Steps of Thankful Praise

Next Part Steps of Thankful Praise 2

An Ascending Scale, or Steps of Thankful Praise

"He forgives all your iniquities, and heals all your diseases. He redeems your life from destruction, and crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercies." Psalm 103:3-4

Whatever God does, whatever God has done, is for his own glory. No other object, end, or aim can such a glorious Being as the great self-existent I AM have, than his own glory and its manifestation to created intelligences. To this truth the Scriptures bear abundant witness. When, for instance, they speak of creation, their testimony is, "The heavens declare the glory of the Lord, and the skies show his handiwork." So witnesses Psalm 8:1—"O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens." In a similar strain, in the Book of Revelation, a song of praise issues from the four-and-twenty elders—"You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power—for you have created all things, and for your pleasure they are and were created." (Rev. 4:11.)

Nor is the glory of God less his end and aim in Providence. Thus when the Lord speaks in the Book of Numbers of his providential dealings with the children of Israel, after he had given that grand declaration, "As truly as I live all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord," he adds, "Because all those men who have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice, surely they shall not see the land which I swore unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it." The glory which they ought to have seen was the glory of God in his providential dealings with Israel in bringing them out of Egypt with a high hand and a stretched-out arm, in providing for them food from heaven, and water out of the rock. (Numbers 14:21, 22.) No, the very reason of his providential dealings with Pharaoh was to manifest his glory, as the apostle quotes from the Book of Exodus—"For the Scripture says unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth." (Rom. 9:17.)

But though the glory of God is thus plainly manifested in creation and in providence, it is in redemption that it specially shines forth. We find therefore that after the four living creatures and twenty-four elders had fallen down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials (or rather as the word means "bowls"), full of incense, which are the prayers of saints, they sang a new song, saying, "You are worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof—for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation."

Nor were the angels mute; for though the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, yet all these mighty myriads said with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and blessing." Nor was creation itself silent, for we read, "And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto him that sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever." (Rev. 5:13.)

Thus, whether it be in creation, in providence, or in redemption, in all these domains of his wisdom and power, the end and object of God have ever been to manifest his glory. Nor let any one dare to think that this was, so to speak, a selfish end. We must not measure God by ourselves, or ascribe anything unworthy or unbecoming to him. He is so infinitely above all his creatures that it would be unbecoming his glorious perfections to have as his main object anything but his own glory. And yet it was intended also for the happiness of those to whom his glory should be manifested. God is essentially good; so good that "there is none good but he." His name, his nature is love. To reveal then this goodness, to manifest and make known this love, was to create happiness for, and to fill with bliss and blessedness thousands of millions of created intelligences, both angels and men.

But besides the manifestation of his own personal glory, it always was the eternal purpose of God to glorify his dear Son. He is, as the Scripture testifies, "the brightness of his glory and the express image of his Person." (Heb. 1:3.) God is essentially invisible; for "he dwells in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man has seen or can see." (1 Tim. 6:16.) And yet it was his eternal purpose to make himself seen and known. This is beautifully opened up by the apostle John—"No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him." By "declared him," is meant made him known, discovered, and revealed him. It is in the face or Person of Jesus Christ that we see this glory of God, as the apostle speaks—"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Cor. 4:6.)

Where God works by his Spirit there is a desire to behold his glory. We find therefore Moses pleading earnestly with the Lord, "I beseech you, show me your glory." But what was the Lord's answer? "You cannot see my face, for there shall no man see me and live." And yet he gave him his request—"And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand upon a rock—and it shall come to pass, while my glory passes by, that I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with my hand, while I pass by—and I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back parts—but my face shall not be seen." (Exodus 33:21, 22, 23.) Now of what was this cleft of the rock typical? Was it not a type of the Lord Jesus? "Rock of ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in thee."

But what was the glory which the Lord displayed before the eyes of Moses when he stood safely sheltered in the cleft of the rock? "And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, patience and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty." (Exodus 34:6, 7.) Thus we see that to be merciful and gracious, patient, and abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, is the glory of God in its manifestation. But what forgiveness is there of sin except in his dear Son? as we read—"In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." (Eph. 1:7.)

