Preached by Rev. ALEXANDER MACASKILL, Lochinver, on 17th May, 1949, in St. Jude’s Hall, Glasgow.
“I will praise Thee with my whole heart;
before the gods will I sing praise unto Thee.”
(Psalm cxxxviii. 1).
THE Psalmist in many places throughout the Psalms shows to us what regard he had for the Word of God, and the high place that he gave to that Word. I think that this is true concerning all those who profit by the Word of God, and who are savingly taught of the Lord. They are enabled to give the highest place to the Word of God. We find in another place where the Lord, speaking through the prophet Isaiah, says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” Now the thoughts and the ways of God are revealed to us here in His Word. We have our own thoughts and we have our own ways, and we are, if left to ourselves, just left to feed upon our own thoughts, and to follow our own ways, and we know what will be the end of that. But the Psalmist was brought to see the high place that belonged to the Word of God, and he gives that place to the Word; he makes that profession openly before his fellow-sinners, and his whole life shows forth the place that he gives to the Word.
Meantime we may notice in connection with this passage, 1. Some of the things that are true of those who praise the Lord; and 2, we may state some reasons why they praise the Lord; and 3, we see the courage that the Psalmist shows here as one who is praising the Lord. We have 4, the wisdom of the Psalmist, and we have in the 5th place a showing forth of the cause of all this. We find him over and over again giving the whole glory to the Lord Himself for what the Lord has done. And we do not think we are going too far in saying that where the whole glory is not given to the Lord, there is none given to him. He must have the whole glory or none at all.
1. We may first notice what is true, or some of the things true of those who praise the Lord.
The Word of God makes it clear that it is only the living who praise the Lord. It is only those who have spiritual life that
praise the Lord. None by nature—for all are spiritually dead as they are in themselves—have ever been found praising the Lord. They have been found praising their gods in their own way, but not the true God. So that life is one of the things that is given and must be given to all who desire to praise the Lord. The living, it is written, the living, he shall praise Thee. Where that life is there is knowledge; the Lord is known in that soul. It shows forth that the Lord is known even in this work, in praising the Lord. It is also true concerning all who praise the Lord, that they are brought to realise their own utter unworthiness before the Lord. That is not the opinion that man has of himself at all, that he is utterly unworthy; very, very far from it. But where the Lord is at work, He brings the sinner to see this, to know it, to believe it, that they are utterly unworthy. That is the confession that has been made by all who receive from the Lord spiritual life—their utter unworthiness before the Lord. We have many instances of this in the Word of God, a confession such as this being made by the living, but it is not a confession that we find among the dead. It follows where there is life. It is also true that they are humble before the Lord; they have nothing to glory in. Whatever were their thoughts before, they were brought to see that they have nothing to glory in, as far as they are concerned. They realise the cause of shame; that to them belongeth shame before the Lord because of what they are; because of their ignorance of themselves, and their ignorance of God. We believe that this was true of Saul of Tarsus. Although he thought so much of himself in his pre-conversion days, and gloried so much in what he was, when the true light came into his soul and he was brought to see what he was in truth before the Lord, he saw there was every cause to be ashamed, and to be ashamed of that in which he gloried in so much. He could see now it was all due to his own ignorance and the death that was in his own soul, that he would glory in himself.
2. For what reasons do they praise the Lord?
We believe that those of whom what we have already stated is true, are brought to see that this is the only One who is worthy of praise; that there is none worthy of praise like Him, for there are none that can do for them what He has done. There is cause to praise the Lord because of what He is in Himself, although He would never have provided for them as he did provide. We certainly agree that, apart from the provision, they could not see this; but being enlightened by the Holy Spirit in their souls, they see now that, although God would never have provided, as He did provide, a glorious Saviour, praise, and a heart full of praise,—the whole praise of the heart—is due to Him as God, and they would desire to give that praise to Him. When the Lord gives light in the soul to see a little of His glory as revealed to us in the Moral Law and as revealed to us in the Covenant of Grace, God is glorious and cannot be anything else, and worthy of praise, and cannot be anything else, in the estimation of such as see this.
God did not lose any of His glory as God. The glory that was made known to man in his state of innocence is still there; the whole glory is still there; and we believe that our first parents in their state of innocence were able to see the glory of God in His righteousness, in His holiness, in His justice, as that was revealed to them in the Moral Law as a Covenant—given to them as a Covenant; and that they were also seeing
oh, how altogether worthy of praise God was for all that He was in Himself. We mean, far more than that they would praise God for what they were. There was cause to praise God for that, who made the difference between them and other creatures that God has created; that they were able to see the Glory of God as Creator revealed to them in the law as a Covenant of works; for the law has not changed in any way; it is the same as it was. Surely in the day when the Lord will open the eyes of the poor sinner to behold the righteousness and the holiness and the justice of God as revealed to him in the law, he must be of the same mind as our first parents were in the state of innocence; although that might be only in a very feeble way, yet it is there, and the very same principle is there as was there at the beginning, where this life is restored, and where man is brought to a consciousness of his own unworthiness, which never exists apart from a knowledge of God, and of the glory and the majesty that is His, and where man is brought down to the dust of self-abasement before the Lord. The Lord is glorious in the eyes of all such, as they behold Him revealed to them in the law as a Covenant of works.
