the season of the second advent." Psalm XLVI, Samuel Horsley
"Sound doctrine praises God." Psalm XLVII
"It may be thou art godly and poor. Tis well: but canst
thou tell whether, if thou wert not poor, thou wouldst be godly? Surely God
knows us better than we ourselves do, and therefore can best fit the estate to
the person." Psalm XLVII, Giles Fletcher
"It is God in our nature that is gone up to heaven:
whatever God acted on the person of Christ, that he did as in thy behalf, and he
means to act the very same on thee. Christ as a public person ascended up to
heaven; thy interest is in this very ascension of Jesus Christ; and therefore
dost thou consider thy Head as soaring up?" Psalm XLVII, Isaac Ambrose
"In a word, we must sing as we pray." Psalm XLVII, John
Wells - Morning Exercises
"Silence gives consent. He who refrains from defending the
right is himself an accomplice in the wrong." Psalm LVIII
"To be untruthful is one of the surest proofs of a fallen
state." Psalm LVIII
"All the privileges of all the saints are also the
privilege of each one." Psalm LXI
"If to wait on God be worship, to wait on the creature is
idolatry; if to wait on God alone be true faith, to associate an arm of flesh
with him is audacious unbelief." Psalm LXII
"Happy is the man who feels that all he has, all he wants,
and all he expects are to be found in his God... The more we rely upon God, the
more shall we perceive the utter hallowness of every other confidence." Psalm
LXII
"Only God himself can satisfy the craving of a soul really
aroused by the Holy Spirit." Psalm LXIII
"A liar is a human devil, he is the curse of men, and
accursed of God." Psalm LXIII
"We cannot take a more efficient method for benefiting
others than by being earnestly prayerful for ourselves that we may be preserved
from sin." Psalm LXIV
"We are chosen of God, according to the good pleasure of
his will, and this alone is blessedness. Then, since we cannot and will not come
to God of ourselves, he works graciously in us, and attracts us powerfully; he
subdues our unwillingness, and removes our inability by the almighty workings of
his transforming grace." Psalm LXV
"God does not make a temporary choice, or give and take;
his gifts and calling are without repentance. He who is once admitted to God's
courts shall inhabit them for ever." Psalm LXV
"Philosophers of the forget God school are too much
engrossed with their laws of upheaval to think of the Upheaver. Their theories
of volcanic action and glacier action, etc., etc., are frequently used as bolts
and bars to shut the Lord out of his own world... Let me for ever be just such
an unphilosophical simpleton as David was, for he was nearer akin to Solomon
than any of our modern theorists." Psalm LXV
"An absolute God thundereth on sinners from Sinai, there
can be no comfortable intercourse betwixt God and them, by the law: but in Zion,
from the mercy seat, in Christ, he is the hearer of prayer; they give in their
supplications, and he graciously hears them." Psalm LXV, Thomas Boston
"All the saints must go to the proving house; God had one
Son without sin, but he never had a son without trial." Psalm LXVI
"The path of sorrow and that path alone, leads to the land
where sorrow is unknown." Psalm LXVI
"Our Saviour Christ never expostulated for himself; never
said, Why scourge you me? why spit you upon me? why crucify you me? As long as
their rage determined in his person, he opened not his mouth; when Saul extended
the violence to the church, to his servants, then Christ came to that, "Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou me?" ...Here is a holy league, defensive and
offensive; God shall not only protect us from others, but he shall fight for us
against them; our enemies are his enemies." Psalm LXVI, John Donne
"If any, therefore, are unwilling to be tried, if they are
backward to self-examination, it is an evidence of a STRONG AND POWERFUL
ATTACHMENT TO SIN. It can proceed from nothing but a secret dread of some
disagreeable discovery, or the detection of some lust which they cannot consent
to forsake." Psalm LXVI, John Witherspoon
"God's will is revealed in his word, and his word is his
way wherein we must walk, turning neither to the right hand nor to the left."
Psalm LXVII, John Boys
"The more vapours go up, the more showers come down; as the
rivers receive, so they pour out, and all run into the sea again. There is a
constant circular course and recourse from the sea, unto the sea; so there is
between God and us; the more we praise him, the more our blessings come down;
and the more his blessings come down, the more we praise him again; so that we
do not so much bless God as bless ourselves. When the springs lie low, we pour a
little water into the pump, not to enrich the fountain, but to bring up more for
ourselves." Psalm LXVII, Thomas Manton
"All such as have known the ways of the Lord, and rejoice
in the strength of his salvation, all such as have the pardon of their sins
assured and sealed, fear not that dreadful assize, because they know the judge
is their advocate." Psalm LXVII, John Boys
"The great inventions and discoveries of science, by which
toil is lessened and comfort enhanced, are all the products of Christian minds."
Psalm LXVII, William Reid
"Whatever the details and steps of the work of redemption,
all must be traced up to this original fountain, the sovereign grace and mercy
of our God... The eternal, free, unchangeable, inexhaustible mercy of our God
revealed through his dear Son Jesus Christ." Psalm LXVII, Edward Bickersteth
"It is the divine plan first to choose his people and bless
them, and then to make them a blessing, as we see in Abraham, the father of the
faithful. It is through his church that God blesses the world." Psalm LXVII,
Edward Bickersteth
"But all this order of divine mercy has yet to be more
fully seen in what is before us; in the restoration of Israel, and in its effect
upon the world at large." Psalm LXVII, Edward Bickersteth - This statement was
made in 1848
"Note, how joy in God, and fear of God, are combined. By
joy the sadness and anxiety of diffidence are excluded, but by fear contempt and
false security are banished." Psalm LXVII, Wolfgang Musculus
"Rome, like the candles on her altars, shall dissolve, and
with equal certainty shall infidelity disappear." Psalm LXVIII
"The ascension of Jesus is the reason for the descent of
the Lord God, the Holy Spirit. Because Jesus dwells with God, God dwells with
men. Christ on high is the reason for the Spirit below. It was expedient that
the Redeemer should rise, that the Comforter should come down." Psalm LXVIII
"Albeit the Lord be infinite and uncomprehended by any
place, yet hath he appointed a trysting place where his people shall find him by
his own ordinance, to wit, the assembly of his saints, his holy temple shadowing
forth Christ to be incarnate, who now is in heaven, now is incarnate, and
sitting at the right hand of God, in whom dwells the Godhead; here, here is God
to be found." Psalm LXVIII, David Dickson
"God so loved the world, that he gave his Son; and Christ
so loved the world, that he gave his Spirit." Psalm LXVIII, Isaac Ambrose
"The believer is a riddle, an enigma puzzling the
unspiritual; he is a monster warring with those delights of the flesh, which are
the all in all of other men; he is a prodigy, unaccountable to the judgments of
ungodly men; a wonder gazed at, feared, and, by and by, contemptuously derided.
