Latest / Reformed Thinking / Come and See What God Has Done (Psalm 66) | Charles Spurgeon

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Come and See What God Has Done (Psalm 66) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed thinking. I'm your host, and I'm really
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  glad you're here with us. We're going to open up the
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  Scriptures today. And as always, we're doing that
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  with our feet firmly planted in the soil of the Reformation.
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  We hold to the Westminster Confession, and we believe that
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  good theology isn't just, you know, an academic exercise.
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  It's the fuel for living a holy life.
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  It has to be. So today we're taking a long
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  hard look that the Psalter, specifically Psalm 66, and to
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  help us understand this text, we're going to be walking
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  through the commentary of the Prince of Preachers himself,
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  Charles Haddon Spurgeon. And we're using his massive
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  work, the Treasury of David. It is massive.
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  It is, and Psalm 66 is, well, it's a massive text in its own
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  right. It's a song that starts with a
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  roar and ends with a whisper. A roar and a whisper.
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  I like that it. Begins with the nation's you
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  know that the whole earth shouting for joy, and it
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  concludes with the secrets of one man's heart.
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  And Spurgeon does a masterful job of bringing out that
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  contrast. He shows us that the God who
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  rules the nation's with a rod of iron is the very same God who
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  sits down to refine the believer's soul like silver.
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  I have to say, reading through the notes you sent over this
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  doesn't feel like a gentle, comforting bedtime story.
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  It feels heavy. It is heavy.
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  It's supposed to be. Spurgeon notes right at the
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  beginning that the inscription of this Psalm is dedicated to
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  the chief musician. OK, what does that mean?
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  That's a specific instruction, he says.
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  This isn't a song for a novice, he writes, and I'm quoting him
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  here. He had need be a man of great
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  skill worthily to sing such a Psalm as this.
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  O you can't just hand this sheet music to a beginner.
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  No, you can't exect him to carry the weight of it.
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  It requires real skill, real spiritual maturity to lead this
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  kind of worship. That makes me think about how we
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  approach worship today. We often want it to be
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  accessible, easy, you know, catchy.
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  But Spurgeon seems to be saying that the content of our theology
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  actually dictates the quality of our art.
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  That's it exactly. He says that the best music in
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  the world would be honored to be married to these words.
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  You can't have low, cheap, or sloppy music for a Psalm that
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  speaks of such terrible and glorious works of God.
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  The subject matter demands skill.
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  It does, and the subject matter here is, well, it's expansive.
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  Spurgeon outlines the flow of the Psalm in a way that's really
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  helpful for getting a handle on it.
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  He sees it moving in 4 distinct movements.
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  OK, walk us through those movements.
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  So first in verses one through 4, you have this universal call
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  to the nations. It's wide, it's for everyone.
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  The big the biggest picture. Then in verses 5 through 7, it
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  zooms in a bit to a corporate memory of Israel's deliverance.
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  That's the We section. From the nations to us.
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  Right. And then the intensity ratchets
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  up in verses 8 through 12. That's the refinery.
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  That's where the community goes through suffering.
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  It gets personal. And the final part?
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  And finally, the camera focuses on a single individual, the eye
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  section for verses 13 through 20.
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  And that's all about personal vows and the logic of prayer.
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  That structure really helps make sense of the shifts in tone.
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  It goes from like you said, a wide angle lens down to a
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  microphone. It does.
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  So let's start with that wide angle.
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  Section 1 the universal roar of praise verse one says, make a
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  joyful noise unto God, all ye lands.
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  Now noise is a word that gets a bad rap in some of our circles,
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  doesn't it? It really does.
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  We tend to prize reverence and quiet.
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  And for good reason, a lot of the time.
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  Oh. Absolutely.
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  But Spurgeon makes a fascinating distinction here.
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  He contrasts the worship of Zion with the worship of the popular
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  assembly. OK, so what's the difference?
