Quotes from "New Morning Mercies" by Paul David Tripp

I've been enjoying this daily devotional that I won. Here are some of my favorite quotes so far, which I hope will be a blessing to you. :) The whole book has been good.

"We were not made to live independent, self-directed lives. We were not meant to exist according to our own little self-oriented plans, living for our own moments of glory. No, we were created to live for [H]im." - From January 1.

"Your hope of enduring is not to be found in your character or strength, but in your Lord's." - From January 12.

"For the believer, harsh, critical, impatient, and irritated responses to others are always connected to forgetting or denying who we are and what we have been given in Jesus." - Jan. 19

"Whether you have realized it or not, [H]e is what your hoping heart has been searching for, because what you've really been searching for is life, real heart-changing, heart-satisfying life--life to the fullest, life abundant. People can love and respect you, but they can't give you life." - Jan. 23

"True lasting hoping is never found horizontally. It's only ever found vertically, at the feet of the Messiah, the One who is hope." - Jan. 23

"The [O]ne who is the final definition of love, wisdom, mercy, and power makes us [H]is slaves. He who alone is able to give us life enslaves our hearts to [H]im. His absolute rulership over every area of our lives is not a deadening law but a life-giving grace. He is freeing us from our slavery to what is not true and cannot deliver." - Jan. 27

"Will you deal with life based on what you assess you bring to the table or based on who you now are as a child of the King of kings and Lord of lords---the Savior who is always with you in power and grace? Will you live in timidity and fear or in the courage of hope? Will you avoid challenges of faith in fear or move toward the, resting not in your own ability but in the presence, power, and grace of the One who rules all and has become your Father?" - Jan. 31

"We can experience peace in the face of the unknown. We can feel an inner well-being while living in the middle of mystery. Why? Because our peace of heart does not rest on how much we know, how much we have figured out, or how accurately we have been able to predict the future. No, our rest is in the [P]erson who holds our individual futures in [H]is wise and gracious hands." - Feb. 6

"We argue to ourselves and to others that what looked like sin was not sin at all. It is all a function of the delusional self-righteousness of sin. It involves daily acts of self-atonement. It is us working to convince ourselves that we really don't need the amazing grace of a faithful, loving Savior. At street level, we all tend to back away from the radical message that we all say we believe. It is a shocking denial of sin and a minimizing of the grace that is a sinner's only hope." - Feb. 7

"Corporate worship really does confront us with the fact that we are worse off than we thought and that God's grace is more amazing than we ever could have imagined. We will continue to need that reminder until our sin is no more and we are with [H]im and like [H]im forever." - Feb. 8 

"Quit being paralyzed by your past. Grace offers you life in the present and a guarantee of a future." - Feb. 8

"You don't have to hide in guilt when weak faith gets you off the path, because your hope in life isn't your faithfulness, but [H]is. You can run in weakness and once again seek [H]is strength. And you can know that in zealous grace [H]e will not leave [H]is craftwork until faith fully rules your heart unchallenged." - Feb. 12

"Grace illumines our dank hallways and our dark corners. The Son of grace shines the light of [H]is grace into the darkest recesses of our hearts, not as an act of vengeance or punishment, but as a move of forgiving, transforming, and delivering grace. He dispels our self-inflicted darkness because [H]e knows that we cannot grieve what we do not see, we cannot confess what we have not grieved, and we cannot turn from what we haven't confessed.
   The light has come. Run to the light; it is not to be feared. Yes, it is the light of exposure, but what will be exposed has already been covered by the blood of the One who exposes it." - Feb. 14

"He has not unleashed [H]is power in your life only to deliver to you things that quickly pass away and that have no capacity at all to satisfy your heart.
   This means that often when you are tempted to think that God is loving you less because your life is hard, [H]e is actually loving you more. The hardships that you are facing are the tool of [H]is exposing, forgiving, liberating, and transforming grace. These hard moments aren't in your life because God is distant and uncaring, but rather because [H]e loves you so fully. These moments become moments of faith and not doubt when by grace you begin to value what God says is truly valuable. Do you value what God values?" - Feb. 19 

Spurgeon Quotes

I haven't posted in a while, and I wanted to share some quotes I've been blessed by lately.

 "We need workshop faith as well as prayer meeting faith."

"We need to believe more joyfully. Oh what a blessed thing it is when you reach the rest and joy of faith. If we would truly believe the promise of God and rest in the Lord's certain fulfillment of it, we might be as happy as the angels. I notice how very early in the morning how the birds begin to sing, and before the sun is up, or even the first gray tints of morning lights are visible, the little songsters are awake and singing. Too often we refuse to sing until the sun is more than up, and noon is near. Shame on us!"

"The gospel ought to make us separate from the world. The gospel ought to make us lead a heavenly life here below. So it will, if we drink deep draughts of it. But if we take only a sip of it now and again, we give it no chance of working out its design in us. Do not paddle about the margin of the water of life, but first wade in up to your knees and then hasten to plunge into the waters to swim in it. Beware of contentment with shallow grace. Prove what the grace of God can do for you by giving yourself up to its power. Full assurance gives a man a grateful zeal for the God he loves."

"Men will do little for what they doubt and much for what they believe."

"Full assurance, as we have said before, is not of the essence of salvation."

- C.H. Spurgeon, in his message entitled "Assurance of Our Salvation."

~~

"If you do not endeavor to be like Christ, you are not His sheep, for it is true of His sheep, 'I know them, and they follow Me.'" 

"Who can loosen the grip of that hand which was pierced with the nail for me?"

