The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation. Sermons
In the Name of the Lord I will cut them off. The idea in the mind of the psalmist may be illustrated by the old custom of going into battle in the inspiration of some motto. Thus Gideon gave his heroes this battle cry, "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!" Down to quite modern times it was the custom for generals to give their armies a motto, a word, or a name, under the inspiration of which they were to fight; and it does not take much observation of human nature to enable us to recognize the value of such mottoes or names in kindling enthusiasm, and inciting to heroic endeavor or endurance. The psalmist is using martial figures; he is thinking of enemies, and cheering his soul for the conflict with them by looking again and again at his banner, and seeing the Jehovah-name inscribed thereon. I. ACTING IN THE DIVINE NAME IS THE RIGHT OF JEHOVAH'S SERVANTS. The good man - from the Christian point of view we say the renewed man - is a self-consecrated man to God's service, and a graciously accepted man as God's servant. Then he becomes everywhere an ambassador for God, a messenger from God, and has the absolute right of acting everywhere in his Master's Name. So the apostles persistently call themselves the "servants," bond-slaves, of Jesus Christ, and claim the right of speaking and acting in his Name. This opens up the question - What is the nature of the authority which can be claimed for the Christian teacher. He has authority so far only as he speaks and acts, genuinely and wholly, in the Name of his Master. Illustration may be taken from the pope's assumed infallibility in his ex cathedral utterances. II. ACTING IN THE DIVINE NAME IS THE STRENGTH OF JEHOVAH'S SERVANTS. This may be opened in two ways. 1. The Name acts upon a true-hearted man as a reviving, inspiring, strengthening force, much as the queen's name does on a field of battle. 2. God actually gives strength for warfare and service to all who loyally act in his Name. Illustrate by 1 Samuel 17:45. III. ACTING IN THE DIVINE NAME IS THE VICTORY OF JEHOVAH'S SERVANTS. Because God is jealous of the honor of his Divine Name, and cannot permit it to be associated with failure. Let our enemies encompass us as bees do their combs (see LXX.), they can do no harm. They flare up, as does the fire of thorns; but they die down at once. The Divine Name has never been dishonored by any permanent defeat; nor has lie ever been who loyally acted in the Divine Name. - R.T. The Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation. Homilist. I. HOW GOD SHOULD BE REALIZED BY EVERY MAN. What should He be to every many 1. He should be his strength. All the strength we have, physical, intellectual, and moral is from God; nay, more, is God's. Conscious dependence upon His strength is the foundation of piety. "Hold thou me up, and I shall be saved." 2. He should be his "song"; that is, his joy. The source of all his joy and spring of his delights. We should rejoice in God as our Father. 3. He should be his salvation. He saves from misery by saving from sin. II. HOW GOD IS ENJOYED BY THE RIGHTEOUS. Who is the righteous man? The man who is right in himself and right in relation to God and the universe. 1. Such a man has rejoicing. "Being justified," or made right by faith; he has "peace that passeth all understanding." Religion is happiness wherever it exists. 2. Such a man has salvation. A righteous man is saved — saved from sin, and to be saved from sin, is to be saved from all evils of all kinds. III. HOW GOD APPEARS IN HIS PROCEDURE. 1. Courageous (ver. 16). He moves on in the execution of His eternal purposes with absolute fearlessness. Of what can He be afraid, whose will can at any moment create or destroy universes? 2. Glorious. "The right hand of the Lord is exalted." That is, praised, hououred, adored. Who that studies His works, whether the minute or the vast can fail to exalt and adore the right hand of the Lord? 3.Restorative (vers. 17, 18). () I. IN WHAT SENSE CHRIST IS A BELIEVER'S SONG. 1. He is the main object of hope and trust (Isaiah 12:2). 2. He is the main subject of praise and thanksgiving (2 Corinthians 9:15). 3. He is the main matter of joy and rejoicing (Psalm 137:6; Psalm 43:4). Three things are necessary. (1)An interest in Him as our Saviour.(2)The knowledge of that interest.(3)Suitable walking.II. WHAT OF CHRIST ESPECIALLY IS A BELIEVER'S SONG? True believers sing, and ought to sing — 1. Of what Jesus Christ is in Himself as to His personal excellences and perfections. 2. Of what He is to us. He is our foundation, our food, our root, our raiment; and should we not sing of these? 3. Of what He hath done, and is doing, and will yet do, for us.(1) He hath taken our nature upon Him, and in our nature suffered and died; He hath washed us from our sins in His own blood; called us with a holy calling; begun a good work.(2) Is He not ever living to make intercession for us? Is He not guiding and guarding us, enlightening and comforting us, every day?(3) He will perform the good work that He hath begun; He will come again and fetch us to Himself, that where He is there we may be also. Can ye name any other to sing of, that hath done the like for you? III. WHAT ARE THE PROPERTIES OF THIS SONG? 1. He is the angels' song (Job 38:7; Luke 2:13, 14). 2. He is the most ancient song; the song of the ancients. They sung of Him as one to come, for they saw Him, though it was but as through the lattices, or as through a glass darkly. 