2830. A Good Man In An Evil Case

A Good Man In An Evil Case

No. 2830-49:217. A Sermon Delivered On Thursday Evening, August 19, 1886, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

A Sermon Intended For Reading On Lord’s Day, May 10, 1903.

Cast your burden on the LORD, and he shall sustain you: he shall never allow the righteous to be moved. {Ps 55:22}

 For other sermons on this text:
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2335, “Three Texts, but One Subject — Faith” 2336}
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2830, “Good Man in an Evil Case, A” 2831}

1. Those of you who were here, last Thursday evening, will remember that the sermon was concerning those sons of Gershon who were burden-bearers in connection with the tabernacle in the wilderness. {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2829, “Lowly Service” 2830} They were not appointed to preach; they were not ordained to fight; but their service consisted in bearing burdens. There were some here, on that occasion, whom I had never known before who had been, for thirty years, great sufferers; they were carried into this place, last Thursday evening, I did not know about their presence until afterwards, when they told me that the sermon seemed to have been made for them, and that it had given them great comfort.

2. I thought I would follow up that sermon about burden-bearers by a discourse on another text, which shows us that there are some burdens which we need not carry. Burdens of service, or burdens of which come through our consecration to the Lord Jesus Christ, — these we will never lay down as long as we live. It shall be our joy to take up our cross daily, and follow Jesus; but there are certain burdens of care and sorrow, of which the text speaks, especially the burdens which come from the slander, and reproach, and oppression of ungodly men, which we need not carry. David says, “Cast your burden on the Lord, and he shall sustain you: he shall never allow the righteous to be moved.”

3. Beloved friends, the very best men in the world may be slandered; and if you should hear them evil spoken of, do not be among those who immediately condemn them. There are some who say, “Where there is smoke, there is sure to be fire”; and although it is well known that “common fame is a common liar,” yet there are some, who are so fond of hearing or telling lies, that they are sure to believe such a lie as this, especially if it is spoken concerning a servant of God. Do not be, therefore, ready to believe all the reports that you hear against any Christian people. The best of men, as I have already reminded you, have been the worst spoken of, and there are some who turn quickly on them, like lions scenting their prey.

4. I may be just now addressing some, who are the victims of the malice of ungodly men or women. I am sorry, dear friends, that this should be your lot, for it is among the bitterest of human afflictions; but at the same time, I would remind you that nothing unusual has happened to you. You remember the three brave men who were cast alive into Nebuchadnezzar’s burning fiery furnace when it was heated seven times more than it was accustomed to be heated. You are scarcely enduring such a fiery trial as that; and, certainly, you are not suffering as your Master did, the Lord of all pilgrims who have made their way to heaven. But if, in any degree, it should happen that you are bearing a burden of this kind, the text will have a special message for you.

5. In speaking on this passage, I want to keep it in context with the whole Psalm. I do not think it is dealing properly with the Bible to pick out one verse here, and another there, without looking to see what the context of the passage is. If men’s books were treated as God’s Book is often treated, we should make many a grand and noble literary work to appear to be an insane production. It is true that God’s Book can endure even such treatment as that. It is such a wonderful Book that, even a sentence torn out of it will convey most precious truth; but it is not fair to the Book, and it is not fair to yourself, to treat the Bible like that. A text of Scripture should always be viewed in the setting in which God has placed it, for there is often as much that is admirable in the gold which forms the setting of the jewel as there is in the jewel itself.

6. I. So, looking at our text in that light, I shall begin by saying that, WHEN WE ARE MUCH TRIED AND BURDENED, THERE IS SOMETHING THAT WE ARE TEMPTED TO DO. The text does not mention it, but the Psalm does; and the text is an antidote to the malady which the Psalm describes or implies. “Cast your burden on the Lord,” is an injunction concerning what we are to put in the place of something else which more naturally suggests itself to our poor foolish minds.

