BY THE REV. EWEN MACQUEEN, KAMES.
“They looked unto him and were lightened; and their faces were not ashamed.”—PSALM xxxiv. 5.
THE Psalmist is speaking here as a man who got a great deliverance from the Lord. He had been in distress, and felt that none could help him except the One who said, “Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee.” And now that he is delivered he vows to bless the Lord, and calls others to assist him in doing so, from the first to the third verses. And from the fourth to the seventh he relates his experience in the words that we have taken as the basis of our remarks. You can see that he looks and sees that his case is not at all peculiar to himself, and that there are others who had a similar experience. We are all too ready when in trouble to think that our case is singular, and Satan is ever ready to suggest it; but David had to see that he had companions in tribulation and in liberty as well. The flock are brought home by the Good Shepherd by the same road. “In the world ye shall have tribulation”; and as these troubles will abound, so will their joy in the Lord. He will not always be chiding them; He will give them a ray of His blessed countenance after the storm. Even in nature we see the sun brighter after a storm, and we seem to value it more. It is so with God’s children. They value the Lord’s visits more after they are in trouble. “The flesh” will soon get proud. We need the frost of trouble to keep down the old man. In this nation we have been getting proud, and the Lord is dealing with us now, to see if we will look to Himself, who helped and exalted us in the past. Oh, that it could be said of us as a nation what is said of those in our text: “They looked to him.” The verb used here has several meanings—to scan, to look intently at, to regard with pleasure, look, etc., which are all true of those who are enlightened in the knowledge of Christ. The next verb, “and were lightened,” means, to begin with, to sparkle, i.e., figuratively, to be cheerful, to flow (from the sheen of a running stream), figuratively, to assemble, flow together, to be lightened.
The doctrine we desire to notice from these words is that the Lord enables His people in the midst of their trouble to look to Himself, to whom they flow, and that they are not put to shame, as God’s people are never put to shame when they flow to Him in understanding, in desire, in faith, in love. Unbelief makes ashamed; faith is flowing to Him and resting on Him, which takes away shame.
I.—The persons of whom the Psalmist here speaks;
II.—The things they are said to have done: “they looked unto Him, and were lightened” or, as it may be translated, “they flowed”; and
III.—The reception they met with: and “their faces were not ashamed.”
I.—The persons of whom the Psalmist here speaks.
You may see from the title that this Psalm was composed by David after he got free from the hand of Achish, King of Gath. He now calls upon all to extol the Lord along with him for the great deliverance he had obtained. It is not likely that his prayer was a great one, when he had “changed his behaviour” before Achish. But it is a mercy that it is not according to our ability in asking that the Lord answers our prayers. He was afraid, when he prayed—afraid of his life—but his fear sent him to the Lord, and the Lord delivered him from all his fears.
At times the Lord gives great deliverances to His people. He did that to David, and to many before him and after him. And such deliverances will be matter of wonder and praise to them to all eternity. In this Psalm, David begins with his own experience, and from this sweet moment he has himself, he casts forth his eye and sees that he is “compassed about with a great cloud of witnesses,” and he changes writing from the first person singular to the third person plural. “They looked unto Him, and flowed.” We have here to notice three points in particular.
- The Person to whom they looked. According to the context, it is plain that this Person was Jehovah, the God of Israel. As David was before Achish, so it was with the children of God in general; they were surrounded by enemies. In vain may they expect “salvation from the hills, or from the multitude of mountains.”
“I looked on my right hand, and viewed
But none to know me were:
All refuge failed me; no man
Did for my soul to take care.”
We must be shut out from every creature, if ever we will be made to look to Jehovah. He manifested Himself as the Lord God merciful and gracious, and taught the saints in those days by types and shadows such as the cities of refuge and the paschal lamb that such as were in distress of soul were welcome to Him. He manifested Himself as having the hearts of kings and of all men in His hands, and able to turn them whither He would. To Him they looked in the day of trouble, and they were not put to shame.
- Let us now notice the persons who “looked unto Him.”