Few understand us, many are surprised at us." Psalm LXXI
"In a spiritual sense, peace is given to the heart by the
righteousness of Christ; and all the powers and passions of the soul are filled
with a holy calm, when the way of salvation, by a divine righteousness, is
revealed." Psalm LXXII
"Philosophic preaching mocks men as with a dust shower, but
the gospel meets the case of fallen humanity, and happiness flourishes beneath
its genial power." Psalm LXXII
"This free-will offering is all Christ and his church
desire; they want no forced levies and distraints, let all men give of their own
free will, kings as well as commoners; alas! the rule has been for kings to give
their subjects' property to the church, and a wretched church has received this
robbery for a burnt offering; it shall not be thus when Jesus more openly
assumes the throne." Psalm LXXII
"It is, and ever will be, the acme of our desires and the
climax of our prayers, to behold Jesus exalted King of kings and Lord of Lords."
Psalm LXXII
"All things considered, Dives had more cause to envy
Lazarus than Lazarus to be envious of Dives... If earthly good were of much
value, the Lord would not give so large a measure of it to those who have least
of his love." Psalm LXXIII
"God's people are driven to fly to his throne for shelter;
the doggish tongues fetch home the sheep to the Shepherd. The saints come again,
and again, to their Lord, laden with complaints on account of the persecutions
which they endure from these proud and graceless men. Though beloved of God,
they have to drain the bitter cup; their sorrows are as full as the wicked man's
prosperity. It grieves them greatly to see the enemies of God so high, and
themselves so low, yet the Lord does not alter his dispensations, but continues
still to chasten his children, and indulge his foes. The medicine cup is not for
rebels, but for those whom Jehovah Rophi loves." Psalm LXXIII
"To grieve the children of God by appearing to act
perfidiously and betray the truth, is a sin so heinous, that if the consciences
of heresy-mongers were not seared as with a hot iron, they would not be so glib
as they are to publish abroad their novelties." Psalm LXXIII
"The Psalmist's sorrow had culminated, not in the fact that
the ungodly prospered, but that God had arranged it so... Here, to meet the
case, he sees that the divine hand purposely placed these men in prosperous and
eminent circumstances, not with the intent to bless them but the very reverse...
They were but elevated by judicial arrangement for the fuller execution of their
doom. Eternal punishment will be all the more terrible in contrast with the
former prosperity of those who are ripening for it. Taken as a whole, the case
of the ungodly is horrible throughout; and their worldly joy instead of
diminishing the horror, actually renders the effect the more awful." Psalm
LXXIII
"The wisest of men have enough folly in them to ruin them
unless grace prevents." Psalm LXXIII
"Sin may distress us, and yet we may be in communion with
God. It is sin beloved and delighted in which separates us from the Lord, but
when we bewail it heartily, the Lord will not withdraw from us." Psalm LXXIII
"The end of our own wisdom is the beginning of our being
wise." Psalm LXXIII
"There is nothing desirable save God; let us, then, desire
only him. All other things must pass away; let our hearts abide in him, who
alone abideth for ever." Psalm LXXIII
"If we pretend to be the Lord's servants, we must remember
that he is a jealous God, and requires spiritual chastity from all his people."
Psalm LXXIII
"The greater our nearness to God, the less we are affected
by the attractions and distractions of earth. Access into the most holy place is
a great privilege, and a cure for a multitude of ills." Psalm LXXIII
"Faith is wisdom; it is the key of enigmas, the clue of
mazes, and the pole star of pathless seas. Trust and you will know." Psalm
LXXIII
"Men may not disbelieve a Godhead; nay, they may believe
there is a God, and yet question the truth of his threatenings. Those conceits
that men have of God, whereby they mould and frame him in their fancies,
suitable to their humours, which is a thinking that he is such a one as
ourselves (Psa_1:1-6.), are streams and vapours from this pit, and the “hearts
of the sons of men are desperately set within them to do evil” upon these
grounds; much more when they arise so high as in some who say: “How doth God
know? and is there knowledge in the most High?” If men give way to this, what
reason can be imagined to stand before them? All the comminations of Scripture
are derided as so many theological scarecrows, and undervalued as so many
pitiful contrivances to keep men in awe." Psalm LXXIII, Richard Gilpin
"The Lord knows our frame, and sees what is usually needful
for every temper; and when he afflicts most frequently, he does no more than he
sees requisite." Psalm LXXIII, David Clarkson
"If a man be watchful over his own ways, and the dealings
of God with him, there is seldom a day but he may find some rod of affliction
upon him; but, as through want of care and watchfulness, we lose the sight of
many mercies, so we do of many afflictions. Though God doth not every day bring
a man to his bed, and break his bones, yet we seldom, if at all, pass a day
without some rebuke and chastening. “I have been chastened every morning,” saith
the Psalmist ... As sure, or as soon, as I rise I have a whipping, and my
breakfast is bread of sorrow and the water of adversity. Our lives are full of
afflictions; and it is as great a part of a Christian's skill to know
afflictions as to know mercies; to know when God smites, as to know when he
girds us; and it is our sin to overlook afflictions as well as to overlook
mercies." Psalm LXXIII, Joseph Caryl
"The way to heaven is an afflicted way, a perplexed,
persecuted way, crushed close together with crosses, as was the Israelites' way
in the wilderness... sic potitur cselum, so heaven is caught by pains, by
patience, by violence, affliction being our inseparable companion... They that
will to heaven, must sail by hell-gates; they that will have knighthood, must
kneel for it; and they that will get in at the strait gate, must crowd for it...