7. And, first, when we are in very severe trouble, we are tempted to complain. The psalmist says, in the second verse, “I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise.” I am not sure that our version is quite fair to David in this case, but it suits my present purpose admirably. As the children of God, we ought to avoid even the semblance of a complaint against our Heavenly Father; but when our faith is severely tried, when some sharp reproach is stinging our spirit, we are all too apt to begin thinking and saying that God is dealing harshly with us. You know Job, that most patient of men, became very impatient when his so-called “friends” poured vinegar instead of oil into his wounds. Smarting under their cruel treatment, he said some things which he had far better have left unsaid. Oh brethren, pray that, whenever the Lord lays his rod heavily on you, your tears may have no rebellion in them! Whatever his providential dealings with you may be, may you be enabled to say, with Job, “Shall we receive good from the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” Let the worst come from his hand that can come, still say, with the patriarch, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” May you even join Job in his triumphant declaration, “Though he kills me, yet I will trust in him.” It is grand faith that enables a believer to say, “Though I should die at God’s altar, I will die like the lamb that is brought to the slaughter, or be like the sheep that is dumb before her shearers, and makes no complaint.”

8. The next natural temptation is that of giving up altogether, and lying down in despair. You get that in the fourth and fifth verses: “My heart is severely pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen on me. Fearfulness and trembling are come over me, and horror has overwhelmed me.” Have not some of you sometimes been tempted to say, “There, I can do more; I must give it all up; that last cruel blow has utterly broken me in pieces, and I feel that I can only lay down, and die in the bitterness of my spirit?” Brothers and sisters, this is a temptation against which you must strive most earnestly. Just as no living man should complain, so no living man should despair, and especially no child of God. Up with you, poor heart; you have not yet come to the end of God’s delivering mercy, even though you have come to the end of your poor puny strength. The Lord shall light your candle now that your night is so dark. You shall yet sing for very joy of heart though now you can only, like David, mourn in your complaint, and make a noise. God will understand your moaning, and your mourning, and he will bring you again from Bashan, and from the depths of the sea if you have sunk as low as that. Therefore, do not talk of dying before your time. Yet, if you do so, you will not be the first who has talked like that, for there was one, who never died, who said, “Oh Lord, take away my life; for I am no better than my forefathers.” That was Elijah, the prophet of fire; yet, just then, he seemed as if he were only cold ashes rather than a vehement flame, — another proof that the best of men are only men at the best.

9. The next very common temptation is, to want to flee from our present trials. You get that in verses six to eight: “I said, ‘Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then I would fly away, and be at rest. Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.’ ” Possibly, you are the pastor of a church, and things do not prosper as you could wish; I wonder where they do. But, in your case, you think there is so little prosperity that you must give up your position, and run away. Young gunners, before they have become accustomed to the smell of gunpowder, and the noise of cannons, have often been known to desert their guns, and even old soldiers have sometimes felt what the “trembles” are. But, my brother, if this is your case, I beseech you not to run away. If you did flee, where would you go? You think you will run away, as Jonah did, do you? I warrant you that Jonah was very sorry that he had run away when he found himself, in the fish’s belly, at the very bottom of the mountains, in the depths of the sea; and you and I will be sure to get into greater trouble if we run away from the path of duty. Fight it out, man; stand your ground in the name of God, and in the strength of God. It may be that there are better days just now coming, and that Satan is seeking to drive you away just as you are on the brink of success. Dr. Watts has a good paraphrase of this Psalm, and also writes wisely concerning the temptation to flee the post of duty. He says, —

    Oh, were I like a feathered dove,
       And innocence had wings!
    I’d fly, and make a long remove
       From all these restless things.
    Let me to some wild desert go,
       And find a peaceful home;
    Where storms of malice never blow,
       Temptations never come.
    Vain hopes, and vain inventions all,
       To ’scape the rage of hell!
    The mighty God, on whom I call,
       Can save me here as well.
    God shall preserve my soul from fear,
       Or shield me when afraid;
    Ten thousand angels must appear,
       If HE command their aid.

10. Possibly, the special case in point is not that of a minister. It is some Mary, weeping at home because her brother Lazarus is dead. Martha is not a very congenial sister to her, so she does not even go with her when she goes to meet the Lord; yet, strangely enough, each of the sisters says the same words to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” In due time, the Master sends for Mary, and soon she has the joy of welcoming Lazarus back from the grave. Some of us get strange ideas into our head at times; we resolve that we will go where we do not know, and do what we do not know. Ah, my dear friends, he, whose great trouble lies in his own heart, cannot run away from it, for he carries it around with him wherever he goes. The old man of the mountain, who sits on your shoulder, and clings so tightly to you, if he is yourself, is not to be shaken off by your running away. It will be far wiser for you to do as the text says, “Cast your burden on the Lord.” Then you will need no wings like a dove, nor will you wish to fly away to the wilderness; but you will be willing to stay in the very midst of the battle, and even there you will be in perfect peace, —

    Calm ’mid the bewildering cry,
       Confident of victory.

