2923. The Singing Army

No. 2923-51:85. A Sermon Delivered On Thursday Evening, November 23, 1876, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

A Sermon Published On Thursday, February 16, 1905.

And Judah gathered themselves together to ask help from the Lord. {2Ch 20:4}

1. Jerusalem was startled by sudden news. There had for a great while been quiet preparations made in the distant countries beyond Jordan. On its mountains Edom had them getting ready: the workshops of Petra had been ringing with the hammer; the enemies of Israel had been beating their pruning-hooks into spears and swords, and they were now coming down in hordes. There were three great nations, and these were assisted by the odds and ends of all the nations all around, so that a great company eager for plunder was drawn up in battle. They had heard about the riches of the temple at Jerusalem; they knew that the people of Judea had been flourishing for years, and they were now coming to kill and to destroy and to sack and to plunder. They were like the grasshoppers or the locusts for multitude. What were the people of God to do? How were these poor Judeans to defend themselves? Their immediate resort was to their God. They do not appear to have looked to their armour and their swords with any particular anxiety. The fact was the case was so altogether hopeless as far as they were concerned, that it was no use looking to anything beneath the skies, and since they were driven from all obvious earthly resorts they were compelled to lift up their eyes to God; and their godly King Jehoshaphat aided them in doing so. A general fast was proclaimed, and the preparation to meet the hosts of Moab, Ammon and Edom was prayer. No doubt if the Ammonites had heard of it they would have laughed, Edom would have scoffed at it, and Moab would have cursed those who made supplication. “What! do they suppose that their prayers can defeat us?” would have been the sneer of their adversaries. Yet this was Israel’s artillery: this was their eighty-one ton gun: when it was ready it would shoot one shot, and only one, and that would crush three nations at once. God’s people resorted only to the arm invisible — the arm omnipotent — and they did well and wisely.

2. Now, if the Lord shall teach us to imitate them, and by his grace enable us in doing it, we shall have learned a great lesson. The preacher needs to learn it as much as anyone else, and he prays that each one of you may be also scholars in the school of faith, and become very proficient in the divine art of prayer and praise.

3. I. First, then, HOW DID THEY ASK FOR HELP? They asked for their help, as you know, by a general fast and prayer, but I mean, what was the style of that prayer in which they approached the Lord.

4. And the reply is, first, they asked for help, expressing their confidence. “Oh Lord God of our forefathers, are you not God in heaven? And do you not rule over all the kingdoms of the heathen? And in your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand you?” If we begin by doubting, our prayer will limp. Faith is the tendon of Achilles, and if that is cut it is not possible for us to wrestle with God, but as long as we have that strong sinew, that mighty tendon uninjured, we can prevail with God in prayer. It is a rule of the kingdom, though God often goes beyond it, “According to your faith be it done to you.” I have known him to give us a hundred times as much as our faith, but, brethren, I have never known him to give us less. That could not possibly be. This is his minimum rule, I may say, “According to your faith be it to you.” When, therefore, in time of trouble you ask for help from God, ask for it believing that he is able to give it; ask for it expecting that he will bestow it. Do not grieve the Spirit of God by unworthy doubts and fears; these things will be like fiery arrows in your own soul and drink up the very life of your strength. However hard the struggle and difficult the trial, if you seek the Lord, seek him in the confidence he deserves.