- C. H. Spurgeon, in his message entitled "Eternal Security."

From the Pen of Pastor Paul - Book Review

I have only read the first 36% of the book (goodreads.com figures for me), but I can tell it's a keeper.  The author gives many pointed, convicting questions, yet is humble and encouraging, pointing to Christ's power.  I don't know where he got "Jameson" from in the book of Acts--it's Jason in all the versions I looked up--so that is one distracting thing, but probably a typo, though written two or three times that way.  Other than that and a few other possible typos, it's good enough that I want a pencil with me while I'm reading it, in order to underline or mark parts I like.  Here are a few of the quotes I've marked so far:

'Like those new believers in first century Thessalonica, what we know today is this: Jesus has utterly revolutionized our lives. To the world, we turn everything upside down. To the believer, God is making everything right side up. The world has fallen and it is God who is picking it up. The world is like a shattered vase and it is God who is restoring it. The world is like a filthy mirror and it is God who is renovating its luster.'

'We are to persevere in prayer that we might persevere by prayer.'

'Not to be totally sold out to the Word of God is to lack that joy, that fruitfulness.  Not to give yourself to it more than all riches is to lack, is to struggle, is to trip, and is to stumble along in our Christian life.'

'When people saw the Thessalonians, they saw love, zeal, and gospel. When the world sees you, what do they see?  Do they see arrogance?  Do they see you being stuck up?  Do they see you as too good for them?  Does the world see you projecting a "holier than thou," "I'm better than you," attitude?  Or, are you an example of a sinner saved by grace?  Do they see you as a jar of clay that has been broken into a thousand pieces that God himself is putting back together; and even as he puts you back together those cracks are still visible?  Our evangelistic zeal must be shown in our lives living amongst the world; in truthfulness of who we were; in honesty about what we are; in hope of what we will become.  Like a masterpiece of art shown in a window, show the world what God can do.'

He quotes from many good writers/preachers, including John Calvin and Charles Spurgeon, as here:

'Describing preaching, C. H. Spurgeon once put it like this: "when we speak as ministers, and not as men; as preachers, instead of penitents; as theologians instead of disciples, we fail."'

'The devil hid himself in the serpent with Adam and Eve so that he could distract them with the question, "Hath God said?" (Genesis 3:1; KJV). The devil came and tried to drown out God's clear command with his noise, speaking his own version of the gospel--a gospel of self-help and a gospel of your best life now.'

'We can praise God in the midst of being sifted, in the midst of being persecuted by Satan himself because we know that our faith is a gift of God and that as a gift of God it is unassailable, it is invincible, it cannot be destroyed, it cannot be snuffed out.  We can praise God for the Devil's temptations because they are signs to the true believers of true faith.  The Devil's temptations are signs to us that our faith is real. We can stand up in true confidence against the Devil. We know he wants our true faith to be destroyed, but it can't.'

I look forward to reading the rest of the book.

Thank you to crossfocusedreviews.com for a copy to review.  My review is honest and unbiased.

Quotes from The Treasury of David - Psalm 56

Psalm 56. Verse 1.--"He fighting daily."  There is no morning on which we can arise and go forth into the world, and say, "No enemy will come out against me to-day."  There is no night in which we can retire from that world, and think to find safety in the solitude of our own chambers, and say, "No evil can enter here." -- Barton Bouchier, in Manna in the Heart," 1855.

Verse 3.--"What time I am afraid," etc.  A divine spark may live in a smoke of doubts without a speedy rising into a flame.  When grace is at the bottom of doubting, there will be reliance on Christ and lively petitions to him.  Peter's faith staggers when he began to sink, but he casts a look and sends forth a cry to the Saviour, acknowledging his sufficiency;  Matt. xiv. 30, "Lord, save me."  Sometimes those doubtings strengthen our trust and make us take hold faster on God.  Ps. lvi. 3, "What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee."  This was a fear of himself or others, rather than a jealousy of God.  Had he had unworthy suspicions of him, he would not have trusted him; he would not have run for remedy to the object of his fear.  The waverings where faith is, are like the tossings of a ship fast at anchor (still there is a relying upon God), not like a boat carried by the waves of those doubtings, it is not an evil heart of unbelief.  Such doubtings consist with the indwelling of the Spirit, who is in the heart, to perform the office of a Comforter against such fears and to expel those thick fumes of nature. --Stephen Charnock.

Verse 4.--"I will not fear what flesh can do unto me."  Fear not man, he is but flesh.  Thou needest not, thou oughtest not to fear. . . . Flesh can only wound flesh; he may kill thee, but not hurt thee.  Why shouldest thou fear to be stripped of that which thou hast resigned already to Christ?  It is the first lesson thou learnest, if a Christian, to deny thyself, take up thy cross, and follow thy master; so that the enemy comes too late; thou hast no life to lose, because thou hast given it already to Christ; nor can man take away that without God's leave; all thou hast is insured; and though God hath not promised thee immunity from suffering tin this kind, yet he hath undertaken to bear the loss, yea, to pay thee a hundredfold, and thou shalt not stay for it till another world. . . . God feels himself reproached when his children fear a sorry man; therefore we are bid sanctify the Lord, not to fear their fear. --William Gurnall.

Verse 4.--(last clause).--Fear of man--grim idol, bloody mouthed; many souls has he devoured and trampled down into hell!  His eyes are full of hatred to Christ's disciples.  Scoffs and jeers lurk in his eye.  The laugh of the scorner growls in his throat.  Cast down this idol.  This keeps some of you from secret prayer, from worshipping God in your family, from going to lay your case before ministers, from openly confessing Christ.  You that have felt God's love and Spirit, dash this idol to pieces.  "Who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die?"  "Fear not, thou worm Jacob."  "What have I to do any more with idols?" --Robert Murray M'Cheyne, 1813-1843.

