A Believer’s Dialogue with His Soul 2
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II. David's Encouraging Admonition
But this brings us to the next point, in which I proposed to show how David admonished and encouraged his cast down and disturbed soul– "Hope in God".
It is as if he had said, "Well, soul, you have told me your mournful tale; you has breathed your sorrowful complaints in my ear;" I know all that concerns you; for there is not a secret pain which I do not see and feel too. If you are cast down, so am I; and if you are disturbed, I am disturbed with you; for we are one in life, death, time, and eternity. And yet, O soul, it is all for your benefit. Listen with me to the word of God and see if we cannot gather up thence some strength and support. Let me, then, give you a word of exhortation, that you should not be so cast down or disturbed as to renounce your hope. Satan would gladly, if he could, drive you to the borders of despair; he would soon rob you of every grain of hope, and fill you with his own misery. But O my soul, you must not listen to the enemy’s subtle temptations, nor even to your own distressing fears; for, by so doing, you rather side with Satan than resist him.
If cast down, remember this, that to be cast down, is not to be cast away. For his own wise purposes; God often allows his people to be cast down; but he never casts them away. Has he not promised, "I will never leave you nor forsake you?" Heb 13:5 Has he not said, "I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me?" Isa 49:16 It is expressly declared--"The Lord will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance." Ps 94:14 We may doubt and fear, and even say with David in the very Psalm before us, "Why do you cast me off?" or even plead with him, "O God, why have you cast us off forever?" The Lord still answers--"I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God."
You may be disturbed and have many reasons why sorrow fills your heart, but your very disquietude shows signs of life. Whence comes your craving after God, your panting after him, as the deer after the water brooks? Are not these the movements of divine life in your bosom? Thus, your very restlessness, like a child’s disquietude after its mother in her absence, manifests that you can find no rest except in the bosom of the Lord. "Hope then in God." Do not give way to this casting down, as though you were sunk to rise no more; and be not so disturbed as to give up your hope--for that is given you to be your anchor, sure and steadfast, to ride out this storm. Nothing is gotten by despondency but rebellion or self-pity; and these the Lord will never approve of or smile upon. Does he not say "The Lord is good unto those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord." And surely if it be good to hope, it must be bad to despond.
But as, according to our exposition, the soul told David why it was cast down, so we may in the same way assume David as giving the soul reasons why it should hope. We may thus listen to their secret dialogue; and it seems but fair, as we have heard one side of the question, that we should also hear the other. Let us, then, listen as if we heard David now speak--"Well, my soul, I have heard your melancholy tale. I know it is all true, for I feel every word of it." But now listen to me, as I have listened to you. And as you have poured your mournful complaints into my ear, see if I can pour some comforting word into yours. As you have told me that you are so cast down as not to be able to rise, and so disturbed that you can get no rest, now let me tell you how you may, with God’s help and blessing, stand upon your feet and get rest and peace. I will not set you a hard task to do in your own strength, nor preach you a long sermon on creature ability and the duty of faith. It shall all be summed up in three words, "Hope in God." "Well," the soul may answer, "that is good advice; for I know by experience a little of the cheering sensations of hope; but must there not be some ground of my hope? for at present my eyes are so dim that I can scarcely see any," But David answers, "Let me, then see for you, O soul, and, like Jethro in the wilderness to the children of Israel, be to you ‘as eyes.’" I think I can give you some good ground for you to hope; and this shall be the first-
1. That you are alive. Now, consider who made you alive, O cast down soul, and when you were first thrown down from your former standing. Were you so cast down in days past? Was sin your burden in times gone by? Was your mind disturbed for lack of the blood of sprinkling, of a revelation of Christ, of a shedding abroad of God’s love, of a manifestation of mercy? What, then, has made you to be disturbed? You were not always so, but found pleasure and happiness, in the world. Must it not be, then, because you have life within; and if God gave you life as his own free gift, if he had compassion upon you when you were dead in sin and far from him by wicked works, will he leave you now when, he has taught you to fear his great name, and to worship him in spirit and truth?
He sees it good you should be cast down. You were getting very proud, O soul. The world had gotten hold of your heart. You were seeking great things for yourself. You were secretly roving away from the Lord. The Lord has sent you these trials and difficulties and allowed these temptations to fall upon you, to bring you down from your state of false security. You were too much lifted up in SELF. The high tree had to come down, that the low tree might be exalted; the green tree to be dried up, that the dry tree might be made to flourish. Therefore, O soul, you need not wonder that these dispensations should have come upon you in providence or in grace to cast you down. Rather bless his name that you are cast down; for when there is casting down there will be lifting up. It is a good thing to bear the yoke in one’s youth--for if never cast down, you will never be exalted. Write not, therefore, bitter things against yourself, O soul, because you are cast down and disturbed. These are the teachings of God in your conscience; and therefore, "Hope in God."