5. Then they sought God, pleading his past acts. This is a kind of prayer which has been very common among the saints, and it has proved to be very potent. “Are you not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and gave it to the seed of Abraham your friend for ever?” Remember what God has done for you, and then say, as a sweet refrain, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and for ever.” When you are praying, remember what he was yesterday if you cannot see that he is comfortably disposed towards you today. If there is no present displays of divine favour, recall the former days — the days of old — the years of the right hand of the Most High. He has been gracious to you; can you tell how gracious? He has abounded towards you in lovingkindness, and tenderness, and faithfulness; he has never been a wilderness or a land of drought to you. Well, then, if in six troubles he has delivered you, will you not trust him for seven? If you get to sixty troubles, can you not trust him for sixty-one? Some of you have been carried, I see, until grey hairs are on your head. How long do you expect to live? Do you think you have another ten years left? Well, do you think that the Lord who has blessed you for seventy years will not keep you for the other ten. We say that we ought always to trust a man until he deceives us. We consider a man honest, until we find him otherwise. Let it be so with God, I beseech you. Since we have found him good, faithful, true, kind, tender, let us not think badly of him now that we have come into trouble, but let us come to him like this, and say, “Are you not our God? Did you not bring us up out of the horrible pit and out of the miry clay? Did you not bring us up out of the Egypt of our sin? Surely you have not brought us into the wilderness to destroy us? Will you leave us now? True, we are unworthy, but so we always were, and if you wanted a reason for leaving us you would have had ten thousand reasons long ago. Lord, do not be very angry with your servants, and do not cast us away.” That is the kind of pleading which prevails. Imitate these men of old, who asked for help by recalling the past.

6. Proceeding a little further in their prayer, we see that they pleaded the promise of God, which promise was made at the time when Solomon dedicated the temple. “That if, when evil happens to us, we cry to you in our affliction, then you will hear and help.” He who gets the promise of God and grasps God with the promise — he does, and must prevail. I have sometimes known a man unable to grasp anything; the object has slipped away, his hand has been slippery too, and I have seen him as he has taken up some sand in his hand, and then he has been able to get a grip. I like to plunge my hand into the promises, and then I find myself able to grasp with a grip of determination the mighty faithfulness of God. An omnipotent plea with God is: “Do as you have said.” You know how a man nails you when he brings your very words before you. “There,” he says, “that is what you said you would do. Of your own free will you pledged yourself to do this.” Why then you cannot get away from it, for it is the way with the saints that if they swear to their own harm they do not change; they must be true to the words they speak even if it is to their own detriment. Of the saints’ Master it is always true. Has he said and shall he not do it? Or has he spoken and shall he not make it good? Here then is a mighty instrument to be used in prayer, “Lord, you have said this or that, you have said it, now do as you have said. You have said, ‘Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.’ You have said, ‘He shall deliver you in six troubles, and in seven there shall no evil touch you.’ You have said, ‘Surely in blessing I will bless you.’ You have said, ‘The Lord your God is with you wherever you go.’ You have said, ‘Your shoes shall be iron and bronze, and as your days so shall your strength be.’ Lord, there is your promise for it.” With such a plea you must prevail with a faithful God.

7. Again, since these people asked for help they confessed their own unhappy condition. There is a great power in that. One of the strongest pleas with generosity is the urgency of poverty, and one of the most prevailing arguments to be used in prayer with God is a truthful statement of our condition — a confession of our sad state. So they said to the Lord these words, “Oh our God, will you not judge them? For we have no might against this great company that comes against us; neither do we know what to do: but our eyes are on you.” They had no might, and they had no plan. “We have no might, neither do we know what to do.” Sometimes even if you cannot do the thing, it is a comfort to know how it might be done if you had the power, but these perplexed people neither could do it, nor knew how to do it. They were nonplussed. A little nation like Judah, surrounded by these powerful enemies, truly had no might. Their weakness and ignorance were great pleas: the logic was divine. “Neither do we know what to do: therefore our eyes are on you.” It was as if they had said, “If we could do it ourselves, well, you might very well say, ‘Go and do it. What did I give you the strength for, but that you could use the strength in doing it?’ But when we have no strength, neither do we know what to do, we come and just lay the case down at your feet and say, ‘There it is; our eyes are on you.’ ” Perhaps you think that is not praying. I tell you it is the most powerful form of prayer, just to set your case before God, just to lay bare all your sorrow and all your needs, and then say, “Lord, there it is.” You know a man must not beg in the streets of London; the police will not have it, and I daresay that is a very wise regulation. But what does the needy man do? Have you not seen him? He is dressed like a countryman, and looks half-starved, and his knees can be seen through an old pair of corduroys as he stoops. He does not beg, not he: he only sits down at the corner of the road. He knows very well that the very sight of his condition is enough. There are one or two people in the streets of London whose faces are a fortune to them; pale, and thin, and woebegone, they appeal more eloquently than words. I was going to say that there is a man who comes to the Tabernacle, who is just of the same kind. I could point him out, but I do not see him now; but he does come here, and the very way in which he shivers, the remarkable manner in which he looks ill, though he is not ill, takes in people who are continually being duped by his appearance. All the world knows that it is the look of the thing, the very appearance and show of sorrow, that prevails with people more than any words that are used. Now, when you cannot pray in words, go and lay bare your sorrow before God: just go and show your soul. Tell God what it is that burdens and distresses you, and you will prevail with the bountiful heart of our God, who is not moved by eloquence of words, and oratory of tongue, but is swift to answer the true oratory, the true eloquence, of real distress, and who is as wise to detect sham misery as to help real sorrow.

