Preached by REV. JAMES MACLEOD, Greenock, in November, 1950.
“Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.“—Psalm lxxx, 3.
WE are told that Asaph was the writer of this Psalm. He was the writer of many of the Psalms. He was a good man, divinely taught, and led by the Holy Spirit, what to write, and what to believe. “All thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children” (Isa. liv, 13). This Psalm was written at a time of declension from the worship of God. It begins in the form of a prayer: “Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel.” Indeed, many of the Psalms are prayers, as well as songs of praise, thanksgiving, and confession of sin. The Holy Spirit suited them for all times and ages of the Church of God in the world. The true Church of God will use the Book of Psalms, when man-made hymns shall be forgotten, and nowhere found for generations, and generations. That is in the future. It is a sure sign of departure from the Word of God, when hilarious, emotional, and carnal human production is substituted for the pure Word of God. Men may try to make all kinds of excuses, quote ancient authors, Reformers, Roman Catholics, Protestants, and decide the matter by saying, “This is our own hymn book, and it is strictly Calvinistic,” as if they were infallible authorities! The Psalms in metre are not in full use in the Protestant Churches of England, and in most of the Churches of Scotland. By this departure, the cause of God has suffered, and is suffering, and strife and divisions among the children of God is there, that should not be there, if men adhered to the Word of God as their only rule of faith, and practice! The Psalms were given to the Church of God for instruction in righteousness, but never man-made hymns. “Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,” could never have been written by the mind or hand of a son of fallen Adam if the Holy Spirit had not led the mind and hand that wrote it. We cannot accept that men or women who write hymns are inspired by the Holy Spirit so that however holy otherwise they may be, their grand effusions cannot be free of sin. On the other hand, we accept that the Word of God is inspired, and sinlessly pure, and holy! What an extraordinary difference! “But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant” (I Cor. xiv, 38). We said above that it was a time of national declension as is obvious in our own day. We give the lie to our professed Christianity in boldly denying the Word of God, and wickedly wresting it to our ultimate confusion.
First: We shall consider the prayer, “Turn us again.”
Second: The second petition, “Cause thy face to shine.”
Third: “If God should grant their petitions they were sure of salvation—” and we shall be saved.”
First, we shall consider the prayer, “Turn us again.” This adverb, “again,” is very significant. He brought them out of Egypt many hundreds of years before the days of blessed Asaph. We may call that the first “turning” from the land of death and darkness. He brought them into the wilderness to shew them what was in their hearts. They were not long in the wilderness when they revealed plainly enough that the “heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” The miracles they saw, and the mighty deliverances wrought for them did not change their carnal natures and their carnal lusts. The Books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy are a record of their wickedness, and so are the Prophets, as we read in Isaiah, “That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord” (Isa. xxx, 9). We ought to read in their record our own heart inclinations, and if not we miss what is written for our instruction in righteousness. We dare not cast a stone at them, for it is in our own heart. He many times delivered them from their evil hearts, guilt and misery. If they had need of this prayer, “Turn us again,” so have we as much as they had when Asaph uttered these words from the mouth of the blessed Spirit. If they were delivered from their bondage in Egypt, so were we from the bondage and curse of Popery, when the Spirit of God quickened the souls of men in the days of Luther, Calvin and Knox. Behold how we have departed from that blessed deliverance, and set up our golden calves to go before us in returning to the “flesh pots of Egypt.” We must turn to the Word of God. That must be the first “turning,” and to the holy doctrines of the Word. There can be no reformation without the Word of God. Men may set up “forward, downward, upward and backward movements,” but their carnal efforts must fail at every turn till they pray, “Turn us again” to thy Word. This nation has departed from the Word of God. It is folly, ignorance, boldness and hypocrisy to deny it. We began to deny the inerring, inspired Word of God when infidel German Rationalists bellowed forth that they found that the Bible was not accurate in its history, geography and dates!
This was the beginning of the awful fall and ruin of that great nation! They are still on the decline, and all the craft and money of the world will never raise them out of the gutter of atheism and infidelity that they are labouring under, till they turn to the Word of God. British and American scholars in Church and in State followed the Germanic philosophy of “life” and religion with such terrible consequence that to the present hour the world is reeling under the impact of it. When the Protestant Church departed from the Word of God, both in Europe and America, and substituted Science as the moral code and only reliable source of proved knowledge, and as the only central authority to guide men in the affairs of this world; from that time on, wars, destruction, ruin, hatred, suspicion, lying, immorality, murder and idolatry came upon the generation like a mighty flood, which left nations drifting towards destruction. Scientific knowledge is the most potent instrument for the destruction of human beings that has ever been known in the history of the human race! The Bible is the highest, greatest and noblest instrument that was ever placed in the hands of sinful men for their good, both in this life and for divine guidance for the life to come; and what madness to think that God will honour their “scientific conclusions,” and place it above His own written Word! It is to be observed that it was after the German Rationalists attacked the Bible that the Church of Rome got so aggressive in Europe and America. The cradle of Communism is not Russia, but Germany. You see, one error leads to another—Rationalism, aggressive Romanism, and Communism that issued from the bowels of both the Church of Rome and German Rationalism. The German nation must be held guilty and responsible for the spread of Communism in Russia, as well as that wicked Greek Church. We in Britain drank long and deep of the religious philosophy of the Germans, and in millions turned our back on the Word of God. We are still drifting away from it. The rot is going deeper and deeper. There are many attempts at Church unions, both in Britain and other Protestant countries, but there are no signs of turning to the Word of God, which must be the first step in the right and proper direction; if union and communion can be realised in the Scriptural sense. Men may have communions, but not union of heart in the Word of God! “The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him” (Q. 2, Shorter Catechism). That is the “only rule” to direct us in turning from idols to serve the living God. It was to this “only rule” to direct us the blessed Saviour referred on all occasions in meeting the attacks of His enemies, and in repelling the malicious attempts of the devil against His person and work in the world. How dare men professing His name deny what He acknowledged to be the Word of God from Genesis to Malachi? “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise” (Prov. xii, 15).
