1077. The Lord Blessing His Saints

A Sermon Delivered On Thursday Evening, September 26, 1872, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington. *10/17/2011

You are blessed by the Lord [or by JEHOVAH] who made heaven and earth. (Ps 115:15)

1. Without any preface (for where there is such a feast before us anything which detains us from the table will be out of place) let us come at once to the delightful words of our text; and may the Holy Spirit lead us into their inner sense!

2. Here is a blessing spoken of. The Lord who made heaven and earth has been pleased to bless his people. And this blessing has several particulars about it, of which we shall speak individually. It will help us to reach the marrow and fatness of the text, if we consider in detail the orthodox number of five points. First, it is a blessing belonging to a particular people; secondly, it is a blessing coming from a particular quarter; thirdly, a blessing with a particular date; fourthly, a blessing with a particular certainty; and fifthly, a blessing involving a particular duty. Where there is so much country to survey we must travel swiftly, and spend only a short time upon any single thought.

3. I. First, we have before us A BLESSING BELONGING TO A PARTICULAR PEOPLE. “You are blessed by the Lord.” “You.” Who are these distinguished people?

4. We would reply, first, that they are a people whom God has blessed because he willed to do so. He has given us no other reason, as the first cause of their being blessed, but the fact that he is good, and that he is sovereign in the distribution of his grace. If you search to the very bottom of things you hear a voice proclaiming these words, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” If you go back to the first spring and wellhead of all blessing, you shall not find the merits of man as the guardian of the fountain, nor the will of man as the digger of the well; but you shall find there written, “Not by blood, nor by the will of the flesh, nor by the will of man, but by God.” The will of God alone is the source of the rich, eternal, saving blessing, which abounds towards the Lord’s elect. If you are blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth, you are not a people who claim to have deserved his favour; you abhor all boasting in self, and you magnify divine mercy. Free grace is the Shibboleth of the true saints: those who cannot speak out upon that point may well question their lineage. If you talk about deserving, you belong to another race; you are of the seed of Hagar, and belong to Sinai, in Arabia, and therefore you are under the law and under the curse. No blessing comes to sinners by the way of the law, but the very opposite. Only they shall participate in this blessing who receive it by promise and by covenant, being the seed of Abraham by promise, even as Isaac was, who was born not after the flesh but after the Spirit. Glory, then, be to God, at the very outset of our meditations, that he has been pleased to set apart for himself a people, elect according to his own eternal purpose in Christ Jesus. Concerning them and of them only has he said, “You are blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth.” This is true doctrine according to the Scriptures, and the regenerate feel its truth confirmed in their own experience.

5. Furthermore, they are a people to whom this first will of God to bless them has been certified by countless acts of indisputable love. You who trust that you are blessed by the Lord, remember how God’s blessing has come to you already. It waited for you before you were born; indeed, it waited for you before this world was fashioned; from everlasting you were ordained to this benediction. The covenant of grace was made on your behalf with all its sacred stipulations, and its immutable seals, and immeasurable promises of love. The apostle says this in Ephesians, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.” (Eph 1:3,4) For you, in the fulness of time, Jesus came to tabernacle among men. Who shall doubt that you are blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth, since for you the Son of God laid aside his royal privileges to become the Son of Man? Union with you in your nature was clear evidence that the heart of Christ was with you. Gethsemane and Calvary speak volumes concerning the reality of the blessings which God has given to his chosen, for there they were loved to the death and redeemed by blood. An incarnate God, a Mediator covered with bloody sweat, a Redeemer wounded and slain, — What do you say to this? “Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift,” said the apostle; and we say the same. Nor was the gift of Jesus Christ’s dying, all; for Jesus’ living is still ours; his resurrection teems with the blessings of life and immortality. We are one with him, and he is for ever our Head; and in him, by virtue of his ascension, we have received the gift of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, and will dwell in us for ever. Through his indwelling we have “an unction from the Holy One,” through which we “know all things,” being taught by God, and led into all truth according to the office of the gracious Comforter. Meanwhile, we are also raised up together, and made to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, while all things are ours, and we are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. But, indeed, I am not about to make a list of those gifts which have already come to us; time would fail, and ability would also be lacking; suffice it to hint them to you, to remind you that if through grace you have received Christ, you are indeed “blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth,” for ten thousand times ten thousand of the choicest gifts have been the seals and testimonies of your heavenly Father’s affection towards you.