Heaven is compared to a hill; hell to a hole. To hell a man may go without a
staff, as we say; the way thereto is easy, steep, strawed with roses; 'tis but a
yielding to Satan, a passing from sin to sin, from evil purposes to evil
practices, from practice to custom, etc. Sed revocare gradum, but to turn short
again, and make straight steps to our feet, that we may force through the strait
gate, hic labor, hoc opus est, opus non pulvinaris sed pulveris; this is a work
of great pains, a duty of no small difficulty." Psalm LXXIII, John Trapp
"Notwithstanding all afflictions, it is certain that thou
art a Father to the Church only; which is sufficient to make me judge well of
these afflictions; I have done ill, and confess I have erred in this my rash
judgment." Psalm LXXIII, John Diodati
"As if David had said, This was a painful thing in my
sight, until I came to acknowledge in good earnest that men are not created to
flourish for a short time in this world, and to luxuriate in pleasures while in
it, but that there condition here is that of pilgrims, whose aspirations, during
their earthly pilgrimage, should be towards heaven... Until God become my
schoolmaster, and until I learn by his word what otherwise my mind, when I come
to consider the government of the world, cannot comprehend, I stop short all at
once, and understand nothing about the subject. When, therefore, we are here
told that men are unfit for contemplating the arrangements of divine providence,
until they obtain wisdom elsewhere than from themselves, how can we attain to
wisdom but by submissively receiving what God teaches us, both by his word and
by his Holy Spirit?" Psalm LXXIII, John Calvin
"Among the many arguments to prove the penman of the
Scripture inspired by the Spirit of God, this is not the last and least--that
the penmen of holy writ do record their own faults and the faults of their
dearest and nearest relatives... This is not usual in the writings of human
authors, who praise themselves to the utmost of what they could, and rather than
lose a drop of applause they will lick it up with their own tongues. Tully
writes very copiously in setting forth the good service which he did the Roman
state, but not a word of his covetousness, of his affecting popular applause, of
his pride and vain glory, of his mean extraction and the like. Whereas, clean
contrary, Moses sets down the sin and punishment of his own sister, the idolatry
and superstition of Aaron his brother, and his own fault in his preposterous
striking the rock, for which he was excluded the land of Canaan." Psalm LXXIII,
Thomas Fuller
"It pleased David, and it pleases all the saints, more that
God is their salvation, whether temporal or eternal, than that he saves them.
The saints look more at God than at all that is God's... What have we in heaven
but God? What's joy without God? What's glory without God? What's all the
furniture and riches, all the delicacies, yea, all the diadems of heaven,
without the God of heaven?... Heaven is not heaven unless we enjoy God. It is
the presence of God which makes heaven: glory is but our nearest being unto
God... So if God should say to the saints, Take heaven amongst you, and withdraw
himself, they would even say, Nay, let the world take heaven, if they will, if
we may not have thee in heaven, heaven will but be an earth, or rather but a
hell to us. That which saints rejoice in, is that they may be in the presence of
God, that they may sit at his table, and eat bread with him; that is, that they
may be near him continually, which was Mephibosheth's privilege with David.
That's the thing which they desire and which their souls thirst after; that's
the wine they would drink." Psalm LXXIII, Joseph Caryl
"Observe, that Christians' experiences of God's all
sufficiency are then fullest and highest when created comforts fail them." Psalm
LXXIII, Samuel Blackerby
"It is more than good for us to draw nigh to God at all
times, it is best for us to do so, and it is at our utmost peril not to do so...
He is the best friend at all times, and the only friend at sometimes." Psalm
LXXIII, Joseph Caryl
"A man should make his peace with God, in and through the
Mediator Jesus Christ; for, until once that be done, a man must be said to be
far from God, and there is a partition wall standing betwixt God and him... Be
friends with God and all shall be well with you." Psalm LXXIII, William Guthrie
"In a word, to draw near unto God, is to make our peace
with him, and to secure and confirm that peace with him, and to study a
conformity unto him, and to be near unto him in our walk and conversation; in
our fellowship, and whole carriage, and deportment, to be always near unto him."
Psalm LXXIII, William Guthrie
"The woes of Calvary, and the covenant of which they are
the seal, are the security of the saints." Psalm LXXIV
"Papists, Arians, and the modern school of Neologians,
have, in their day, set up their ensigns for signs. Superstition, unbelief, and
carnal wisdom have endeavoured to usurp the place of Christ crucified, to the
grief of the church of God. The enemies without do us small damage, but those
within the church cause her serious harm; by supplanting the truth and placing
error in its stead, they deceive the people, and lead multitudes to
destruction." Psalm LXXIV
"In these days men are using axes and sledgehammers against
the gospel and the church. Glorious truths, far more exquisite than the
goodliest carving, are cavilled over and smashed by the blows of modern
criticism. Truths which have upheld the afflicted and cheered the dying are
smitten by pretentious Goths, who would be accounted learned, but know not the
first principals of the truth. With sharp ridicule, and heavy blows of
sophistry, they break the faith of some: and would, if it were possible, destroy
the confidence of the elect themselves. Assyrians, Babylonians, and Romans are
but types of spiritual foes who labour to crush the truth and the people of
God." Psalm LXXIV
"Pharaoh's policy to stamp out the nation has been a
precedent for others, yet the Jews survive, and will: the bush though burning
has not been consumed." Psalm LXXIV
"It is ill with the people of God when the voice of the
preacher of the gospel fails, and a famine of the word of life falls on the
people. God sent ministers are as needful to the saints as their daily bread,
and it is a great sorrow when a congregation is destitute of a faithful pastor.
It is to be feared, that with all the ministers now existing, there is yet a
dearth of men whose hearts and tongues are touched with the celestial fire."
Psalm LXXIV
"It will be well when all our "ologies" are tinctured with
"theology, "and the Creator is seen at work amid his universe." Psalm LXXIV
"The God of nature is the God of grace; and we may argue
from the revolving seasons that sorrow is not meant to rule the year, the
flowers of hope will blossom, and ruddy fruits of joy will ripen yet." Psalm
LXXIV
"Should the sinner live for ever, he would sin for ever;
and, therefore, it is a righteous thing with God to punish him for ever in
hellish torments. Every impenitent sinner would sin to the days of eternity, if
he might live to the days of eternity." Psalm LXXIV, Thomas Brooks
"There is a God, and a providence, and things happen not by
chance. Though deliverance be hopeless from all points of the compass, yet God
can work it for his people; and though judgment come neither from the rising or
the setting of the sun, nor from the wilderness of mountains, yet come it will,
for the Lord reigneth. Men forget that all things are ordained in heaven; they
see but the human force, and the carnal passion, but the unseen Lord is more
real far than these. He is at work behind and within the cloud." Psalm LXXV
"Oh happy they who drink the cup of godly sorrow, and the
cup of salvation: these, though now despised, will then be envied by the very
men who trod them under foot." Psalm LXXV
"What are the honours of war but the brags of murder? What
the fame of conquerors but the reek of manslaughter?" Psalm LXXVI
"God is to be feared profoundly, continually, and alone."
