The Right Hand of the Lord!

Charles Spurgeon,

"The right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord does valiantly!" Psalm 118:16

This word might full often have leaped from the lips of believers in the olden times.

This verse might have constituted part of the song of Moses at the Red Sea, for how wondrously God overthrow the hosts of his enemies there! Then the horses and the chariots of Egypt were swallowed up, God himself causing the last foe of Israel to be swept away by the mighty waters. "Sing to the Lord," they said, "for he has triumphed gloriously;" and by the shores of the Red Sea they knew "the right hand of the Lord is exalted — the right hand of the Lord does valiantly!"

It was so in the wilderness when Joshua fought with Amalek, and Moses held up his hands in prayer. It was so when they struck down Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og the king of Bashan. Are these things not written in the book of the wars of the Lord? And is it not said, "The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name!"

It was conspicuously so in driving out the Canaanites. When the people of Israel, untrained for war, marched into the promised land, they found that their enemies had chariots of iron, and were entrenched in cities that were walled up, even to Heaven; yet all the hosts of the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites could not stand against the twelve tribes of Israel; they fled before them like chaff before the wind. O praise the Lord and magnify him, for he cast out the heathen and he planted his people in their own land. The right hand of the Lord was exalted that day, for his right hand fought valiantly.

So it was throughout the period of the Judges. Time would fail us to tell you of Samson, and of Gideon, and of Barak, and all those mighty men who were used as weapons in the hands of Jehovah — javelins cast forth by his omnipotence. Truly in those days, also, the right hand of the Lord did valiantly.

David, who penned this psalm, knew this in his own experience, for he struck down the Philistines hip and thigh with great slaughter, and overthrew all opposing nations in the name of the Lord Almighty.

Long after David had slept with his fathers, others arose, and God was with them, and the Lord did mighty deeds. Have you forgotten how the hosts of Sennacherib lay like the sere leaves of autumn when the breath of the archangel had blasted them? Or have you not heard of the rout of Syria at the gates of Samaria? Right onward throughout the whole history of Israel, when the foes of God have made headway for a while, he has plucked his hand, even his right hand, out of his bosom; and dashed the enemy into pieces!

His people have chanted the solemn psalm, "Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered!" and those who have hated him, have fled before him; in the fire of his presence, the wicked have been consumed like the fat of rams upon the altar; into smoke, they have been consumed away. "The right hand of the Lord is exalted, the right hand of the Lord does valiantly!"

From those triumphs of physical might over warlike powers, we turn our eyes to another field of battle — a spiritual one; and God, who was mighty with weapons of war, we find mighty with the sword of the Spirit, and with the weapons of the gospel; and we claim the verse which is now before us as a song of the New Testament as well as a chant of the Old. "The right hand of the Lord is" this day, "exalted," and it "does valiantly!"

We will ask your attention, not to a very lengthy sermon — but to these three points:

1. The Triumphs of the Lord Jesus. 2. The Triumphs of the Gospel in the Church. 3. The Triumphs of Grace in individual hearts.

To all these, and I know not to which one more than another, the text is most appropriate.

Next part First, then, concerning the triumphs