Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Praise ye the Lord.  Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise in the congregation of the saints.  Let Israel rejoice in him that made him:  let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.

Psalm 149:1-2

We are almost at the last Psalm, and still among the Hallelujahs.  This is "a new song", evidently intended for the new creation, and the men who are of new heart.  It is such a song as may be sung at the coming of the Lord, when the new dispensation shall bring overthrow to the wicked and honour to all the saints.  The tone is exceedingly jubilant and exultant.  All through one hears the beat of the feet of dancing maidens, keeping time to the timbrel and harp.

Praise ye the LORD.   Specially you, ye chosen people, whom he has made to be his saints.  You have praised him aforetime, praise him yet again; yea, forever praise him.  With renewed zeal and fresh delight lift up your song unto Jehovah. Sing unto the LORD a new song.  Sing, for it is the fittest method for expressing reverent praise.  Sing a hymn newly composed, for you have now a new knowledge of God.  He is ever new in his manifestations; his mercies are new every morning; his deliverances are new in every night of sorrow; let your gratitude and thanksgivings be new also.  It is well to repeat the old; it is more useful to invent the new.  Our singing should be "unto the Lord"; the songs we sing should be of him and to him, "for of him, and to him, and through him are all things."  Never can we find a nobler subject for a song than the Lord, nor one more full of fresh matter for a new song, nor one which we are personally so much bound to sing as a new song "unto the Lord."  

And his praise in the congregation of saints.  Saints are precious, and the congregation of saints is a treasure house of jewels.  God is in the midst of saints, and because of this we may well long to be among them.  They are so full of his praise that we feel at home among them when we are ourselves full of praise.  All saints praise God: they would not be saints if they did not.  Their praise is sincere, suitable, seasonable, and acceptable. 

Let Israel rejoice in him that made him.  Here is that new creation which calls for the new song.  It was Jehovah who made Israel to be Israel, and the tribes to become a great nation: therefore let the Founder of the nation be had in perpetual honour.  Joy and rejoicing are evidently to be the special characteristics of the new song.  The religion of the dead in sin is more apt to chant dirges than to sing hallelujahs; but when we are made new in the spirit of our minds we joy and rejoice in him that made us.  Our joy is in our God and King: we choose no lower delight.  Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.  Those who had seen the tribes formed into a settled kingdom as well as into a united nation should rejoice.  Israel is the nation, Zion is the capital of the kingdom: Israel rejoices in her Maker, Zion in her King.  In the case of our God we who believe in him are as glad of his Government as we are of his Creation: his reign is as truly the making of us as was his divine power.  The children of Israel are happy to be made a people; the children of Zion are equally happy to be ruled as a people.  In every character our God is the source of joy to us: this verse issues a permit to our joy, yea it lays an injunction upon us to be glad in the Lord.

~Charles H. Spurgeon, excerpt from The Treasury of David

The Weakest Servants, Yet Servants Still

I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.

John 17:6

We should notice, in John 17: 1-8, what a gracious account these verses contain of our Lord Jesus Christ's disciples. We find our Lord Himself saying of them, "they have kept thy word--they have known that all things whatsoever thou has given me are of thee--they have known surely that I came out from thee--they have believed that thou didst send me."

These are wonderful words when we consider the character of the eleven men to whom they were applied.  How weak was their faith!  How slender their knowledge!  How shallow their spiritual attainments!  How faint their hearts in the hour of danger!  Yet a very little time after Jesus spoke these words they all forsook Him and fled, and one of them denied Him three times with an oath.  No one, in short, can read the four Gospels with attention, and fail to see that never had a great master such weak servants as Jesus had in the eleven apostles.  Yet these very weak servants were the men of whom the gracious Head of the Church speaks here in high and honorable terms.

