Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/spurgeon/ps3.8

Text File | 1993-03-15 | 9KB | 159 lines

                           EXPOSITION.

        This verse contains the sum and substance of Calvinistic
doctrine. Search Scripture through, and you must, if you read it
with a candid mind, be persuaded that the doctrine of salvation
by grace alone is the great doctrine of the word of God:
"_Salvation belongeth unto the Lord_." This is a point concerning
which we are daily fighting. Our opponents say, "Salvation
belongeth to the free will of man, if not to man's merit, yet at
least to man's will;" but we hold and teach that salvation from
first to last, in every iota of it, belongs to the Most High God.
It is God that chooses his people. _He_ calls them by his grace;
_he_ quickens them by his Spirit, and keeps them by his power. It
is not of man, neither by man; "not of him that willeth, nor of
him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." May we all
learn this truth experimentally, for our proud flesh and blood
will never permit us to learn it in any other way. In the last
sentence the peculiarity and speciality of salvation are plainly
stated: "_Thy blessing is upon thy people_." Neither upon Egypt,
nor upon Tyre, nor upon Nineveh; thy blessing is upon thy chosen,
thy blood-bought, thine everlastingly-beloved people. "_Selah_:"
lift up your hearts, and pause, and meditate upon this doctrine.
"Thy blessing is upon thy people." Divine, discriminating,
distinguishing, eternal, infinite, immutable love, is a subject
for constant adoration. Pause my soul, at this _Selah_, and
consider thine own interest in the salvation of God; and if by
humble faith thou art enabled to see Jesus as thine by his own
free gift of himself to thee, if this greatest of all blessings
be upon thee, rise up and Sing-

        "Rise, my soul! adore and wonder!
                Ask, 'O why such love to me?'
        Grace hath put me in the number
                Of the Saviour's family:
                        Hallelujah!
                Thanks, eternal thanks to thee."


              EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

        Verse 8.--"_Salvation belongeth unto the Lord:_" parallel
passage in #Jon 2:9|, "_Salvation is of the Lord_." The mariners
might have written upon their ship, instead of Castor and Pollux,
or the like device, _Salvation is the Lord's_; the Ninevites
might have written upon their gates, _Salvation is the Lord's_;
and whole mankind, whose cause is pitted and pleaded by God
against the hardness of Jonah's heart, in the last, might have
written on the palms of their hands, _Salvation is the Lord's_.
It is the argument of both the Testaments, the staff and
supportation of heaven and earth. They would both sink, and all
their joints be severed, if the salvation of the Lord were not.
The birds in the air sing no other notes, the beasts in the field
give no other voice, than _Salus Jehovae_, Salvation is the
Lord's. The walls and fortresses to our country's gates, to our
cities and towns, bars to our houses, a surer cover to our heads
than a helmet of steel, a better receipt to our bodies than the
confection of apothecaries, a better receipt to our souls than
the pardons of Rome, is _Salus Jehovae_, the salvation of the
Lord. _The Salvation of the Lord_ blesseth, preserveth, upholdeth
all that we have; our basket and our store, the oil in our
cruses, our presses, the sheep in our fold, our stalls, the
children in the womb, at our tables, the corn in our field, our
stores, our garners; it is not the virtue of the stars, nor
nature of all things themselves, that giveth being and
continuance to any of these blessings. And, "What shall I more
say?" as the apostle asked (#Heb 11|), when he had spoken much,
and there was much more behind, but time failed him. Rather, what
should I not say? for the world is my theatre at this time, and I
neither think nor can feign to myself anything that hath not
dependence upon this acclamation, _Salvation is the Lord's_.
Plutarch writeth, that the Amphictions in Greece, a famous
council assembled of twelve sundry people, wrote upon the temple
of Apollo Pythius, instead of the Iliads of Homer, or songs of
Pindarus (large and tiring discourses), short sentences and
memoratives, as, _Know thyself, Use moderation, Beware of
suretyship_, and the like; and doubtless though every creature in
the world, whereof we have use, be a treatise and narration unto
us of the goodness of God, and we might weary our flesh, and
spend our days in writing books of that inexplicable subject, yet
this short apothegm of Jonah comprehendeth all the rest, and
standeth at the end of the song, as the altars and stones that
the patriarch set up at the parting of the ways, to give
knowledge to the after-world by what means he was delivered. I
would it were daily preached in our temples, sung in our streets,
written upon our door-posts, painted upon our walls, or rather
cut with an adamant claw upon the tables of our hearts, that we
might never forget salvation to be the Lord's. We have need of
such remembrances to keep us in practice of revolving the mercies
of God. For nothing decayeth sooner than love: _nihil facilius
quam amor putrescit_. And of all the powers of the soul, memory
is most delicate, tender, and brittle, and first waxeth old,
_memoria delicata, tenera, fragilis, in quam primum senectus
incurrit_; and of all the apprehensions of memory, first benefit
_primum senescit beneficium_.--^John King's Commentary on Jonah,
1594.