2. Besides this, O soul, let me give you another ground of hope. Has not the Lord appeared for you in days past? Can you not remember that signal opening in providence when you were so exercised and scarcely knew how matters would be with you, but prayed to the Lord in your distress and he appeared for you in a very conspicuous way? Have you forgotten all that, O soul? And can you not remember when the Lord applied some promise to you, when sinking and fainting, and ready to despair--gave you power to look and live; power to believe and find support; so as to receive out of his fullness grace for grace? Then is he not the same God now as he was then? And has he not given you a sure pledge thereby that he can do as much and more, for you again now? Should not this encourage you to hope?
3. But let me give you another ground on which you may hope. Do you forget, O soul, that the way to heaven is a very strait and narrow path--too narrow for you to carry your sins in it with you? Do you not know there is a fire to try every man’s religion, of what sort it is? And can you expect never to go into the furnace in which God has chosen his Zion? If you are to walk in the strait and narrow path, must you meet with no trials and temptations there? If you are come out of the world and live godly in Christ Jesus, will not the world persecute and hate you? Are you to have a different path from that in which the Lord Jesus himself has walked before you? Then hope in God. Do not cast away your confidence, which has great recompense of reward, but cast your anchor boldly within the veil, and hope in God.
If you will foolishly ever be looking at your miserable SELF and seeking to extract some comfort thence, you will be ever disappointed. Instead then of looking at yourself and at all your badness, vileness, sin, guilt, and misery--look up and hope in God. Has he not given us a thousand encouragements to do so? See his tender pity and compassion for the poor and needy. See what rivers of mercy, grace, and love are in him. See his all-seeing eye, ever watching over you and knowing the worst of your case and all your misgivings. View his all-powerful hand, ever ready to be stretched out on your behalf. And now, my soul, when you have taken this view of God by faith, as manifesting himself in his dear Son, hope in him.
But now, leaving for a moment this assumed address of David to his soul, let me speak in my own language to you who can sympathize with what I have just laid before you, from a feeling experience of it. May I not upon this point ask you if you do not feel the benefit of this advice of David? Have you not proved, again and again, that when you are enabled to look out of your sinkings and sorrows, castings down and disquietude, and cast anchor within the veil, you find a secret and sacred support given unto you? What does the sailor do when he comes to a dangerous shore and the wind is blowing hard and strong upon it, so that in a short time his ship might be upon the rocks? Does he say, "O, I never shall get over this storm; I shall certainly be shipwrecked?" What does he do? Why, instead of wringing his hands in despairing misery, he lets the anchor go, and it at once takes hold of the ground and holds the ship up in the storm.
Now if ever you have known anything of hoping in God, you have an anchor on board. God’s own gift to you, and meant not for ornament, but for use. Indeed, it is by the possession of this anchor, that the good ship built, owned, and chartered by God is distinguished from the man-built bark which, concerning faith, makes shipwreck. Now if you are enabled by the power of God’s grace to cast your anchor thus within the veil, you will find a secret strength communicated thereby which will enable you to ride out, every storm. I am not speaking in the language of free will, as some might think who cannot distinguish sounds, but of free grace, the language of solid, spiritual experience, and what every child of God knows more or less by the teaching and testimony of the Holy Spirit. Such know what a blessed relief a good hope through grace gives, when, as an anchor of the soul, it is cast within the veil.
But I shall return to our dialogue between David and his soul; for it now begins to receive the word from his lips. The soul had told David its complaint; and David, like a wise counselor, had bidden it to hope in God. And now the soul cheered and comforted by his encouraging word, begins to answer him--"Well, David, I feel great comfort from your words; for they drop with sweet power into my inmost spirit; and I do believe you are a true prophet, for I have a witness within that they are agreeable to the word of truth, as well as to my own experience."
Now as the soul thus encourages its hope, for there is an encouraging of faith and hope, as well as a damping of them, then comes with it a measure of confidence, so that it says, "Well, after all I believe that I shall praise Him--I begin to feel almost as if I could bless and praise him now. I feel so lifted up; I feel the anchor to be so firm, and my heart seems so strengthened and comforted, that really, David, it is as though I must begin to bless and praise the Lord already. There I was so cast down and disturbed, as if nothing could raise me up; but your words have come with such sweetness and savor into my breast, that I do believe I shall yet praise him. And I am sure that none in heaven or earth, as I often tell him, will have such cause as I."