The Treasury of David Quotes

Psalm 45 

Verse 13.--"The king's daughter is all glorious within," etc. When the children of God recollect their glorious and heavenly pedigree, they endeavour to excel others, both in the beautiful disposition of soul, and manner of life.  "The king's daughter," that is, the daughter of the heavenly Father, who is also the bride of the king's Son; every believing soul "is all glorious," adorned with a holiness not only glorious to herself, but also to the Father and the Bridegroom, and is the beginning of a heavenly glory; and that chiefly "within," not only when she appears abroad, and presents herself to the view of men, but also when she sits in the inner bed-chamber in the secret exercises of religion, in which she in private pleases the Father and the Bridegroom, who having a regard to the inward man, she above all endeavours to keep that pure and chaste.  - Hermann Witsius. 1636-1708.

Verse 15.--"They shall be brought." Reader! do not fail to observe the manner of expression, the church is brought, she doth not come of herself.  No, she must be convinced, converted, made willing.  No one can come to Christ, except the Father, who hath sent Christ, draw Him.  John vi. 44.--Robert Hawker, D.D.

Quotes from The Treasury of David - Psalm 45, Part 1

(Exposition of verse 6) '"Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." To whom can this be spoken but our Lord? The psalmist cannot restrain his adoration. His enlightened eye sees in the royal Husband of the church, God, God to be adored, God reigning, God reigning everlastingly. Blessed sight! Blind are the eyes that cannot see God in Christ Jesus! We never appreciate the tender condescension of our King in becoming one flesh with his church, and placing her at his right hand, until we have fully rejoiced in his essential glory and deity. What a mercy for us that our Saviour is God, for who but a God could execute the work of salvation? What a glad thing it is that he reigns on a throne which will never pass away, for we need both sovereign grace and eternal love to secure our happiness. Could Jesus cease to reign we should cease to be blessed, and were he not God, and therefore eternal, this must be the case. No throne can endure for ever, but that on which God himself sitteth. "The sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre." He is the lawful monarch of all things that be. His rule is founded in right, its law is right, its result is right. Our King is no usurper and no oppressor. Even when he shall break his enemies with a rod of iron, he will do no man wrong; his vengeance and his grace are both in conformity with justice. Hence we trust him without suspicion; he cannot err; no affliction is too severe, for he sends it; no judgment too harsh, for he ordains it. O blessed hands of Jesus! the reigning power is safe with you. All the just rejoice in the government of the King who reigns in righteousness.' -- Charles Spurgeon.

(The latter exposition of verse 10) '"Forget also thine own people, and thy father's house." We have much to forget as well as to learn, and the unlearning is so difficult that only diligent hearing, and considering, and bending of the whole soul to it, can accomplish the work; and even these would be too feeble did not divine grace assist. Yet why should we remember the Egypt from which we cam out? Are the leeks and the garlic, and the onions anything, when the iron bondage, and the slavish tasks, and the death dealing Pharaoh of hell are remembered? We part with folly for wisdom; with bubbles for eternal joys; with deceit for truth; with misery for bliss; with idols for the living God. O that Christians were more mindful of the divine precept here recorded; but, alas! worldliness abounds; the church is defiled; and the glory of the Great King is veiled. Only when the whole church leads the separated life will the full splendour and power of Christianity shine forth upon the world.' -- Charles Spurgeon.

(Exposition of verse 11) '"So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty." Wholehearted love is the duty and bliss of the marriage state in every case, but especially so in this lofty mystic marriage. The church must forsake all others and cleave to Jesus only, or she will not please him nor enjoy the full manifestation of his love. What less can he ask, what less may she dare propose than to be wholly his? Jesus sees a beauty in his church, a beauty which he delights in most when it is not marred by worldliness. He has always been most near and precious to his saints when they have cheerfully taken up his cross and followed him without the camp. His Spirit is grieved when they mingle themselves among the people and learn their ways. No great and lasting revival of religion can be granted us till the professed lovers of Jesus prove their affection by coming out from an ungodly world, being separated, and touching not the unclean thing. "For he is thy Lord; and worship thou him." He has royal rights still; his condescending grace does not lessen but rather enforce his authority. Our Saviour is also our Ruler. The husband is the head of the wife; the love he bears her does not lessen but strengthen her obligation to obey. The church must reverence Jesus, and bow before him in prostrate adoration; his tender union with her gives her liberty, but not license; it frees her from all other burdens, but places his easy yoke upon her neck. Who would wish it to be otherwise? The service of God is heaven in heaven, and perfectly carried out it is heaven upon earth. Jesus, thou art he whom thy church praises in her unceasing songs, and adores in her perpetual service. Teach us to be wholly thine. Bear with us, and work by thy Spirit in us till thy will is done by us on earth as it is in heaven.' -- Charles Spurgeon.

(Latter exposition of verse 12) '"Even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour." Not by pandering to their follies, but by testifying against their sins, shall the wealthy be one to the faith of Jesus. They shall come not to favour the church but to beg for her favour. She shall not be the hireling of the great, but as a queen shall she dispense her favours to the suppliant throng of the rich among the people. We go about to beg for Christ like beggars for alms, and many who should know better will make compromises and become reticent of unpopular truth to please the great ones of the earth; not so will the true bride of Christ degrade herself, when her sanctification is more deep and more visible; then will the hearts of men grow liberal, and offerings from afar, abundant and continual, shall be presented at the throne of the Pacific Prince.' -- Charles Spurgeon.

