3409. Seeking Richly Rewarded

A Sermon Published On Thursday, June 4, 1914.

The young lions lack, and suffer hunger; but those who seek LORD shall not lack any good thing. {Ps 34:10}

For other sermons on this text:

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 65, “Lions Lacking — But the Children Satisfied” 62}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3409, “Seeking Richly Rewarded” 3411}

   Exposition on Ps 34 Ho 14 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2474, “Great Change, The” 2475 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Ps 34:1-20 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3445, “Strong Faith in a Faithful God” 3447 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Ps 34 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3149, “Commissariat of the Universe, The” 3150 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Ps 34 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3213, “Blessings Traced to Their Source” 3214 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Ps 34 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3409, “Seeking Richly Rewarded” 3411 @@ "Exposition"}

1. The young lions are very strong; they are still in the freshness of their youth, and yet their strength does not always suffice to keep them supplied. The young lions are very crafty; they understand how to waylay their game and leap on them with a sudden spring unawares, and yet, with all their craftiness, they howl for hunger in the woods. The young lions are very bold and furious, very unscrupulous; they are not restrained from any deed of depredation, and yet for all that, freebooters {a} as they are, they sometimes lack, and suffer hunger. These are just the type of many men in the world; they are strong men, they are cunning men, they are thoroughly up to the times — smart, sharp men. If anyone could be well supplied, one would think they should be. But how many of them become bankrupt and are ruined, and, with all their cunning, they are too cunning, and, with all their unscrupulousness, they manage at last, very often, to come to a bad end. They lack and suffer hunger. But here are the people of God — they are regarded as simpletons, such simpletons as to seek the Lord, instead of adopting the maxims of universal worldly wisdom, namely, “Seek yourself”; they have given up what is called the first law of human nature, namely, self-seeking, self-pleasing, self-serving, and have come to seek the Lord, to seek to magnify him. And what comes of their simplicity? “They shall not lack any good thing.” Notwithstanding their lack of power, their lack of cunning, and the check which conscience often puts on them, so that they cannot do what others can to enrich themselves, yet for all that, they have a fortune ensured to them: they “shall not lack any good thing.”

2. Let us look at this text now, and together consider it like this: first, the seeking of the Lord which is intended here; and then following on that, the promise that is given with such seeking.

3. I. Our first point is: — THE SEEKING OF THE LORD HERE INTENDED.

4. We must be particular and very precise about this. The promise is so rich that we wish to win it fully, but we do not wish to be dishonest. We would not take a word of God that does not belong to us, lest we should deceive ourselves, and be guilty of robbing God. We must go carefully and jealously here, and must search ourselves to see if in very deed and truth we are such as really seek the Lord.

5. Now, the term to “seek the Lord,” I may say, is the description of the life of the Christian. When he lives as he should, his whole life is seeking the Lord. He begins with this. “Behold, he prays,” that is, he seeks the Lord. He has begun to be conscious of his sin; he is seeking pardon from the Lord. He has begun to be aware of his danger; he is seeking salvation in the Lord. He is now aware of his powerlessness, and he is looking to the Lord for strength. Those deep convictions, those cries and tears, those repentings and humblings, and, above all, those acts of simple confidence in which he casts himself on the great atonement made on Calvary’s bloody tree — those are all acts of seeking the Lord. Now, perhaps, some of you have gotten no further than this. Well, you shall have your portion of blessing, according to your strength. You shall have your share in it, little as you are. He will give to his children at the table their portion, as well as to those who have grown to manhood.

6. After a man has attained to eternal life by trusting in the Lord Jesus, he then goes on to seek the Lord in quite another way. No wonder; since he has found the Lord, or rather has been found by him, and yet he still presses on to apprehend him of whom he has been already apprehended. He still presses forward, seeking the Lord, and he seeks the Lord like this. He seeks now to know the Lord’s mind, the Lord’s law and will. “Show me what you would have me to do,” he says. “Lord, I went by my own wit once, and I brought myself into a dark woods: I lost myself: I was at hell’s brink, and you saved me: now, Lord, guide and direct me: be pleased to teach me: open my lips when I speak: guide my hands when I act: I wait at your feet, feeling that: — 

   For holiness no strength have I;

   My strength is at thy feet to lie.”