11. I have often enjoyed the greatest solitude amid the crowds in Cheapside, and I believe that there is many a Christian, who has experienced the deepest peace in the midst of the wildest turmoil. Some of us know what Madame Guyon {a} meant when she wrote, —

    While place we seek or place we shun,
    The soul finds happiness in none;
    But with a God to guide our way,
    ’Tis equal joy to go or stay.

12. Trust in him, cast your burden on him, for by doing so you will escape from this temptation of wanting to flee away from the place where he would have you to be.

13. There is one other temptation that this Psalm suggests to me, and that is, the temptation to wish evil to those who are inflicting evil on us. Perhaps mistaking the meaning of the passage, we are apt to pray the prayer in the ninth verse, “ ‘Destroy, oh Lord!’ Our foes have slandered us, they have spoken evil of us, and we wish that they were dead, or that some great judgment might overtake them.” It will never do, dear friends, to indulge such a feeling as that. We ourselves shall be injured if we desire that others should be injured. Slander has indeed stung you when you harbour the wish to sting another. Someone said, in my hearing, attempting to justify revenge or retaliation, “But if you tread on a worm, it will turn”; and I answered, “Is a poor worm, that only turns because of its agony through man’s cruelty, the pattern for a Christian man to follow? Will you look down to the dust of the earth to find the example that you are to imitate?” Wicked men trod on Christ, — who even compared himself to a worm, — yet he did not turn on them, except to cry, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” Let that be the only kind of turning that you ever practise towards your enemies. Do not be driven, by their evil speaking or their cruel deeds, into harshness of speech or even harshness of thought. I have known some people, under severe trouble, who have at last become quite soured and bitter of spirit; that is all wrong, and very sad, and no good can ever come from such a state of heart as that. The bruising of the sycamore fig results in its growing sweeter; let your bruising produce a similar effect on you. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, in his wonderful Sermon on the Mount, “I say to you, ‘Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who despitefully use you, and persecute you; so that you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven.’ ” If you do not act like this, which is the right thing for you to do, you will almost certainly do the wrong thing in some way or other. Therefore, may God help you to do what is right! Child, is your father rough on you? Then, love him until he becomes tender and gentle. Wife, is your husband unkind to you? Then, win him back by your sweet smiles. Servant, is your mistress harsh with you? Even good women have sometimes dealt as harshly with their servants as Sarah dealt with Hagar. Well, if that is your case, do not be like Hagar, who despised her mistress. Submit yourself to her, for so you shall yet win her, as many a Christian slave of old, far worse treated than you have been, won his master or his mistress to Christ in those earliest and happiest days of Christianity. What is there for a Christian man to do but love his enemies? This is the most powerful weapon that we have in our armoury. We shall be wise as serpents if God teaches us wisdom, and we shall also be harmless as doves if the Holy Spirit, like a dove, rests on us, and makes us also to abound in gentleness. By this sign we shall conquer, for it is love that always wins the day.

14. So I have shown you what we are tempted to do when we are like this good man who was in such an evil case.

15. II. Now I am going to show you, from the text, as the Holy Spirit shall help me, WHAT WE ARE COMMANDED TO DO. That is, “Cast your burden on the Lord.” You have a burden on your back, it is too heavy for you to bear, so cast it on the Lord.