8. I wonder whether I recall for some of you any particular times of trial. For myself I do. If I do not for you, at any rate, there is one common affliction which has overwhelmed us all, that is the great affliction of sin. When sin, with its multitudinous host of offences, becomes obvious to us under conviction, and we do not know how to handle one single sin or to answer one of a thousand of the charges that might be brought against us; when we feel that we have no might whatever, and perhaps we realize that through sin we have brought ourselves into such bad circumstances that we do not know how to get out of it, though we feel that we must get out somehow: when we go to the right that seems blocked up, and the left seems equally closed to us: to go back we dare not: to go forward we cannot — then how wonderfully God clears the way! In what a marvellous manner we find our enemies all dead that we thought were going to kill us! and as for those who were going to rob us, we are enriched by them. Instead of taking us for a spoil, there they fall and their spoil becomes our right and we take it home with us rejoicing. Oh, what wonders God can do! He loves us to state the difficulty we are in on purpose so that when he gets us out of it we may remember that we were in such a condition. It was a real disaster and a time of real trial, and yet the Lord redeemed us from it.

9. What did they do after asking for help, after pleading the promise and confessing their condition? Why, they expressed their confidence in God. They said, “Our eyes are on you.” What did they mean by that? They meant, “Lord, if help does come, it must come from you. We are looking to you for it. It cannot come from anywhere else, so we look to you. But we believe it will come, men will not look for what they know will not come. We feel sure it will come, but we do not know how, so we are looking; we do not know when, but we are looking. We do not know what you would have us to do, but just as the servant looks to her mistress, so we are looking to you, Lord. Lord, we are looking.” That is a grand posture. Do you not know that is the way you are saved — by looking to Jesus? And that is the way you have to be saved, all the way between here and heaven. Whatever trouble comes, looking is to save you. Looking, often waiting, looking like the weary watcher from the tower when he wants to see the grey tints of the coming morning, when the night is long and he is weary, but still looking. “Our eyes are on you.” They are full of tears, but still they are on you; they are getting hazy, too, with sleep, but still they are on you — such eyes as we have. We look to you. I have sometimes blessed the Lord that he has not said, “See Jesus — see me and be saved.” What he has said is, “Look.” Sometimes if you cannot see you have done your part if you have looked — looked into the darkness. Lord, that cross of yours, it would give me such joy if I could see it, I cannot quite see it, it looms very indistinctly on my gaze, but I do look. It is looking, you know, that saves, for as we look the eyes get stronger, and we are enlightened. And so in this case they looked, and they found deliverance. May God help us, brothers and sisters, to do the same.

10. That is how they asked for help.

11. II. Now, secondly, HOW THEY RECEIVED HELP.

12. Their help came to them, first, by a message from God. They received a fresh assurance of God’s goodness. A new prophet was raised up, and he spoke with new words. “Do not be afraid, nor dismayed,” he said, “by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours but God’s.” Now, in our case, we shall not have a new promise, that would not be possible.

    What more can he say than to you he hath said,
    You who unto Jesus for refuge have fled.