The man now seeks the Lord by daily and constant prayer, seeking that he may be upheld, guided, constrained in paths of righteousness, and restrained from the ways of sin. He becomes a seeker of the Lord after sanctification, as he once was after justification. And then he becomes a seeker of the Lord in a further sense. He seeks to enjoy the Lord’s love, and his gracious fellowship and communion. He seeks to get near in reverent friendship to his Lord. He now longs to grow up in the likeness of Christ, so that his communion with the Father and the Son may be more close, more sweet, more continuous. He feels that God is his Father, and that he is no longer at a distance from him in one sense, for he is made near by the blood of the cross. Yet sometimes he is oppressed with a sense of his old evil heart of unbelief, and in departure from the living God, and he cries out, “Draw me nearer to yourself.” In fact, his prayer always is: — 

   Nearer my God to thee,

   Nearer to thee:

      E’en though it be a cross that raiseth me,

      Still all my cry shall be,

   Nearer to thee, nearer to thee.

He seeks the Lord’s company. He delights to be in God’s house, and at God’s mercy seat, and at the foot of the cross, where God reveals himself in all his glory. He is constantly crying for a larger capacity to receive more of God, and the longing of his soul is, “When shall I come and appear before God?” He feels that he never shall be satisfied until he wakes up in the Lord’s likeness. Now, all this, which may be private within him, and scarcely known to anyone, operates practically in an outward seeking of the Lord which makes the man’s life to be sublime. The genuine Christian lives for God. He makes the first object of all that he does the glory of God, the extension of the Redeemer’s kingdom, the proclaiming of his praise, who has brought him out of darkness into marvellous light. He is a young man, an apprentice; he has been converted, and he says, “Now, what can I do while I am in this house to make it better, to make it happier and holier, so that men may see what the religion of Jesus is? How can I commend my Lord and Master to those among whom I dwell — to my master and my mistress, and my fellow servants?” He becomes a tradesman on his own account, and when he opens that shop door he says, “I do not intend to trade for myself; I will make this to be my object, that this shall be God’s shop; God has got to keep me; he has promised that he will; therefore, I may take what I need for the daily subsistence of myself and my children; but I will keep the shop for God for all that, and if he prospers me, I will give him from my substance; but whatever comes of it, I will so trade across my counter, so keep those books, and manage those bills that I will let the world see what a Christian trader is, and by doing this I will seek to commend my Lord and my God, and my object shall be to make him famous.”

7. He seeks the Lord on the Lord’s day. He desires in the Sunday School, or the preaching position, or anywhere he may serve, to be glorifying God. But he equally seeks him on Mondays and other weekdays, for he believes there is a way of turning over calicoes, weighing pounds of tea, ploughing acres of land, driving a cart, or whatever else he may be called to do, by which he can honour God, and cause others to honour him.

8. Now, I say very solemnly — I hope I am mistaken in what I say, but I fear I am not — I am afraid there are many professors who would tell a lie if they said that they always sought God in their business, for though they are the members of a church, and you would not find them doing anything seriously inconsistent, yet their whole life is inconsistent, because for a Christian to live for anything but the Lord Jesus Christ is inconsistent. It is inconsistent to the very root and core, to the tenor and aim, the supreme object of life, altogether inconsistent. A man has a right to live, to bring up his family, to educate them and see them comfortably settled in life; but that ought to be only for God’s glory. That he, acting as a father, is expected to do — for if a man does not care for his own household, he is worse than a heathen man and a Publican — that God may be glorified by his doing his duty. But when I see some people hoarding up their thousands, and getting rich for no good reason that I know of, except that people may say “How much did he leave behind him?” how can I believe that those professors, as they take the sacramental cup, are doing anything but drinking condemnation to themselves? When I see some Christian men who profess to be living for nothing, but to be respectable, and to be known, and honoured, and noticed, but never seem to care about the souls of men, nor about Christ’s glory never shedding a tear over a dying sinner, nor heaving a sigh over this huge and wicked city, which is like a millstone on the neck of some of us, like a nightmare perpetually on our hearts — when I see these men so cold, so indifferent, so wrapped up in themselves, what can I think but that their religion is only a cloak, a painted pageantry, for them to go to hell in, which shall be discovered at the last, and be a theme for the laughter of the fiends. Oh! may God grant that we may all be able to truly say, “I seek the Lord; I am sure, I am certain that I seek him,” for if we can feel that that is true, then we can take the promise of the text; if not, we may not touch it. If we, as professing Christians, are not at top and bottom, in heart, and soul, and spirit, and in all that we do, really seeking the glory of God, the promise does not belong to us; but if we can from our very souls declare, “Notwithstanding a thousand infirmities, yet, Lord, you know all things: you know that I love you, and that I seek your honour,” then this is true of us, and not one of us shall lack any good thing.

