(Revised notes of an address.)
The Lord often allows us to pass through very adverse circumstances to bring us into His own presence, and to enable us to prove the sufficiency of His grace. Having passed through very deep exercise of soul, the Psalmist can say, "I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice, and my supplications." To whom can we turn but to the Lord when all here seems to be against us; and having turned to Him in prayer and supplication, the affections of the heart are stirred up, causing praise and the expression of the soul's confidence in Him.
Psalm 116:3 shows the conditions that we must face down here; "The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow." Every tie that is formed in this world is to be dissolved, and this is constantly brought before us in our pathway through this scene. Death comes before us; its dark waters rolling in upon the soul as some loved one is taken from us, or as we are laid aside with serious illness. Yet for the Christian the position is so different from what we have here, for we know that death but leads into the presence of Christ, which is far better. The Lord Jesus has passed through death's dark raging flood that we might pass through the waters of Jordan dry shod.
In his trouble, the Psalmist calls upon the Name of the Lord, seeking deliverance; and finds that the Lord is gracious and righteous, and that he has to do with a merciful God. If trouble leads to a better knowledge of God, and deeper acquaintance with the Lord, we can thank Him for the wisdom and love that allow the troubles to come. Those who rely on their own wisdom are powerless before the sorrows of death, but those who, in simplicity of heart, call upon the Lord find that He "preserveth the simple." Brought low when face to face with such great troubles and sorrow, the Psalmist realises that help has come to him from God; therefore his soul can rest in the sense of the Lord's goodness. Such are the exercises of the godly, and such the blessed results of passing through trials with God.
Turning to God, after having addressed his own soul, the writer of the Psalm can say "For Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, my feet from falling." It is blessed to relate our exercises and experiences to others; blessed to soliloquize on the grace and mercy of God; but it is a wonderful privilege to be able to return to God, after praying to Him, to acknowledge that He has answered our prayers. If this speaks of one being preserved from death to live a little longer on earth, what character of praise and thanksgiving should come from the hearts of those who know what it is to be delivered from the judgment of God, and to be passed from death into life? The light of Christianity puts an altogether different character upon the experiences set forth in this psalm: we can take up the same language, but its application relates to deeper experiences of soul, and to the knowledge of God in a more wonderful way.
Walking before Jehovah in the land of the living was indeed a precious privilege for one so near to the gates of death, but we can walk before God in the light of the full and perfect revelation that He has made of Himself in the Person of the Son, and as having the life that the Son came to reveal, possessing it in Himself Who is our life. But we might well challenge our hearts as to whether it is our desire to walk practically before God in the life that He has given to us. We are told in 2 Cor. 5:15, that Christ "died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again."
Psalm 116:10 is quoted by the Apostle Paul in 2 Cor. 4:13, and the circumstances referred to in this chapter are somewhat similar to those of this Psalm. Here we have one encompassed with the bands of death, and in 2 Cor. 4 Paul can speak of being "Troubled on every side … perplexed … persecuted … cast down … always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body." It was the same spirit of faith that marked the Psalmist that caused Paul to speak as he did in this chapter. His affliction taught him to rely on God and to have no confidence in man: the false claims of men being exposed in the presence of death.
Having received so much from the hand of God it was surely a right desire to seek to express gratitude. But what can the creature give to God? God is not asking; He is offering: in His hand is the cup of salvation, and this we take with thankfulness, calling upon His Name. Christians do not make vows, but our hearts can overflow to God with adoration and worship. God does not always intervene to deliver His saints from death, and this we well know in passing through a scene of death; but how comforting it is to realise that "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." With the light of Christianity we know that death for the believer is but "to depart and be with Christ which is far better;" to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
The closing verses present the Psalmist as the servant of the Lord, loosed from his bonds, thanking the Lord and calling upon His Name, paying his vows before all the people in the midst of His house, and calling upon others to praise. What a blessed example for us! We are indeed the servants of God, set free from the bondage of sin and Satan — delivered from the authority of darkness — that, calling upon His Name we might publicly seek the things that are pleasing unto Him, endeavouring, by His grace, to live for Him the time that remains of our earthly sojourn. What a praising people we should be! There will never be a moment like this again, when, in a world of adverse circumstances, we can learn what a God we have. In eternity everything connected with this side will have gone forever, and the thought of it makes a moment like this so exceedingly precious to our souls.
J. Muckle.
Life and Forgiveness.
The communication of divine life to the Old Testament saints was in the sovereign working of God just as it is to the saints of the present dispensation. Yet there is this marked difference; the Son of God has died, and now He is presented to us as an object for faith, and unless we eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood we have no life in us. But God's working in them was in view of Christ's dying for them, for without His death their sins could not be forgiven.