(1) They were such as felt themselves in danger. Although we have natural eyes and natural understanding, we do not as fallen creatures see or understand our spiritual danger. The language of our heart is, “As to-day is, so will be the morrow, and much more abundant.” Hence we say to God, “Depart from us.” That is our deplorable condition by nature. But when the Holy Spirit comes, He opens the eyes of the understanding to the danger into which sin has brought us. It has exposed us to all miseries in this life and to the pains of hell for ever. They are convinced that they are their own enemies, and that sin is a deadly enemy, for its wages is death. They see that God as a righteous judge is their enemy and that His law is their enemy. David at this time was hated by Saul, King of Israel, and had to flee from him for his life. Now he finds Achish his enemy. Hence God’s people are humbled within them when they are taught that “by the deeds of the law” to which they flee for help, “no flesh shall be justified” in God’s sight. When Saul of Tarsus found that Jesus, whom he persecuted, was Jehovah the God of Israel in our nature, it brought him down, and scattered his high thoughts of himself to the four winds of heaven. The lion became a lamb.
(2) Again, they are such as are enlightened in the knowledge of the way of salvation through Christ crucified, and are made willing to come as ready sinners to the mercy-seat of Christ for covering in the day of anger.
II.—Let us, in the second place, consider what they are said to have done. In doing so, we are to consider them as changed by the grace of God from a state of nature to a state of grace. “They looked.” The word in the Hebrew means to scan, to look intently at, to look with care at. The word is used in diverse ways in the Scriptures—to behold or see, in Deut. xxviii. 32; to take particular notice of, in Leviticus xiii. 5; to expect or wait for, in Genesis xiii. 16; and to believe and trust, in Isaiah xlv. 22. I feel inclined to take it in the last sense of believe or trust. When the knowledge of the Lord is given by the Spirit through the Word, the soul is enabled to look to—or in other words, to believe in—the Lord Jesus Christ, and to trust in Him as an all-sufficient and all-suitable Saviour.
The next clause justifies us in this view, taking the translation as they “flowed,” or ran as a river. The verb, nahar, means to be cheerful, to sparkle, or to flow as a river. In Isaiah (ii. 2, 3) all nations, who are to assemble in the Lord’s house, are said to flow unto it. The enlightened will flow to God in Christ in their understanding, conscience, will, and affections. It is easy for them to do so. They cannot help doing so. They are constrained to do so, as a river is constrained to flow in its channel by what is before and by what is behind it. The open way in front leads the water to flow, and the weight and pressure behind impel the water forward. So there is an open way of access in the gospel which leads God’s children forward, and there is great pressure behind that impels them, namely, from the world, the flesh, and the devil. His own gracious invitations, glorious promises, and love in Christ draw them forward in their souls. “The love of Christ constraineth us,” saith Paul. And sin, Satan, the world, and their own doubts and fears are overruled by the Spirit for good, and made impelling influences in their movement heaven-ward.
Where do they flow? They flow to His Word as the pasture of their souls, to the public and private ordinances of His worship. When others in a backsliding generation flow with “the times” they flow against “the times.” They flow to the Lord Himself as their all and in all. You cry, poor soul, “O that I could flow away from myself, and the world, and flow more after holiness, and after communion with the Lord. I see no one like God in Christ. ‘Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.’ I would like to be swallowed up in Him.” It is painful to grace when the soul has no felt desire after Christ. It is painful also for them to see their fellow-sinners careless about salvation. They would desire that others would go along with them. “And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” This has been the case in days gone by, and it will be the case yet. May the Lord hasten the time!
III.—The reception they met with: “their faces were not ashamed.”
The word used in the original language which we have translated “shame” is from a root meaning “to dig, to explore.” Hence the result detection, so as to make persons to be ashamed and to blush. Many people say when they are much ashamed, “I could wish the earth had swallowed me.” This is described in a lively manner in Rev. vi. 15-16. At the coming of the Lord, His enemies will desire that the rocks and the mountains should fall on them and cover them. Shame shall take hold of them. Now, they who “looked unto Him” had the very opposite of that; they were “not ashamed”; they were well received. Yes, they were well received. In past times God’s children were not put to shame; they were not disappointed. And even in this dark age, they are not put to shame who are enabled to put their trust in the Lord Jehovah as their almighty deliverer, and they will not be put to shame at death and in eternity.
A word in conclusion. We have seen that those who looked to the Lord and flowed unto Him were not put to shame. Have you, my friends, ever seen your need of looking unto Him? Are you careless as to your eternal destiny? If so, you must lay to heart that, if you continue as you are, you will seek to dig, to hide yourself eternally from the presence of the Lord, but will not be able. Your shame will cover you as a mantle. But you, who have found out that there is no other hiding place but Christ, you will have your trials and shame from sin in you, and sin committed by you, as long as you are here; but when you die, the Lord will wipe away the cause of all your shame eternally, and your everlasting song will be, “Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood . . . to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.” May He bless His Word!