9. Just a word or two more about this, for we must discriminate thoroughly well before we come to the promise. It is too rich and precious to be bestowed on the wrong people, and there are some who hope to get this promise, who feel that they must not take it. We must be among those who seek the Lord heartily, not merely saying that we do, or wishing that we did, but, filled with the Holy Spirit, and in the power of his blessed residence in our souls, we must be panting after God’s glory heartily, otherwise I do not see that we can put our hands on the promise without presumption. We must be seeking it honestly, too, for there is a way of seeking God’s good and your own at the same time — I mean having a sinister and selfish motive. We may preach, and not be preaching only for God at all. A man may live in the Sanctuary, in holy engagements from morning until night, and yet may never ardently, intensely seek the Lord. A man may be a great giver to charities, a great attender at prayer meetings, a great doer of all kinds of Christian work, and yet he may never seek the Lord, but may yet be seeking to have his name known, to be noted as a generous man, or be merely seeking to get merit for himself, or satisfaction for his own conscience. It is an absolutely honest desire to serve and glorify God while we are here that is meant in the text. If we have that — and I think we may readily see whether we have that or not — then the word of the psalmist is true for us.

10. We must seek God’s glory heartily, honestly, and we must seek it most obediently. A man cannot say, “I am seeking God’s glory,” when he knows he is disobeying God’s command in what he is doing. How can I say that I am desiring to glorify God by following a pursuit which is sinful, by not restraining my anger, and speaking rashly; by giving rein to my passions, by indulging my own desires, by being proud and domineering over my fellow Christians, or by being pliant, fearful, timid in an unholy manner, and not being bold for God and for his truth? No, we must watch ourselves very narrowly and cautiously. We must be very careful of our own spirits. We soon get off the rails. Even when we are keeping correct outwardly, we may be getting very inconsistent inwardly by forgetting that the first, last, midst, and sole object of a blood-bought spirit is to live for Christ, and that if saints on earth were what they should be, they would be as constantly God’s servants as the angels are in heaven; they would be as much messengers of God in their daily calling as the seraphs are before the eternal throne. Oh! when will the Spirit of God lift us up to anything like this? Most of us are still hunting after things that will melt beneath the sun, or rot beneath the moon. We are gathering up shadows for ourselves, things which have no permanent substance: seeking self, seeking anything rather than the blessed God. Lord! forgive us this sin in which we have fallen into, and make us really such as truly seek the Lord!