6. But, beloved, the particular people to whom this blessing comes are, after their conversion, know by their character. In due time grace produces in them marks of their election — signs of the inward and spiritual grace which the Holy Spirit has implanted. One sign is mentioned in the connection of our text: “He shall bless those who fear the Lord, both small and great.” So then, if you fear the Lord, “you are blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth.” Now, to fear him is not merely to tremble before him, fearful lest he should destroy you. Such a fear as that has been found in the hearts of even the vilest of men. We suppose that neither Pharaoh nor Belshazzar was a stranger to that feeling. But this is another fear: the humble worship of God, the sincere reverence of God, the sacred awe which is found even among the angels of heaven, the holy admiration which trembles at the infinite majesty of the Most High, not out of slavish dread, but out of a childlike sense of insignificance; this is the sign of inward grace. “Blessed is the man who always fears.” The fear of grieving one so loving, of doing anything that should dishonour the name of one so infinitely glorious, — this is the right fear. Do you have that fear? Do you have the fear that makes you confess your past sins, — the fear that makes you dread going into such sin again, — the fear that makes you mourn because you nailed the Saviour to the tree, and the fear that makes you tremble lest you should crucify the Lord afresh and put him to an open shame? This is not the fear which perfect love casts out, or the fear which has torment, but a sweet fear, as we have said before, which may be felt, even in heaven itself, where they sing, “Who would not fear you, oh Lord, and glorify your name.” It was to such as these that a voice came out of the excellent glory, saying, “Praise our God, all you his servants, and you who fear him, both small and great.” (Re 19:5) “Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who delighted greatly in his commandments.”

7. And it is very sweet to notice that this benediction is common to all God fearing people, — “both small and great”; and the small are listed first, lest they should think they are forgotten. I see many little children here this evening. Oh, if you fear God, if you pray to God, if you trust in Jesus, and if your young hearts have been taught to love God, small as you are, you are the blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth. Jesus loves to receive children to his bosom, as much now as he ever did when he lived upon earth. Come to him by faith and he will bless you. There are many young enquirers here who have only just begun to pray, and who are between hope and fear, like newly born children whose lives tremble in the balances; to them it must be cheering to observe that the Lord blesses the “small” as well as the “great.” The Lord regards the contrite in spirit, and he hears the groanings of broken hearts; his delight is to bless the lowly in mind. Although grace is small in you, yet he will not quench the smoking flax. “Do not fear, little flock, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” And you poor in this world, you humble, you illiterate, you obscure, you sickly ones, you with little talent and few opportunities for serving God, I urge you to rejoice in the assurance of the text, for you are the blessed by the Lord, if you walk before him in holy fear. The eye that looks to God and trusts him even when it cannot see him, is a blessed eye, the heart that pines after God even when it cannot rejoice in him, is a blessed heart; and the hand that stretches itself out after God, saying, “Oh that I knew where I might find him,” is still a blessed hand, even though for the moment it cannot lay hold upon the word of promise. If you sigh and cry after God with a true heart, looking to him in his own way, through Christ his Son, you are numbered with those who fear the Lord, who are blessed by him whether they are small or great.