Psalm LXXVI
"The devil blows the fire and melts the iron, and then the
Lord fashions it for his own purposes. Let men and devils rage as they may, they
cannot do otherwise than subserve the divine purposes." Psalm LXXVI
"Words are but the body, the garment, the outside of
prayer; sighs are nearer the heart work. A dumb beggar getteth an alms at
Christ's gates, even by making signs, when his tongue cannot plead for him; and
the rather, because he is dumb. Objection. I have not so much as a voice to
utter to God; and Christ saith, "Cause me to hear thy voice" (Song of Solomon
2:14). Answer. Yea, but some other thing hath a voice beside the tongue: "The
Lord has heard the voice of my weeping" (Psalm 6:8). Tears have a tongue, and
grammar, and language, that our Father knoweth. Babes have no prayer for the
breast, but weeping: the mother can read hunger in weeping." Psalm LXXVII,
Samuel Rutherford
"The psalmist does not mean to draw a distinction between
the works and the wonders of God; but, rather, to state that all God's works are
wonders... All, whether in providence or grace--all God's works are wonderful.
If we take the individual experience of the Christian, of what is that
experience made up? Of wonders. The work of his conversion, wonderful!
--arrested in a course of thoughtlessness and impiety; graciously sought and
gently compelled to be at peace with God, whose wrath he had provoked. The
communication of knowledge, wonderful! --Deity and eternity gradually piled up;
the Bible taken page by page, and each page made a volume which no searching can
exhaust. The assistance in warfare, wonderful! --himself a child of corruption,
yet enabled to grapple with the world, the flesh, and the devil, and often to
trample them under foot. The solaces in affliction, wonderful!--sorrow
sanctified so as to minister to joy, and a harvest of gladness reaped from a
field which has been watered with tears. The foretastes of heaven, wonderful!
--angels bringing down the clusters of the land, and the spirit walking with
lightsome tread the crystal river and the streets of gold. All wonderful!
Wonderful that the Spirit should strive with man; wonderful that God should bear
with his backslidings; wonderful that God should love him notwithstanding his
pollution; wonderful that God should persist in saving him, in spite, as it
were, of himself. Oh! those amongst you who know anything, experimentally, of
salvation through Christ, well know that the work is wonderful in its
commencement, wonderful in its continuance, and they will need no argument to
vindicate the transition from works to wonders. It will be the transition of
your own thoughts and your own feelings, and you will never give in the record
of God's dealings with yourselves without passing, as the psalmist passed, from
mentioning to ascription. Ye may set yourselves to commemorate God's works, ye
will find yourselves extolling God's wonders. Ye may begin with saying, I will
remember the works of the Lord; but ye will conclude by exclaiming, Surely I
will remember thy wonders of old." Psalm LXXVII, Henry Melvill
"From this verse the afflicted may learn many consolations.
First, that the best people that be are no better able to resist temptation,
than the simple sheep is able to withstand the brier that catcheth him. The
next, that man is of no more ability to beware of temptations, than the poor
sheep is to avoid the brier, being preserved only by the diligence of the
shepherd. The third, that as the shepherd is careful of his entangled and briard
sheep, so is God of his afflicted faithful. And the fourth is, that the people
of Israel could take no harm of the water, because they entered the sea at God's
commandment." Psalm LXXVII, John Hooper
"We are at this day, as readers of the sacred records,
bound to study them deeply, exploring their meaning, and labouring to practice
their teaching." Psalm LXXVIII
"The more of parental teaching the better; ministers andS
abbath school teachers were never meant to be substitutes for mother's tears and
father's prayers." Psalm LXXVIII
"The best education is education in the best things. The
first lesson for a child should be concerning his mother's God. Teach him what
you will, if he learn not the fear of the Lord, he will perish for lack of
knowledge. Grammar is poor food for the soul if it be not flavoured with grace.
Every satchel should have a Bible in it." Psalm LXXVIII
"The narratives, commands, and doctrines of the word of God
are not worn out; they are calculated to exert an influence as long as our race
shall exist." Psalm LXXVIII
"We must never dare to judge men's happiness by their
tables, the heart is the place to look at. The poorest starveling believer is
more to be envied than the most full fleshed of the favourites of the world.
Better be God's dog than the devil's darling." Psalm LXXVIII
"Apart from faith life is vanity." Psalm LXXVIII
"To chalk out a path for God is arrogant impiety. The Holy
One must do right, the covenant God of Israel must be true, it is profanity
itself to say unto him thou shalt do this or that, or otherwise I will not
worship thee. Not thus is the Eternal God to be led by a string by his impotent
creature. He is the Lord and he will do as seemeth him good." Psalm LXXVIII
"Sin perverts man's powers, makes them forceful only in
wrong directions, and practically dead for righteous ends." Psalm LXXVIII
"Disciples in youth will prove angels in age." Psalm
LXXVIII - George Swinnock
"Oh, do not fail, therefore, to acquaint thy children with
the nature of God, the natures and offices of Christ, their own natural
sinfulness and misery, the way and means of their recovery, the end and errand
for which they were sent into the world, the necessity of regeneration and a
holy life, if ever they would escape eternal death!" Psalm LXXVIII - George
Swinnock
"The apostate drops as a windfall into the devil's mouth."