11. II. Now, let us be prepared to behold: — THE PROMISE OF THE REWARD OF SUCH SEEKING.

12. “Those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.” That is, not one of them. Those who first stepped into Bethesda’s pool were healed, and no others; but here everyone who steps into this pool is healed; that is to say, everyone who seeks the Lord has this promise — the least as well as the greatest: the Little-Faiths and the Much-Afraids as much as the Great-Hearts and the Stand-Fasts. Those who seek the Lord, whether they are chimney-sweeps or princes, whether they are tender children, or seasoned veterans in the Master’s great army — they shall lack no good thing. “Well, but,” someone says, “there are some of those who are in need.” They are in need? Yes, that may be, but they are not in need of any good thing. They cannot be. God’s word is against anything you say, or I say. If they seek the Lord, they shall not, they cannot, they must not lack any good thing. “Well, at any rate, they lack what appears to be a good thing.” That is very likely; the text does not say they shall not be. “Well, but they lack what they once found to be a good thing; they lack health — is that not a good thing? It was a good thing for them when they had it before, yet they lack health; does that not go against the text?” No, it does not in any way whatever. The text means this, that anything which is absolutely good for him, all circumstances being considered, no child of God shall ever lack. I read this statement in a work by that good old Puritan, Mr. Clarkson, which stayed with me when I read it some time ago. I think the words were these, “If it were a good thing for God’s people for sin, Satan, sorrow, and affliction to be abolished, Christ would blot them out within five minutes, and if it were a good thing for the seeker of the Lord to have all the kingdoms of this world laid at his feet, and for him to be made a prince, Jesus would make him a prince before the sun rose again.” If it were absolutely, all things being considered, a good thing for him, he must have it, for Christ would be sure to keep his word. He has said he shall not lack it, and he would not let his child lack it, whatever it might be, if it were really, absolutely, and in itself, all things considered, a good thing.

13. Now, taking God’s Word and walking by faith towards it, what a light it sheds on your history and mine! There are many things that I wish for, and which I sincerely think to be good, but I say at once, “If I do not have them, they are not good, for if they were good, good for me, and I am truly seeking God, I should have them: if they were good things, my heavenly Father would not deny them to me: he has said he would not, and I believe his pledged word.” I think sometimes it would be a good thing for me if I had more talents, but if it were a good thing I should have more, I would have them. You think it would be a good thing, if you were to have more money. Well, if he saw it to be good, you would have it. “Oh!” you say, “but it would have been a good thing if my poor mother had been spared to me: if she had been alive now, it would have been a good thing, and it would be a good thing certainly for us to be in the position I was five years ago before these terrible panic times came.” Well, if it would have been a good thing for you to have been there, you would have been there. “I do not see it,” one says. Well, do not expect to see it, but believe it. We walk by faith, not by sight. But the text says so. It does not say that every man shall have every good thing, but it does say that every man who seeks the Lord shall have every good thing. He shall not lack any good thing, whatever it may be.

14. “Well, I doubt it,” one says. Very well; I do not wonder that you do, for your father Adam doubted it, and that is how the whole race fell. Adam and Eve were in the garden, and they might have felt quite sure that their heavenly Father would not deny them any good thing, but the devil came and whispered, and said to them, “God knows that in the day you eat the fruit of that tree you will be as gods; that fruit is very good for you a wonderfully good thing; never anything like it, and that one good thing God has kept away from you.” “Oh!” said Eve, “then I will get it,” and down we all fell. The race was ruined through their doubting the promise. If they had continued to seek the Lord, they would not have lacked any good thing. That fruit was not a good thing for them; it might have been good in itself, but it was not good for them, or else God would have given it to them, and their doubting it brought all this terrible sorrow on us.

15. So it will on you, for let me show you — you say, perhaps, “It would be a very good thing for me to be rich.” God has prevented this many times. You have never prospered when you thought you were going to. You will put out your hand, perhaps, to do a wrong thing to be rich, but if you say, “No, I will work, and toil, and do what I can, but if I am not prospered, it is not a good thing for me to be prospered, and I would not do a wrong thing, if it would bring me all the prosperity that heart could desire,” then you will walk uprightly, and God will bless you; but if you begin to doubt it and say, “That is a good thing, and my heavenly Father does not give it to me,” you will, first of all, get harsh and bitter thoughts against your heavenly Father, and then you will get wicked thoughts and wrong desires, and these will lead you to do wrong things, and God’s name will be greatly dishonoured by it. How do you know what a good thing is for you? “Oh! I know,” one says. That is just what your child said last Christmas. He was sure it was a good thing for him to have all those sweets: he thought you were very cruel when you denied them to him, and yet you knew better. You had seen him before so very ill through those very things he now longed for. And your heavenly Father knows, perhaps, that you could not bear to be strong in body; you would never be holy if you had too robust health. He knows you could not endure to be wealthy: you would be proud, vain, perhaps wicked: you do not know how bad you might be if you had this, perhaps. He has put you in the best place for you. He has given you not only some of the things that are good for you, but all that is good for you, and everything in the world that is really, solidly, permanently good for you, you either have it now, or you shall have it before long. God your Father is dealing with you in perfect wisdom and perfect love, and though your reason may begin to criticize and question, yet your faith should sit still at his feet, and say, “I believe it; I believe it, even though my heart is wrung with sorrow; I am a seeker of God; I seek his glory, and I shall not lack any good thing.”