8. Now, all this is very sweet to those who fear God. To them it is particularly precious to know that they are blessed by the Lord, because they know they deserve to have been cursed. A sense of wrath due to sin imparts a rare sweetness to the divine favour. Did you ever hear the roar of Sinai’s thunder in your ear? If so, you will never forget it to your dying day; and even in eternity it will impart an additional melody to the music of the cross. I wish that some Christians were ploughed a little more before they were sown, for I notice that the flimsiness and superficiality of the religion which is common nowadays, arises mainly from the lack of deep self-knowledge and solemn personal conviction that they were themselves utterly lost and ruined. I fear many have been very poor students in the university of theology, because they were never well grounded in the school of repentance. I am astonished that we should live to hear from a nonconformist pulpit that the fall of man was a fiction! I am bold to say that the religion of the man who could utter such a speech, is a fiction beyond all question. What does he know about the things of God, when he does not even know the things of man? Let him get back to his God in penitence, and ask to be taught properly; for he who does not understand about the fall of man, does not know the uplifting by free grace. If he does not know the disease, he is a wretched physician, and is sure to mistaken the remedy. He who has once known the curse, and smarted under it, loves the wine and oil of the blessing, for by it his bleeding wounds were stanched. The blessing of the Lord is as dew to the mown grass, and as showers to the parched soil; it is life itself, and the essence of heaven.

9. Moreover, the child of God knows the sweetness of the blessing, because the effect of the curse is, in a measure, still upon him, — not the judicial curse, for that was laid upon Christ, and has gone for ever; but the plague of his own heart, the remains of sin within, often make him feel that it is a dreadful thing to have been a sinner, even now that he is pardoned and “accepted in the Beloved.” Oh, the Amalekites and Canaanites who still dwell in the land, what a nuisance they are! What “thorns in our eyes,” as Joshua calls them! A strong expression indeed! They are worse than a thorn in the flesh. Sin is a thorn in the eye to the believer. But to know that although I fight daily with corruptions, and have to mourn an evil heart of unbelief, yet I am blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth, for all that — is that not bliss? Oh, the sweetness of that word to a heart which has been severely tempted!

10. Besides, the child of God, in addition to what he feels within, is often called to suffer the curses of the world and the curses of Satan. If you are of the world, the world will love its own, but if you are not of the world, the world will hate you; but though at times, under misrepresentations and slanders and cruel accusations, you will feel that you are shamefully entreated, this truth will gloriously sustain you — “You are blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth.” The bitterness of persecution is gone when this is realised. Your faithful soul learns to say, “Let them curse on if they wish, let Balak go from mountain to mountain and kill his bulls and his rams, and call upon Balaam to curse the people of God; yet surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, nor divination against Israel.” They may cast their spells and invoke the demons as they wish, but if the Lord has blessed the people, they are blessed. Blessed be God, if we have once received this benediction from our Great Father’s hand, all the maledictions of the Pope or the devil, or all the wicked men on earth, shall not frighten our spirit! God’s blessing shall silence them all.

11. So I have spoken upon the particular people chosen by sovereign grace, receiving perpetual tokens of love, known by their character, all of them receiving the blessing, whether great or small, and all of them finding that blessing inexpressibly sweet.

12. II. Now, secondly, this is A BLESSING FROM A PARTICULAR QUARTER. “You are blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth.”

13. This is a blessing from one particularly related to us, and therefore it is all the more to be prized. We are glad to receive a father’s blessing: let no man think little of it. A father’s curse might wither a man. If in any case it has been justly earned, I pity the poor wretch who wears it like the mark of Cain upon his soul; for him the sun has no smiling beams, and the cloud no silver lining, the past no comforting memories, the future no joyful prospects. A mother’s blessing, how like the breath of cloudless morn, foretelling a day of peace; a brother’s blessing, how bright with sacred dew, like what glittered in old Hermon’s woods. The blessing of saintly men and holy women, who shall set a price upon it? Its merchandise is far above silver. In the olden times, paternal benedictions were thought more highly of than they are now, and the change is not the fruit of greater wisdom. Truly, the blessing of a child of God, I consider to be a portion of my true wealth, and I love you, brethren, for wishing me God speed. Happy is the man whom good men love to bless. But, ah, beloved, if you are blessed by the Lord, you have a more divine benediction: you have the blessing which makes rich indeed, true and lasting, potent, and effectual; the blessing of your Father who is in heaven. All other blessings are only blessings in proportion as they contain the essence of this blessing; God’s blessing is the sea, and others are only drops; that is the sun, and others are only sparks.

