The Lord’s Merciful Look Upon His People

Next Part The Lord’s Merciful Look Upon His People 2

"Look upon me, and be merciful unto me, as you did unto those who love your name" Psalm 119:132.

Most of us, who have ever felt the Word of God precious, have our favorite portions of Scripture. Those will be prime favorites which the Lord has specially opened up, or blessed to our soul; but there will be other portions of God’s Word which may not, perhaps, have been in any especial manner made a blessing to us, yet such a sweet light has been cast by the blessed Spirit from time to time upon them, or we have seen and felt such beauty and glory in them, that when we open our Bible we almost instinctively turn to them. Psalm 119 has almost become in this way one of my favorite portions of Scripture. If I had the experience of that Psalm fully brought into my soul and carried out in my life, there would be no better Christian

for 60 miles around. I repeat it, if I had the experience contained in Psalm 119 thoroughly wrought into my heart by the power of the blessed Spirit, and evidenced by my walk, conduct, and conversation, I need envy no Christian that walks upon the earth for conformity to God’s will and Word, inwardly and outwardly. What simplicity and godly sincerity run through the whole Psalm! What tender affection towards the Lord! What breathings of the heart into his ears! What desire to live to his honor and glory! What a divine longing that the life, and conduct, and conversation, the inward and the outward man, might all be conformed to the revealed will and Word of God!

"Look upon me, and be merciful unto me, as you did unto those who love your name." Three features strike my mind, as especially apparent in the words before me: I. That God has a people who love his name. II. That the Lord looks upon them, and is merciful unto them III. The breathing of the Psalmist’s heart, that God would look upon him, and be merciful unto him, in the same way he looks upon and is merciful unto them.

I. The Lord has a people who love his name.But where are these people to be found? In a state of nature, as they came into this world? No; no man by nature ever loved God, for "the carnal mind (which is all that man has or is, as the fallen child of a fallen parent,) is enmity against God: it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." (Rom.8:7) We are all by nature the "children of wrath, even as others" (Eph.2:3); and are "alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart" (Eph.4:18). There is a veil of ignorance and unbelief, by nature, over man’s mind, so that he can neither see nor know the only true God and Jesus Christ "whom he has sent." (2 Cor.3:15; Jn.17:3). Thus, no man ever did, or ever could love the Lord’s name, or the Lord himself, so long as he continues in that state of nature’s darkness and nature’s death. A mighty revolution must, therefore, take place in a man’s bosom before he can be one of those who love the Lord’s name, a change not to be effected by nature in its best and brightest form, nor to be brought about by any industry or exertion of the creature, but begun, carried on, and completed by the alone sovereign and efficacious work of God the Spirit upon the heart. This is the express testimony of God: "He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (Jn.1:11- 13).

But it may be asked, why should these highly favored people experience this new, this miraculous creation? The only answer that can be given to this question is, that the Lord loved them from all eternity. Why he fixed his love upon them to the exclusion of others, God has not informed us. Eternity itself, perhaps, may never be able to unfold to the mind of a finite being like man, why the infinite God loved some and rejected others; but to all the cavilings and proud reasonings of man, our sole reply must be, "No but, O man, who are you that reply against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why have you made me thus? Has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?" (Rom.9:20,21). The Lord, then, having loved the people with an everlasting love, it is necessary, in order that they may enjoy this love, and be satisfied with some streams of the river that makes glad the city of God; that they should be taught and brought to love God, or how can they delight themselves in him, whose name and nature is love?

But are the first dealings and teachings of the Spirit of God upon the heart usually such as will bring a man to love God? No! A man has a great deal to unlearn before he can learn this. He has to be brought out of the world, to be weaned from creature-righteousness; to have all his old fleshly religion broken to pieces, and scattered to the four winds of heaven, before the pure love of God can come down, and be shed abroad in his soul. It is for this reason the Lord cuts his people up with convictions. This is frequently done by the ministry of the Word; as, in the day of Pentecost, Peter’s hearers were many of them pierced in their heart; and the ministers are compared in the Word to fishers and hunters: "Behold, I will send for many fishers, says the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks" (Jer.16:16). The fishers with their sharp hooks draw them out of the water, and the hunters with their pointed spears drive them out of the holes in which they sheltered themselves. These convictions of sin, causing guilt to lie hard and heavy upon the conscience, accompanied for the most part by a discovery of our fallen state, and a manifestation of the evils of our hearts spring from a believing view of the holiness of God, a sense of the breadth and spirituality of his law, a discovery of his eternal and inflexible justice. A measure, therefore, of these convictions it is necessary to feel, such a measure, at least, as shall drive the soul out of its deceptive hiding places, what the Scripture calls "refuges of lies," in order that it may he brought to embrace the rock for lack of a shelter.