Psalm LXXVIII - Thomas Watson
"It is a heathenish delusion and false confidence to
suppose that God is bound to any place or spot, as the Trojans thought because
they had the temple of Pallas in their city it could not be taken, and in the
present day the manner of the Papists is to bind Christ to Rome and the chair of
Peter, and then defiantly maintain "I shall never be moved" Psalm 10:6." Psalm
LXXVIII - Johann Andreas Cramer
"Sometimes providence appears to deal much more severely
with the righteous than with the wicked." Psalm LXXIX
"Faith grows while it prays." Psalm LXXIX
"God is free to choose what suits his own heart best, and
most conduceth to the exalting of his great name: and he delights more in
the mercy shown to one than in the blood of all the damned, that are made a
sacrifice to his justice." Psalm LXXIX - William Gurnall
"Such as have laid hold on God for salvation promised in
the covenant may also look for particular deliveries out of particular troubles,
as appendices of the main benefit of salvation." Psalm LXXIX - David Dickson
"The best turn is not that of circumstances but of
character." Psalm LXXX
"Conversion is as divine a work as creation." Psalm LXXX
"The more we approach the Lord in prayer and contemplation
the higher will our ideas of him become." Psalm LXXX
"With God no enemy can harm us, without him none are so
weak as to be unable to do us danger." Psalm LXXX
"Him and then the sinner see, Look through Jesus' wounds on
me." Psalm LXXX
"No extremity is too great for the power of God. He is able
to save at the last point, and that too by simply turning his smiling face upon
his afflicted." Psalm LXXX
"Unless we realise the presence of God we have done
nothing; the mere gathering together is nothing worth." Psalm LXXXIV
"To feel his love, to rejoice in the person of the anointed
Saviour, to survey the promises and feel the power of the Holy Ghost in applying
precious truth to the soul, is a joy which worldlings cannot understand, but
which true believers are ravished with. Even a glimpse at the love of God is
better than ages spent in the pleasures of sense." Psalm LXXXIV
"God has all good, there is no good apart from him, and
there is no good which he either needs to keep back or will on any account
refuse us, if we are but ready to receive it. We must be upright and neither
lean to this or that form of evil: and this uprightness must be practical, —we
must walk in truth and holiness, then shall we be heirs of all things, and as we
come of age all things shall be in our actual possession; and meanwhile,
according to our capacity for receiving shall be the measure of the divine
bestowal. This is true, not of a favoured few, but of all the saints for
evermore." Psalm LXXXIV
"Probably the greatest practical heresy of each age is a
low idea of our undone condition under the guilt and dominion of sin. While this
prevails we shall be slow to cry for reviving or quickening. What sinners and
churches need is a quickening by the Holy Ghost." Psalm LXXXV - William S.
Plumer
"Our God is not to be worshipped as one among many good and
true beings, but as God alone; and his gospel is not to be preached as one of
several systems, but as the one sole way of salvation." Psalm LXXXVI
"Not my way give me, but thy way teache me. I would follow
thee and not be wilfull." Psalm LXXXVI
"The true servant of God regulates his walk by his master's
will, and hence he never walks deceitfully, for God's way is ever truth.
Providence has a way for us, and it is our wisdom to keep in it." Psalm LXXXVI
"The mercy of God is a ready mercy, and his pardons are
ready for his people; his pardons and mercies are not to seek, he hath them at
hand, he is good and ready to forgive. Whereas most men, though they will
forgive, yet they are not ready to forgive, they are hardly brought to it,
though they do it at last. But God is "ready to forgive"; he hath, as it were,
pardons ready drawn (as a man who would be ready to do a business, he will have
such writings as concern the passing of it ready); there is nothing to do but to
put in the date and the name; yea indeed, the date and the name are put in from
all eternity. Thus the Scripture speaks to show how forward God is to do good;
he needs not set his heart to it; his heart is ever in the exactest fitness."
Psalm LXXXVI - Joseph Caryl
"The people of the world do not care for enlightenment;
they feel no pressing need for it; in all probability they have an instinctive
feeling that if enlightened they would know a little more than they wish to
know, that their newly acquired knowledge would interfere with their old habits
and ways, and this is one reason why all spiritual teaching which goes beneath
the surface is distasteful to the majority of men. They cannot bear to be
brought into contact with God, in anything but a general way; the particulars of
his character may not agree over well with the particulars of their lives! It is
the fashion in the present day to talk of man's enlightenment, and to represent
human nature as upheaving under its load, as straining towards a knowledge of
truth; such is not in reality the case, and whenever there is an effort in the
mind untaught of the Spirit, it is directed towards God as the great moral and
not as the great spiritual Being. A man untaught of the Holy Ghost may long to
know a moral, he can never desire to know a spiritual Being."
Psalm LXXXVI - John Hyatt
"Do what the Word commands. Obedience is an excellent way
of commenting upon the Bible." Psalm
LXXXVI - Thomas Watson
"Jehovah's census of his chosen will differ much from ours;
he will count many whom we should have disowned, and he will leave out many whom
we should have reckoned. His registration is infallible."
Psalm LXXXVII
"When events shall be traced to their principles at the
last day, many a scene will come forth into prominence, which now is of little
regard. Humble churches will then prove to have been the birthplace, and stately
palaces the graves of many an immortal soul, while every saved soul will ascribe
its springs of glory to its Redeemer, through the instrumentality of that
church, which he has ordained."
Psalm LXXXVII - Edward Garrard Marsh
"Evil is transformed to good when it drives us to prayer."
Psalm LXXXVIII
"By the Lord's righteous dealings the saints are uplifted
in due time, however great may have been the oppression and the depression from
which they may have suffered." Psalm
LXXXIX
"Worldly men need outward prosperity to make them lift up
their heads, but the saints find more than enough encouragement in the secret
love of God." Psalm LXXXIX
"Who among the saints will not rejoice in the God of
election?" Psalm LXXXIX
"The great lack of the church at this time is power."
Psalm LXXXIX
"God had one Son without sin, but he never had a son who
lived without prayer." Psalm LXXXIX
"If we think that God has made men in vain, because the
most of men neither serve him nor enjoy him, it is true, that as to themselves,
they were made in vain, better for them they had not been born, than not be
"born again"; but it was not owing to God, that they were made in vain, it was
owing to themselves; nor are they made in vain as to him; for he has "made all
things for himself, even the wicked for the day of evil", and those whom he is
not glorified by he will be glorified upon."
Psalm LXXXIX - Matthew Henry
"What an unworthy thing will it be to offer the prime of
our time to the world, the flesh, and the devil, and the dregs of it to God."