But you will have that promise sweetly laid home to your soul, and the Spirit of God will bear witness with that promise, and so strengthen and comfort you, that you will get deliverance even before deliverance comes, because it often happens that to be saved from the fear of the trouble is the main business. To be quieted, and calmed, and assured, is really to be saved from the sting of trial; the trial itself is nothing if it does not bring a sting to your soul. If your heart is not troubled, then there is not much trouble in anything else. All the poverty and all the pain in the world would prevail nothing if its evil did not enter into the soul and vex it. So, in this emergency, God began to answer his people by quieting them. “Do not be afraid nor dismayed, for the battle is not yours but God’s: the Lord will be with you.”

13. As that gracious promise calmed their fears so that they were able without fear to face the impending attack; then they received distinct direction what to do tomorrow, which was to be the day of the assault: that direction was, “Go out to meet the foe.” How often has God given his people deliverance by quieting them concerning their course of action. Already the step they have taken has delivered them before they knew it. The Israelites, by then marching out, to meet the foe, and marching out with songs and hosannas, as we shall see, were doing the best possible thing to rout their foes. As we have already said, there is no doubt that their enemies were unable to comprehend such a defence as this: they must have supposed that there was some treachery or ambush intended, and so they began to kill each other, and Israel had nothing to do but to keep on singing.

14. Then came the real providence: they received actual deliverance. When the people of Judah came to their foes they found there were no foes. There they lay all stark and dead; none of the men of might could raise their hands against those whom God had favoured. In a similar way God will deliver you, brethren; in answer to prayer he will be your defence. Therefore, sing to his name. Did he not deliver you like this when you went out to meet the great army of your sins? You saw that Christ had put them away, and your heart danced within you as you said, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for he has slain our sins and they can curse us no more.” It has been so with a great many troubles that have appeared to you to be overwhelming: when you have come to them, lo, they have disappeared. They have been cleared out of your way as you have advanced, and you have had nothing to do but to sing and praise the name of the Lord.

15. III. And now, thirdly, and this is the main point, let us note HOW THEY ACTED AFTER THEY HAD PRAYED AND HEARD GOD’S VOICE. They asked for help, and they had it: how did they behave then?

16. Well first, as soon as they ever had an assurance that God would deliver them, they worshipped. That is one of the intentions of trial — to revive in us the spirit of devotion and communion with God. And mercy, when it comes on the back of a great trouble, leads us sweetly to prayer. I warrant you there had not been such a piece of worship in all Jerusalem as there was that day, when, after that young son of the Levites had stood and delivered the word of the Lord, the king bowed his head and all the people bowed their heads and did homage to the God of Israel. You could have heard the sound even of the wind among the trees at the time, for they were as hushed and as quiet as you were just now. Oh, when you know the Lord intends to deliver you, bow your head and just give him the quiet, deep, solemn worship of your spirit. I do not suppose we shall ever fall into Quakers’ worship in our public assemblies, though an occasional experience of it would do you a world of good: to sit still before the Lord, and to adore, and to adore, and to adore again and again, and still again, braces the spirit and clears the soul for the understanding of eternal realities. They worshipped, but why did they do it? They were not delivered. No, but they were sure they were going to be delivered. Their enemies were not dead. No, they were all alive, but they were sure they would be dead, so they had worship, and their devotion rose from trustful and grateful hearts. May we get into a worshipping frame of mind, and be kept in it. Then God will appear for our help.

17. As soon as the worship had closed, or rather before it had quite closed, they began to praise. As we read just now, up went the loud voices of the trained singers under the leadership of the chief musician, and they praised the name of the Lord. They sang, as we do, —

    For his mercies shall endure,
    Ever faithful, ever sure.

That is the way you should deal with God. Before the deliverance comes, praise him. Praise him for what is coming; adore him for what he is going to do. No song is so sweet, I think, in the ear of God as the song of a man who blesses him for “grace he has not tasted yet” — for what he does not have, but what he is sure will come. The praise of gratitude for the past is sweet, but that praise is sweeter which adores God for the future in full confidence that it shall be well. Therefore, take down your harps from the willows, oh you people, and praise the name of the Lord, though the fig tree still does not blossom and the cattle still die in the stall, and the sheep still perish from the folds; though you should have no income to meet your needs, and you should be brought almost to necessity’s door, still bless the Lord whose mighty providence cannot fail, and shall not fail, as long as there is one of his children to be provided for. Your song while you are still in distress will be sweet music to the ear of God.