The lesson before us is full of comfort and instruction.  It is evident that Jesus sees far more in His believing people than they see in themselves, or than others see in them.  The least degree of faith is very precious in His sight.  Though it be no bigger than a grain of mustard seed, it is a plant of heavenly growth, and makes a boundless difference between the possessor of it and the man of the world.  Wherever the gracious Savior of sinners sees true faith in Himself, however feeble, He looks with compassion on many infirmities, and passes by many defects.  It was even so with the eleven apostles.  They were weak and unstable as water; but they believed and loved their Master when millions refused to own Him.  And the language of Him who declared that a cup of cold water given in the name of a disciple should not lose its reward, shows clearly that their loyalty was not forgotten.

We must carefully bear this in mind in forming our estimate of Christians. We must never forget that there are varieties in character, and that the grace of God does not cast all believers into one and the same mold. Admitting fully that the foundations of Christian character are always the same, and that all God's children repent, believe, are holy, prayerful, and Scripture-loving, we must make allowances for wide varieties in their temperaments and habits of mind. We must not undervalue others because they are not exactly like ourselves. The flowers in a garden may differ widely, and yet the gardener feels interest in all. The children of a family may be curiously unlike one another, and yet the parents care for all. It is just so with the Church of Christ. There are degrees of grace, and varieties of grace; but the least, the weakest, the feeblest disciples are all loved by the Lord Jesus. Then let no believer's heart fail because of his infirmities; and, above all, let no believer dare to despise and undervalue a brother.

The true servant of God should mark well the feature in Christ's character which is here brought out, and rest his soul upon it.  The best among us must often see in himself a vast amount of defects and infirmities, and must feel ashamed of his poor attainments in religion.  But can we say with sincerity and truth, as Peter said afterwards, "Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee."  Then let us take comfort in the words of Christ before us, and not give way to despondency.  The Lord Jesus did not despise the eleven because of their feebleness, but bore with them and saved them to the end.  And He never changes.  What He did for them, He will do for us.

~J. C. Ryle

The Hidden Life

Your life is hid with Christ in God.

 Colossians 3:3

There is nothing so deep, nothing so hidden, as the life of God in the soul.  It seems to be enshrined in the lowest depths of a man's heart.  It does not float upon the surface, like a cork upon the water, but sinks deep, very deep, into the very bottom of the soul.  Therefore is it hidden from the eyes of a profane world; hidden from the professing world; and what is more, sometimes hidden from the subject of it himself.  A child of God often cannot see his own faith, nor can he discern the life that is bubbling and streaming up in his own bosom.  It is not a lake, spread abroad in the meridian sunshine to attract every eye; nor is it a brook that flows babbling on over the clear pebbles; but it is a well.  "The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."  Therefore it is hidden from view.

The best part of our religion is that which is least seen.  The secret cries, groans, tears, confessions, supplications, and breathings after God do not for the most part come abroad; the despondency, heart sickness, trials, perplexities, and powerful temptations with which many a dear saint of God is exercised do not come to view.  No; nor his fears, sinkings, guilt, misery, and self-condemnation.  Yes, the best part of his religion is hidden from view, for the weightiest ever sinks the deepest.  And as it is with the dealings of his soul with God, so it is with the dealings of God with his soul, making and keeping his conscience tender, reviving the fear of God, drawing the heart upward into prayer and meditation, watering his spirit and bedewing it with the secret dew and rain of his grace.  Thus, the best part, because the spiritual part of a man's religion, is hidden from the eyes of all, except as the fruits thereof are manifest.


Take your stand upon yon hill, and see that thread of verdure spreading itself through the barren plain.  Whence comes that green strip which you see?  Coming down to examine it, you find a little brooklet threading its way through the barren plain.  It is this brooklet that, watering the roots of the grass, gives it that verdure; yet the brooklet itself is hidden until the eye is brought close to it.  So it is with the life of God in the soul.  We see the effects the verdure produced by the brooklet; but the brooklet itself, the life and grace of God in the innermost soul is hidden, "hid with Christ in God."

And if not merely hidden, but hid with Christ in God, what a sacred, what a holy, what a truly divine life it must be!  If this be spiritual religion, that it dwells with Christ himself in the bosom of God, what a divine thing, what a heavenly possession!  How full of eternal blessedness must the religion of a child of God be!  It is locked up in two distinct places, yet united with each other by virtue of the humanity of Christ, and the faith that embraces it.  If I may use the expression, one end is in the bosom of God, and the other in the believer's breast!  Compare man's paltry, beggarly religion with this supernatural life of God in the soul; Christ himself formed in the heart the hope of glory.  Words would fail to express the eternal distinction between them.