Our blessed Lord glorified his Father by doing his will upon earth. He therefore said, in his intercessory prayer, "I have glorified you on the earth—I have finished the work which you gave me to do" (John 17:4); and as he glorified the Father so did the Father glorify him, by supporting and sustaining him in the garden and upon the cross, by accepting his sacrifice, raising him from the dead, and setting him at his own right hand as the High Priest over the house of God. For this he prayed, "And now, O Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world was;" and this prayer God answered to the joy of his soul. Truly was that prayer then fulfilled which the church offered for him in anticipation—"In times of trouble, may the Lord respond to your cry. May the God of Israel keep you safe from all harm. May he send you help from his sanctuary and strengthen you from Jerusalem. May he remember all your gifts and look favorably on your burnt offerings. May he grant your heart's desire and fulfill all your plans." (Psalm 20:1-4.)

Now as the Son has glorified the Father and the Father has glorified the Son, so there is a people in whom both the Father and the Son will be glorified. He therefore said, "And the glory which you gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one" (John 17:22); and again, "And all mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I am glorified in them" (John 17:10.) When, then, God's goodness and mercy in the face of Jesus Christ are manifested to this people whom he has formed for himself that they might show forth his praise, then they give him back his glory. But how is this done? By praising and blessing his holy name for the manifestation of his goodness and mercy to their soul. We thus see in what a blessed circle this glory runs. The Father glorifies the Son; the Son glorifies the Father; both unite in glorifying his chosen and redeemed people; and they glorify Father and Son by giving them the glory due to their name. We therefore read that "the Gentiles glorify God for his mercy." But how? "Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people. Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and laud him all you people." (Rom. 15:9-11.)

This is beautifully developed in the Psalm before us. It begins with blessing and praising God. "Bless the Lord, O my soul—and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits." Why was it that David called upon his soul to bless the Lord—yes, appealed to every faculty within him to unite in blessing his holy name? Why did he charge it upon his soul not to forget all God's benefits, but bear them in perpetual remembrance? For this reason, that he might render unto God a tribute of thankful praise. Now by this God is glorified, for whoever offers praise glorifies him.

We cannot add to his glory—for his glory is above the heavens. It is infinite, eternal, ineffable. No creature therefore can add to it or take from it; but he does permit poor worms of earth to glorify him by giving him a tribute of thankful praise. But this we can only do by believing in his dear Son, receiving of his fullness grace for grace, and blessing and praising his holy name for the manifestation of his goodness, mercy, and love, as brought into our soul by his own divine power. This will perhaps, however, be more clear if I am enabled in any measure to lay open and bring before you the rich treasures stored up in our text, in which David with all his heart praises and blesses the God of his salvation.

We may observe in it, I think, what I may perhaps call an ascending scale; for you will observe that it contains four clauses, and that each seems to rise one above another in offering the tribute of praise.

Let us thus look at the words again, carefully examine them, and see what we can find of the grace and goodness of God in them—"He forgives all your iniquities, and heals all your diseases. He redeems your life from destruction, and crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercies." Psalm 103:3-4

The sweet Psalmist of Israel begins with praising God for the forgiveness of all his iniquities; he rises up a step further to bless him for the healing of all his diseases; he advances upon higher ground still in praising him for redeeming his life from destruction; and then he puts the crowning glory upon the whole work by adding, "who crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercies."

In this way, with God's help and blessing, I shall this evening attempt to handle the subject before us.

I. "He forgives all your iniquities."

A. "He forgives." This is a point on which the children of God are often deeply and painfully exercised. Yes, here it is that their souls often hang trembling, as it were, in the balance. There is a question to be settled between God and their conscience; there is something to be manifested with power to their hearts; there is a burden to be taken off their minds; there is a voice of mercy to be heard in their bosom. But whence arises this question, this burden, this need of the voice of mercy, of this manifestation of pardon? From a sense of the state into which sin original and sin actual have brought them. But what has made them feel this? Whence has come the light to see, the life to feel what sin is and the evils which sin has wrought? Is it not from God's own work upon their heart? He therefore begins with laying their sins as a burden upon their conscience. Sin has caused a separationbetween God and them, as he himself speaks—"Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear—but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." (Isa. 59:1, 2.) Nor is this all. We are "alienated and enemies in our mind from God by wicked works" (Col. 1:21); and in the days of our flesh we were "without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." (Ephes. 2:12.)

There is then a barrier between them and God; and he can have nothing to do with them and they nothing to do with him until this barrier is removed. But it must be felt to be a barrier before there can be any sensible removal of it. To discover this barrier to us in its reality, its greatness, its insuperable nature, is a part of that divine teaching which is promised to the people of God. When, then, the Lord the Spirit begins his secret and sacred work upon their heart; when he lays judgment to the line and righteousness to the plummet, he discovers to them this barrier by discovering their iniquity. The work of the blessed Spirit, in commencing the work of grace, is to convince us of sin, to bring our iniquities to view, and to lay them upon our conscience, to reveal the justice of God, as aimed and directed against them, and thus manifest his unspeakable displeasure against all transgression and all transgressors.