3. He is the new song. Wherever ye read of a new song in Scripture, it points at Him (Psalm 33:3; Psalm 40.; 96:1; 98:1; 149:1). He is the New Testament song. Ever since His coming in the flesh all His saints have been singing of Him, as of one already come; rejoicing in Him, and showing forth His praises. As fast, as they have been made new creatures they have learned this new song. 4. He is their night song (Psalm 42:8; Job 35:10).(1) In the night season, when others are sleeping, true believers are rejoicing in God their Redeemer, and solacing themselves in Him (Psalm 149:5; Song of Solomon 1:13; Acts 16:1.) Paul and Silas sang at midnight.(2) In the night of sorrow and affliction. To be able to sing then, when everything looks sad and sorrowful round about us, is a great matter; as David (1 Samuel 30:6) 5. He is their song all the week, and their song on the Sabbath. We are bid to rejoice in the Lord always, every day, and they that have an interest in Christ, and know it, do so; but especially on Sabbath days (Psalm 118:24). Sabbath days are set apart on purpose. 6. He is their song while they live, and their song when they die. While they live, in all the turns of their lives (Psalm 146:2). And in a special manner when they come to die; upon sick-beds, and death-beds. As it is said of the swan, that she sings sweetest when dying, so it is with many of God's people. At the death of Mr. John Janeway, one present said he never was in a room where God in Christ had more praises than there at that time. 7. He is their song in the world, and will he their song to eternity. What is the great employment of heaven, and what will it be for ever and ever, but to lift up God-redeemer (Revelation 5:9-13). Jesus Christ is to be our everlasting song (Isaiah 35:10). It is good to be found doing that, now that we would be glad to be found doing hereafter — world without end. IV. APPLICATION. 1. This may serve for an examining sign, or mark of trial, whereby to know what we are as to our spiritual state and condition. We are bid to try ourselves (2 Corinthians 13:5). What, is Jesus Christ to us? What think we of Him? Hath He ever been our song? Do we rejoice in Him? 2. Here is a word of reproof to the true believers among us, that do not make Christ their song, that are in Him, but do not rejoice in Him; however, not with evenness and constancy, not in that measure and degree, that they should and ought. Thou shouldst chide thyself for it (Psalm 42: and 43:5).(1) It grieves the Spirit of God.(2) It blemishes the ways of God; makes thee a stumbling-block to them that are without, like the evil spies.(3) It is weakening to thyself. The more Christ is our song the more is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). Then search out the cause. 3. Exhortation, to all that call themselves believers. Make Christ your song, week days and Sabbath days.(1) He is worthy that you should.(2) The gain of it will be thy own, in present comfort, in eternal recompense. () ()
People Aaron, PsalmistPlaces JerusalemTopics Jah, Salvation, Song, Strength, YahOutline 1. An exhortation to praise God for his mercy
5. The psalmist by his experience shows how good it is to trust in God
19. Under the type of the psalmist the coming of Christ in his kingdom is expressed
Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 118:14 1105 God, power of
1320 God, as Saviour
5334 health
8340 self-respect Psalm 118:14-15 7963 song Library June the Thirtieth God My Strength and Song
"The Lord is my strength and my song." --PSALM cxviii. 14-21. Yes, first of all "my strength" and then "my song"! For what song can there be where there is languor and fainting? What brave music can be born in an organ which is short of breath? There must first be strength if we would have fine harmonies. And so the good Lord comes to the songless, and with holy power He brings the gift of "saving health." "And my song"! For when life is healthy it instinctively breaks into song. The happy, contented …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling YearGratitude for Deliverance from the Grave
"I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death."--Psalm 118:17, 18. HOW very differently we view things at different times and in differing states of mind! Faith takes a bright and cheerful view of matters, and speaks very confidently, "I shall not die, but live." When we are slack as to our trust in God, and give way to misgivings and doubts and fears, we sing in the minor key, and say, "I shall die. I shall …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 38: 1892 Bound to the Altar
Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.' (Psalm cxviii. 27.) Periodically in our Halls we have had what we call Altar Services. At such times, and more especially during the Self-Denial and Harvest Festival efforts, Soldiers, friends, and others who are interested in God's work are invited to come forward with gifts of money to lay upon the special table which, for that occasion, serves the purpose of an altar. Those who have been present at these Meetings will not need …
T. H. Howard—Standards of Life and Service The Entry into Jerusalem.
THE fame of Christ's acts had been diffused among the thousands of Jews [652] that had gathered from all quarters for the Passover. The resurrection of Lazarus, in particular, had created a great sensation. As soon as the Sabbath law allowed, [653] they flocked in crowds to Bethany to see Jesus, and especially to convince themselves of the resurrection of Lazarus by ocular evidence and inquiry on the spot. Perhaps on Sunday morning, too, before Christ went to Jerusalem, many had gone out. [654] The …
Augustus Neander—The Life of Jesus Christ in Its Historical Connexion On the Soul and the Resurrection.