Psalm XC - Thomas Washbourne
"The difficulty in religion is the taking up the cross
daily, rather than taking it up on some set occasion, and under extraordinary
circumstances." Psalm XCI, Henry Melvill
"Instead of being humbled in the presence of scientific
infidels, we ought to pity them; they affect to look down upon us, but we have
far more cause to look down upon them." Psalm XCIV
"The afflicted believer is under tuition, he is in training
for something higher and better, and all that he meets with is working out his
highest good, therefore is he a blessed man, however much his outward
circumstances may argue the reverse." Psalm XCIV
"Wicked men may not yet be ripe for punishment, nor
punishment ready for them; hell is a prepared place for a prepared people; as
days of grace ripen saints for glory, so days of wantonness help sinners to rot
into the corruption of eternal destruction." Psalm XCIV
"There is as much difference between heavenly comforts and
earthly, as between a banquet that is eaten and one that is painted on the
wall." Psalm XCIV, Thomas Watson
"Pentecost deserves a new song as well as the Passion and
the Resurrection; let our hearts exult as we remember it." Psalm XCVIII
"We may lawfully ask for recovery from sickness and may
hope to be heard. Good men should not dread death, but they are not forbidden to
love life: for many reasons the man who has the best hope of heaven may
nevertheless think it desirable to continue here a little longer, for the sake
of his family, his work, the church of God, and even the glory of God itself."
Psalm CII
"The covenant is not legal, but it is holy. It is all of
grace from first to last, yet it is no panderer to sin; on the contrary, one of
its greatest promises is 'I will put my laws in their hearts and in their minds
will I write them'; its general aim is the sanctifying of a people unto God,
zealous for good works, and all its gifts and operations work in that direction.
Faith keeps the covenant by looking alone to Jesus, while at the same time by
earnest obedience it remembers the Lord's commandments to do them." Psalm CIII
"Goodness is God expressed." Psalm CIII, Frederick
Whitfield
"Meditation is the soul of religion. It is the tree of life
in the midst of the garden of piety, and very refreshing is its fruit to the
soul which feeds thereon." Psalm CIV
"How chill and withering is the breath of that noxious
philosophy, that would detach our minds from viewing God in his works of
Providence! The Christian who lives in this atmosphere, or on the borders of it,
will be unhealthy and unfruitful in true works of righteousness. The malaria
destroys all spiritual life." Psalm CIV, Alexander Carson
"A Christian needs to study nothing but Christ, there is
enough in Christ to take up his study and contemplation all his days; and the
more we study Christ, the more we may study him; there will be new wonders still
appearing in him." Psalm CIV, John
Row
"God manifest in the flesh is a theme which angels rejoice
to contemplate." Psalm CIV, Samuel Lovington
"Prayer may be answered in anger and denied in love. That
God gives a man his desire is no proof that he is the object of divine favour,
everything depends upon what that desire is." Psalm CVI, Samuel Lovington
"Woe unto those who become partakers of Rome's idolatries,
for they will be joined with her in her plagues. May grace be given to us to
keep the separated path, and remain undefiled with the fornication of the
scarlet harlot of Babylon." Psalm CVI, Samuel Lovington
"Whenever God so blesses his own people that his goodness
is perceived by carnal sense, in bestowing riches, honours, peace, health and
things of that kind, then it is easy to acknowledge that God is good, and that
acknowledgment can be made by the most carnal men. The case stands otherwise
when he visits offenders with the rod of correction and scourges them with the
grace of chastisement. Then the flesh hardly bears to confess what by its own
sense it does not perceive. It fails to discern the goodness of God unto
salvation in the severity of the rod and the scourging, and therefore refuses to
acknowledge that goodness in strokes and sufferings. The prophet, however,
throughout this Psalm celebrates in many instances the way wherein the sinning
people were arrested and smitten. And when he proposed that this Psalm should be
sung in the church of God, Israel was under the cross and afflictions. Yet he
demands that Israel should acknowledge that the Lord is good, that his mercy
endureth for ever, even in the act of smiting the offender. That therefore alone
is a true and full confession of the divine goodness which is made not only in
prosperity but also in adversity." Psalm CVI, Musculus
""Improve his name in every case; for he hath a name
suiting every want, every need. Do you need wonders to be wrought for you? His
name is Wonderful; look to him so to do, for his name's sake. Do you need
counsel and direction? His name is the Counsellor: cast yourself on him and his
name for this. Have you mighty enemies to debate with? His name is the Mighty
God; seek that he may exert his power for his name's sake. Do you need his
fatherly pity? His name is the everlasting Father; "As a Father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." Plead his pity, for his
name's sake. Do you need peace external, internal, or eternal? His name is the
Prince of Peace; seek for his name's sake, that he may create peace. O sirs, his
name is JEHOVAH ROPHI, the Lord, the healer and physician; seek, for his name's
sake, that he may heal all your diseases. Do you need pardon? His name is
JEHOVAH TSlDKENU, the Lord our righteousness: seek, for his name's sake, that he
may be merciful to your unrighteousness. Do you need defence and protection? His
name is JEHOVAH NISSI, the Lord your banner; seek, for his name's sake, that his
banner of love and grace may be spread over you. Do you need provision in
extreme want? His name is JEHOVAH JIREH, in the mount of the Lord it shall be
seen, the Lord will provide. Do you need his presence? His name is JEHOVAH
SHAMMAH, the Lord is there: IMMANUEL, God with us: look to him to be with you,
for his name's sake. Do you need audience of prayer? His name is the Hearer of
prayer. Do you need strength? His name is the Strength of Israel. Do you need
comfort? His name is the Consolation of Israel. Do you need shelter? His name is
the City of Refuge. Have you nothing and need all His name is All in all. Sit
down and devise names to your wants and needs, and you will find he hath a name
suitable thereunto; for your supply, he hath wisdom to guide you; and power to
keep you; mercy to pity you; truth to shield you; holiness to sanctify you;
righteousness to justify you; grace to adorn you; and glory to crown you. Trust
in his name, who saves for his name's sake." Psalm CVI, Ralph Erskine
"That we may be preserved from provoking God, let us ever
retain this principle, That it is our duty to let him provide for us such things
as he knows will be for our advantage. And verily, faith divesting us of our own
wisdom, enables us hopefully and quietly to wait until God accomplishes his own
work; whereas, on the contrary, our carnal desire always goes before the counsel
of God, by its too great haste." Psalm CVI, John Calvin
"Not to wait for his counsel to direct us what to do, and
not to wait for his doing or fulfilling his own counsel, argues at once a proud
and an impatient spirit; in the one, men so even slight the wisdom of God, and
in the other vainly presume and attempt to prevent his providence." Psalm CVI,
Joseph Caryl
"There are many careless observers of providence, who
indeed see events rather than providences; they see much that comes to pass in
the world, but consider nothing of God in them." Psalm CVII, John Collinges
"We think too much of God's foes and talk of them with too
much respect. Who is this Pope of Rome? His Holiness? Call him not so, but call
him His Blasphemy! His Profanity! His Impudence! What are he and his cardinals,
and his legates, but the image and incarnation of Antichrist, to be in due time
cast with the beast and the false prophet into the lake of fire?" Psalm CVII
"The Messiah says in this prophetic psalm, "I am prayer."