Man who is brought to this state of mind is brought to take his place as a vile sinner before God, a creature who is utterly unworthy, a creature who deserves no place but just the dust, and desires to take his place there in dust and ashes before the Majesty that is on high, and as known unto him now. Can such begin in any way to find fault with this glorious Person for any revelation they have of Him? Do you think, friend, that this is possible, that this soul, as far as the work of God in the soul and the new creation is concerned, will begin finding fault with God because of anything that is revealed to them? Now when the natural man is brought face to face with the justice of God, what effect has that on the natural man? Just to stir up the enmity of his heart against God. But that is not what is true regarding the soul that is changed by the grace of God; this soul will acquiesce in the justice of God, and desire to praise the Lord and sees ample reason to praise the Lord because of His justice. How just God is, and how glorious He is in justice, even in condemning the poor sinner, because the sinner deserves nothing else! There is something very beautiful and honourable in the justice of God if we had the eye-salve to see it. We come now to love the justice of God, and we believe they are here this evening who have been brought to love the justice of God, and to think, well, if it is a lost eternity for me, I shall be there beholding this justice, the justice of the Lord in condemning me, for I have only received that which I deserve, that which I brought upon myself; and instead of complaining against God and murmuring against God, the soul is brought to acquiesce in the justice of God. I would say this, there are some of us here, and if we ever knew what it was to taste in our souls of peace with God, the first taste came into our souls in this way, through acquiescing in the justice of God. Although we could not say then that there was salvation for us, we do not remember whether there was any hope of that or not, but we could say this, that God was just in condemning us, and we could not open our mouths, and this brought something of a peace into our souls, and we could desire that, if it was to be a lost eternity, we could be there as a witness on the side of God because of His justice.
We think that this soul that is brought into these exercises, sees that there is reason, because of the excellency of God, as God, to praise Him. But then, further, there is cause to praise the Lord that He reveals to us in His own Word, the way whereby he is just and yet the Justifier of the ungodly, and that, my friends, you nor I can ever find any ground why, apart from the Holy Spirit revealing Christ the crucified one, and opening up to us in some little measure how Christ was made under the law, and how He came under the sentence of death on behalf of sinners, taking their law-place, and rendering this obedience to God that was His due; and in that way opening up a way for the poor sinner whereby, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a way of escape, on the ground of infinite justice; a way of escape, not apart from justice, and not apart from the law being fulfilled. Full satisfaction given to it—a fulness of obedience given to it—is the ground upon which the poor sinner finds a way of escape for himself, sees the way that God has provided for him to escape; and surely there is reason to praise the Lord, to take our place in the dust before Him. What wonderful love is this! What a wonderful revelation is this! Could anything more wonderful be brought before any poor sinner than this, that the second Person took their very nature, bone of their bone, and flesh of their flesh, and that He suffered in their room, that He died, that He finished the work that the Father gave Him to do, and now, as the One who finished the work for them, He has ascended on high, and is on the right hand of the Father. Is there not cause, my friends, to praise the Lord?
The Holy Spirit may have passed by many, and He came to your own soul, and He opened your eyes to see, your ears to hear, your heart to understand. He came to give you to see this, that you were a vile hell-deserving sinner; He came to put you off false ground of hope that you were on, that you could merit salvation by your own good works. He came I may say (for that is the nature of the work of the Lord), to take you out of the “Church of Rome,” in your own heart, He came to deliver you from the “Pope” in your own heart, and to bring you to see that God had provided a Saviour for you in Whom there is a fulness of salvation. What cause to praise the Lord, friend, if that is true concerning you, and what cause to praise the Lord in that He has given us His Word. Some may have had nothing more enter into their minds but just that the Word of God was bought by someone in the home, and it happened to be in the home. So many pence, so many shillings were paid for it, and it is in the home, and that is all. Oh, friend, that is not all. God sent His Word, and it is in that way that we ought to look upon the Word of God, that it is the Word given to us of God, whatever way it came into the home. God has given His Word, not that we might leave it a closed book, not that we might leave it to others to read and not read it ourselves. We fear that in many families in our day, the Word of God is not read at all. In some cases (we hope that this is not true in our own Church as it is among many others in our day, but we are in danger my friends, of that coming in among ourselves as it is among others) this is all the use that some have for the Word of God, just to sing a few verses on the Sabbath morning, and the Bible is not opened from one end of the week to the other. We know what we are speaking about when we mention those things. We are not speaking at random. We know that the Bible is not
opened from one end of the week to the other except on the Sabbath morning, and a few verses are sung and that is all; and we fear in many homes it is not opened at all. The fruit of that is no doubt seen in our day, and until there will be a turning-back to the Word of God, and till the sinner comes to enquire for himself, it is not enough that others would read the Word of God, Father, Mother, brother or sister. We all need the Word of God for ourselves, and unless we take delight in it in time, how can we delight in it in eternity? Is there not cause to praise the Lord, then, that He has given us His Word, and is there not cause to praise the Lord that He has left His Word with us?
What a wonder this is, when you begin to think of the way that the Word of God is treated in our own land. Are we not provoking the Lord that He would take His Word away from us? And what a fearful calamity that would be, if the Lord would take His Word away. Have we not cause, my friends, to praise the Lord in that He has given us His Word; that He has left His Word with us; and that He has raised among us those of whom this is true, that they love the Word of God and desire to keep to the Word of God. What cause of praise we have to the Lord when we have His own people in our midst. The prophet Isaiah in his own day was saying, ‘Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.’ We have, my friends, cause to praise the Lord for the small remnant, and that He has left that remnant in our own midst. You find the prophet saying that the Lord of hosts has left—it is the Lord Who had left this small remnant, and if it were not so, he says, we should have been as Sodom, and like unto Gomorrah, but because He had left this small remnant, there was salt, there was life left, and where the Lord’s people are, although they would be few in number, the Lord Himself is with His own. He has promised, ‘I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.’ ‘Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.’ He was with Noah in his own day, although we do not read of any but Noah himself.
(To be continued)