18. After they had worshipped and sung, the next thing these people did was, to act: they went out marching. If there were unbelievers in Jerusalem, I know what they said. They stood at the gates and they said, “Well, this is foolishness. These Moabites and Ammonites are come to kill you, and they will do it, but you might as well wait until they come to you. You are just going to deliver yourselves up.” That would be the idea of unbelief, and that is also what it sometimes seems to our little faith when we go and commit ourselves to God. “What! are you going on your knees to confess your guilt before God and admit that you deserve to be lost? Are you going to withdraw every excuse and apology, every trust of your own, and give yourself up, as it were, to destruction?” Yes, that is exactly what to do, and it is the highest wisdom to do it; we are going out of the city marching away according to orders, and if, as you say, we are to give ourselves up, so we will. Perhaps, in your case, you are going to do an action of which everyone else says, “Well, now, that will be very foolish. You should be crafty. You should show a little cunning.” “No,” you say, “I cannot do other than what I am told, I must do the right.” Probably that will turn out to be the very best thing in the world to have done. The shortest distance between any two points is a straight line, the straight way will always be better than the crooked way. In the long run it is always so. Go right out, then, in the name of God: meet your difficulties calmly and fairly. Do not have any plans or tricks, but just commit yourselves to God; that is the way by which you may in confidence expect to find deliverance. These people of old went out of the city.

19. But now, notice again, that as they went out, they went out singing. They sang before they left the city, and sang as they left the city, and when the adversary came into sight they began to sing again. The trumpet sounded and the harps rang out their notes, and the minstrels again shouted for joy, and this was the song, —

    For his mercies shall endure,
    Ever faithful, ever sure.

It must have had a grand significance when they sang that passage, “To him who struck great kings: for his mercy endures for ever: and killed famous kings: for his mercy endures for ever: Sihon the king of Amorites: for his mercy endures for ever: and Og the king of Bashan: for his mercy endures for ever.” Why, every singer as he sang those lines, which look to us like a mere repetition, must have felt how applicable they were to their present condition when there was a Moabite and an Edomite and an Ammonite to be overthrown in the name of the mighty God whose mercy endures for ever. So they kept on singing.

20. You will observe that, while they were singing, God had accomplished the great deliverance for them. When the singing ceased, they prepared to gather up the spoil. What a different task from what they expected! You can see them stripping the bodies, taking off the helmet of gold and the greaves of bronze, the jewels from the ears and from around the necks of the princes; spoiling the dead of their Babylonian garments and their wedges of gold; heaping up the tents — the rich tents of the eastern nations — until they said to each other, “We do not know what to do.” But the difficulty was different from what might have befallen them at the first. Then they did not know what to do because of their weakness in the presence of their foes, but now the difficulty was because of the greatness of the spoil. “We cannot carry it home,” they would say to each other, “there is too much of it. It will take us days and days to store away all this abundant booty.” Now, child of God, it shall be so with you also. I do not know how, but if you can only trust God and praise him and go straight ahead, you shall see such amazing things that you shall be utterly astonished.

21. Then what will you do? Why, you will at once again begin praising the Lord, for they did so. They went back singing. “They came back to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets to the house of the Lord.” When God has done great things for you, and brought you through your present difficulty, you must be sure to repay him in the courts of his house with your loudest music and your most exultant notes, blessing again and again the name of the Lord.

22. After that they had rest. In the narrative it is added, “So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet: for his God gave him rest all around.” His enemies were afraid to come and touch him any more. After a very sharp storm it generally happens that there is a long rest. So it shall be with all the Lord’s people. You will get through this trouble, brother, and afterwards it will be smooth sailing for a very long time. I have known a child of God to have a very cyclone; it has seemed as if he must be utterly destroyed, but after it was over there has not been a ripple on the calm of his life. People have envied him and wondered about his tranquillity; he had had all his storms at once, and when they were over he had come into smooth water that seemed never to be ruffled. Perhaps you will have the same experience: only ask the great Pilot of the Galilean lake to steer you safely through your tempest, and then, when the storm shall cease at his bidding, you shall be glad because you are quiet; so he will bring you to your desired haven.