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  There, think of Zion as the gathered, instructed Saints, the
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  mature believers. Spurgeon notes that among the
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  instructed Saints, there is a place for deep, silent
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  meditation. So the mature believer knows how
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  to be quiet before God. Yes, they know how to worship
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  God, of the quiet of the mind, just contemplating His
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  attributes without saying a word.
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  But here the command is different.
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  It's for a joyful noise. And this is for the great
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  popular assemblies for the nations.
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  Right. Spurgeon argues that if praise
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  it to be widespread, if it's going to encompass all Ye lands,
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  it has to be vocal. You can't have a silent
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  corporate praise of this magnitude.
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  It just doesn't work. So silence is for the study, but
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  noise is for the nation's. Is that a fairway to put it?
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  In a sense, yes, Spurgeon uses a phrase that I think is just
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  brilliant, he says exulting sounds create a sacred
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  contagion. A sacred contagion that is a
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  vivid image. It sounds like a virus, but a
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  good one. It is.
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  It's the physics of sound and human psychology all rolled into
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  one. When one person shouts the
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  praise of God, it vibrates the air.
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  It hits the ear of the person next to them.
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  It catches on it. Spreads.
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  It spreads. It reminds us that our public
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  worship isn't just a vertical transaction between US and God.
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  It's horizontal too. We stir one another up.
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  And if everyone is just mumbling into their hymnal.
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  The fire goes out, but if everyone is making a joyful
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  noise, the fire spreads. It becomes a corporate act.
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  But he does qualify the kind of noise, right?
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  It's not just screaming for the sake of screaming.
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  Correct, he adds. Very practical note for, you
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  could say, church music directors, he says.
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  The music should be cheerful. That sounds simple.
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  It sounds simple, but think about it.
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  It shouldn't just be noise. It must be joyful noise.
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  It's not about volume for volume sake, it's about the quality of
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  the affection behind it. It needs to sound like we
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  actually delight in God. Which leads us to the object of
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  this noise. Verse 2 says sing forth the
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  honor of his name. Spujin grounds this in a
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  principle that's very central to our theology.
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  He does, he says, to give glory to God his butt, to restore to
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  him his own. That's a great summary of
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  worship. We're not giving God something
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  he doesn't already have. We're not adding to his bank
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  account. Not at all.
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  We aren't adding to his stature one bit.
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  We're simply recognizing what is already true and returning it to
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  him. The motto of the believer,
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  Spurgeon says, should be all worship be to God only.
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  And that cuts against the grain of so much modern thinking,
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  where worship is so often evaluated by how it makes the
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  worshipper feel. Oh, completely.
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  Did I get goosebumps? Did I cry?
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  Did I feel something? Spurgeon is saying no, that's
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  the wrong starting point. The glory belongs to God
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  inherently, whether you feel it on the given Sunday or not.
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  He also has a warning about the quality of this praise.
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  He says make his praise glorious, and then he warns
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  against praise that is mean and groveling.
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  He does. And this is interesting because,
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  you know, Spurgeon wasn't a high church man at all.
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  He didn't care for vestments or incense or grand cathedral
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  architecture. So he's not talking about the
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  production value. Not at all.
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  When he warns against mean and groveling praise, he isn't
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  saying you need a pipe organ or a choir in robes.
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  He's saying the heart worship must be superior.
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  It must be high. It must be noble.
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  So the glory of the praise comes from the sincerity and the
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  theological depth of the heart. Not the props on the stage.
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  That's it. Now we have to talk about verse
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  3. This is where the text gets a
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  little uncomfortable For modern years.
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  Say unto God, how terrible art thou in thy works?
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  Terrible. It's a word we usually use to
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  describe a bad movie or a disastrous meal, you know?
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  Right, my dinner was terrible. But in the older English, and
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  certainly in the Hebrew concept, it means terrifying, awe
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  inspiring, dread inducing. And Spurgeon has an interesting
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  insight on why the psalmist starts with terrible rather
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  than, say, loving. He observes that the human mind
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  is usually first arrested, tested by attributes that cause
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  fear. It's just human nature.
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  Before men see God in Christ, which is the revelation of love
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  and grace, the terrible predominates.