        Verse 8.--"_Thy blessing is upon thy people_." The saints
are not only blessed when they are comprehensors, but while they
are viators. They are blessed before they are crowned. This seems
a paradox to flesh and blood: what, reproached and maligned, yet
blessed! A man that looks upon the children of God with a carnal
eye, and sees how they are afflicted, and like the ship in the
gospel, which was covered with waves (#Mt 8:24|), would think
they were far from blessedness. Paul brings a catalogue of his
sufferings (#2Co 11:24-26|), "Thrice was I beaten with rods, once
was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck," etc. And those
Christians of the first magnitude, of whom the world was not
worthy, "Had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, they were
sawn asunder, they were slain with the sword." #Heb 11:36,37|.
What! and were all these during the time of their sufferings
blessed? A carnal man would think, if this be to be blessed, God
deliver him from it. But, however sense would give their vote,
our Saviour Christ pronounceth the godly man blessed; though a
mourner, though a martyr, yet blessed. Job on the dunghill was
blessed Job. The saints are blessed when they are cursed. Shimei
did curse David (#2Sa 16:5|), "He came forth and cursed him;" yet
when he was cursed David he was blessed David. The saints though
they are bruised, yet they are blessed. Not only they shall be
blessed, but they are so. #Ps 119:1|. "Blessed are the
undefiled." #Ps 3.8|. "_Thy blessing is upon thy people_."
--^Thomas Watson.

          [As a curious instance of Luther's dogmatical
   interpretations, we give very considerable extracts from his
  rendering of this Psalm without in any degree endorsing them.
                             C.H.S.]

        Verse 8.--"_Salvation is of the Lord, and thy blessing is
upon thy people_." A most beautiful conclusion this, and, as it
were, the sum of all the feelings spoken of. The sense is, it is
the Lord alone that saves and blesses: and even though the whole
mass of all evils should be gathered together in one against a
man, still, it is the Lord who saves: salvation and blessing are
in his hands. What then shall I fear? What shall I not promise
myself? When I know that no one can be destroyed, no one reviled,
without the permission of God, even though all should rise up to
curse and to destroy; and that no one of them can be blessed and
saved without the permission of God, how much soever they may
bless and strive to save themselves. And as Gregory Nazianzen
says, "Where God gives, envy can avail nothing; and where God
does not give labour can avail nothing." And in the same way also
Paul saith (#Ro 8:31|), "If God be for us, who can be against
us?" And so, on the contrary, if God be against them, who can be
for them? And why? Because "_salvation is of the Lord_," and not
of them, nor of us, for "vain is the help of man."--^Martin
Luther.

                       HINTS TO PREACHERS.

        Verse 8 (first clause).--Salvation of God from first to
last. (See the exposition).

        Verse 8 (last clause).--They were blessed _in_ Christ,
_through_ Christ, and shall be blessed _with_ Christ. The
blessing rests upon their persons, comforts, trials, labours,
families, etc. It flows from grace, is enjoyed by faith, and is
insured by oath, etc. --^James Smith's Portions, 1802--1862.