If men would hearken to the Word of God they would be wise: and pay attention to what is written therein; instead, they boldly criticise what they know not. However often they have been challenged, confuted, and their attacks defeated, they again and again try to prove that the Word of God is not to be relied upon! What fools sin made of men. The Lord’s Day must be secularised to suit the lusts of wicked men. The Seventh Commandment must be explained away in the Divorce Courts. “The sins forbidden in the Seventh Commandment, besides the neglect of the duties required, are, adultery, fornication, rape, incest, sodomy, and all unnatural lusts; all corrupt or filthy communication, or listening thereto; wanton looks, impudent or light behaviour, immodest apparel; prohibiting of lawful and dispensing with unlawful marriages; allowing, tolerating, or keeping of stews, and resorting to them; entangling vows of single life, undue delay of marriage; having more wives or husbands than one at the same time, unjust divorce; or desertion, idleness, gluttony, drunkenness, unchaste company; lascivious songs, books, pictures, dances, stage plays; and all other provocations to, or acts of uncleanness either in ourselves or others” (Larger Catechism, 139). The above picture is solemn and painful, but the fact must be faced that it is a true picture of the lives of very many in “Christian Britain” to-day! If ever in our national history we needed the prayer, “Turn us again,” we need it to-day! Turn us to morality, to sane conduct, and upright living as rational human beings. Dare we live on a lower scale than the brute beasts? Our sins are mounting up to heaven like the sins of Sodom, and as we draw nearer and nearer the abyss of universal ruin, men and women are much bolder in sin than they were thirty, twenty, or ten years ago. That is the clearest evidence of the gathering clouds of God’s judgments to be near us! “Turn us again” to secret prayer, family worship, attending to the worship of God, both in private and in public. As our Lord said, “I tell you, nay: but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish.” We have our blessed Bible, pure and holy as our fathers had it and handed it to us, but woe betide us if we neglect it and act contrary to the Word of God! It is of infinite importance that the understanding, conscience, tongue and general conduct be ruled and governed by the Word of God in our daily life in the home, business, profession, and in our dealings with our fellow man. If we lie, cheat, and rob our neighbour of his goods and credit, our religion is vain and gross mockery of what we profess to be before the Lord. “Turn us again” to love and respect one another—for the back-biting tongue is from the devil, and the scurrilous language of some bears the mark of the beast. “Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the Lord” (Lev. xix, 16). The partisan fellow is always a dangerous neighbour, and on the alert to pass on what he “heard” somebody saying about the folk he desires to damage in their reputation or goods! “Turn us again” to observe the Lord’s Day to the Lord. We have noticed recently in looking over Hansard how Members of Parliament twist the words of our Saviour: “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” The Sabbath was made for the benefit of man, for his spiritual and eternal profit: and not for animal pleasures, gains, and carnal amusements, and lusts. The ancient sun worshippers called it “Sunday,” the day of the sun, as in Africa where countless numbers of natives have worshipped the sun for generations and generations—it is their “Sunday.” The Germans had their “Sunday” long before the Christian era. In our Gaelic language the only way we could say “Sunday” is by saying “The day of the sun.”
We doubt not that calling the Lord’s Day “Sunday” has secularised the first day of the week to common use like any other day of the week. The proper name for it is “The Lord’s Day.” It will suit the carnal minds of men to call it “Sunday,” particularly those who deny the Resurrection of our Lord from the dead. It is “Sunday” to unbelieving Jews, Atheists, Modernists, Communists and Papists. To the believer, the first day of the week is in every sense the Lord’s Day—a memorial of the glorious resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead. It is to the Lord we must go to turn us again to the Bible, to the doctrines of the Word of God and prayerful confession of our sin, and to seek grace to acknowledge our sins before Him. He has many times delivered us from our enemies, death, ruin and idolatry, from Popery, Jesuits, and their murderous armies. The last deliverance was probably the greatest in our national history. “Turn us again.”
(To be continued.)