Psalm 68:19-28 Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah. Whatever may be said of the Old Testament dispensation, one thing is clear; in it the Lord God of Israel is ever most conspicuous. God is in all and over all. Here in our text, universal action and power over us are ascribed to the Lord — the mercies of life and the issues of death. I. THE SOVEREIGN PREROGATIVE OF GOD. "Unto God... the issues of death." Kings have been wont to keep the power of life and death in their own hands. The great King of kings does so. "He can create and He destroy." This prerogative of life and death is His in a wide sense. It is true of our natural life, and of our spiritual. For we are under the condemnation of the law. But God determines whether the sentence shall be carried out. And in those "deaths oft" with which Christian experience is familiar, those dyings down of the heart and spirit which are the result of our old nature which still cleaveth to the dust, God's Spirit can revive us again. And when we come actually to die, not to death but to God shall the issue belong. "I am the Resurrection and the Life," saith the Lord: "He that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." And the resurrection day will make His words good. 2. He has the right to exercise this prerogative. 3. And He has exercised this prerogative in abundant instances. 4. Then let Him have all the glory of it. II. THE CHARACTER OF THE SOVEREIGN IN WHOM IT IS VESTED. "He that is our God is the God of salvation." This name means — 1. That salvation is the most glorious of all His designs. 2. That His most delightful works have been works of salvation. 3. That we live at this moment under the dispensation of mercy. The sword is sheathed, the scales of justice put by. 4. That to those who can call Him "our God" He is especially and emphatically the God of salvation. We owe it all to Him. 'Twas He passed by and bid us "live." III. THE SOLEMN WARNING OF THE SOVEREIGN LORD. A new God has lately been set up, all leniency, gentleness, mildness and indifference in the matter of sin. This God is made of honey or sugar of lead. Justice is not in him, nor the punishment of sin. But it is not so. Our text tells the awful truth to wicked men. God can smite, and ere long He will. The proud may vaunt themselves of their beauty and glory in their strength; their heavy scalp, like that of Absalom, may be their boast, but, as in his case, it may be their ruin. No man is out of the reach of God, and no nation either. Turn ye then, ye that know not God. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah.WEB: Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burdens, even the God who is our salvation. Selah. |
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