Now tell me whether you have not been in this spot sometimes? You have gone upon your knees so cast down, so tried and distressed in your mind, almost as if there was not a grain of hope in your soul; but you have poured out your complaints before the Lord, and shown him all your troubles--and to your surprise and astonishment did there not come, almost suddenly, a sweet movement of life and grace upon your soul? In looking back to the days gone by, a blessed promise which was once given you came over the secret depths of your heart and raised up such a sweet hope, that it seemed as if you must burst out in blessing and praising the Lord. How these things, in their various changes, these ups and downs, ins and outs, sinkings and risings, chilling fears and encouraging hopes, ever keep the life of God warm and tender, living and stirring, in a man’s breast. By these alternations of sun and shade, these vicissitudes of summer and winter, for the Lord has made both, these storms and calms, these nights and days, the plant of divine life grows and thrives in the soul.
What would a river be unless it were ever flowing? What would the sea itself be unless it were continually agitated by the restless tide and ever-moving waves? A mass of corruption, giving forth, instead of healthy exhalations which, distilled in clouds, water the earth, noxious steams, breathing disease and death. So what would the soul become if there were no movement of divine life, no castings down or liftings up, no mourning or rejoicing, no hopes or fears? What would it be? A stagnant pool, in which there would be nothing but a mass of weeds and rank vegetation; like a village pond mantled over with weeds. But these castings down, this disquietude, these movements of God upon the spirit, these various exercises, trials, and temptations, keep the soul sweet, preserve it from becoming stagnant and stinking, and maintain the life of God in its vigor and purity.
There is reason, therefore even to praise God for being cast down, for being so disturbed. How it opens up parts of God’s word which you never read before with any feeling. How it gives you sympathy and communion with the tried and troubled children of God. How it weans and separates you from dead professors. How it brings you in heart and affection out of the world that lies in wickedness. And how it engages your thoughts, time after time, upon the solemn matters of eternity, instead of being a prey to every idle thought and imagination, and tossed up and down upon a sea of vanity and folly. But, above all, when there is a sweet response from the Lord, and the power of divine things is inwardly felt, in enabling us to hope in God, and looking forward to praise his blessed name, then we see the benefit of being cast down and so repeatedly and continually disturbed.
III. David’s Confident Expectation– "For I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God."
These sudden turns as we may call them, from the lowest despondency to the highest confidence, from the depths of disquietude to the fullest assurance, are very frequent in the Psalms. And perhaps the very history of David’s life, with such sudden and marked alternations of adversity and prosperity in providence, may help to account for a similar experience in grace. But be it so or not, the fact is plain, that a distinguishing feature in David’s experience was the sudden changes which came over his soul.
But you will observe, that in his confidence, he is rather looking forward to the future than enjoying it at the present. And is not this the very nature of hope? "Hope that is seen," says the Apostle, "is not hope; for what a man sees, why does he yet hope for?" Though not yet fully blessed or delivered, he therefore looked forward in faith and hope to the time when he should be so, and be enabled to praise God. He could not do it then; but he firmly believed the time was coming when he both could and would.
But observe, also, the expression, "Who is the health of my countenance." By this we may understand the restoration of his soul to the enjoyment of God’s manifested favor and presence, which always communicates such happiness and peace as proclaims itself by the very countenance itself. Disease is always marked in a man’s countenance. No man can have organic, or even ordinary disease, without his face showing it to the experienced eye, and even often discovering the very nature of the complaint itself. "How WELL you look!" "How ILL you look!" These common expressions show how health and sickness manifest themselves in a man’s countenance, even to ordinary observation.
When God is pleased then, to drop his word with power into a man’s heart, and restore his soul so as to enable him to bless and praise his holy name, God becomes the health of his countenance. The former sickliness of his soul manifested itself in his very face. He could not smile, and sometimes could hardly lift up his head. Feeling himself such a guilty wretch, it seemed to him as if everybody could read his sins in his countenance. Full of doubt and fear, he was often scarcely able to look up before God and man; and his heavy eye, and drooping eyelid, betrayed the feelings of his soul. We see how even natural joy bespeaks itself in the face. How it gives freshness and animation to the cheek and luster to the eye; but how much more is this true of spiritual joy for as that gives inward health of soul, it manifests itself in a man’s natural countenance, and his happiness overflows as it were into his eyes, and features, and face.
But we may take the words as applicable to a man’s spiritual countenance; for your soul, like your body, has its diseases that cast a sickly hue over its face. Sometimes your soul is very sick, languid, and feeble, unable to take any exercise, almost loathing food, and much deprived of rest. Now this will soon begin to tell upon your soul’s countenance. Spiritual eyes can read it in your appearance, spiritual ears hear it in your prayers and lamentations, spiritual hearts can feel it and sympathize with you, as knowing themselves what it is to be similarly afflicted. And you yourselves, as knowing so intimately what is the matter with your own soul, need no one to tell you that it is in a sickly state; that you are not as you were in time past, full of life and vigor in the things of God, but have got into a languishing, unhealthy condition. Now, this casts you down and makes you disturbed.