23. I have been desirous to speak these comforting words to God’s children, for well I know how they are tried, and I pray the Lord, the Comforter, to apply the word to their troubled hearts. But, I never can finish my discourse without having the very sad thought that there are always in our congregation some to whom these comforting things do not belong. They are not believers. They have never trusted in Christ. If this is so with you — if this is so — ah, friend, you have to fight your own battles: you have to bear your own trials, you have to carry your own burdens, and when you come at the last great day before the judgment seat you will have to answer for your own sins, and to bear your own punishment. May God have mercy on you, and deliver you from such a condition as this. It is a bad condition to live in; it is a terrible condition to die in. May you be brought to receive Christ for your substitute and your surety, and glorify his name for ever and ever. Amen.

Expositions By C. H. Spurgeon {2Ch 20; Ps 47}

1-3. It came to pass after this also, that the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and with them others besides the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle. Then there came some who told Jehoshaphat, saying, “There comes a great multitude against you from beyond the sea on this side of Syria; and, behold they are in Hazazontamar, which is Engedi.” And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

An angry God is to be sought. Even though he strikes us, we must turn to him. It is from the hand that wields the rod that we are to expect deliverance, if it ever comes at all.

4. And Judah gathered themselves together, to ask help from the LORD: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD.

The host of enemies were so enormous that they threatened to eat up all the land. The men of Judah could not keep them out. They would sack and storm and burn and destroy right and left. You see the great peril. What a heavy chastisement it must have been for the king to see his land in danger of being destroyed like this. But they had begun to pray.

5-12. And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD, before the new court, and said, “Oh LORD God of our forefathers, are you not God in heaven? And do you not rule over all the kingdoms of the heathen? And in your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand you? Are you not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and gave it to the seed of Abraham your friend for ever? And they lived in it and have built for you a sanctuary in it for your name saying, ‘If, when evil happens to us, as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house and in your presence, (for your name is in this house,) and cry to you in our affliction, then you will hear and help.’ And now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir whom they would not let Israel invade, when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them, and did not destroy them; Look, I say, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of your possession, which you have given to us to inherit. Oh our God, will you not judge them? For we have no might against this great company that comes against us; neither do we know what to do: but our eyes are on you.”

What a prayer it is! How argumentative! How it pleads his case as an advocate in a court of law, appealing to the mercy of God as logically as if it were to be argued out of the divine heart. Oh, how good it would be if we learned to pray like this, — in this earnest, persistent way! May the Lord teach us to pray as he taught his disciples!

13. And all Judah stood before the LORD, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.

It must have been a wonderful sight — the vast crowd — the pleading king — his voice heard afar, and the men and the women; but, to my mind, the most touching thing of all is the little children standing there, making their silent appeal to God that he would not let the babes be destroyed — that he would not allow the young children to be killed by the cruel hosts that now threatened the land. Young children’s prayers are powerful. Little ones, may God teach you how to pray.

14. Then the Spirit of the LORD came on Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the congregation;

Perhaps he had never delivered a prophecy before. This is his first sermon; but the Spirit of God was with him, and he could not hold his tongue.

15-17. And he said, “Listen, all Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you King Jehoshaphat, ‘Thus says the LORD to you, "Do not be afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours but God’s. Tomorrow go down against them: behold they come up by the cliff of Ziz; and you shall find them at the end of the brook, before the wilderness of Jeruel. You shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD with you, oh Judah and Jerusalem, do not fear, nor be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them: for the LORD will be with you."’ ”

Oh, how those words must have fallen on the weary ears of those who were in such trouble! And how glad those ears must have been to hear such a message of wonderful mercy, and so near at hand, too! “Tomorrow.” Imminent danger brings eminent mercy, and when the lion is about to leap on his prey, then comes the lion slayer and breaks his teeth, and delivers his lamb even from between his jaws. Glory be to God for such promises as he gives to his people in times of trouble, even such promises as he gave here.