16. “How shall I do that?” someone asks. Well, if you are a child of God, I invite you, first of all, to trace your burden back to God. “But it comes from the treachery of Ahithophel, or from the rebellion of Absalom.” I grant you that it does; but those are only the secondary causes, or the agents, trace the matter back to the Great First Cause. If you do that, you will come, by a mystery which I will not attempt to explain, to the hand of divine providence, and you will say of every burden, “This also comes from the Lord.” You have probably seen a dog, when he has been struck with a stick, turn around, and bite the stick that struck him. If he were a wise dog, he would bite the man who held the stick who dealt the blow. When God uses his rod on one of his children, even a godly man will sometimes snap at the rod. “But, sir, surely you would not have me turn on my God?” Oh, no! I know you will not do that, for you are his child; and when you see that God is holding the rod in his hand, you will cease to be rebellious, and you will say, with the psalmist, “ ‘I was dumb with silence.’ I was going to speak, but I did not open my mouth, because I saw that it was in your hand that the rod of chastisement was held.” It is always good to trace our trials directly to God, and say, “It may be Judas Iscariot who has betrayed me; but, still, it was planned in God’s eternal purpose that I should be betrayed; so I will forget the secondary cause, unless it is to pray God to forgive the malice of the betrayer, and I will look to the Lord who permitted the trial to happen to me for his own glory and for my good.”

17. The next thing you have to do is this. Since the burden is from God, “patiently wait his time for its removal.” There are some people, who, if they had a task given to them by some great one whom they respected and revered, would cheerfully perform it. If, in the middle of the night, you were called up by a Queen’s messenger, and told to do something for Her Majesty, you would be glad to rise and dress, even though it might be a cold night, and you might have far to go to fulfil your commission; and if you feel that your burden is from the Lord, — if the King’s seal is stamped on the affliction or trial that comes to you, immediately you will say, “Since the Lord wills it, I will bear it without complaining. When it is his time to deliver me, I shall be delivered; and as long as it is his time for me to suffer, I will suffer patiently.” I wish that all Christians could be like that good old woman who was asked whether, since she was so very ill, she would prefer to live or to die, said that she had no preference whatever, she only wished that the will of the Lord might be done. “But, still, if the Lord said to you, ‘which will you have?’ which would you choose?” She said, “I would not choose even then, but I would ask the Lord to choose for me.” You see, whenever anything comes to us from God, we do not have the responsibility for it; but if it came through our own choice, then we might say to ourselves, “What fools we were to choose this particular trial!” You say that you do not like the cross God has sent you. Well but, at any rate, it is not by your own choice that you have to carry that particular cross. It is God who chose it for you; whereas, if you had selected it, you might well say, “Oh, dear me, what a mistake I made when I chose this burden!” Now, you cannot say that; and I pray that you may have grace to see that “the whole disposing” of your lot is, as Solomon says, “from the Lord.” The Hebrew of our text would bear such a rendering as this, “Cast on the Lord what the Lord gives you. Cast on him what he casts on you. See the marks of his hand on your burden, and you will be reconciled to your load. Know that God sends it to you, and patiently wait until he takes it away.” F. W. Faber very sweetly writes, —

    I have no cares, oh blessed Lord,
       For all my cares are thine;
    I live in triumph, too, for thou
       Hast made thy triumphs mine.
    And when it seems no chance nor change
       From grief can set me free;
    Hope finds its strength in helplessness,
       And patient, waits on thee.
    Lead on, lead on, triumphantly,
       Oh blessed Lord, lead on!
    Faith’s pilgrim-sons behind thee seek
       The road that thou hast gone,

18. One blessed way of casting our burden on the Lord is to tell the Lord all about it. It is a high privilege to get away alone, and talk to God as a man talks with his friend. But I know what you often do, my brothers and sisters. When you get into a quandary, and cannot tell what to do, then you begin to pray. Why do you not, every morning, tell the Lord about all your difficulties before they come? What! will you only run to him when you get into trouble? No, go to him before you get into trouble. Half our burdens come from what we have not prayed over. If a man would take the ordinary concerns of life distinctly to God, one by one, it is marvellous how easily the chariot of life would roll along. Things over which we have not prayed are like undigested food that does mischief in the body; they do mischief in the soul. Do you digest your daily bread by praying first, “God give it to me, and then God bless me in the use of it; and then God bless me afterwards in the spending of the strength derived from it to his praise and glory.” Salt all your life with prayer, lest corruption should come to that part of your life which you have not salted. Tell the Lord, then, your griefs, just as, when a child, you told your troubles to your mother.