Argument. The mind, in times of bereavement, craves a certainty gained by reasoning as to the existence of the soul after death. First, then: Virtue will be impossible, if deprived of the life of eternity, her only advantage. But this is a moral argument. The case calls for speculative and scientific treatment. How is the objection that the nature of the soul, as of real things, is material, to be met? Thus; the truth of this doctrine would involve the truth of Atheism; whereas Atheism is refuted …
Gregory of Nyssa—Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises, Etc Sabbath Morning Hymn.
"This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it."--Psalm 118:24 "Hallelujah! Schoener Morgen." Schmolk. [[66]Jonathan Krause] transl., Jane Borthwick, 1858 Hallelujah! Fairest morning, Fairer than my words can say, Down I lay tbe heavy burden Of life's toil and care to-day; While this morn of joy and love Brings fresh vigor from above. Sunday, full of holy glory! Sweetest rest-day of the soul, Light upon a darkened world From thy blessed moments roll. Holy, happy heavenly …
Jane Borthwick—Hymns from the Land of Luther The Monk Nilus.
Nilus was born at Rossano, in Calabria, in the year 910, of an old Greek family. His pious parents, to whom only one child, a daughter, had been given, besought the Lord that he would give them a son. This prayer was heard, and that son was Nilus. They carried the child to the church, and consecrated him to the service of God. On that account, also, they gave him the name of Nilus, after a venerated monk of the fifth century, distinguished by his spirit of vital Christianity, and to whose example …
Augustus Neander—Light in the Dark Places Letter X (In the Same Year) the Same, when Bishop
The Same, When Bishop He exhorts him to adorn the dignity which he had obtained without preceding merits, by a holy life. 1. Charity gives me boldness, my very dear friend, to speak to you with great confidence. The episcopal seat which you have lately obtained requires a man of many merits; and I see with grief none of these in you, or at least not sufficient, to have preceded your elevation. For your mode of life and your past occupations seem in nowise to have been befitting the episcopal office. …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux The Evolution of Early Congregationalism the Stone which the Builders Rejected is Become the Head of the Corner. --Psalm cxviii
CHAPTER I THE EVOLUTION OF EARLY CONGREGATIONALISM The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner.--Psalm cxviii, 22. The colonists of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven were grounded in the system which became known as Congregational, and later as Congregationalism. At the outset they differed not at all in creed, and only in some respects in polity, from the great Puritan body in England, out of which they largely came.[a] For more than forty years before …
M. Louise Greene, Ph. D.—The Development of Religious Liberty in Connecticut Epistle vii. To Anastasius, Patriarch of Antioch .
To Anastasius, Patriarch of Antioch [1310] . Gregory to Anastasius, &c. I have found what your Blessedness has written to be as rest to the weary, as health to the sick, as a fountain to the thirsty, as shade to the oppressed with heat. For those words of yours did not seem even to be expressed by the tongue of the flesh, inasmuch as you so disclosed the spiritual love which you bear me as if your soul itself were speaking. But very hard was that which followed, in that your love enjoined me to …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great The Effects of this Fourth State of Prayer. Earnest Exhortations to those who have Attained to it not to Go Back, nor to Cease from Prayer,
1. There remains in the soul, when the prayer of union is over, an exceedingly great tenderness; so much so, that it would undo itself--not from pain, but through tears of joy it finds itself bathed therein, without being aware of it, and it knows not how or when it wept them. But to behold the violence of the fire subdued by the water, which yet makes it burn the more, gives it great delight. It seems as if I were speaking an unknown language. So it is, however. 2. It has happened to me occasionally, …
Teresa of Avila—The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus Letter xx. To Pope Damasus.
Jerome's reply to the foregoing. Exposing the error of Hilary of Poitiers, who supposed the expression to signify "redemption of the house of David," he goes on to show that in the gospels it is a quotation from Psa. cxviii. 25 and that its true meaning is "save now" (so A.V.). "Let us," he writes, "leave the streamlets of conjecture and return to the fountain-head. It is from the Hebrew writings that the truth is to be drawn." Written at Rome a.d. 383. …
St. Jerome—The Principal Works of St. Jerome Of the Conformity of Our Will to that Will of God's which is Signified to us by his Commandments.