16. I think someone in the congregation might say to me, “Look at the martyrs; did they not seek the Lord more than all men?” Truly so, but what were you about to object to? “Why, that they lacked many good things; they were in prison, sometimes in cold, and nakedness, and hunger; they were tormented on the rack; many of them went to heaven from the fiery stake.” Yes, but they never lacked any good thing. It would not have been a good thing for them as God’s martyrs to have suffered less, for now read their history. The more they suffered, the brighter they shine. Rob them of their sufferings, and you strip their crowns of their gems. Who are the brightest before the eternal throne? Those who suffered most below. If they could speak to you now, they would tell you that that noxious dungeon was, because it enabled them to glorify God, a good thing for them. They would tell you that the rack in which they sang sweet hymns of praise was a good thing for them, because it enabled them to show the patience of the saints, and to have their names written in the book of the peerage of the skies. They would tell you that the fiery stake was a good thing, because from that pulpit they preached Christ in such a way as men could never have heard it from cold lips and stammering tongues. Did not the world perceive that the suffering of the saints were good things, for they were the seed of the Church? They helped to spread the truth, and because God would not deny them any good thing he gave them their dungeons, he gave them their racks, he gave them their stakes, and these were the best things they could have had, and with enlarged reason, and with their mental faculties purged, those blessed spirits would now choose again, could they live over again, to have suffered those things. They would choose, if it were it possible, to have lived the very life, and to have endured all they braved, to have received so glorious a reward as they now enjoy.

17. “Ah! well, then,” one says, “I see I really have not understood a great deal that has happened to me: I have been in obscurity, lost my friends, been despised, felt quite broken down; do you mean to tell me that that has been a good thing?” I do. God has blessed it to you. He will enable you to say, “Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now I have kept your law.” And if you get more grace, you will say it is a good thing, for is it not a good thing for you to be conformed to the likeness of Christ? How can you be, if you have no suffering? If you never suffer with him, how can you expect to reign with him? How are you to be made like him in his humiliation, if you never are humbled? Why, I think every pain that shoots through the body and shocks the sensitive soul, helps us to understand what Christ suffered, and being sanctified, gives us the power to pass through the torn veil, and to be baptized with his baptism, and in our measure to drink from his cup, and, therefore, it becomes a good thing, and our Father gives it to us, because his promise is that he will not deny or withhold any good thing from those who walk uprightly.

18. I feel, brethren, as though my text were too full for me to go on with it, there is such wealth in it, and if you will take it home and think it over at your leisure, you may do better with it than I can, if I attempt wire-drawing {b} and word-spinning. There is the text. It seems to me to speak as plainly as the English tongue can speak. Give yourselves up to God entirely, and live for him, and you shall never lack anything that is really good for you; your life shall be the best life for you, all things considered in the light of eternity, that a life could have been. Only watch that you stick with this — the seeking of the Lord. There is the point of it. Get out of that, and there may be some promise for you, but certainly not this one. You have gotten out of the line of the promise; but stay with that and seek the Lord, and your life shall be even if it is a poverty-stricken one, such a life that if you could have the infinite intelligence of your heavenly Father, you would ordain it to be precisely as it now is. “Those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.”

19. Why, how rich this makes the poor! How content this makes the suffering! How grateful this makes the afflicted! How does it make our present state to glow with an unearthly glory! But, brethren, we shall never understand this text fully this side of heaven. There we shall see it in splendour. Those who seek the Lord here shall have up there all that imagination can picture, all that anyone could conceive of, all that desire could create. You shall have more than eye has seen, or ear has ever heard. You shall have capacities to receive of the divine fulness, and the fulness of the pleasures that are with God for evermore shall be yours.