19. “I cannot find words,” one says. Oh, they will come! They come fast enough when you complain to man, and they will sweetly come if you get into the blessed habit of talking to God about everything. A friend said to me, not long ago, “I was on the Stock Exchange, and I saw that I had made a mistake in a certain transaction. I had lost money by it; and if I had gone on dealing in the same way, I should have been ruined. I just stepped aside for a minute or two into a quiet corner of my office. I stood still, and breathed a prayer to God for guidance. Then I went back, and felt, ‘Now I am ready for any one of you.’ ” “So I was,” he said, “I was not confused and worried, as I should otherwise have been, and so liable to make mistakes, but I had waited on God, and therefore I was calm and collected.” There is much wisdom in praying like this about everything; although, possibly, some of you may think it trivial. I believe that the very soul of Christianity lies in the sanctifying of what is called secular, — the bringing of all things under the cognizance of our God by intense, constant, persistent, believing prayer.

20. When you have told the Lord everything, the next thing for you to do, in order to cast your burden on him, is to believe that all will work together for your good. Swallow the bitter as readily as you do the sweet; and believe that, somehow, the strange mixture will do you great good. Do not look out of your window, judging this, and that, and the other, in detail; but, if God sent it to you, open the door, and take it all in, for all that has come from him will be for his glory and for your profit. Believe that, if you shall lose certain things, you will really be a gainer by your losses. Even if your dear one is taken from you, all shall be well if you only have faith to trust God in it all. If you yourself are struck with mortal sickness, it will still be well with you; and if you still steadfastly trust in the Lord, you shall know that it is so. “We know,” says the apostle Paul; he does not say, “We think, we suppose, we judge,” but, “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.” If you do know this, my brother or my sister, it shall help you to “cast your burden on the Lord.”

21. When you have done this, then leave your burden with the Lord. In the process of trusting God with your burden, get to this point, that you are finished with it. If I cast my burden on the Lord, what business have I to carry it myself? How can I truthfully say that I have cast it on him if I am still burdened with it? Throughout my life, which has not been free from many grave cares, there have been many things which I have been able to see my own way through; and, using my best judgment, they have passed off well. But, in so large a church as this, there sometimes occur things that altogether stagger me. I do not know what to do in such a case as that; and I have been in the habit, after doing all I can, of putting such things up on the shelf, and saying, “There, I will never take them down again, come what may. I am finished with them, for I have left them entirely with God”; and I wish to bear my testimony that, somehow or other, the thing which I could not unravel, has unravelled itself. When Peter and the angel “came to the iron gate,” it “opened to them of its own accord”; and the same thing has happened to me many a time. “Who shall roll away the stone for us from the door of the sepulchre?” asked the holy women when they came to the tomb of their Lord; “and when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away.” Learn to say, “My God has made this difficulty, and there is some good result to come of it; I have done the little I can do, so now I will leave it all with him.” Ah, but I know what some of you do; you say that you have left it all with God, and then you lie awake all night fretting about it. Is that casting your burden on the Lord? Oh, for a blessed literalism about the promises of God, and our faith in them, so that we take them to mean just what they say, and act on them accordingly! Now, if some poor woman here were sadly in debt for her rent, and she met a Christian brother who said to her, “Do not fret, my good sister, I will see that it is all paid tomorrow”; do you think she would go running around, and saying, “Oh dear, I shall lose my things, my rent will not be paid?” No, she would say, “Mr. So-and-so, whom I know and trust, said that he would pay it for me, and I feel perfectly at ease about it.” Now, do the same with your God if you know him. David said, “Those who know your name will put their trust in you.” If you truly love the Lord, it will be a proof of your love to repose your care on him without questioning; and when you have cast your burden on him, it will prove the truth of your having done so if you are unburdened, and your heart is at rest. If he bears my burden, why should I also bear it? If he cares for me, what have I to do to vex myself with fretful, anxious cares?

22. So I have done my best to show you what we are commanded to do: “Cast your burden on the Lord.”

23. III. And now thirdly, and very briefly, WHAT WE SHOULD ENDEAVOUR TO DO.

24. If I read the text properly, we have here David talking to himself; and what we are to endeavour to do is, to talk to ourselves, just as David talked to himself. He says of his enemy, “The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart”; and so on, and then he seems to say, “Come, David, do not fret yourself like this; but cast your burden on the Lord.” Have you not noticed how often David seems as if he were two Davids, and one David talks to the other David? It was so when he said to himself, “Why are you cast down, oh my soul; and why are you disquieted within me?” And I want you, dear friend, to chide yourself, and say, “Come, fretful heart, what are you up to? Cast your burden on the Lord. What are you doing? Has God forsaken you? Has God refused to help you? Begone unbelief, go away. Come, faith, and dwell in my soul, and reign over my spirit, swaying your gracious sceptre of peace.”

