We will read two passages of Scripture this evening, both of which will have
a bearing upon the subject we are afterwards to consider from our text. Let
us first read a few verses from Isaiah’s prophecy, beginning at chapter
43:22.
Isaiah 43:22. But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been
weary of me, O Israel.
This was a sad charge for God to bring against his chosen people, that they
had grown weary of their God; and yet, truly, this charge may well be
brought against some of us, for we have grown weary of God, we have
forgotten him in our daily walk and conversation, and have grown cold in our
love towards him.
23. Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings;
neither host thou honored me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to
serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense.
No, God’s ways are not ways of irksomeness, but ways of pleasantness. Our
religion is no tax upon us. We find Christ’s yoke to be very easy, and his
burden to be very light. All wisdom’s ways are ways of pleasantness, and all
her paths are peace: “I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor
wearied thee with incense.”
24. Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled
me with the fat of thy sacrifices but thou hast made me to serve with thy
sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities.
“While thy services have been neglected, thy sins have been pampered.” What
an accusation! As God saith by the prophet Amos, “I am pressed under you, as
a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.” God seemeth to be oppressed with
the sin of his people; but what comes next? Why, one of the very sweetest
verses in the whole of the Scriptures.
25. I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake,
and will not remember thy sins.
O glorious mercy! We are sunk in the depth of sin, and yet God pardons us on
the spot; and at once puts every sin away, and bids us go in peace.
26-28. Put me in remembrance: let us plead together. declare thou, that thou
mayest be justified. Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have
transgressed against me. Therefore I have profaned the princes of the
sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.
Isaiah 44:1. Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have
chosen:
After all these charges, you see, the love of God to his chosen people is
still the same. Well might Paul say, “I am persuaded, that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be
able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord.” Sin is an exceedingly evil and bitter thing, but even that shall not
divide us from the love of God, for, “while we were yet sinners, in due time
Christ died for the ungodly.” So herein grace triumpheth over sin, and
layeth our follies beneath its feet.
2-8. Thus saith the LORD that made thee, and formed thee from the womb which
will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and thou, Jesurun, whom I
have chosen. For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon
the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing is on
thine offspring: and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by
the water courses. One shall say, I am the LORD’S; and another shall call
himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto
the LORD, and surname himself by the name of Israel. Thus saith the LORD the
King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts, I am the first, and I am
the last; and beside me there is no God. And who, as I shall call, and shall
declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people
and the things that are coming, and shall come, let them show unto them.
Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and
have declared it ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me yea,
there is no God; I know not any.
Now turn to Psalm 85. This Psalm is dedicated to the chief musician. It is a
Psalm worthy of the ablest musician. It is to be sung with care; they are
well instructed who can understand it, and enter into the experience it
describes. It is called- A Psalm for the sons of Korah.
I have often reminded you, dear friends, that, when Korah, Dathan, and
Abiram, went down alive into the pit, the sons of Dathan and Abiram perished
with their fathers, but we read, “Notwithstanding the children of Korah died
not” We cannot tell why, we must set it down to the sovereign grace of God:
and if it were so, then I can see why they henceforth became singers in the
sanctuary.
“A Psalm for the sons of Korah.” You will sing best who wonder most at your
salvation. You who can see no reason for it, except the sovereign goodness
of God, will have sweet voices tuned with gratitude wherewith to praise God.
The first verse of the Psalm contains a happy memory
Verses 1, 2. LORD, thou host been favorable unto thy land: thou hast brought
back the captivity of Jacob. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people,
thou Last covered all their sin. Selah.
Let us think of what God has done for his people. He has been very favorable
to us in years past. He has lifted up the light of his countenance upon his
chosen ones, and made them glad. “Thou hast brought back the captivity of
Jacob.” We were in captivity once, exiles far off from God and home; but he
has led our captivity captive, and we are now in bondage no longer, blessed
be his name!
Note again what the psalmist says: “Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy
people.” What a joy that is! Forgiven sin is enough to make us sing to all
eternity. If sin be pardoned, thou hast a mass of mercy in that fact too
great for thee to estimate its value. “Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of
thy people.”