14. The blessing spoken about does not come from an idol god. The psalm leads us to make that observation. The gods of the heathen had mouths, but they did not speak; ears, but they did not hear: any benediction from them would be a mockery: but the children of God are not blessed by Baal or Ashtaroth, but by Jehovah, the self-existent Lord of all! They receive no benediction from the priest who ministers at the shrine of a dumb god of silver, or a dead god of flour and water. Compared with the benediction of the Lord who made heaven and earth, what a paltry thing is the blessing of a priest! Indeed, he is utterly impotent to bless. If he has any power, it lies in the opposite direction. He can curse the victims of his false teaching, but he cannot benefit them. His pax vobiscum peace be with you, is not worth the time spent in speaking it, his plenary indulgence defiles the paper it is written on. A priest’s blessing and a cockatrice’s egg are of equal value. But to be blessed by Jehovah is a reality, as says the Psalmist, “Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways. For you shall eat the labour of your hands; you shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.”

15. The benediction mentioned in our text comes from the omnipotent Creator, “who made heaven and earth.” This intimates that the blessing is almighty in power. Do I have the blessing of him who said, “Let there be light,” and there was light? Then he can speak into my darkness, and cheer the gloom of my despair. Does the blessing of him who brought order out of chaos rest upon me? then he can speak to the confusion of my circumstances, and the turmoil of my desponding mind, and charm all things into harmony. The blessing of him who clothed the earth with beauty, piled the hills, and dug the channels of the sea, must have in it an unrivalled fulness. A blessing from him — how large it must be — how potent for all the purposes of grace: a blessing from him with whom there is no obstacle or difficulty, who shall be able to delay it or deprive me of it? The Lord who made heaven and earth, spoke, and it was done: he commanded, and it stood firm. There was darkness, but it fled before him, there was confusion but it vanished at a glance of his eye; and if God has blessed you, Christian, whatever stands in your way shall disappear before the benediction of your God. If he blesses, poverty cannot starve you, sickness cannot kill you, toil cannot wear you the out, sorrow cannot consume you, life cannot allure you, death cannot slay you, hell cannot enclose you. If he blesses, “neither things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature,” can have power to harm you. If all the legions of hell were armed, and stood in your way, and all were furious to destroy, yet in the name of God you could defy them, for his benediction would be both shield and spear for you. Because you have made the Lord who is my refuge, even the Most High, your habitation, there shall no evil befall you, neither shall any plague come near your dwelling.

16. It is a blessing from the All Wise One “who made heaven and earth.” Do not forget that the making of heaven and earth is not merely a display of power, but of infinite wisdom. Think of all the skill which has guided the stars in their courses, and of the wonderful wisdom which has created all things that are, and has sustained them in their various spheres. Now, the Lord who blesses you, oh heir of heaven, is the infinitely wise One. He knows the intricacies of your course, and he will steer you through them. Though the channel of the river of your life flows close to that sandbank, and then by the rock upon the other side, and though no earthly pilot can thread the mazes of that dangerous stream, yet he has blessed you, who knows all things, and with his hand upon the helm of your vessel he will bring you safely into the haven. Therefore do not fear. You are not blessed by an erring creature, nor by a man like yourself; you are blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth. Is there any searching of his understanding? Has he not balanced the clouds in judgment? Has he not laid in wisdom the cornerstone of the universe? Why do you say, then, “My circumstances have been overlooked by him, and the problem of my case will be too difficult for him to solve?” Oh, rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him for you are blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth, whose infallible counsels shall conduct your affairs to a blessed conclusion.

17. Let this console you — you are blessed by him who made you, and, therefore, knows how to anoint every wheel of your inner workmanship with the sacred oil of his grace. Take that thought into your spirit too, he made heaven and earth, and, therefore, you are never outside of his domain. We read about him that he has a desire for the work of his own hands. He has made you, and he will not leave you. Do you leave your children? Do you forget your offspring? Have you not heard that a woman may forget, and may fail to have compassion upon her nursing child, but God cannot and will not forget you. He will be mindful of you, for as man, and especially as regenerated man, you are one of the noblest works of his hands.