25. And so when you have been chiding yourself, argue with yourself about the matter. Say to yourself, “See how the text puts it: ‘Cast your burden on the Lord.’ ” Well, if it is your burden, and God meant it for you, then do not quarrel with it. And just as it is your burden, so God is your God, the covenant-keeping God, your Father and your Friend. Come, my soul, cast your burden on your God; where else should you put your burden when he tells you to cast it on him? You cannot sustain yourself under such a load, but God will sustain you and your burden, too. Think of the righteousness of God, and say, “It is impossible that the righteous God should leave the righteous to perish. If they are slandered, that is a further reason why God should take up their cause. He is their Advocate and their Defender. Come, my heart, it shall never be truly said of the Judge of all the earth that he leaves his people to perish, especially when their good name is assailed because of their fidelity to him.”

26. I want you, dear friends, to talk like this with yourselves, especially those of you who are rather apt to give way to despondency. There are some such here, I know. You come to me, sometimes, with your griefs, and I do the best I can to cheer you; but I have often said to myself, “That dear sister had a father who was a member with us; he used to come to me in just the same way as she does. This despondency seems to run in the blood.” Some of you must have been born in December, and you never seem to get out of that month; it is always winter with you. But now I want you just to take the language of the text, and say to yourself, “Cast your burden on the Lord, and he shall sustain you: he shall never allow the righteous to be moved”; and, possibly, God will bless your own sermon to yourself more than he would bless my sermon to you. At any rate, try it.

27. IV. Lastly, — and here I want the time for a whole sermon, — let us think of WHAT WE MAY EXPECT IF WE FULFIL THE COMMAND OF THE TEXT: “Cast your burden on the Lord.”

28. There are two grand things in the text, sustenance and sufferance. The old Puritans would have made a book about those two words, and we might preach a dozen sermons on them, and still not exhaust their meaning. What does the Lord do with his people when they cast their burdens on him? He gives them sustenance. “He shall sustain you.” The word “sustain” is the same that is used when God told Elijah to go to Zarephath, saying, “Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain you,” — that is, “to feed you,” “to nourish you.” Perhaps that would have been a better rendering of the original: “Cast your burden on the Lord,” and what will he do? Deliver you out of your trouble? No; but he will feed you up until the time when you can carry it; and that will be an even better thing than relieving you of the burden. Here is a dear child that has only a little load to carry, yet he staggers under it. It would be a kind thing for his father to pick up the child, and his load, too, and carry both him and his burden. But the wise father says, “I will so provide for that child that he shall grow in strength, and at last shall be able to carry his load.” “Cast your burden on the Lord, and he shall sustain you”; that is, “He shall feed you; he shall nourish you.” I believe that, when Paul was attacked by that viper that came out of the sticks, it looked like a very ugly thing indeed, but Paul just shook it off into the fire. Why do you think that snake came? Why, it came to feed them all! “No,” you say, “that serpent did not do it.” It did, for the islanders said that this man was a god, and immediately they began to gather around him and his companions, and to provide for their needs with all the greater alacrity because of the reverence that they felt for the apostle. So you shall often find that what looks like a horrible thing will be the best way in which God could bless you.

29. “Cast your burden on the Lord.” “It will crush me.” No, it will not; you shall grow under it, and then grow out of it; and you shall prove the truth of those precious lines, —

    From all their afflictions my glory shall spring,
    And the deeper their sorrows, the louder they’ll sing.

30. Only by faith leave your trouble with your God, and he will nurture you. Even out of the very rock of trouble he will feed you, and give you oil out of the flinty rock of your afflictions.

