“SALVATION belongeth unto the Lord: thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah.” (Psalm iii. 8.) This verse contains the sum and substance of Calvinistic doctrine. Search Scripture through, and you must—if you read it with a candid mind—be persuaded that the doctrine of salvation by grace alone is the great doctrine of the Word of God. “Salvation belongeth unto the Lord.” This is a point concerning which we are daily fighting. Our opponents say, “Salvation belongeth to the free will of man; if not to man’s merit, yet, at least, to man’s will.” But we hold and teach that salvation, from first to last, in every iota of it, belongs to the Most High God. It is God that chooses His people. He calls them by His grace; He quickens them by His Spirit; and keeps them by His power. It is not of man, neither by men. “It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.” May we all learn this truth experimentally, for our proud flesh and blood will never permit us to learn it in any other way.
In the last sentence the peculiarity and speciality of salvation are plainly stated. “Thy blessing is upon thy people.” Neither upon Egypt, nor upon Tyre, nor upon Nineveh. Thy blessing is upon thy chosen, thy blood-bought, thine everlastingly-beloved people. “Selah.” Lift up your hearts, and pause and meditate upon this doctrine. “Thy blessing is upon thy people.” Divine, discriminating, distinguishing, eternal, infinite, immutable love is a subject for constant adoration. Pause, my soul, at this “Selah,” and consider thine own interest in the salvation of God; and if, by humble faith, thou art enabled to see Jesus as thine, by His own free gift of Himself to thee—if this greatest of all blessings be upon thee, rise up and sing:—
“Rise, my soul, adore and wonder.
Ask, ‘O why such love to me?’”
—C. H. Spurgeon.