18. And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the LORD, worshipping the LORD.

What a sight! That is the kind of ritualism one likes — when the posture is suggested by the feelings — when the man feels that there is nothing else to do but to bow before the Lord. The king could not speak, he was too full of gratitude — too joyful at the thought that God had so appeared for him. And he felt that the only thing he could do was in silence to bow his head, and prostrate himself before God. Have you not sometimes felt so full of gratitude that you could not express yourself?

    A sacred silence checks our songs
    And praise sits silent on our tongues.

Now, while they were worshipping, and just as they had finished that silent adoration, the joyful strains were heard. They had taken a breath.

19. And the Levites, of the children of the Kohathites, and of the children of the Korhites, stood up to praise the LORD God of Israel with a loud voice on high.

Here, again, we seem to be carried by great waves of excitement and devotion. One moment we are sinking down in adoration, now all rising up to listen to the loud voice of God’s priests and Levites.

But they have to wait for the morning.

20, 21. And they rose early in the morning, and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me oh Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem; believe in the LORD your God, so you shall be established; believe his prophets, so you shall prosper.” And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers to the LORD, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say “Praise the LORD; for his mercy endures for ever.”

So you can see them marching out of the city gate with the king in the forefront, and, as they go out, the army is marching with banners and with songs and hosannas. This is their style of going out to meet the foe.

22, 23. And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushes against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who were come against Judah and they were defeated. For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and where they had made an end of the inhabitants of Mount Seir, everyone helped to destroy another.

There were three or four nations, and some jealousy or suspicion must have revealed itself, or some mistake had been made, and the motley host divided itself into self-destroying bands. The Israelites had nothing to do but to sing. Perhaps their very singing was the cause of that disruption among the bands. They could not figure it out. They had seen the people rush to battle with discordant cries; but these were marching along as if they were coming to a wedding feast, singing hymns and chants. That was a new kind of fighting. So the Moabites and the Ammonites thought that there must be something wrong. “Surely there must be some confederates in the camp,” they would say. They suspected each other, as bad men very soon do, and so they turned on each other and spared the Israelites all the trouble of killing them.

24-26. And when Judah came towards the watch-tower in the wilderness, they looked for the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and no one escaped. And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away their spoil, they found among them in abundance both riches with the dead bodies, and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away: and they were three days in gathering up the spoil, it was so much. And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley of Berachah; for there they blessed the LORD: therefore the name of the same place was called, The Valley of Berachah; to this day.

This is the Valley of Blessing: surely an appropriate name worthy of long remembrance.

27. Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them, to go again to Jerusalem with joy;

Another march of hosannas. What a wonderful sight it must have been! We have read of the Battle of the Spurs; {a} but here is the Battle of the Song — the battle of praise. How amazingly it was won! Jehoshaphat is now in the forefront of those who go back singing. He feels he must sing the loudest, who has had such exceptional mercy after his sin.

27-30. For the LORD had made them to rejoice over their enemies. And they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets to the house of the LORD. And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries, when they had heard that the LORD fought against the enemies of Israel. So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet: for his God gave him rest all around.

Now, it is a long passage we have read, but I think it would not be complete if I did not read to you the song which they sang. In all probability it was the forty-seventh Psalm. You can almost hear them singing it as they were marching back.

1-9. Oh clap your hands all you people; shout to God with the voice of triumph. For the LORD most high is terrible; he is a great king over all the earth. He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet. He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah. God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises to our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth: sing praises with understanding. God reigns over the heathen: God sits on the throne of his holiness. The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields of the earth belong to God: he is greatly exalted.

The delivered people give God all the glory. He reigns, and it is he who subdues the people. Let him be exalted in the congregations of the people and praised in the assembly of the elders now and for evermore!

{a} The Battle of the Spurs or Battle of Guinegate took place on August 16, 1513. As part of the Holy League, during the ongoing Italian Wars, English and Imperial troops under Henry VIII and Maximilian I surprised and routed a body of French cavalry under Jacques de La Palice. See Explorer "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Spurs"