31. Then, the other point is sufferance. I am obliged to hurry over these truths, and leave you to meditate on them afterwards. “He shall never allow the righteous to be moved.” Learn, from this declaration, that nothing will happen to you but what God permits. There are some things which are very grievous, which God does allow to happen to his people; but there are other things which he will not allow; he will never allow them to come. “No,” he says, “my child, who has walked uprightly before me, my righteous one, the man who spoke the truth, the man who did the right thing, I will not allow that man to be moved. He may be moved as the boughs of a tree sway to and fro in the breeze, but not as the roots of a tree are torn up by a storm. He may be moved a little, like a ship riding at anchor, which just swings with the tide; but he shall not be driven out to sea, or drift on to the rocks to his destruction.”

32. “He shall never allow the righteous to be moved.” Do you catch the psalmist’s idea? It is as if God intervened, and said, “No, I will not permit that.” A father may see his child roughed up a little, yet at first he may not interfere; but, at last, a cruel blow is struck, and he says, “No, I will not stand for that. While I have an arm to defend my child, he shall not be treated in that way.” Well, then, leave everything with your Heavenly Father, for he will not allow you to be moved. If you are really righteous, trusting in the Righteous One, justified by the blood and righteousness of Christ, and are doing what is right in his sight, he will not allow you to be moved. The next time you are severely vexed by the tongue of slander, go and tell your Father, just as the little boys tell their big brothers. Go and tell your Father all about it, and do not fret over it. If someone has done you a great wrong, you may say to him, “I shall be obliged to refer you to my solicitor.” But after you have done that, I hope you do not go writing letters to him on your own account. Refer everything to God, and leave everything with him; for, so, a blessed peace will bedew your spirit, making your life on earth like the beginning of life in heaven.

33. In closing my discourse, I must just say that I do feel, in my innermost soul, the deepest pity for those of you who have no God to go to when you are in trouble. You have a burden to bear, but you cannot cast it on the Lord. He will allow you to be moved, for you do not cry to him to help you. I feel that I would rather be a dog than be a man without a God. I think I could make myself happy if I were only a mouse in its hole; but if I were a prince in a palace, without God, I should be utterly miserable. Oh poor hearts, if you really want him, he is to be had! If you are longing for him, his door is open to receive you. If you will come to him, he will come and meet you much more than halfway; yes, he will come all the way to everyone who wishes to come to him. As soon as you say, “I will arise,” he has already arisen, and is on his way to meet you. Practically, there is no distance for you to go, for he is there, waiting to welcome you. Believe in his dear Son, and live. First cast your great burden of sin on the Lord, and then cast on him all other burdens that he is willing to take from you; and, soon, he will put a new song into your mouth, and establish your going. May the Lord grant it, for his dear Son’s sake! Amen!

 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Spirit of the Psalms — Psalm 35” 35 @@ "(Song 1)"}
 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Spirit of the Psalms — Psalm 70” 70}
 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Christian, Peaceful Trust — Delight In God” 688}

{a} Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon (commonly known as Madame Guyon) (April 18, 1648-June 9, 1717) was a French mystic and one of the key advocates of Quietism, although she never called herself a Quietist. Quietism was considered heretical by the Roman Catholic Church, and she was imprisoned from 1695 to 1703 after publishing a book on the topic, A Short and Easy Method of Prayer. See Explorer "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Guyon"

Reviews in The Christian Million, April 17th, 1903: —

Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit. (Passmore and Alabaster. Monthly part, price 5d.) We are always pleased to help, as far as we can, the spread of the late C. H. Spurgeon’s sermons. They are so full of the marrow and fatness of the Gospel, and also so inspiring, so helpfully suggestive and so thoroughly Evangelical, that we sincerely believe, if they could find their way into every home, much spiritual good would result. The numbers before us run from 2,820 to 2,824.

Twelve Sermons on Humility By C. H. Spurgeon. (Passmore and Alabaster. Price 1s.) By looking through these discourses, — collected from the regularly-published weekly issues, — we may learn at least one reason why the great preacher London still misses sustained his popularity to the end of his days. Here are a dozen sermons bearing, more or less, on the same topic, — two, indeed, are on the same text, — and yet a delightful uniqueness of treatment and a never-failing freshness of thought differentiate each homily from its fellows. Moreover, we must congratulate the publishers on the timely subject chosen. There is a type of experience, in the Church today, which does not, we are afraid, give prominence to the grace of humility, but which expresses the spirit lying behind the dictum, “I am holier than thou.” We beg the representatives of this class of Christians to ponder the following sentences in this series: — “As for me, I feel I want my Saviour more than I ever did. Though I have preached his Gospel now these five and twenty years and more, I still need to come and cling to the cross as a guilty sinner, and find ‘life for a look at the crucified One,’ just as I did at first.”