The Treasury of David Quotes - Psalm 44, Part 2

(Psalm 44 - Exposition of verse 10) '"Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves."  After defeat and retreat, comes spoliation.  The poor, vanquished nation paid a terrible penalty for being overcome; plunder and murder desolated the conquered land, and the invaders loaded themselves with every precious thing which they could carry away.  In spiritual experience we know what it is to be despoiled by our enemies; doubts and fears rob us of our comforts, and terrible forebodings spoil us of our hopes; and all because the Lord, for wise purposes, sees fit to leave us to ourselves.  Alas! for the deserted soul; no calamity can equal the sorrow of being left of God, though it be but for a small moment.' -- Charles Spurgeon.
 
(Psalm 44 - Exposition of verse 11) '"Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and has scattered us among the heathen."  As sheep are slaughtered for food, so were the people slain in flocks, with ease, and frequency.  Now with the dignity of sacrifice, but with the cruelty of the shambles, were they put to death.  God appeared to give them up like sheep allotted to the butcher, to abandon them as the hireling abandons the flock to wolves.  The plaint is bitterly eloquent.  Many were carried into captivity, far off from the public worship of the temple of God, to pine as exiles among idolaters.  All this is ascribed to the Lord as being allowed by him, and even appointed by his decree.  It is well to trace the hand of God in our sorrows, for it is surely there.' -- Charles Spurgeon.

(Psalm 44 - Latter exposition of verse 12) 'It always lightens a believer's trouble when he can see that God's great name will be honoured thereby, but it is a grievous aggravation of misery when we appear to be tortured in vain. For our comfort let us rest satisfied that in reality the Lord is glorified, and when no revenue of glory is manifestly rendered to him, he none the less accomplishes his own secret purposes, of which the grand result will be revealed in due time. We do not suffer for nought, nor are our griefs without result.' -- Charles Spurgeon.

(Exposition of Psalm 44) Verse 17. "All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee." Here the psalmist urges that Israel had not turned away from her allegiance to Jehovah. When in the midst of many griefs we can still cling to God in loving obedience, it must be well with us. True fidelity can endure rough usage. Those who follow God for what they get, will leave him when persecution is stirred up, but not so the sincere believer; he will not forget his God, even though the worst come to the worst. "Neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant." No idol was set up, the ordained worship was not relinquished, God was still nationally acknowledged, and therefore the psalmist is more earnest that the Lord should interpose. This and the succeeding verses are suitable for the lips of martyrs, indeed the entire psalm might be called the martyr's complaint. Not for sin but for righteousness did the saints suffer, not for falsehood but for truth, not for forsaking the Lord, but for following hard after him. Sufferings of such a sort may be very terrible, but they are exceedingly honourable, and the comforts of the Lord shall sustain those who are accounted worthy to suffer for Christ's sake. -- Charles Spurgeon.

(Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings, Verses 1, 2, 4, 8 of Psalm 44) 'Children are their parent's heirs; it were unnatural for a father before he dies to bury up his treasure in the earth, where his children should not find or enjoy it; now the mercies of God are not the least part of his treasure, nor the least of his children's inheritance, being both helps to their faith, matter for their praise, and spurs to their obedience.' -- William Gurnall.

Quotes from The Treasury of David

I've been neglecting to post any quotes lately.  I have been reading, but have been busier elsewhere.

(Psalm 42 - Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings) Verse 11. 
'Hast thou seen the sun shine forth in February, and the sky blue, and the hedgerows bursting into bud, and the primrose peeping beneath the bank, and the birds singing in the bushes? Thou hast thought that spring was already come in its beauty and sweet odours. But a few days, and the clouds returned, and the atmosphere was chilled, and the birds were mute, and snow was on the ground, and thou hast said that spring would never come. And thus sometimes the young convert finds his fears removed, and the comforts of the gospel shed abroad in his heart, and praise and thanksgiving, and a new song put in his mouth. And he deems unadvisedly that his troubles are past for ever. But awhile, and his doubts return, and his comforts die away, and his light is taken from him, and his spirit is overwhelmed, and he is fain to conclude that salvation and all its blessings are not for him. But the spring, though late, shall break at last. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me?' -- H. G. Salter's "Book of Illustrations," 1840.

(Psalm 42 - Hints to Preachers.) 'Verse 5. Why art thou cast down?
1. The mind, even of a holy man, may be unduly cast down and disquieted.
2. In cases of undue dejection and disquietude, the proper remedy is to expostulate with the soul, and to direct it to the only true source of relief.
3. Expostulation with the soul in times of distress, is then productive of its proper end, when it leads to an immediate application to God.' -- H. March.
(Psalm 43 - Exposition) "Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?" Why do I wander hither and thither like a restless spirit? Why wear I the weeds of sorrow on my body, and the lines of grief on my face? Oppression makes a wise man mad; why, Lord, am I called to endure so much of it for so long a time? Here again is a useful question, addressed to the right quarter. The answer will often be because we are saints, and must be made like our Head, and because such sorrow is chastening to the spirit, and yieldeth comfortable fruit. We are not to cross question the Lord in peevishness, but we may ask of him in humility; God help us to observe the distinction so as not to sin through stress of sorrow.' -- Charles Spurgeon.