20. But, again I come back to that, are you seeking the Lord? That is a question I have asked my own heart many many times — Do I seek the Lord’s glory in all things? I ask it of you, you young men who are starting in business. Now, you know, you can if you like go into business for yourselves; I mean you can make your trade count for yourselves, and live for yourselves, and the end will be miserable, and the way to it will not be happy. But if God’s Spirit shall help you young men and women early in life to give your hearts to Jesus, and to say, “Now, God has made us, we will serve him who made us, Christ has bought us, we will serve him who bought us; the Spirit of God has given us a new life, we will live for this new and quickening Spirit” — then I do not stand here to promise you ease and comfort, for in the world you shall have tribulation, but I do say in God’s name that he will not withhold one good thing from you, and that when you come to be with him for ever and ever you will bless him that he did for you the best that could be done even by infinite wisdom and infinite love. You shall have the best life that could be lived, the best mercies that could be given, and the best of all good things shall be yours here and hereafter.

21. There may be some here, however, who have long passed the days of youth, and up until now have never had a thought about their Maker. The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib; but they have not known God. If you keep a dog, he fawns on you, and follows at your heels. There is scarcely any creature so ignorant that it does not know its keeper. Go to the Zoological Gardens and see if those animals that are most deficient in brain are not still obedient to those who feed them. Yet here is God, good and kind to a man like you, and you have lived to be forty, and have never had an idea of loving and serving God. Have you sunk lower than the brutes? Think of that! But Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners such as you. Repent! May God’s Eternal Spirit lead you to repentance of this great sin of having lived in neglect of God, and from now on, seeking pardon for the past through the atoning sacrifice, and strength for the future through the Divine Spirit, seek the Lord, and you shall find that you shall not lack any good thing. May the Lord bring you there, and save and bless you eternally! Amen.

{a} Freebooter: One who goes about in search of plunder; especially a pirate or piratical adventurer. OED.
{b} Wire-Drawing: The action or operation of making wire by drawing a piece of ductile metal through a series of holes, successively decreasing in diameter, in a steel plate called a draw-plate. OED.

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Ps 34}

“A psalm of David when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed.”

It was a very painful exhibition, and one in which David does not shine, but in which, nevertheless, the providence and grace of God are very conspicuous, and it is very pleasant to find a man of God penning such words as these after his escape.

1. I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

After any very great deliverance we feel prompted to special gratitude, and it appears to us as if we never should stop praising God. I wish that perpetuity were real, but, alas! it often happens that the next cloud that sweeps the skies brings back our doubting, and our fearing, and our song is over. It ought not to be so. Our heart’s resolve should be, “I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth.”

2. My soul shall make her boast in the LORD:

What else is there to boast about? But what a proper subject for boasting the Lord is, because it is legitimate boasting! We can never exaggerate — we can never speak too well or think too well — of God. He is high above our thoughts, when they are at the best, so that we may make them as big as we wish, and we shall never be guilty of extravagance here.

2. The humble shall hear of it, and be glad.

Humble souls cannot, generally, endure boasting, but boasting in God is very sweet to them. He who will make God great will always be a choice favourite with a broken spirit. Those who are little in themselves delight to hear about the glory of God.

3. Oh magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.

It is too grand a theme for one. One little heart can scarcely feel it all. One feeble tongue cannot proclaim it. Come, then, you saints who know his name, magnify the Lord with me.

4. I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.

Blessed be his name for this. Are there not many of you, dear friends, who can bear the same testimony — personal proof of a prayer-hearing God? You tried him, for you sought him. You tried him, and you found him true, for he delivered you from all your fears.

5. They looked to him, and were enlightened: and their faces were not ashamed.

Only a look, and their burden was gone. Only a look! What great things hang on little things! Faith is only a look, yet it brings life, pardon, salvation. Heaven comes that way. Only a look!

6, 7. This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear him, and delivers them.

The angel of the Lord does not merely come to help his people, but he stays with them. He encamps. He has pitched his tent, for he intends to stay. The guardians of God do not forsake their charge. They encamp around those who fear him, for their deliverance.

