Tag Archives: psalm 94

Charles Spurgeon – None but Jesus

CharlesSpurgeon

“He that believeth on him is not condemned.” John 3:18

Suggested Further Reading: Hebrews 12:5-11

You are never liable as a believer to punishment for your sins. You will be chastised on account of them, as a father chastises his child; that is part of the gospel dispensation; but you will not be smitten for your sins as the lawgiver smites the criminal. Your Father may often punish you as he punished the wicked, but never for the same reason. The ungodly stand on the ground of their own demerits; their sufferings are awarded as their due deserts. But your sorrows do not come to you as a matter of desert; they come to you as a matter of love. God knows that in one sense your sorrows are such a privilege that you may account of them as a boon you do not deserve. I have often thought of that when I have had a sore trouble. I know some people say, “You deserved the trouble.” Yes, my dear brethren, but there is not enough merit in all the Christians put together, to deserve such a good thing as the loving rebuke of our heavenly Father. Perhaps you cannot see that; you cannot think that a trouble can come to you as a real blessing in the covenant. But I know that the rod of the covenant is as much the gift of grace as the blood of the covenant. It is not a matter of merit; it is given to us because we need it. But I question whether we were ever so good as to deserve it. We were never able to get up to so high a standard as to deserve so rich, so gracious a providence as this covenant blessing—the rod of our chastening God.

For meditation: When disciplined by his heavenly Father, the Christian is experiencing a beatitude (Job 5:17; Psalm 94:12)!

Sermon no. 362

27 October (Preached 17 February 1861)

Our Daily Bread — Rock Of Refuge

 

Psalm 94:3-23

The LORD has been my defense, and my God the rock of my refuge. —Psalm 94:22

One year during my vacation, I walked along the shoreline of a large lake. As I approached a pile of boulders, I noticed a small alcove between the rocks and observed that a tiny plant had taken root there. The plant appeared to be absorbing the right amount of sunlight and water, and it was also getting something else: protection. No downpour or windstorm would ruffle its tender leaves.

The plant’s secure habitat reminded me of these familiar hymn lyrics: “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee.” Those words express what many of us want when we encounter people with evil intentions—people characterized by pride, cruelty, and a lack of regard for God (Ps. 94:4-7). When we are the target of someone’s wrongdoing, we can remember the testimony of the psalmist: “The LORD has been my defense, and my God the rock of my refuge” (v.22).

As our rock, God is dependable and strong. As our refuge, He can provide safety until problems pass. The psalmist reminds us: “Under His wings you shall take refuge” (Ps. 91:4). With God as our defender, we don’t have to fear what others will do. We can trust that God will support us when trouble comes. —Jennifer Benson Schuldt

Thank You, God, for Your stable and unchanging

nature. Help us to hide ourselves in You

when trouble comes our way. Remind us that we

don’t have to fight our own battles.

Refuge can be found in the Rock of Ages.

Charles Spurgeon – Omniscience

 

“Thou God seest me.” Genesis 16:13

Suggested Further Reading: Psalm 94:4-11

It were hard to suppose a God who could not see his own creatures; it were difficult in the extreme to imagine a divinity who could not behold the actions of the works of his hands. The word which the Greeks applied to God implied that he was a God who could see. They called him Theos; and they derived that word, if I read rightly, from the root theisthai, to see, because they regarded God as being the all-seeing one, whose eye took in the whole universe at a glance, and whose knowledge extended far beyond that of mortals. God Almighty, from his very essence and nature, must be an Omniscient God. Strike out the thought that he sees me, and you extinguish Deity by a single stroke. There would be no God if that God had no eyes, for a blind God is not God at all. We could not conceive such a one. Stupid as idolaters may be, it is very hard to think that even they had fashioned a blind god: even they have given eyes to their gods, though they see not. Juggernaut, or Jagannatha (a god worshipped in some areas of Hinduism), has eyes stained with blood; and the gods of the ancient Romans had eyes, and some of them were called far-seeing gods. Even the heathen can scarce conceive of a god that has no eyes to see, and certainly we are not so mad as to imagine for a single second that there can be a Deity without the knowledge of everything that is done by man beneath the sun. I say it is as impossible to conceive of a God who did not observe everything, as to conceive of a round square. When we say, “Thou God,” we do, in fact, comprise in the word “God” the idea of a God who sees everything, “Thou God seest me.”

For meditation: The proofs of Jesus’ deity in Mark 2:5-8: He could see faith, forgive sins and perceive the thoughts of the heart. He still can!

Sermon no. 85

15 June (1856)