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  And he points to nature to illustrate this.
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  Yes, the convulsions of nature. He talked about continents
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  shaking, hurricanes, plagues, thunderstorms.
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  These are the terrible works of God.
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  And as Reformed believers, we don't shy away from attributing
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  these things to God's sovereignty.
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  We can't, we don't say nature is just acting independently or
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  it's just random chance. No, God is terrible in his
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  works. So it seems like he's saying
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  that fear is often the first step in waking someone up to
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  reality. That's a good way to put it, he
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  says. Power brings a man to his knee,
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  but love alone wins the heart, and that's a crucial
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  distinction. Power brings a man to his knee.
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  But love wins the heart. The terrible works get our
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  attention. They force a physical
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  submission, but they don't necessarily regenerate the
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  heart. You can be terrified of a
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  hurricane, for example, but that doesn't mean you love the one
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  who sent it. Not at all, which explains the
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  next phrase in verse 3, which I found really surprising.
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  Thine enemies shall submit themselves into thee.
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  Yeah, that seems straightforward, but there's a
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  nuance there A. Huge one if you look at the
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  linguistic detail. As Spurgeon and the scholars he
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  consulted point out, the Hebrew literally means they shall lie
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  unto thee. Lie unto thee.
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  So the enemies are submitting, but they're lying about it.
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  They don't mean it. Precisely.
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  This connects directly to the doctrine of total depravity.
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  These enemies are overwhelmed by God's terrible power.
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  They see the judgement coming, so they bow down.
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  They say we submit, we give up. But it's a feigned submission.
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  It's forced. There's no heart change.
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  Not at all. Spurgeon uses the example of
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  Pharaoh in Exodus as the perfect illustration.
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  Walk us through that. Well, Pharaoh was stubborn.
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  His heart was hard. But when the plagues came, when
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  the terrible works of God started destroying Egypt,
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  Pharaoh bowed. He said he would let Israel go.
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  He acted submissive. He was lying.
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  He was lying, his heart hadn't changed one bit.
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  He just wanted the pain to stop as soon as the pressure was off.
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  What did he do? You chase them again.
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  Spurgeon also mentions a historical story from New
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  England that illustrates this perfectly.
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  It was about an earthquake, wasn't it?
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  Yes, the religious panic. During the great earthquakes in
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  New England, the ground started shaking and suddenly the
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  churches were packed. People were terrified that the
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  world was ending. So they ran to the church.
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  They ran to the church. They joined in, drove.
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  They made professions of faith. The pastors noted later that for
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  many of them there was no true conviction of sin.
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  There was no love for Christ. It was just panic.
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  It was superstitious fear. They were lying to God, feigning
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  submission because they were afraid of the terrible works.
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  It just illustrates that raw force can coerce behavior, but
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  only grace changes the will. That is a really sobering
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  thought. We can fill churches with people
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  who are afraid of the consequences but who have no
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  love for the king. It's a danger we have to always
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  watch for. Moving on to Section 2, the tone
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  shifts a bit. We go from the terrible noise to
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  a visual invitation. Verses 5 through 7 say come and
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  see the works of God. The appeal here is to the eye.
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  Come and see. Spurgeon notes that the church
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  appeals to the world to use their eyes.
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  Christianity isn't a secret society with hidden knowledge
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  that you only get if you know the secret handshake.
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  No, we point to historical acts. We say look at what happened,
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  look at the evidence. Exactly.
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  Seeing is the first step to believing in this context.
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  And what are they supposed to be looking at specifically?
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  Verse 6 says he turned the sea into dry land.
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  Now obviously they kept in centuries before the psalmist
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  wrote this. Right.
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  It's ancient history even for him.
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  But Spurgeon argues these are standing wonders.
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  Standing wonders. That concept is vital, isn't it?
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  It is. We often think of the Red Sea
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  crossing or the drying up of the Jordan as events that are stuck
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  in the timeline. They happen, they're done.
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  But Spurgeon, thinking typologically, says they are
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  present realities for the faith of the Church.