8. Oh taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who trusts in him.

It is the grandest of blessings. It is the sum and substance of the gospel. “Blessed is the man who trusts in him.” By the way of works we are cursed, but by the way of believing we are blest. Are you trusting? Dear heart, are you trusting? Is it a feeble trust? Are you often much tried and distressed? Yet if you are trusting, you are blessed. God pronounces you so; and do not let your faith waver about it, or allow the devil to tell you that you are accursed, for you cannot be. You are blessed.

9. Oh fear the LORD, you his saints: for there is no lack to those who fear him.

Sometimes their wishes are not granted, but there is no real lack. They shall have all their needs, if they do not have all luxuries.

10. The young lions lack, and suffer hunger:

Strong as they are, and crafty as they are, they sometimes howl because of their hunger.

10. But those who seek the LORD

Though they have no craft, and no courage, and no strength, and no foresight.

10. Shall not lack any good thing.

Plead that, tried child of God. Plead it: plead it. If you are in need tonight — if you are in any form of need — plead this gracious word.

11. Come, you children listen to me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

A Sunday School teacher’s text. Gather the children close to you. Say, “Come near me. I would be familiar with you.” It was a king who spoke these words, and yet he delighted to say, “Come you children.” Win their attention. “Listen to me.” If they do not hear, how shall they understand? “And I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” That is your subject — pure religion — heart religion — spiritual religion. “I will teach you the fear of the Lord.”

12. What man is he who desires life,

What man is he who does not desire life? Love of it is innate in us all.

12, 13. And loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking guile.

He begins with one of the hardest practical duties of the fear of God for he who bridles his tongue is able also be bridle the whole body. The tongue is such an unruly member that if that is kept — and only through grace can it be so — then we may be quite certain that all the other organs and faculties will be kept, too.

14. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.

A great deal is packed away into a small compass there. There is the negative “Depart from evil,” and the positive which must go with it, “Do good.” And if you do not do good, you will soon do evil. And then there is that blessed precept “Seek peace.” Hunt for it, if you cannot find it, and if it runs away from you, follow it — pursue it — hunt after it until you gain it. A peaceful life is a happy life.

15. The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous,

He watches them. He loves them too well to let them ever be out of his sight. He views them with satisfaction. He regards them with affection. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous.

15. And his ears are open to their cry.

Ready to hear their feeblest prayer — the cry of their pain — their distress. His ears are always open.

16. The face of the LORD is against those who do evil,

Sets his face against them.

16, 17. To cut off the memory of them from the earth. The righteous cry, and the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.

Here is an explanation of the experience of the believer — first, prayer; then God’s hearing, and then deliverance. Who would not pray who has found prayer to be so effective with God?

18, 19. The LORD is near to those who are of a broken heart; and saves such as are of a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivers him out of them all.

The first line seemed to have something terrible in it: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous,” but there is a blessed “but” that comes in — thrown like the tree into Marah’s bitter stream to sweeten it all.

20, 21. He keeps all his bones: not one of them is broken. Evil shall kill the wicked;

Their own evil shall be their destruction. They need nothing more than to be allowed to go on in sin. Sin is hell. The fire of corruption is the fire of perdition. Evil shall kill the wicked.

21, 22. And those who hate the righteous shall be desolate. The LORD redeems the soul of his servants: and none of those who trust in him shall be desolate.

How grandly does David preach the gospel! We need not look to Paul to learn salvation by faith. The Psalms are full of it. We have had it just before. “Blessed is the man who trusts in him”; and now, again, “None of those who trust in him shall be desolate.” They are sinful, but they shall not be desolate. They often feel as if they were utterly unworthy, but they shall not be desolate. They are, sometimes downcast, but they shall not be desolate. They may be hunted by trials, and afflictions, and temptations of the devil, but they shall not be desolate. They may come to the bed of pain, and to the chamber of death, but they shall not be desolate. They shall stand before the judgment seat of Christ, but they shall not be desolate — not one of them, for it is written, “None of those who trust in him shall be desolate.”