(Psalm 43 - Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings) Verse 5. Why art thou cast down, O my soul. He comes to his former remedy; he had stilled his grief once before with the same meditation and upbraiding of his own soul, and chiding himself; but he comes to it here as a probatum est, as a tried remedy; he takes up his soul very short, Why art thou so cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? You see how David's passions here are interlaced with comforts, and his comforts with passions, till at last he gets the victory of his own heart. Beloved, neither sin nor grief for sin, are stilled and quieted at the first. You have some short spirited Christians, if all be not quiet at the first, all is lost with them; but it is not so with a true Christian soul, with the best soul living. It was not so with David when he was in distemper; he checks himself, the distemper was not yet stilled; he checks himself again, then the distemper breaks out again; he checks himself again, and all little enough to bring his soul to a holy, blessed, quiet, temper, to that blessed tranquillity and rest that the soul should be in before it can enjoy its own happiness, and enjoy sweet communion with God. As you see in physic, perhaps one purge will not carry away the peccant humour, then a second must be added; perhaps that will not do it, then there must be a third; so when the soul hath been once checked, perhaps it will not do, we must fall to it again, go to God again. And then it may be there will be breaking out of the grief and malady again; we must to it again, and never give over, that is the right temper of a Christian.' -- Richard Sibbes.

(Psalm 44 - Exposition on verse 1) '"Our fathers have told us." They could not have had better informants. Schoolmasters are well enough, but godly fathers are, both by the order of nature and grace, the best instructors of their sons, nor can they delegate the sacred duty. It is to be feared that many children of professors could plead very little before God of what their fathers have told them. When fathers are tongue tied religiously with their offspring, need they wonder if their children's hearts remain sin tied? Just as in all free nations men delight to gather around the hearth, and tell the deeds of valour of their sires "in the brave days of old, "so the people of God under the old dispensation made their families cheerful around the table, be rehearsing the wondrous doings of the Lord their God. Religious conversation need not be dull, and indeed it could not be if, as in this case, it dealt more with facts and less with opinions. What work thou didst in their days, in the times of old. They began with what their own eyes had witnessed, and then passed on to what were the traditions of their youth. Note that the main point of the history transmitted from father to son was the work of God; this is the core of history, and therefore no man can write history aright who is a stranger to the Lord's work. It is delightful to see the footprints of the Lord on the sea of changing events, to behold him riding on the whirlwind of war, pestilence, and famine, and above all to see his unchanging care for his chosen people. Those who are taught to see God in history have learned a good lesson from their fathers, and no son of believing parents should be left in ignorance of so holy an art. A nation tutored as Israel was in a history so marvellous as their own, always had an available argument in pleading with God for aid in trouble, since he who never changes gives in every deed of grace a pledge of mercy yet to come. The traditions of our past experience are powerful pleas for present help.' -- Charles Spurgeon.

(Psalm 44 - Exposition) 'Verse 4. Thou art my King, O God. Knowing right well thy power and grace my heart is glad to own thee for her sovereign prince. Who among the mighty are so illustrious as thou art? To whom, then, should I yield my homage or turn for aid? God of my fathers in the olden time, thou art my soul's monarch and liege Lord.' -- Charles Spurgeon.

(Psalm 44 - Exposition) 'Verse 8. In God we boast all the day long. We have abundant reason for doing so while we recount his mighty acts. What blessed boasting is this! it is the only sort of boasting that is bearable. All other manna bred worms and stank except that which was laid up before the Lord, and all other boasting is loathsome save this glorying in the Lord, which is laudable and pleasing. And praise thy name for ever. Praise should be perpetual. If there were no new acts of love, yet ought the Lord to be praised for what he has done for his people. High let the song be lifted up as we bring to remembrance the eternal love which chose us, predestinated us to be sons, redeemed us with a price, and then enriched us with all the fulness of God. Selah. A pause comes in fitly here, when we are about to descend from the highest to the lowest key. No longer are we to hear Miriam's timbrel, but rather Rachel's weeping. -- Charles Spurgeon.

More to come....

Quote about Psalm 42

Psalm 42 is one of my favorite psalms, because I'm often kind of downcast/fearful and it encourages me to hope in God. Here is a good quote about 42:7  by John Bunyan:

"Deep calleth unto deep." What's that?  Why, it is expressed in the verse before: "O God," says he, "my soul is cast down within me." "Down," that is deep into the jaws of distrust and fear.  And, Lord, my soul in this depth of sorrow, calls for help to thy depth of mercy.  For though I am sinking and am going down, yet not so low but that thy mercy is yet underneath me.  Do, of thy compassions, open those everlasting arms, and catch him that has no help or stay in himself.  For so it is with one that is falling into a well or a dungeon.'

Quotes from "Treasury of David"

From Psalm 40. (I forgot that I posted this earlier, but it bears repeating.)

'Verse 8.--"Thy law is within my heart."  The will of God in which Christ delighted, was (as appears by the coherence, and the quotation of Heb. x. 5) that Christ should make his soul an offering for sin, as more acceptable to God than all other burnt-offerings and sin-offerings.  This law was in his heart, in the midst of his bowels.  He did as much delight in it as we do in following those inclinations which nature has implanted in our hearts, as we do in eating and drinking.  So he expresses it (John iv. 34), "My meat is to do with will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.'  He was as willing to bleed and die for thee as thou art to eat when hungry.  He was delighted as much to be scourged, wounded, crucified, as thou delightest in meat when most delicious.' -- David Clarkson.

Amazing, no?  Not to deny Him praying "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me;" of course.


From Psalm 42.

