IV. Now, fourthly, there was another thing which David meant to do, and that was, to REVERENCE GOD’S WORD TO THE HIGHEST DEGREE. He puts it thus: “Thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy name.” My text is such a great one that I need half-a-dozen nights to descant upon it, so I can only give you hints of what I would say if I had the time.
God’s name, dear friends, is revealed in a measure in nature. In providence, that name may be spelt out; but David tells us here that the Lord has magnified his Word above all his name. That is to say, that revelation is made by God to be infinitely superior to creation and to providence as a revealing of himself, for, first, it is more clear. If a man paints grand pictures, even if I never saw the man, I know a little about him when I see his paintings. Ay, but if he writes me a letter, and in that letter tells me what is in his very heart, I know more about him by his words than I do by his works; and there is more of. God in some passages of the Bible than in the whole universe besides. If science could be all known, it would not contain as much real light as there is in a single verse of Scripture, for the best light is in the Word. There is other light, too; but it is only moonlight as compared with the sunlight. God has magnified his Word, for its clearness, above every other method of revealing his name or character.
It is not only more dear, but it is also more sure. If we look into God’s worlds, one man sees one thing and another man sees another; but if you look into God’s Word, and you have a childlike spirit, you will see what another childlike-spirited man sees. If you are God’s child, you will see what others of God’s children see there; and in the great fundamental truths discoverable in his Word, the saints are almost entirely agreed. The whole universe is not big enough to mirror God in all his glory. If he looks into the great and wide sea that he has made, the glass is too small to reflect more than a part of his glory. Suppose that God should reveal himself to the full in nature; it would soon be seen that the axles of the wheel would be all too weak to sustain the weight of Deity. It is only revelation that can manifest him truly to us.
Think again; God’s Word is more lasting than his other works. The revelation of God in nature is not unique. If he has made one world, he can make another; if he has made one universe, he can make fifty universes; but after having given us one complete revelation of his will, he will never give another, that one stands alone. What God has made known in the book of nature will all pass away; there will come a day when the elements themselves shall be dissolved. with fervent heat, and like a worn-out vesture, all this material creation shall be put away. But, “the Word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you;” so that God magnifies his Word by making it everlasting. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”
Does not God magnify his Word in your hearts, dear friends? You have sometimes been in the fields on the Sabbath, and a sweet sense of rest has stolen over you. In the time of harvest, or on a bright morning when the sun has risen, you have been overwhelmed with a sense of the glory of God; but, still, that sweet feeling never comes to the heart so as to affect its secret springs like a passage out of Scripture. A promise from God will cast more light into your soul than all the beauties of sea and land I do not for a moment depreciate the wondrous glory of God in all his works; but, still, I do say God is seen better in his Word than in all his works besides; and he has magnified his Word above all his name. They say that we ought to alter Scripture because scientists have found out something or other. Yes, I know all about that kind of talk; scientists found out many things years ago, and within ten years somebody else rose up, and found out that they were all wrong. The history of so-called philosophy is the history of fools; and the philosophers of this day are no more right than those of fifty years ago. The men are coming to the front who will confute the positive assertions of the present; and, when they have made their own assertions, and made their bow, another set of wise men will be coming after them to confound them. They are all as the grass that withereth, but “the Word of the Lord endureth for ever.” It has been tried in the furnace of earth, purified seven times; and here it remains, the pure reined metal still, and in this will we glory, and not be ashamed.
V. Lastly, David was going to PROVE ALL BY HIS OWN EXPERIENCE. A bit of experience is the best thing with which to close up my discourse. “In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.”
Ah! brethren, men say that facts are stubborn things, and so they are; and when a man once gets a fact with regard to the religion of Jesus Christ, he becomes a stubborn man. The man, who is in the habit of praying to God, and who is in the habit of having answers to his prayers, the man who lives a life of prayer, and consequently who is enriched by innumerable mercies, says to those who deny the efficacy of prayer, “You may say what you like, but you cannot trouble use about this matter, because I am daily testing and daily proving in my own experience what prayer can accomplish.” “Well,” they say, “you did not get out of the trouble; you prayed, but you did not escape from it.” That is quite true, I did. not; but God strengthened me with strength in my soul; and it is a grand thing when the mind becomes calm, when the soul grows strong, when courage increases, when confidence comes, when deep peace and quiet restfulness flow into the soul. All that is a blessed answer to prayer; and as long as God gives us that, we cannot desert his standard, or deny his faithfulness and his truth. Let those who will, go and leave the snows of Lebanon, and the pure flowing river of God for the broken cisterns that can hold no water, or for the muddy waters of Egypt; but we cannot, we dare not, we will not. God helping us, we will stand fast in our belief in the power of prayer. We have tried it, we have proved it, and we are not to be shaken from our confidence in its efficacy. The Lord give to every one of you, who do not at present know it, really to prove it yourselves, to try it to your heart’s joy and satisfaction, and you also shall stand fast in your confidence in him even to the end! The Lord bless you, for Christ’s sake! Amen.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