But the word "hid" will carry another idea, out of reach, treasured up, therefore SAFE.  What would have become long ago of the life of God in the soul, if it could have been robbed, trodden out, or lost?  But this it never can be, for it is locked up in the Person of the Son of God.  It is, therefore, out of the reach of Satan, sin, and death; safe in Christ's keeping, locked up in his eternal bosom.  Were it otherwise, where should you and I long ago have been?  Where would our religion have gone to, unless we had reason to believe that it had been kindled by the power of God, and was maintained by the same power which first gave it birth?  This is the grand consolation of a child of God--to believe that he has the life of God in his soul; and to feel, day by day, that he who gave that life maintains it in firm and living exercise.

~J. C. Philpot, Daily Words for Zion's Wayfarers

No Condemnation!

For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

2 Corinthians 5:21

Mourning Christian!  Why weepest thou?  Art thou mourning over thine own corruption?  Look to thy perfect Lord, and remember, thou art complete in Him; thou art in God's sight as perfect as if thou hadst never sinned; nay, more than that, the Lord our Righteousness hath put a divine garment upon thee, so that thou hast more than the righteousness of man--thou hast the righteousness of God!

O thou who art mourning by reason of inbred sin and depravity, remember, none of thy sins can condemn thee.   Thou hast learned to hate sin; but thou hast learned also to know that sin is not thine--it was laid upon Christ's head.  Thy standing is not in thyself--it is in Christ.  Thine acceptance is not in thyself, but in thy Lord.  Thou art as much accepted of God today, with all thy sinfulness, as thou wilt be when thou standest before His throne, free from all corruption. O, I beseech thee, lay hold on this precious thought, perfection in Christ!  For thou art "complete in Him."  With thy Saviour's garment on, thou art holy as the Holy one, "Who is he that condemneth?  It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." 

Christian, let thy heart rejoice for thou art "accepted in the beloved."  What hast thou to fear?  Let thy face ever wear a smile.  Live near thy Master.  Live in the suburbs of the Celestial City; for soon, when the time is come, thou shalt rise up where thy Jesus sits, and reign at His right hand, even as He has overcome and has sat down at His Father's right hand; and all this because the divine Lord was made to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

~Charles H. Spurgeon

Blessed Hope

Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Titus 2:13

What a bright rainbow for a stormed-wreathed sky!  Hope is a joyous emotion!  Poetry sings of it; music warbles its lofty aspirations; but alas! how often does it weave fantastic visions — and then vanish!  "In the morning" the flowers of life are flourishing and growing up; "in the evening" a mysterious blight comes — and they lie as withered garlands at our feet!  The longing dreams of the whole life seem realized — but one wave of calamity overtakes us, and washes them all away!

Nevertheless, there is one "blessed hope" beyond the possibility of blight or decay:  "the hope of the glory of God," "the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior!"  If on earth, we long for the return of an absent friend or brother, separated from us for a season, by intervening oceans or continents; if we count the weeks or months until we welcome him back again to the parental home — then how should the Christian long for the return of the Brother of brothers, the Friend of friends:  "I will come again," is His own gracious promise, "To receive you unto Myself!"

Oh happy day!  when He shall be "glorified in His saints;"  when His people will suffer no more — and sin no more!  No more couches of sickness, or aching hearts, or fevered brows!  No more opened graves, or bitter tears!  And, better than all — no more estrangements and traitorous unholy hearts!  It will be the bridal day of the soul.  The body slumbering in the dust — will be reunited, as a glorified body to a redeemed spirit.  The grave shall be forever spoiled; death swallowed up in eternal victory.  "So shall we be forever with the Lord."