'Verse 2.--"My soul thirsteth for God," etc.  See that your heart rest not short of Christ in any duty.  Let go your hold of no duty until you find something of Christ in it; and until you get not only an handful, but an armful (with old Simeon, Luke ii. 28); yea, a heartful of the blessed and beautiful babe of Bethlehem therein.  Indeed you should have commerce with heaven, and communion with Christ in duty, which is therefore called the presence of God, or your appearing before him. Exodus xxiii. 17, and Psalm xlii. 2. . . .' -- Christopher Ness's "Chrystal Mirrour," 1679.

'Verse 2. "Come and appear before God." . . . To little purpose we go to church, or attend on ordinances, if we seek not, if we see not God there.' -- Isaac Watts, D.D., 1674-1748.
 

A Hymn

Two lines of this were quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David, and I searched online to find the author. I didn't find the author, but I found the whole poem it went with.  Then, I looked in C.H. Spurgeon's Our Own Hymnbook, and found it, under the title of "Jesus, my great High Priest," and with a few other verses.  Apparently it is by Isaac Watts.  Enjoy!

~~~

Join all the glorious names
Of wisdom, love, and power,
That mortals ever knew,
That angels ever bore:
All are too mean to speak His worth,
Too mean to set my Saviour forth.

Great Prophet of my God,
My tongue would bless Thy name;
By Thee the joyful news
Of our salvation came:
The joyful news of sins forgiven,
Of hell subdued, and peace with heaven.

Jesus, my great High Priest,
Offered His blood, and died:
My guilty conscience seeks
No sacrifice beside:
His powerful blood did once atone
And now it pleads before the throne.

My dear Almighty Lord,
My Conqueror and my King!
Thy matchless power and love,
Thy saving grace, I sing:
Thine is the power   oh, may I sit
In willing bonds beneath Thy feet.

Then let my soul arise,
And tread the tempter down;
My Captain leads me forth
To conquest and a crown.
The feeblest saint shall win the day,
Though death and hell obstruct the way.

Should all the hosts of death,
And powers of hell unknown,
Put their most dreadful forms
Of rage and mischief on,
I shall be safe; for Christ displays
Superior power and guardian grace.

~

(Additional verses, which may have been first.)

To this dear Surety's hand
Will I commit my cause;
He answers and fulfills
His Father's broken laws;
Behold my soul at freedom set!
My Surety paid the dreadful debt.

My Advocate appears
For my defense on high;
The Father bows His ears,
And lays His thunder by;
Not all that hell or sin can say
Shall turn His heart, His love away.

Immense compassion reigns
In my Immanuel's heart,
He condescends to act
A Mediator's part:
He is my friend and brother too,
Divinely kind, divinely true.

Isaac Watts, 1709.

Lyrics and Quote from the Treasury of David

Hymn of Gethsemane - quite lovely!

Verse 12. For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head. We lose ourselves when we speak of the sins of our lives. It may astonish any considering man to take notice how many sins he is guilty of any one day; how many sins accompany any one single act; nay, how many bewray themselves in any one religious duty. Whensoever ye do anything forbidden, you omit the duty at that time commanded; and whenever you neglect that which is enjoined, the omission is joined with the acting of something forbidden; so that the sin, whether omission or commission, is always double; nay, the apostle makes every sin tenfold. James 2:10. That which seems one to us, according to the sense of the law, and the account of God, is multiplied by ten. He breaks every command by sinning directly against one, and so sins ten times at once; besides that swarm of sinful circumstances and aggravations which surround every act in such numbers, as atoms use to surround your body in a dusty room; you may more easily number these than those. And though some count these but fractions, incomplete sins, yet even from hence it is more difficult to take an account of their number. And, which is more for astonishment, pick out the best religious duty that ever you performed, and even in that performance you may find such a swarm of sins as cannot be numbered. In the best prayer that ever you put up to God, irreverence, lukewarmness, unbelief, spiritual pride, self seeking, hypocrisy, distractions, etc., and many more, that an enlightened soul grieves and bewails; and yet there are many more that the pure eye of God discerns, than any man does take notice of. -- David Clarkson.

Selah - from the Treasury of David

There is much more written about this word, but this was the part I found more interesting. The four musical points are quite fascinating, though perhaps some of them are speculative:

Verse 5. Selah. A little word, yet of no small difficulty to explain. Left out of the Bible by the vulgar translators, as though it were impertinent, where, let them consider, whether they come not within the verge of that malediction in Revelation 22:19 . The ancient interpreters did not much meddle with it, and our editions leave it without interpretation. But seeing "whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope" Romans 15:4 , and till "heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled" Matthew 5:18 , we have sufficient warrant after the example of the learned, and encouragement to make enquiry after the mind of the Holy Spirit, in that which he hath both commanded to be written, and hath commanded unto us. Wherein, like the crystal glass, I will rather present you with the true visage of antiquity, than use any newly framed feature or painting of my own.

Selah is mentioned seventy-four times in the Scripture, whereof seventy-one in the book of Psalms, and thrice in the prophet Habakkuk, which is written psalm wise; and it is ever placed in the end of a Psalm or verse, four places only excepted, where, like the sun in the midst of the planets, it is seated to conjoin the precedent words with the subsequent, and communicate splendour unto both. There was a threefold use of it in ancient times, whereof the first concerned the music; the second, the matter handled unto which it was affixed; and the third, the men or congregation assembled in the temple of the Lord, which two last may still have place among us Christians, who are ingrafted into the stock Christ, from whence the Jews were cut off, but from the first we cannot properly suck such nourishment as once they did.

First of the music. The king's choir ( 1 Chronicles 25:1-6 Psalms 62:1-12 , Epigrafh; 1 Chronicles 16:41 ) learned five things by it:

First. To make a little pause, stop, or stay, when they came to Selah, and to meditate awhile upon the matter foregoing.