But by and by, when a healing word comes, it removes this sickness out of your soul; it brings, as the Lord promises, "health and cure;" and the soul once more begins to walk with life and vigor in the ways of God. Being thus renewed and revived, it reads and understands the word of God with more life and feeling; hears it with more savor, unction, and power; knows more of sweet access to the throne of grace, and enjoys the things of God more experimentally and believingly. It is in this way, that God is the health of our countenance; for it is his grace and his blessing that gives health to the sickly soul. He therefore said of himself, "I am the Lord who heals you." And David well knew this, when he said--"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits--who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases." A healthy soul is a greater blessing than a healthy body. Perhaps, the greatest of all temporal troubles, is an unhealthy body; and the worst of all spiritual troubles, is an unhealthy soul. And conversely, the greatest of temporal mercies is a healthy body, and the greatest of spiritual mercies is a healthy soul.
And then come those few and simple words which crown all, "And my God." What, when you have been so cast down, when so disturbed, when so ready to abandon all hope--what, will you ever be able to say, "My God?" Yes, for he is your God when cast down and disturbed; your God when you could scarcely feel any persuasion of interest in his love; your God in all the changing scenes through which you have passed; and your God so as never to leave or forsake you for his name’s sake. How this sums up everything, "My God;" for if he is your God, all he has and all he is yours.
Now, what mercies these are to embrace, and what blessings these are to enjoy. May I not well say--"O what is all that earth calls good and great, compared with being able to believe that God is your God; your God in life, your God in death; your God in time, and your God in eternity! O this is a religion that will do to live and die by; for if you only have God for the health of your countenance, and the Holy Spirit seals that home with power upon your heart, have you not every reason to praise God, even now, for every dispensation of his providence and grace, and every ground of confident expectation that you will forever bless him when time itself shall be no more?"
DIALOGUE BETWEEN A BELIEVER AND HIS SOUL.
"Why are you cast down, O my soul? and why are you disturbed within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." –Psalm 42:11
Believer–
Come, my soul, and let us try,
For a little season,
Every burden to lay by;
Come, and let us reason.
What is this that casts you down?
Who are those that grieve you?
Speak, and let the worst be known;
Speaking may relieve you.
Soul–
O, I sink beneath the load
Of my nature’s evil!
Full of enmity to God;
Captived by the devil;
Restless as the troubled seas;
Feeble, faint, and fearful;
Plagued with every sore disease;
How can I be cheerful?
Believer–
Think on what your Savior bore
In the gloomy garden.
Sweating blood at every pore,
To procure your pardon!
See him stretched upon the wood,
Bleeding, grieving, crying,
Suffering all the wrath of God,
Groaning, gasping, dying!
Soul–
This by faith I sometimes view,
And those views relieve me;
But my sins return anew;
These are those who grieve me.
O, I’m leprous, stinking, foul,
Quite throughout infected;
Have not I, if any soul,
Cause to be dejected?
Believer–
Think how loud your dying Lord
Cried out, "It is finished!"
Treasure up that sacred word,
Whole and undiminished;
Doubt not he will carry on,
To its full perfection,
That good work he has begun;
Why, then, this dejection?
Soul–
Faith when void of works is dead;
This the Scriptures witness;
And what works have I to plead,
Who am all unfitness?
All my powers are depraved,
Blind, perverse, and filthy;
If from death I’m fully saved,
Why am I not healthy?
Believer–
Pore not on yourself too long,
Lest it sink you lower;
Look to Jesus, kind as strong
Mercy joined with power;
Every work that you must do,
Will your gracious Savior
For you work, and in you too,
Of his special favor.
Soul–
Jesus’ precious blood, once spilt,
I depend on solely,
To release and clear my guilt;
But I would be holy.
Believer–
He that bought you on the cross
Can control your nature;
Fully purge away your dross;
Make you a new creature.
Soul–
That he can I nothing doubt,
Be it but his pleasure.
Believer–
Though it be not done throughout,
May it not in measure?
Soul–
When that measure, far from great,
Still shall seem decreasing?
Believer–
Faint not then, but pray and wait,
Never, never ceasing.
Soul–
What when prayer meets no regard?
Believer– Still repeat it often.
Soul– But I feel myself so hard.
Believer– Jesus will you soften.
Soul– But my enemies make head.
Believer– Let them closer drive you.
Soul– But I’m cold, I’m dark, I’m dead.
Believer– Jesus will revive you.
Joseph Deer (Hymn 780 –Gadsby’s Hymns)
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