How beautifully and clearly this is set forth in Isa.28:16, where the Lord tells us, that he "will lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believes shall not make haste." But, in order to show how his people are brought to have a standing upon this "tried stone," this "precious corner stone," this "sure foundation," the Holy Spirit adds, "Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand: when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it" (verses 17,18). This laying of judgment to the line, and righteousness to the plummet, is connected, you will observe, with the foundation which God has laid in Zion; thus evidencing that before the sinner can be brought to stand experimentally in his conscience upon this foundation, this only foundation "which God has laid in Zion," judgment must be laid to the line in his heart, and righteousness to the plummet in his soul’s experience; the hail must sweep away every refuge of lies, and the waters of God’s wrath overflow every hiding-place, in order to disannul the covenant which he has made with death, and break to pieces the agreement he has entered into with hell.

Thus, in order to bring the people of God to know him as the God of love, it is, in the very nature of things, absolutely necessary that they should pass through convictions of sin, should feel a guilty conscience, and have a discovery of the evils of their hearts, to bring them out of those lying refuges in which every man by nature seeks to entrench himself. Their depth and duration God has not defined, nor need we. Yet this we may safely declare, that they must be sufficient to produce the end that God has in view. But it is not the Lord’s purpose, when he has sufficiently brought his people out of their lying refuges, to be always wounding and lacerating their consciences with convictions. He, therefore, after a time, brings into their heart a measure of that love of Christ which passes knowledge, and this teaches and enables them to love his name.

But what do we understand by the expression, "the name of God?" It is one which occurs very frequently in the Scriptures of truth. By "the name of God" I believe, then, we are to understand all that God has revealed concerning himself, but more particularly the manifestation of his grace and glory in the Person of his dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, as the blessed Spirit casts some light upon the character of God in Christ as revealed in Scripture, and brings a sense of this with divine savor, unction, and power into the soul, the "name of God" becomes spiritually made known to the heart; and as the Lord the Spirit, from time to time, opens up all those treasures of truth, mercy, and grace, which are hidden in Christ, and raises up faith to believe and lay hold of them, he sheds abroad in the heart a sacred love to the name and character of God, as thus revealed in the Word of truth.

David saw that there was such a people. The Lord had given him what he gives to all his family, eyes, discerning eyes, whereby he saw that the Lord had a people that loved his name; that amid the ungodly generation among whom his lot was cast, there was a scattered people, in whom God had shed abroad his love, to whom he manifested mercy, and into whose hearts he had dropped a sense of that loving-kindness of his which is better than life itself. David looked upon them; and as he looked upon them, he saw what a blessed people they were. He viewed them surrounded by all the perfections of God. He saw them kept as the apple of God’s eye. He viewed them as the excellent of the earth, in whom was all his delight, and his very heart flowed out in tender affection unto them, as being beloved of God, and, in return, loving him who had shed abroad his love in their souls.

Very many of the Lord’s people are here. Their eyes are enlightened to see that God has a people. Of that they have not the slightest doubt; and not only so, but their hearts’ affections are secretly and sacredly wrought upon, to feel the flowing forth of tender affection to this people. They count them the excellent of the earth. They love them because they see the mind, and likeness, and image of Christ in them, however poor, however abject, however contemptible in the eyes of the world. There is a secret love that the people of God have towards one another, which binds them in the strongest cords of spiritual union and affection. David then saw that God dealt with this people in a peculiar way, and therefore cried out, "Look upon me, and be merciful unto me, as you did unto those who love your name." He saw that the Lord dealt in a special manner with this people, that they were the favored objects of his eternal love; and as being such, the Lord was continually and perpetually blessing them.

II. The Lord LOOKS upon His people, and is MERCIFUL unto them. There were two things which David specially saw that God bestowed upon this people; one was God’s look, and the other, the manifestation of God’s mercy: "Look upon me, and be merciful unto me, as you did unto those who love your name."