Second. They knew by that cessation and interval that King David as he was prophesying unto the people, and praising God upon the loud sounding cymbals, was at that instant inspired and taught some new lesson. Wherefore, as men being in serious discourse, when they hear a sudden noise hold their peace to listen, saying, hark! see, lo! so David's heart being smitten by the voice of God's Spirit, the music ceased, stopped, and he checked himself as it were thus: "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth."

Third. It signifieth the change and variation of the music in some strains, or of the metre, or sense, or disjunction of the rhyme, or ceasing of some one sort of music, which howsoever St. Hierome makes some scruple of. The Septuagint, as often as they meet with Selah in the Hebrew text, in their Greek version translated it, the change of the song.

Fourth. It directed them to sing the same verse over again whereunto Selah was annexed. Lastly, it was their instruction to elevate and lift up their voices, praising God with louder voices and loud sounding cymbals. Selah called upon them for louder strains of music and shrillness of voice. But seeing the Jewish harmony and sweet melody is overwhelmed in the ruins of their glorious temple, we remain unskilled in their notes, which doth obscure our annotations upon it. Let this suffice for the "music."  - Edmund Layfielde. 
 

Quotes

Comments on Psalm 40:8

'I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.'



'That [Jesus] came into the world to die for us is a mercy of the first magnitude; but that he came in love to our souls, and underwent all his sufferings with such willingness for our sakes, this heightens it above all apprehension.
...
Did Christ find pleasure in abasement and torment, in suffering and dying for me, and can I find no pleasure in praying, hearing, meditating, and enjoying the sweet duties of communion with him? Did he come so cheerfully to die for me, and do I go so dead heartedly to prayers and sacraments to enjoy fellowship with him? Was it a pleasure to him to shed his blood, and is it none to me to apply it, and reap the benefits of it? O let there be no more grumblings, lazy excuses, shiftings of duty, or dead hearted and listless performances of them, after such an example as this. Be ready to do the will of God, be ye also ready to suffer it. And as to sufferings for Christ, they should not be grievous to Christians that know how cheerfully Christ came from the bosom of the Father to die for them. What have we to leave or lose, in comparison with him? What are our sufferings to Christ's? Alas! there is no compare; there was more bitterness in one drop of his sufferings than in a sea of ours. To conclude: your delight and readiness in the paths of obedience is the very measure of your sanctification.' - Condensed from John Flavel.

'Thy law is within my heart. The law of God is not to be kept in books, but in the midst of our heart, that we may rightly understand the same, admire it, and observe it.' - Martin Geier.

'This law was in his heart, in the midst of his bowels. He did as much delight in it as we do in following those inclinations which nature has implanted in our hearts, as we do in eating and drinking. So he expresses it John 4:34 , "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." He was as willing to bleed and die for thee as thou art to eat when hungry. He was delighted as much to be scourged, wounded, crucified, as thou delightest in meat when most delicious.' - David Clarkson.

Today's Messages

For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness. - Psalm 84:10

I hope this is true for all of us, and that you had a blessed Lord's Day!

Today's sermon and message for the Lord's table were needed.

 The Lord's table message revolved around the leaven in the lump of bread....

Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.  Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. - 1 Corinthians 5:6-8

Our dear elder likened this to ink poured in pure water, tinting the whole glass of water. So leaven makes a lump of bread rise--not just part of it.  And so sin affects the whole of our being if we don't cast it out.  This is a scary thought, is it not?

We must continually remember what Jesus has done for us.

The main message was about the parable of the sower and ground. What kind of hearts do we have?  Mine tends to become anxious and excessively focused on things, which is a lot like the thorny ground.  May God be all our hope and stay and joy, not the things of this world, which choke out the Word of God.

Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. - Matthew 13:22

Instead, I pray we will be as this:

But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. - Matthew 13:23

Excerpt from Our Book

A sneak peek of the book I am writing, along with my family.  It may not be 100% accurate, for my memories are hazy from that time long ago when I was just four or five years old, but I do remember times like this, and the general feeling of it.  What a blessing godly mothers are!

Darkness and silence penetrated my being like a living force.  What was in the dark halls?  What lay beyond the window panes, creeping in the bushes or lurking beneath the swaying pine trees?  Why did everything seem so much scarier when the sky went dark?

I huddled under a blanket in the nursery, hoping someone would come along to keep me company.  And there!  Footsteps on the floorboards.  Mommy gently pushed open the door, a small smile lighting her face.

"Still awake?"

I nodded, blinking up at her.

She took me on her lap and enveloped me in her arms.

Softly, she sang, "Safe am I, safe am I, in the hollow of His hand.  Sheltered o'er, sheltered o'er, in the hollow of His hand.  No foe can harm me, no fear alarm me, for He keeps both day and night.  Safe am I, safe am I, in the hollow of His hand."

Her clear voice stopped, and again the stillness echoed like a tomb.

Then the tune that danced and cheered, "He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the wealth in every mine.  He owns the rivers and the rocks and rills, the moon and stars that shine.  Wonderful riches, more than tongue can tell.  He is my Father, so they're mine as well. . . . He owns the cattle on a thousand hills--I know that He will care for me!"

I smiled, content at last to close my eyes and sleep.

Morning and Evening Quote - June 2

 Yes, I am a day off, but I'm glad I was mixed up and read this today.

“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.”

Galatians 5:17