Until this work is wrought with a divine power, we are what the Scripture calls "dead in trespasses and sins." The first work of grace upon the soul, therefore, is to quicken the soul into spiritual life, and thus bring our iniquities to light, which before were neither seen nor felt, and especially those glaring and open sins in which most of us were found walking. It is he also, who discovers to us our secret sins, as working in thought and imagination, and often in lust and desire, if we have not been guilty of flagrant offences, and by setting them in the light of God's countenance, to show us how offensive they are in the eyes of infinite purity. All this is very trying and distressing, and by some it seems to be considered needless. But it is a solemn fact, that until we are exercised with a burden of guilt; until we know by painful experience our lost and ruined condition; until we see something of the holiness and purity of God; until we have some apprehension of his inflexible justice and dreadful displeasure against sin, we trifle with him, trifle with our immortal interests, play fast and loose with our own souls, live regardless of all the claims God has upon us, as the creatures of his hand. Besides which, we have naturally many false and foolish ideas about religion. We easily satisfy ourselves with some floating opinions about it, and settle down very quietly into some beaten track of formality and self-righteousness, or take up with a light, loose profession.

Now we must be awakened, aroused, and, as it were, rescued like a brand from the burning, from all these deceptions, that our heart may be made sincere and right before God. This then is the reason why, when the time comes for God to work with power upon a sinner's heart, that he brings his sins to view, that he sets them in the light of his countenance, and lays them with more or less weight as a burden upon his soul. Now observe the effect of this and what springs out of it.

This question arises in the sinner's bosom, how his sins can be pardoned? He feels that he cannot live or die with unpardoned sin resting upon his head. If his iniquity be not forgiven, how can he stand before the bar of God when he brings every secret work into judgment? It was this feeling which made the poor tax-collector cry, "God be merciful to me a sinner;" which made the Philippian jailer exclaim, "What must I do to be saved?" This made David say, "Because of your anger, my whole body is sick; my health is broken because of my sins. My guilt overwhelms me—it is a burden too heavy to bear. My wounds fester and are loathsome because of my foolish sins. I am bent over and racked with pain. My days are filled with grief." (Psalm 38:3-6.) O, how many of the dear children of God—some from self-righteousness, some from ignorance, some from the confusion of their minds, some from the temptations of Satan, some from sitting under legal ministers, and most from a deep sense of their helplessness and inability to bring any peace into their own bosom—are long and painfully exercised with this matter of the forgiveness of sin, and how they shall personally and experimentally realize it.

Now if we are saints at all, and are among the number of those who are believers in Christ Jesus, "God has blessed us (that is, already blessed us) with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus;" and among them with the grand blessing of forgiveness; for "in him we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." (Ephes. 1:3, 7.) I want you to see, believe, and feel this, that the forgiveness of sin is a blessing with which God has already blessed the whole of his dear family. We therefore read—"And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, has he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses." (Col. 2:13.) You see from this testimony that God has forgiven all the trespasses of those whom he has quickened together with Christ. This is a part of the ministry of reconciliation, as the apostle testifies—"that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation." (2 Cor. 5:19.)

But we need something more than the blessed fact. We need the sweet and personal experience of it. To get then at the blessing; to know its power and sweetness in our own bosom; to receive it as from the mouth of God, and to know from the testimony of the Holy Spirit that God has pardoned all our sins, forgiven all our iniquities, cast all our sins behind his back—how many of God's dear people who are "saints and faithful in Christ Jesus," and are quickened together with Christ, are exercised upon this point nearly all their days; and many come even to a dying bed before the clear forgiveness of their sins is sealed with power upon their conscience. It is difficult to know why the blessing is often so long delayed; but doubtless God has wise purposes to answer in thus exercising them. He knows how closely self-righteousness cleaves to them, and he uses these means to strip them of all their wisdom, strength, and power, to empty them thoroughly of all creature goodness, and to convince them that nothing but the blood of Jesus Christ, experimentally sprinkled upon the conscience, cleanses from all sin.

