Psalm 66:16-20 Come and hear, all you that fear God, and I will declare what he has done for my soul.… I. SOME OF THOSE THINGS WHICH THE LORD HAS DONE FOR THEIR SOULS, WHICH CALL FORTH THEIR FEELINGS OF GRATITUDE AND LOVE TO HIM. 1. What He has done for their souls in the gift of Christ (John 3:16), 2. In enabling them to appropriate to themselves by faith the blessings of that salvation. 3. In the privilege which He gives to them, of drawing near to Him in prayer through Christ, and in the communications from Himself which are imparted to them frequently in the exercise of that privilege. 4. In their preservation from falling into open sin to the dishonour of His name and their own everlasting ruin (1 Peter 1:5). II. IT IS GOD'S WILL CONCERNING HIS PEOPLE THAT THEY SHOULD LIVE IN THE LIVELY APPREHENSION OF THESE BENEFITS WHICH HAVE BEEN THUS CONFERRED UPON THEM. There are many who think lightly of Christian experience — who are ready to treat as enthusiastic, everything connected with it, and exclaim against it either as hypocrisy or delusion; but the operations of God's Spirit do not consist in mere notions, but in his lively actings within the soul; where there is no experience of what God has done for the soul, there can be no real work of God's Holy Spirit. Let none of us then be satisfied with mere notional religion, but see that we be able to rejoice in what our God, in His mercy and grace, has done for our souls. III. WE HAVE HERE REPRESENTED TO US ONE OF THOSE EFFECTS WHICH WILL EVER BE PRODUCED BY THAT TRUE CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE WHICH IS THE RESULT OF THE OPERATION OF GOD'S HOLY SPIRIT IN THE SOUL.It is, that it will produce the humble acknowledgment of the mercies which have been received — and that from the simple and sincere desire to glorify God and to benefit the souls of others. 1. To win the unconverted people of the world to the consideration of those subjects from which their hearts are alienated and with which they only associate ideas of gloom and melancholy. 2. For the consolation and encouragement and edification of the people of God. (Denis Browne, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.WEB: Come, and hear, all you who fear God. I will declare what he has done for my soul. |
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