18. I do not know how to speak upon so great a text as this, but I know how to drink its sweetness down into my very soul, and to feel that, being blessed by God, all other things do not matter. Sick and sorry, or well and rejoicing — there is not a bit of difference to choose from as long as we are blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth. Rich or poor, famous or despised, a throne or a martyr’s stake, a palace or a dungeon — truly, there is not the turn of a hair between them, if we are blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth. If this sweet blessing could fall upon a soul in hell, it would be a heaven to it; and could the blessing of the Lord who made heaven and earth be taken away from the saints in heaven, heaven would be a hell to them. Our heart can sing with the psalmist — 

   Let the ungodly race advance,
      And boast of all their store;
   The Lord is my inheritance
      My soul can wish no more.

The blessing of the Lord who made heaven and earth is all in all.

19. III. Let us turn to the third word, which is this IT IS A BENEDICTION WITH A PARTICULAR DATE; for it is in the present tense.

20. The preceding verses spoke about the past and the future. “The Lord has been mindful of us, he will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron.” These are blessed “wills.” “He will bless those who fear him, both small and great. The Lord shall increase you more and more, both you and your children.” These are all in the future but you know the proverb says a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Now, those future blessings, those birds in the bush, I do not know what they are worth, for they are boundless in preciousness; but here is a bird in the hand, “You are blessed by the Lord.” Oh, the value of that! You are at this moment blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth. This verb is in the present tense, and, indeed, it may be said to be in all the tenses put together, in a tense that is not a tense, a time that has no time, but lasts on for evermore, until time shall be no more.

21. This blessing embraces all circumstances. You are laid low and pining away with consumption, but “You are blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth.” You are struck down in the very heyday of your usefulness, and laid aside, but “you are blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth.” You had your oxen and your cattle seized, and now you are, like Job, a penniless beggar, fit to sit on a dunghill, but “you are blessed by the Lord.” Your enemy has set his foot upon your neck, and he swears that he will make a speedy end of you, but “you are blessed by the Lord.” Like Jeremiah, you are locked up in the dark dungeon, and you sink in the mire, and there seems to be no helper, but “you are blessed by the Lord.” Who shall say that John Bunyan in Bedford Jail was not “blessed by the Lord?” Who shall say that Rowland Taylor, when he went to be burnt on Hadleigh Heath, was not “blessed by the Lord” when his very face shone with sacred joy? Ah, let me tell you that the worst places on earth bear the best evidence of the goodness of God towards his people. God’s birds sing best in cages, and like nightingales they sing best in the dark, and often, according to the old fable, their note is sweetest when the thorn pierces their breast. They are independent of outward circumstances, except that, the worse the circumstances, often the greater their joy. Glory be to God for this. They are “blessed by the Lord” who made heaven and earth, let them be anywhere and in any condition. Though they seem cast out from God’s presence, and all his waves and billows go over them, yet if they fear the Lord they are “blessed by the Lord” even then. Oh, that your faith may lay hold of this when you are very severely exercised, for happy is the man whom God corrects, and blessed is the man whom you chasten, oh Lord!

22. Observe that our text reaches to all time and beyond all time, because it runs like this: “You are blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth.” While I am on earth, this shall console me: “I am blessed by the Lord who made the earth,” and he himself has said concerning his servants, “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your livestock, and the flocks of your sheep. Blessed shall be your basket and your harvest. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.” When I have to go out of this earth into another world, this shall console me: “I am blessed by the Lord who made heaven.” I shall still dwell in a place which my Father made. I am not going into a foreign country when I leave the warm precincts of this house of clay. I shall emigrate to the country where flowers never fade, and winter never chills. This poor earth is little better than a penal settlement. It is a fair and beautiful and lovely earth for those who have eyes and taste with which to appreciate its scenery, but to our spiritual man it is just a smoke dried tent of Kedar, a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, a casual ward for wayfarers, or very little better, — a great graveyard. “Woe is me that I am a sojourner in Mesech for so long.” We long to be away to our own fair country, and see the Well Beloved face to face. Yet, for all that, God made this world, though man has spoiled it just as much as he can; and the God who made this world has blessed us; so that wherever we go around in the world we should feel that we have a blessing that is suitable for every position in it — suitable for that lowly cot on the moor, suitable for that scanty room in the dark alley, suitable for the couch of ease, and suitable for the hard bed where pain racks every bone. The Lord who made earth, and who still has a hand in it, has blessed us. And then it is the Lord who “made heaven.” Why, these two words are meant to encompass all creation. They are intended to take in the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills, the east and the west, the north and the south, the rising and the setting sun, the sea and the dry land, the heights and the depths; they are meant to encompass all. Here we have the true way of making the best of both worlds. God’s blessing here and hereafter makes existence bliss. Oh be joyful! In whatever condition you are placed, you are blessed by God in that condition; and into whatever place you may come, you are blessed by God with mercies necessary for the place. The heathens used to be afraid that, though they might have the blessing of the god of the hills, if they went into the valleys they would not have his blessing there, for their god might not be the god of the valleys; but our God is the God of every place, and every scene, and every circumstance, and we are blessed by him; glory be to his holy name.