The desire which God has to make us observe his commandments is extreme, as the whole Scripture witnesses. And how could he better express it, than by the great rewards which he proposes to the observers of his law, and the awful punishments with which he threatens those who shall violate the same! This made David cry out: O Lord, thou hast commanded thy Commandments to be kept most diligently. [360] Now the love of complacency, beholding this divine desire, wills to please God by observing it; the …
St. Francis de Sales—Treatise on the Love of God 'My Strength and Song'
'The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation....' EXODUS xv. 2. These words occur three times in the Bible: here, in Isaiah xii. 2, and in Psalm cxviii. 14. I. The lessons from the various instances of their occurrence. The first and second teach that the Mosaic deliverance is a picture- prophecy of the redemption in Christ. The third (Psalm cxviii. 14), long after, and the utterance of some private person, teaches that each age and each soul has the same mighty Hand working for …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture A New Kind of King
'On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm-trees, and went forth to meet Him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus, when He had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt. These things understood not His disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture The Lively Stones. Rev. W. Morley Punshon.
"Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ."--1 PETER ii. 5. There is a manifest reference in the fourth verse to the personage alluded to in Psalm cxviii. 22, 23: "The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes." And this passage is applied by Christ to himself in Matthew xxi. 42: "Jesus saith unto them, Did …
Knowles King—The Wesleyan Methodist Pulpit in Malvern To Pastors and Teachers
To Pastors and Teachers If all who laboured for the conversion of others were to introduce them immediately into Prayer and the Interior Life, and make it their main design to gain and win over the heart, numberless as well as permanent conversions would certainly ensue. On the contrary, few and transient fruits must attend that labour which is confined to outward matters; such as burdening the disciple with a thousand precepts for external exercises, instead of leaving the soul to Christ by the …
Madame Guyon—A Short and Easy Method of Prayer Lydia, the First European Convert
WE MAY LAUDABLY EXERCISE CURIOSITY with regard to the first proclamation of the gospel in our own quarter of the globe. We are happy that history so accurately tells us, by the pen of Luke, when first the gospel was preached in Europe, and by whom, and who was the first convert brought by that preaching to the Savior's feet. I half envy Lydia that she should be the leader of the European band; yet I feel right glad that a woman led the van, and that her household followed so closely in the rear. …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891 The Great Privilege of those that are Born of God
"Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin." 1 John 3:9. 1. It has been frequently supposed, that the being born of God was all one with the being justified; that the new birth and justification were only different expressions, denoting the same thing: It being certain, on the one hand, that whoever is justified is also born of God; and, on the other, that whoever is born of God is also justified; yea, that both these gifts of God are given to every believer in one and the same moment. In one …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions The First Day in Passion-Week - Palm-Sunday - the Royal Entry into Jerusalem
At length the time of the end had come. Jesus was about to make Entry into Jerusalem as King: King of the Jews, as Heir of David's royal line, with all of symbolic, typic, and prophetic import attaching to it. Yet not as Israel after the flesh expected its Messiah was the Son of David to make triumphal entrance, but as deeply and significantly expressive of His Mission and Work, and as of old the rapt seer had beheld afar off the outlined picture of the Messiah-King: not in the proud triumph of war-conquests, …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah The Fourth Commandment
Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it. Exod 20: 8-11. This …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments In the Last, the Great Day of the Feast'
IT was the last, the great day of the Feast,' and Jesus was once more in the Temple. We can scarcely doubt that it was the concluding day of the Feast, and not, as most modern writers suppose, its Octave, which, in Rabbinic language, was regarded as a festival by itself.' [3987] [3988] But such solemn interest attaches to the Feast, and this occurrence on its last day, that we must try to realise the scene. We have here the only Old Testament type yet unfilfilled; the only Jewish festival which has …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Letter Xlvi (Circa A. D. 1125) to Guigues, the Prior, and to the Other Monks of the Grand Chartreuse
To Guigues, the Prior, And to the Other Monks of the Grand Chartreuse He discourses much and piously of the law of true and sincere charity, of its signs, its degrees, its effects, and of its perfection which is reserved for Heaven (Patria). Brother Bernard, of Clairvaux, wishes health eternal to the most reverend among fathers, and to the dearest among friends, Guigues, Prior of the Grande Chartreuse, and to the holy Monks who are with him. 1. I have received the letter of your Holiness as joyfully …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux A vision of Judgement and Cleansing
'And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. 2. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? 3. Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the Angel. 4. And He answered and spake unto those that stood before Him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him He said, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Links Psalm 118:14 NIV
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