In every believer’s heart there is a constant struggle between the old nature and the new. The old nature is very active, and loses no opportunity of plying all the weapons of its deadly armoury against newborn grace; while on the other hand, the new nature is ever on the watch to resist and destroy its enemy. Grace within us will employ prayer, and faith, and hope, and love, to cast out the evil; it takes unto it the “whole armour of God,” and wrestles earnestly. These two opposing natures will never cease to struggle so long as we are in this world. The battle of “Christian” with “Apollyon” lasted three hours, but the battle of Christian with himself lasted all the way from the Wicket Gate to the river Jordan. The enemy is so securely entrenched within us that he can never be driven out while we are in this body: but although we are closely beset, and often in sore conflict, we have an Almighty helper, even Jesus, the Captain of our salvation, who is ever with us, and who assures us that we shall eventually come off more than conquerors through Him. With such assistance the new-born nature is more than a match for its foes. Are you fighting with the adversary today? Are Satan, the world, and the flesh, all against you? Be not discouraged nor dismayed. Fight on! For God Himself is with you; Jehovah Nissi is your banner, and Jehovah Rophi is the healer of your wounds. Fear not, you shall overcome, for who can defeat Omnipotence? Fight on, “looking unto Jesus;” and though long and stern be the conflict, sweet will be the victory, and glorious the promised reward. “From strength to strength go on; Wrestle, and fight, and pray, Tread all the powers of darkness down, And win the well-fought day.”

{via Christian Classics Ethereal Library} 

To Read Fiction or Not - Quote from Spurgeon

 Agree or disagree?

How many young people there are whose hearts are just a road along which thoughts of levity and desires for amusement are continually going! How many precious hours are wasted over the novels of the day! I think that one of the worst enemies of the Gospel of Christ, at the present time, is to be found in the fiction of the day. People get these worthless books and sit, and sit—forgetful of the duties of this world and of all that relates to the world to come—just losing themselves in the story of the hero or heroine. I have seen them shedding tears over things that never happened, as if there were not enough real sorrows in the world for us to grieve over! So these feet of fictitious personages, these feet of foolish frivolities, these feet of mere nonsense, or worse, keep traversing the hearts of men and making them hard so that the Gospel cannot enter.
from THE SEED BY THE WAYSIDE, NO. 2843, a sermon, DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 13, 1888. “As he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.” Luke 8:5.

As much as I usually like Spurgeon's quotes, I can't fully agree with this.  I do agree that fiction can be a waste of time, and I used to become so engrossed in (mostly just entertaining) novels that I could hardly tear myself away to do my duties or read the Bible, so I understand that part.  My dad warned us against escaping reality this way, and I never understood him at the time.  However, some novels provide Biblical wisdom, similar to a parable.  Some provide lessons in manhood and womanhood and noble virtues.  Some provide an interesting look at history.  Some merely give us something to laugh about, which I believe can be good, uplifting medicine, as the Bible speaks about.  Yet let us remember that novels can be harmful, just as movies can, and we are to be careful what we watch or read.  It is a shame if we shirk our duties and avoid seeing and helping with the needs right around us.  Also, there are biographies, theological books, and other nonfiction that can be more edifying and helpful to read.  And let us remember that the Bible is the best book--not to be neglected, but to be studied and gone over until we are so familiar with it that we live by it and advise by it and die by it.

Lovely Quote

And now, Lord, what do I wait for?
My hope is in You.

Sweet it is that our hope should rest in him who is never shaken; should abide in him who never changeth; should bind us to him who can hold us fast to himself, who alone is the full contentment of the soul; should, as it were, enter into him; since "in him is our being," who is love. - E. B. Pusey, D.D., 1853. (The Treasury of David)

Quote

From The Treasury of David by Spurgeon, Psalm 39:6.

Verse 6. Surely every man walketh in a vain shew. Life is but a passing pageant. This alone is sure, that nothing is sure. All around us shadows mock us; we walk among them, and too many live for them as if the mocking images were substantial; acting their borrowed parts with zeal fit only to be spent on realities, and lost upon the phantoms of this passing scene. Worldly men walk like travellers in a mirage, deluded, duped, deceived, soon to be filled with disappointment and despair. Surely they are disquieted in vain. Men fret, and fume, and worry, and all for mere nothing. They are shadows pursuing shadows, while death pursues them. He who toils and contrives, and wearies himself for gold, for fame, for rank, even if he wins his desire, finds at the end of his labour lost; for like the treasure of the miser's dream, it all vanishes when the man awakes in the world of reality. Read well this text, and then listen to the clamour of the market, the hum of the exchange, the din of the city streets, and remember that all this noise (for so the word means), this breach of quiet, is made about unsubstantial, fleeting vanities. Broken rest, anxious fear, over worked brain, failing mind, lunacy, these are the steps in the process of disquieting with many, and all to be rich, or, in other words, to load one's self with the thick clay; clay, too, which a man must leave so soon. He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them. He misses often the result of his ventures, for there are many slips between the cup and the lips. His wheat is sheaved, but an interloping robber bears it away—as often happens with the poor Eastern husbandman; or, the wheat is even stored, but the invader feasts thereon. Many work for others all unknown to them. Especially does this verse refer to those all gathering muckrakes, who in due time are succeeded by all scattering forks, which scatter riches as profusely as their sires gathered them parsimoniously. We know not our heirs, for our children die, and strangers fill the old ancestral halls; estates change hands, and entail, though riveted with a thousand bonds, yields to the corroding power of time. Men rise up early and sit up late to build a house, and then the stranger tramps along its passages, laughs in its chambers, and forgetful of its first builder, calls it all his own. Here is one of the evils under the sun for which no remedy can be prescribed.