23. IV. Now, fourthly and briefly, this is A BLESSING WITH A PARTICULAR CERTAINTY. Scripture does not lie, or utter perhapses, and ifs, and buts. “You are blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth.”

24. Oh, you who fear God, this is a matter of fact, you daily and continually live under a true and real blessing. Some blessings are vain words: the speaker is a hypocrite. Other blessings are sincere, but the person pronouncing them has no power to fulfil them. Such blessings are wells without water, or barren fig trees bearing leaves but no fruit. The Lord blesses not in word only, but in deed; not in futile wishes, but in omnipotent acts. We may fail to obtain the benedictions which our friends invoke upon us, but God’s blessings are sure to all the seed. Failure and miscarriage never occur to the Lord our God. Many are the slips between cups and lips at this world’s banquet, but the chalice of divine blessing shall surely reach the lip of the elect soul.

   This is thy will, that in thy love
      We ever should abide
   And lo, we earth and hell defy
      To make thy counsel void.
   Not one of all the chosen race
      But shall to heaven attain;
   Partake on earth the purposed grace,
      And then with Jesus reign.

25. Now, beloved, let us make sure of this blessing, which is so sure. And how can we do so except by faith? We believe that God has blessed all those to whom he has given his dear Son; and he has given his dear Son to me if I believe in Jesus. As surely as I believe in him the blessing is mine. Grip it, brother. Make sure of it. Let no man deceive you with vain words. In these times it is hard to find anyone who believes anything. Even the common history we learned at school is now suspected to be a myth. I do not think that you could, according to the modes of reasoning adopted in these sceptical days, be able to prove that you had either a father or a mother. Nothing is certain nowadays — nothing at all; the floods of doubt have carried everything away. We are taught from the pulpit to doubt. The old gospel was, “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved.” The new gospel is, “He who doubts and is sprinkled shall be saved.” A sorry come down for both the words. But, beloved, we have not learned that gospel we have learned to believe, and hope still to live by faith. Our beliefs are grounded too firmly to be shaken by fashionable quibbling. Do you get a firm hold, my brother? You say, “How can I?” Why, you can do it by believing the veracity of your God — believing that surely he who speaks can fulfil what he has said. And you can get your faith strengthened by experience. Test your God: I mean, when he is testing you, trust him and test his promise. Prove him, and see if he does not bless you. Fair weather Christianity is all very well, but it is stormy weather Christianity that proves a man to be truly a man of God. Can you trust God when the cupboard is bare? Can you rejoice in God when every nerve of your body is made to throb with pain? Can you stand beneath a burden that might have made Atlas bow down to the earth, and feel that divine strength is equal to all that and ten thousand times more? Could you fling yourself, like a Samson, unarmed, upon a thousand foes, and strike them, because the Lord was in you? If you can, you will have no trouble about this scepticism and these questions and doubts. You will know the Lord’s truth, for you have proven it; you will know his love, for you rejoice in it; you will know his faithfulness, for it is the pillow for your weary head; you will know his immutability, for it is the anchor of your poor tempest tossed bark; you will know that you are blessed by God who made heaven and earth. May God grant us to know it by the witness of his Holy Spirit, — to know it more and more by living more and more by faith, for only by this shall are know it, — to know it by despising everything else in comparison with it, and relishing it and prizing it above all the delicacies that can be set upon the tables of worldlings. “Blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth” — may we be as assured of this as we are of our existence. Then we shall be “strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.”