See how the inspired writer puts it again: “Thou hast covered all their
sin,- hidden it, put it out of sight with that divine covering of the
atonement, which has hid for ever, even from the eyes of God, the sin of his
people. There is a happy memory for us,-to see what God has done for us. Let
us bless his name for it.
Now comes another happy memory
3. Thou host taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the
fierceness of thine anger.
“Thou didst stay thy bow even after it was bent. Even when thy right arm was
bared for war, thou didst make peace for us. ‘Thou hast turned thyself from
the fierceness of thine anger.’ When it burned like fire, yet didst thou
stay it through the great atonement of Jesus “Christ our Lord.” Now comes in
a prayer
4. Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to
cease.
“Thou hast done all this for thy people; now do this for us who fear lest we
are not thy people,-comfort us. Turn us, and then take thine anger from our
conscience, and let us be at peace with thee.” How I wish that many in this
Tabernacle would pray even now, “Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause
thine anger toward us to cease!” It is the prayer of a church that is under
a cloud; it is the prayer of a nation that is suffering for its sin; it is
the prayer of a sinner who sees what God has done for his people, and who
entreats the Lord to do the same for him.
5. Wilt thou be angry with us for ever?
“Surely we have not got into eternity yet. Lord, do not have eternal anger
toward us. ‘Wilt thou be angry with us for ever?’ Wilt thou not hear our
prayers? Wilt thou not have mercy upon us?”
5. Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?
“Shall our children also suffer? Wilt thou not have pity upon them?”
6, 7. Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?
Shew us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us thy salvation.
“We are such poor blind creatures that we cannot see; yet, O Lord, show us
thy mercy, make us see it, reveal it to us; and grant us thy salvation? It
must be a free grant, a grant of grace, a grant of love, therefore, grant us
thy salvation.”
Listen to this eighth verse
8. I will hear what God the LORD will speak:
“I will be silent. I have spoken to him; now I will hear what his answer is.
I will hold my ear attentive to listen to his voice.” O my dear hearers,
when you are willing to hear God, there are good times coming to you!
8. For he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints:
There is peace, peace, nothing else but peace for them.
8. But let them not turn again to folly.
For if they do, the Lord will speak to them by rods and chastisements. They
that get God’s peace must mind that they keep it. They must walk carefully,
or else they will break the peace, and they may themselves get broken in
pieces. “Let them not turn again to folly.”
9. Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him;
When you honor him, reverence him, worship him, his salvation cannot be far
away from you.
9, 10. That glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth are met together;
At the cross is their meeting-place. There, you shall see God’s mercy and
God’s truth embracing each other over the great sacrifice of Christ. Mercy
and truth seem set at variance in the sinner’s case till they are reconciled
by the blood of Jesus.
10. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
It seemed impossible that God should be righteous and yet be at peace with
sinners; but Christ has taken both parties by the hand, and at Calvary they
kiss each other. God is as righteous as if he were not gracious, and as
gracious as if he were not just. Yea, his justice and his peace are each of
them all the brighter because of the other.
11. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down
from heaven.
Carpeted with truth, and canopied with righteousness,-what a wonderful scene
is before us! Truth is coming out of the ground, as though it had been a
dead thing, which begins to live, and leaves its tomb; and righteousness is
throwing up the windows of heaven, and leaning out to look down upon the
sons of men. “Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall
look down from heaven.” What a wonderful meeting this is of truth and
righteousness,-truth lifting up her hand to heaven, and righteousness
putting down its hand to earth!
12. Yea, the LORD shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield
her increase.
It is all well when it is well with us in our relation to God. When we are
reconciled to him, then all things are reconciled by that fact.
13. Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in. the way of his
steps.
Lord, hear the prayer of this Psalm, and answer it to us, for Jesus sake!
Amen.
In Celebration of Life in Him,
Dr. Jim DeBruhl, gembeaux@bellsouth.net
" Everything is wrong until God makes it right. "