During his pilgrimage on earth, his whole life was communion with God; and now
in his glory, he is constantly making intercession for us. But this does not
exhaust the idea, "I am prayer." He not merely prayed and is now praying, he not
merely teaches and influences us to pray, but he is prayer, the fountain and
source of all prayer, as well as the foundation and basis of all answers to our
petitions. He is the Word in this sense also. From all eternity his Father heard
him, heard him as interceding for that world which, created through him, he
represented, and in which, through him, divine glory was to be revealed. In the
same sense, therefore, in which he is light and gives light, in which he is life
and resurrection, and therefore quickens, Jesus is prayer." Psalm CIX, Adolph
Saphir
"The hidden wisdom of God is the most marvellous part of
his works, and hence those who do not look below the surface miss the best part
of what he would teach us." Psalm CXI
"Your studies of physics
and other sciences are not worth a rush, if it be not God by them that
you seek after. To see and admire, to reverence and adore, to love and delight
in God appearing to us in his works, and purposely to peruse them for the
knowledge of God; this the true and only philosophy, and the contrary is mere
foolery, and so called again and again by God." Psalm CXI, Richard Baxter
"Philosophy seeks truth, Theology finds it, but Religion
possesses it. Human things must be known to be loved, but divine things must be
loved to be known." Psalm CXI, Blaise Pascal
"He only is wise, who can call Christ the wisdom of God."
Psalm CXI, George Bowen
"We have known hypocrites rejoice in the doctrines, but
never in the commandments." Psalm CXII
"To fear God and to walk uprightly is a higher nobility
than blood or birth can bestow." Psalm CXII
"When God makes a man upright, he makes him like himself."
Psalm CXII
"None of us likes the idea of being forgotten, and yet the
only way to avoid it is to be righteous before God." Psalm CXII
"The sight of Christ in glory with his saints, will, in an
inexpressible manner, torment the crucifiers of the one, and the persecutors of
the other; as it will show them the hopes and wishes of their adversaries all
granted to the full, and all their own desires and designs for ever at an end;
it will excite envy which must prey upon itself, produce a grief which can admit
of no comfort, give birth to a worm which can never die, and blow up those fires
which nothing can quench." Psalm CXII, George Horne
"The proper intent of mercies is to draw us to God. When
the heart is full of a sense of the goodness of the Lord, the tongue cannot hold
its peace. Self love may lead us to prayers, but love to God excites us to
praises: therefore to seek and not to praise, is to be lovers of ourselves
rather than of God." Psalm CXVI, Thomas Manton
"When God sends out troubles and afflictions as officers to
attack any man, they will find him, and finding him, they will take hold of him.
The days of affliction will take hold; there's no striving, no struggling with
them, no getting out of their hands. These divine pursuivants will neither be
persuaded nor bribed to let you go, till God speak the word, till God say,
Deliver him, release him." Psalm CXVI, Joseph Caryl
"Those usually have most of heaven upon earth, that
formerly have met with most of hell upon earth." Psalm CXVI, Matthew Lawrence
"Our Lord Jesus does at this moment look down upon his
adversaries, his enemies are his footstool; he shall look upon them at his
second coming, and at the glance of his eyes they shall flee before him, not
being able to endure that look with which he shall read them through and
through." Psalm CXVIII
"The Lord frequently appears to save his heaviest blows for
his best beloved ones; if any one affliction be more painful than another it
falls to, the lot of those whom he most distinguishes in his service. The
gardener prunes his best roses with most care. Chastisement is sent to keep
successful saints humble, to make them tender towards others, and to enable them
to bear the high honours which their heavenly Friend puts upon them." Psalm
CXVIII
"We should remember that whatever is worth praying for, is
worth praising for... Trace, then, dear reader, a connection between your God
and your blessing. Recognize his hearing ear as well as his bounteous hand."
Psalm CXVIII, Philip Bennet Power
"The law was written upon the heart, but the gospel is a
stranger. Natural light will discern something of the law, and pry into matters
which are of a moral strain and concernment; but evangelical truths are a
mystery, and depend upon the mere
testimony of God concerning his Son." Psalm CXIX, Thomas Manton
"We might as soon create a world as create m our hearts one
pulse of spiritual life. And yet our inability does not cancel our obligation.
It is the weakness of a heart that "cannot be subject to the law of God, "for no
other reason than because it is "carnal, "and therefore "enmity against God."
Our inability is our sin, our guilt, our condemnation, and instead of excusing
our condition, stops our mouth, and leaves us destitute of any plea of defence
before God. Thus our obligation remains in full force. We are bound to obey the
commands of God, whether we can or not. What, then, remains for us, but to
return the mandate to heaven, accompanied with an earnest prayer, that the Lord
would write upon our hearts those statutes to which he requires obedience in his
word? Thou hast commanded us to keep thy statutes diligently. We acknowledge,
Lord, our obligation, but we feel our impotency. Lord, help us; we look unto
thee. O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes." Psalm CXIX, Charles
Bridges
"There can be no true piety except where a man intends to
keep ALL the commands of God. If he makes a selection among them, keeping this
one or that one, as may be most convenient for him, or as may be most for his
interest, or as may be most popular, it is full proof that he knows nothing of
the nature of true religion. A child has no proper respect for a parent if he
obeys him only as shall suit his whim or his convenience; and no man can be a
pious man who does not purpose, in all honesty, to keep ALL, the commandments of
God; to submit to his will in everything." Psalm CXIX, Albert Barnes
"A partial obedience will never satisfy a child of God. The
exclusion of any commandment from its supreme regard in the heart is the brand
of hypocrisy. Even Herod could "do many things, "and yet one evil way cherished,
and therefore unforsaken, was sufficient to show the sovereign power of sin
undisturbed within. Saul slew all the Amalekites but one; and that single
exception in the path of universal obedience marked the unsoundness of his
profession, cost him the loss of his throne, and brought him under the awful
displeasure of his God. And thus the foot, or the hand, or the right eye, the
corrupt unmortified members, bring the whole body to hell. Reserves are the
canker of Christian sincerity." Psalm CXIX, Charles Bridges
"Be but so faithful as to do thy best, and God is so
gracious that he will pardon thy worst." Psalm CXIX, William Gurnall
"There is no way to please God entirely and sincerely until
we have learned both to know and do his will. Practical praise is the praise God
looks after." Psalm CXIX, Thomas Manton
"True godliness lies very much in desires. As we are not
what we shall be, so also we are not what we would be. The desires of gracious
men after holiness are intense, — they cause a wear of heart, a straining of the
mind, till it feels ready to snap with the heavenly pull. A high value of the
Lord's commandment leads to a pressing desire to know and to do it, and this so
weighs upon the soul that it is ready to break in pieces under the crush of its
own longings. What a blessing it is when all our desires are after the things of
God. We may well long for such longings." Psalm CXIX
"It is of great importance for us to be persuaded of this
truth, that there are many things in the Bible still to be found out, and that,
if we come in the right spirit, we may be made discoverers of some of them.