B. But let us now take a view of the expression "all our iniquities." How wide the scope, how ample the field, do these words open to our spiritual eye! And do you not observe what strong language the Holy Spirit employs here and elsewhere in testifying against sin, but not too strong at all for the circumstances, nor too strong for the feelings of an awakened soul? Men have invented many terms to lower the character of sin, and pare it down so as to diminish its weight. But the Holy Spirit in our text calls it "iniquities." It is a strong word, but not too strong for any sensible sinner, when we see sin in its true light—for when its awful magnitude and deep dye are discovered to our awakened conscience, language itself falls short of expressing what it appears as contrasted with the view of the infinite purity of God. When, too, we look at the magnitude of these iniquities as aggravated by peculiar and personal circumstances; how many have been committed against warnings, against convictions, against the whisperings of our own conscience, against the admonition of friends; how in various instances we have broken through the hedge of every resolution and done violence to our own knowledge of right and wrong, and yet been drawn on by the power of temptation, been enticed and entangled by some darling lust, overcome by the strength of some inward corruption, shut our eyes to the consequences, and felt as though that sin we would commit, that lust we would indulge, that gratification we would have, even if it cost our soul--O how aggravated have our iniquities been if this has been our unhappy case, and it is the case of many; for so desperately wicked is the heart of man, so determined to have its fill of evil, that I have sometimes felt and said that, left by God, a man would sin one moment, and jump into hell the next.

Now when God begins to lay these sins thus aggravated upon his awakened conscience, to set his iniquities before his eyes, how low it sinks a man; how it brings him sometimes to the very brink of hell; how it shuts him up at times almost in gloomy despair; how it exercises his mind whether his dreadful iniquities can ever be pardoned. He views his own case as peculiar. Every man best knows his own circumstances, for these are mostly hidden from all but himself. Many sins, unknown to others, are well known to him. The circumstances under which he sinned; the violence done to his own conscience in sinning—the aggravated state of the case, under temptations known only to the individual—all these, as they are opened up to him by the Spirit, and he sees light in God's light, form a heavy and peculiar burden, under which he is ready to sink.

But all this is to teach him that nothing but the blood of Christ can cleanse from all sin. It is to drive away all creature hope, break to pieces every expectation formed and centering in the creature; to show him that as the blood of bulls and goats in ancient days could not put away sin, so now no repentance, no reformation, no floods of tears, no amount of prayers, no external change, can ever put away his iniquities. We know, comparatively speaking, little of the inward experience of many whose faces we often see in our midst; and how many hidden and silent ones are shut up in condemnation, sighing and groaning for some application of the blood of sprinkling to their conscience. Now the Lord is often pleased to raise up a hope in his soul that his sins are put away. Sometimes he gets a view by faith of the sufferings and sacrifice, blood shedding and death of the Lord Jesus; and though the blood of sprinkling is not clearly or fully revealed unto, or sprinkled upon his conscience, yet he sees it by the eye of faith, as sprinkled upon the cross, and the only possible atonement for sin. He thus gets, as it were, in the distance a passing view of a suffering Christ, a bleeding Jesus, an atoning Lamb of God, as the children of Israel looked upon the serpent in the wilderness; and though this falls very short of what he looks and longs for, yet it raises up a hope and expectation of coming mercy.

It also effectually cuts off all expectation of pardon and peace from any other quarter, and thus fixes his eyes upon the cross as the only spot where mercy and justice meet together, the only fountain open for all sin and uncleanness, the only place where a guilty sinner can meet with a forgiving God. Faith being sometimes much strengthened by this view of the cross, and much softness of spirit, and melting of heart being found and felt at the sight his hopes rise very high, and it seems almost as if Christ was about to speak a forgiving word to his soul and to manifest himself in the power of his blood and love. But the view fades away, and he is allowed to doubt again, to fear again, to distrust every mark he has received of the mercy of God; to call in question everything he has tasted, felt and handled of the word of life, until sooner or later in some unexpected moment Jesus is pleased to reveal himself to his soul, to bring the blood of sprinkling into his conscience, and give him a clear evidence that all his sins are pardoned, and all his iniquities, so great, so black, so aggravated, are forgiven.

But though this is for the most part the usual way, we must not lay down a rigid, precise, fixed rule, and erect an unbending standard on this point. Some have the substance of pardon in the feeling who have not the clear application of the blood. They, as the apostle speaks, "receive the atonement" (Rom. 5:1), that is, receive it into their hearts by faith, and feel its blessed effects as revealing peace with God. They have therefore the substance of pardon and peace, by receiving that through which they flow; they have the enjoyment of it, the deliverance it brings, the liberty it produces, the love which it draws forth, the repentance and godly sorrow which it creates, though the words, "your sins be forgiven you," might not have been spoken with a special power to their soul. They have received Christ into their hearts in the full efficacy of his atoning blood, which they could not do until he came near and manifested himself, and they have all the fruits and effects of his dying love by which they love him and live to his praise.

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