1. But how does God LOOK upon his people? Does not the Lord see all things? Are not his eyes running to and fro through the earth, to see the evil and the good. And are not all secrets open before his heart searching eyes? Do not his eyelids try the children of men? They do! But still there is a favored people that the Lord looks upon in a peculiar way, in a way in which David desired the Lord to look upon him.

1. He looks upon them in Christ. He does not look upon them as standing in self. If he looked upon them as they stand in self, his anger, wrath, and indignation must blaze out against them. But he views them as having an eternal and vital union with the Son of his love; as the apostle says, "Complete in him." (Col.2:10) And viewing them as having an eternal standing in Christ, viewing them as bought with atoning blood, and washed in the fountain which was opened in one day for all sin and for all uncleanness, as clothed in his glorious righteousness, and loved with dying love, he looks upon them not as they are in themselves, wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked; but he looks upon them as without spot, without blemish, in the Son of his love; as the apostle expresses it in few words, "Accepted in the Beloved." (Eph.1:6) David saw what a blessed state this was to be in; that when the Lord looked upon his people, he did not look upon them as poor, guilty, miserable sinners, but looked upon them as having that standing in Christ, that union to Christ, that interest in Christ, whereby he could look upon them with acceptance in his dear Son.

2. But this is not the only way in which God looks upon his people. He looks upon them with affection and love.Thus, when he looks upon his people, he looks upon them with all that love and affection that ever dwells in the bosom of the Three-One God, and is perpetually flowing forth to the objects of his love, choice, and mercy. We know something of this naturally. Does not the fond wife look sometimes upon her husband with eyes of tender affection? Does not the mother sometimes look upon her infant, lying in the cradle or sleeping in her lap, with eyes of tender love? Wherever there is love in our hearts, our eyes at times rest upon the objects of our affections. So it is with the Three-One God. There is that love in the bosom of God towards the objects of his eternal favor, that when he looks down upon them from the heights of his sanctuary, he looks upon them with the tenderest affection. As we read, "He rests in his love;" (cf. Zeph.3:17) and again, "As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you" (Isa.62:5).

3. But besides this, he looks upon them in pity. "As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust" (Psalm.103:13,14). Just as when, after the flood, he looked down from the height of his sanctuary upon Noah, and those with him in the ark, and his heart went forth in tender pity, so, from the heights of his sanctuary, he looks down upon all poor, laboring, struggling pilgrims here below, and views them with an eye of pity and compassion, out of his merciful and compassionate heart. I was bringing forward just now the figure of a mother loving her children, or a wife loving her husband. But let a sickness fall upon the husband, let some affliction befall the child, and then, there is not merely a look of love as before, but a look of pity and compassion also. And if a wife could remove her husband’s illness, or a mother cure the child’s ailment, how pity and love would each flow forth to remove that which causes pity to be felt.

In the same way spiritually. The God of heaven looks down upon his poor, tried family. Some he sees buffeted with sore temptations; others he sees plagued with an evil heart of unbelief; others he sees afflicted in circumstances; others wading amid deep temporal and providential trials; others mourning his absence; others persecuted, cast out by men. Each heart knows its own bitterness, each has a tender spot that the eye of the Lord sees; and the Lord, as a God of grace, looks down upon them and pities them. When he sees them entangled in a snare, he pities them as being so entangled; when he sees them drawn aside by the idolatry and evil of their fallen nature, he pities them as wandering; when he views them assaulted and harassed by Satan, he looks upon them with compassion under his attacks.

4. Besides that, he looks down upon them in power, with a determination to render them help. Reverting a moment to the figure I have used before, a mother looking upon her sickly child, there was pity painted upon her features, compassion beamed from her eye. Could she help, as well as pity, would she hesitate to do so? But the Lord has not only a mother’s pity and a wife’s love, for he himself challenges the comparison; he says, "Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yes, they may forget, yet will I not forget you" (Isa.49:15); but [he has] power for his family. He has almighty power to relieve his poor suffering children, toiling and struggling through this vast howling wilderness; for "help is laid upon One that is mighty;" (cf. Psalm.89:19) who is "able to save unto the uttermost" (Heb.7:25).

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