These things disclose themselves, not so much to learning, though that is not to
be despised, as to spiritual sight, to a humble, loving heart." Psalm CXIX, John
Kerr
"The great reason why men do not feel the power and beauty
of the Bible is a spiritual one. They do not realize the grand evil which the
Bible has come to cure, and they have not a heart to the blessings which it
offers to bestow." Psalm CXIX, John Kerr
"Men do not drop into the right way by chance; they must
choose it, and continue to choose it, or they will soon wander from it. Those
whom God has chosen in due time choose his way." Psalm CXIX
"The godly, like candles, light each other." Psalm CXIX,
Paul Bayne
"Wherever God pardons sin, he subdues it. Then is the
condemning power of sin taken away, when the commanding power of it is taken
away." Psalm CXIX, Thomas Watson
"None can lay claim to rewarding grace but those who are
partakers of sanctifying grace." Psalm CXIX, Thomas Manton
"The promises are a Christian's magna charta for heaven.
All comfort must be built upon a Scripture promise, else it is presumption, not
true comfort. The promises are pabulum fidei, et anima fidei, the food of faith,
and the soul of faith. As faith is the life of a Christian, so the promises are
the life of faith: faith is a dead faith if it hath no promise to quicken it. As
the promises are of no use without faith to apply them, so faith is of no use
without a promise to lay hold on." Psalm CXIX, Edward Calamy
"It is bad for sinners to rejoice, and good for saints to
sorrow." Psalm CXIX
"Very little is to be learned without affliction. If we
would be scholars we must be sufferers." Psalm CXIX
"Our prayers are according to the mind of God when they are
according to the word of God." Psalm CXIX
"The truth is, it is God only that can soundly enlighten
our consciences; and therefore let us pray unto him to do it. All our studying,
and hearing, and reading, and conferring will never be able to do it; it is only
in the power of him who made us to do it. He who made our consciences, he only
can give them this heavenly light of true knowledge and right understanding; and
therefore let us seek earnestly to him for it." Psalm CXIX, William Fenner
"Again, we see that the crosses which God lays on his
children, are not to confound, not to consume them: only to prepare them for
greater consolations." Psalm CXIX, William Cowper
"The general promises of mercy and grace made in the gospel
are by faith made particular to every believer." Psalm CXIX, William Cowper
"A child of God, though he cannot serve the Lord perfectly,
yet he serves him willingly; his will is in the law of the Lord; he is not a
pressed soldier, but a volunteer." Psalm CXIX, Thomas Watson
"A humble eye lifted up to heaven in silent prayer may
flash such flame as shall melt the bolts which bar the entrance of vocal prayer,
and so heaven shall be taken by storm with the artillery of tears." Psalm CXIX
"We may not set times to God, for this is to limit the Holy
One of Israel; yet we may urge our suit with importunity, and make fervent
enquiry as to why the promise tarries." Psalm CXIX
"If we stick to the precepts we shall be rescued by the
promises." Psalm CXIX
"The same spirit of faith which teaches a man to cry
earnestly, teaches him to wait patiently; for as it assures him that mercy is in
the Lord's hand, so it assures him, it will come forth in the Lord's time."
Psalm CXIX, John Mason
"Say not my soul, From whence
Can God relieve my care?
Remember that Omnipotence
Has servants everywhere."
Psalm CXIX, Thomas T. Lynch
"With much variety of holy wisdom hath God penned his word,
that it hath convenient comfort for every state of life, and therefore the
children of God account nothing so dear as it; they prefer it to their appointed
food." Psalm CXIX, William Cowper
"The gospel is a sovereign plaster; but it is God's hand
that must apply it, and make it stick; and make it to be peace, comfort, and
quickening to our souls." Psalm CXIX, Thomas Manton
"All sin is a lie. By it we attempt to cheat God. By it we
actually cheat our souls. There is no delusion like the folly of believing that
a course of sin will conduce to our happiness." Psalm CXIX, William S. Plummer
"If we err from the precepts, we part with the promises."
Psalm CXIX
"Sometimes, like Israel at the first coming into Canaan, we
have to take our heritage by hard fighting, and, if so, it is worthy of all our
labour and suffering; but always it has to be taken by a decided choice of the
heart and grip of the will. What God gives we must take." Psalm CXIX
"It is the mark of a true believer that he does not depend
upon others for his religion, but drinks water out of his own well, which
springs up even when the cisterns of earth are all dried." Psalm CXIX
"He who has been with God in the closet will find God with
him in the furnace." Psalm CXIX
"They that tremble at the convictions of the Word may
triumph in the consolations of it." Psalm CXIX, Matthew Henry
"See no riches but in grace, no health but in piety, no
beauty but in holiness, no treasure but in heaven, no delight but ni the things
above." Psalm CXXI, Anthony Farindon
"A man cannot go without moving of his feet; and a man
cannot stand whose feet are moved... The power of thine opposers shall not
prevail over thee, for the power of God sustains thee. Many are striking at thy
heels, but they cannot strike them up while God holds thee up. If the will of
thine enemies might stand, thou shouldest quickly fall; but God "will not suffer
thy foot to be moved." Psalm CXXI, Joseph Caryl