26. V. The fifth point is, THIS BLESSING INVOLVES A PARTICULAR DUTY, for, if God has blessed us, the subsequent duty is that we should bless him. Notice the eighteenth verse, — “We will bless the Lord from this time forth and for evermore.”

27. Come, then, beloved, if God has blessed us let us bless him: let us answer to his benediction as the Alpine echo to the horn. I am afraid we are not very abundant in blessing and glorifying God. What were you doing before you came here? What was your last word at home? Grumbling? Complaining? Very likely. Is this becoming in one whom God has blessed? What were your thoughts before you came here? Dolefully expecting something terrible to happen by and by? You do not know why you are mourning! Was that it? If so, is this a fit state of mind for one upon whom the divine benediction rests like a halo? What were your words on the road here? Let me guess again. Some silly chat? Some idle tale? Some frivolous joke? Is this worthy of your destiny; an employment suitable for your rank? Brother, we have had enough of all this. If your murmuring in times past has not sufficed, I am greatly in error; if you have not frightened yourself enough about things that have never happened, I am indeed mistaken; and if you have not wasted enough breath in idle talk, I am bereft of judgment. Now, from this day on let us see if we cannot bless the Lord continually. Speak to one another, you children of God; speak well of his dear name, who has so richly endowed you. Let us tell one another what God has done for us, saying, “Come and hear all you who fear God, and I will tell you what he has done for my soul.” “I do not know what I can say,” says someone. Did God never do anything for you? Then begin to pray for his blessing at once, for without it you are a miserable creature. But if he has been favourable to you, tell your fainting brethren how he has restored you. Tell your sinking friend how you felt a solid bottom beneath your foot, when you went through deeper rivers than those which he is passing through. Tell others what you have tasted and handled, not what you do not know, for borrowed experience is poor stuff and savours of imposition. The psalm says, “Praise him from this time on.” If the past has been marred by any other talk, now “from this time” bless the Lord. Wash your mouth of all complaining, take the cup of gratitude to sweeten your soul, and bless his name from this time on. What, dumb until now? An heir of heaven speechless? May a sight of God’s blessing open your mouth. From this time forth begin to bless him. It is a good time in which to begin blessing God. This moment is a fair season for repentance. When was there a time that was unsuitable for adoring gratitude? And when was there an hour when it was not good to bless God? I beseech you to join me in praising him!

28. Then the psalmist resolves to praise the Lord “for evermore.” Our adoration of God is never to cease. As long as there is breath in our body let us praise him who gives it to us. “Dum spiro spero,” said the heathen, “While I breathe, I hope.” But the Christian says, “Dum expiro spero,” “When I die, I will still hope in God.” While we exist we will adore.

   My God, I’ll praise thee while I live,
      And praise thee when I die;
   And praise thee when I rise again,
      And to eternity.

29. Repeat the joyous strain. Do not stop day nor night. Nothing of worldly business deserves so much attention as to warrant our ceasing to bless and magnify the Lord in our hearts.

30. Now, I pray God that some here who have never received the divine blessing after the tenor of the text, may be led to seek it; and you know his word: “Seek the Lord while he may be found: call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Oh, that gracious word, “abundantly pardon!” How it meets our abundant sin. Oh, for his attracting love to operate upon sinners’ hearts!

31. May he draw you to himself for Christ’s sake, and bless you, even you who so far have slighted his mercy. He delights to be gracious. He loves to call her beloved who was not beloved, and to make them a people who were not a people. Catch at that word, you humble and contrite, and never rest until the Lord himself smiles upon you. Amen.

[Portions of Scripture Read Before Sermon — Ps 115 Isa 44:9-20]

Next week’s sermon will be entitled “The Saints Blessing The Lord,” and so the subject will be continued. (See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1078, “The Saints Blessing the Lord” 1069)