The Sword and the Trowel. (Passmore and Alabaster. Price 3d.) This magazine still maintains the old Spurgeonic traditions, and continues to echo the lifework of C. H. Spurgeon. We find ourselves looking forward from month to month to the “Pictures from ‘Pilgrim’s Progress,’ ” drawn by the master-hand; and we cannot help being interested in the illustrated accounts of “Good Works Connected with the Metropolitan Tabernacle,” and “Our Own Men.” Among the good things in the April number, is an autobiographical article by the well-known “W. Y. F.”

London: Passmore and Alabaster, Paternoster Buildings; and from all Booksellers.

Spirit of the Psalms
Psalm 35 (Song 1) <7s.>
1 Plead my cause, Oh Lord of hosts,
   Earth and hell now make their boasts,
   See against my soul they strive,
   Mischief seek and plots contrive.
2 Shield and buckler are with thee,
   Hold them forth, Oh Lord, for me;
   “I am thy salvation,” say,
   That shall all my foes dismay.
3 Inbred sin my soul annoys,
   Unbelief my peace destroys,
   Fiery darts the tempter flings,
   Every day its battle brings.
4 Jesus when on earth he dwelt,
   Sharpest pangs of conflict felt;
   All the powers of darkness warr’d
   With our great anointed Lord.
5 He has vanquish’d all his foes
   For himself, and all he chose;
   His salvation is complete,
   All shall worship at his feet.
6 Lord, I will rejoice in thee,
   Thy salvation makes me free;
   Plead my cause and all is well,
   I shall ever with thee dwell.
                           Joseph Irons, 1847

Psalm 35 (Song 2)
1 Oh! Plead my cause, me Saviour, plead,
   I trust it all to thee:
   Oh thou who didst for sinners bleed,
   A sinner save in me.
2 Assure my weak, desponding heart,
   My threatening foes restrain:
   Oh! tell me thou my helper art,
   And all their rage is vain.
3 When round thy cross they rush’d to kill,
   How was their fury foil’d;
   Their madness only wrought thy will,
   And on themselves recoil’d
4 The great salvation there achieved
   My hope shall ever be;
   My soul has in her Lord believed,
   And he will rescue me.
                  Henry Francis Lyte, 1834.

Spirit of the Psalms
Psalm 70
1 Make haste, oh God, my soul to bless!
   My help and my deliv’rer thou;
   Make haste, for I’m in deep distress,
   My case is urgent; help me now
2 Make hast, oh God, make haste to save!
   For time is short, and death is nigh;
   Make haste ere yet I’m in my grave,
   And with the lost for ever lie.
3 Make haste, for I am poor and low;
   And Satan mocks my prayers and tears;
   Oh God, in mercy be not slow,
   But snatch me from my horrid fears.
4 Make haste, oh God, and hear my cries;
   Then with the souls who seek thy face,
   And those who thy salvation prize,
   I’ll magnify thy matchless grace.
                  Charles H. Spurgeon, 1866.

The Christian, Peaceful Trust
688 — Delight In God
1 Oh Lord, I would delight in thee,
      And on thy care depend;
   To thee in every trouble flee,
      My best, my only Friend.
2 When all created streams are dried,
      Thy fulness is the same;
   May I with this be satisfied,
      And glory in thy name!
3 Why should the soul a drop bemoan,
      Who has a fountain near;
   A fountain which will ever run
      With waters sweet and clear?
4 No good in creatures can be found
      But may be found in thee;
   I must have all things, and abound,
      While God is God to me.
5 Oh that I had a stronger faith,
      To look within the veil;
   To credit what my Saviour saith,
      Whose word can never fail!
6 He that has made my heaven secure,
      Will here all good provide;
   While Christ is rich, can I be poor?
      What can I want beside?
7 Oh Lord! I cast my care on thee,
      I triumph and adore:
   Henceforth my great concern shall be
      To love and please thee more.
                        John Ryland, 1777.