Reader, do you "love His appearing?"  Are you waiting with the eager expectant attitude of those who are "looking for, and hastening unto the coming of God."  "Yet a little while, and He who shall come — will come!"  If you are a child of the covenant, having conscious filial nearness to the Throne of Grace — then you need not dread the Throne of Glory!  True, He is the "great and awesome God," but He is "our Savior."  It is our "Kinsman Redeemer" who is ordained to "judge the world in righteousness."  Yes! turn your eye oftener towards this bright Rainbow of promise, spanning a glorious future; for remember, it is "to those who look for Him," that He shall "appear the second time without sin unto salvation!"

~John MacDuff

A Rainbow in the Clouds

The Spirit and Life

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit."

Philemon 25

It is the regenerating breath of the Lord Jesus Christ which makes the soul alive unto himself.  This is manifest from his own language--"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." (John 6:63).  Then for the first time "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ" is with our spirit.  For you will observe that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is not with our carnal mind--that ever remains the same, a body of sin and death, flesh--corrupt flesh, in which "dwelleth no good thing," and therefore not the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

His grace is with our spirit, that "new man" of which we read that "it is after the image of God" (Col. 3:10) created in righteousness and true holiness.  This is called our "spirit," because it is born of the Spirit, as the Lord himself unfolded the solemn mystery to Nicodemus--"That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." (John 3:6)  This is no subtle, thinly-drawn distinction, but a very important truth; for unless we see the difference between the two natures, the spirit and the flesh, the law in the members and the law of the mind, we shall always be in bondage, as looking for holiness in the flesh.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ being thus with our spirit, it breathes from time to time upon that spirit, moves and acts in it and upon it; for there is what I may call a gracious or spiritual union between the two.  Thus we can no more live without the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ than the earth can live without the sun.  He must shine, or we have no light; he must revive, or we have no warmth; and he must fertilize, or we bring forth no fruit.  Thence time after time there is an outgoing of the single desire of the soul to the Lord Jesus Christ that his grace would be with our spirit; that this grace may be ever flowing forth into us, so as to make us new creatures, dispel all doubt and fear, break to pieces all bonds and fetters, fill us with love and humility, conform us to his suffering image, produce in us every fruit that shall redound to his praise, be with us in life and death, and land us safe in eternity.

~J. C. Philpot, "Daily Portions" (Selected writings of Joseph Philpot by his daughters)

The Only Shepherd

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want

 Psalm 23:1 

The shepherd is a favorite Scriptural picture of the divine love and care. In the Old Testament, the twenty-third Psalm gathers the whole wonderful truth in exquisite lines, which are dear to young and old wherever the Bible is known. Then in the New Testament, when our Lord would give His friends the sweetest revealings of His heart toward them, and tell them what they are to Him, and what He would be to them—He says, "I am the Good Shepherd."

The Hebrew shepherd lives with his sheep. If they are out in the storm—he is with them. If they are exposed to danger—so is he. Just so, Christ lives with His people. He enters into closest relations with them.

The shepherd knows his sheep. He has a name for each one and calls them all by their names. Just so, Christ knows each one of His friends, has intimate personal knowledge of each one. He knows the best in us—and also the worst—our faults, our sins, our wanderings. Yet, knowing us as we are—He loves us still and never wearies of us!

The shepherd is most gentle with his sheep. He does not drive them—but goes before them and leads them. When they need rest on the way—he makes them lie down, and chooses for their resting-place, not the dusty road—but green pastures. He is especially kind to the lambs, gathers them in his arms and carries them in his bosom. All this is an exquisite picture of the gentleness of our Good Shepherd in His care of His sheep. He is thoughtful toward the weak. He loves the lambs and makes room for them on His bosom. Whatever the need is, there is something in the heart of Christ which meets its craving and supplies its lack!

The shepherd defends his flock in all danger. Often he had to risk his own safety, even his life, in protecting his sheep. Just so, the Good Shepherd gives His life—for His sheep!

Christ's sheep are absolutely safe in His keeping. "I give unto them eternal life," He said; "and they will never perish—ever! No one will snatch them out of My hand!" Then at last, He will bring His own all safely home, "and they shall become one flock—with one Shepherd!"

~J. R. Miller "Bethlehem to Olivet" 1905