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  OK. Explain that typology a bit
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  more. What does that mean for us?
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  Well, the Red Sea is a type. It's a picture of the believers
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  passage from slavery and sin to freedom in Christ.
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  The Jordan is the passage into the promised land, into our
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  inheritance. So these aren't just stories
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  about Israel. There are stories to the
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  Christian inference, as Bergen calls it, Is that because God
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  did that then no obstacle in our pilgrimage heavenward can hinder
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  the elect now? So if he dried the sea back,
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  then the obstacles in your life today, your sickness, your
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  financial trouble, your difficult relationships, they
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  are already conquered in principle.
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  That's the idea. The wonder stands.
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  It is still effective for our faith today.
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  He even connects it to the end of Time to the scene in
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  Revelation. He does.
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  He references the armies of heaven standing on the sea of
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  glass mingled with fire. And what are they singing?
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  They're singing the song of Moses.
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  The song of Deliverance. The song of Deliverance, the
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  Exodus from Egypt, is the prototype for the final
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  deliverance of the church. So when the psalmist says come
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  and see, he's inviting us to look at the past to secure our
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  hope for the future. But there's a warning here, too.
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  Verse 7 says his eyes behold the nations, and Spurgeon really
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  digs into the Hebrew word for behold.
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  It's not a casual glance. It's not just looking.
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  It implies looking from a watchtower or a lofty place.
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  It's the gaze of a Sentinel or. A spy?
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  A spy? That's an interesting word
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  choice. It is in the sense of
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  reconnaissance. The theological implication is
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  that God spies out his enemies. He marks their conspiracies.
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  We often fret about the schemes of wicked men or powerful
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  nations. We worry about what's happening
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  in the halls of power. We feel so small and powerless.
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  We do, but Spurgeon reminds us that God is observing them like
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  a watchman looking down on grasshoppers.
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  Nothing escapes his notice, not a single secret meeting or
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  whispered plan. He uses a striking image of an
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  eagle to describe this judgement.
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  He does, He says. God aims arrows at high, soaring
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  eagles and brings them down from the stars.
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  It's a warning to the rebellious.
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  Let not the rebellious exalt themselves.
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  Because no matter how high they fly, God's eye is on them.
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  Exactly, He says if rebels could only see themselves as God sees
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  them, small, exposed, targeted, they would shrivel into nothing.
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  It's a powerful check on human tried.
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  This brings us to Section 3, and I think for many of us this is
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  the heart of the Psalm. This is the refinery verses 8
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  through 12. It really is it.
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  Begins with a call to bless our God, you people.
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  But notice who is being addressed here.
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  It's addressed to the people and specifically the chosen seed.
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  Spurgeon emphasizes that these are the ones peculiarly beloved.
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  So if you're the recipient of special grace, you have a
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  special obligation to praise. You must be foremost in the
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  song. The world might praise God for
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  rain and sunshine, but the elect praise Him for redemption.
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  It's a deeper, more specific praise.
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  And the reason for this praise is found in verse 9, which
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  holdeth our soul in life. Spurgeon breaks this down into
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  two parts, putting life into the soul and holding it there.
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  This is pure reformed soteriology.
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  He talks about regeneration. That's God putting life into the
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  dead soul. We were dead in trespasses and
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  sins, and he made us alive. But it's not a one time thing.
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  No, that's the second part. He then talks about
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  preservation, God holding that soul in life.
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  He uses a metaphor about the soul slipping, doesn't he?
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  Yes, he says, the soul is apartment to slip through our
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  fingers. We are slippery creatures.
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  We are prone to wander. I mean, let's be honest, if it
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  were up to us to sustain our own spiritual life, we would lose it
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  instantly. You'd walk away.
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  We'd get distracted. But God holds it fast.
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  Spurgeon makes a distinction here.
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  God may afflict the body. He might let Job lose his
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  health, his wealth, his family. But he holds the life in his
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  hand. So the spiritual life is secure
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  even when the physical circumstances are just falling
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  apart. That's the promise of
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  preservation. And those physical circumstances
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  can be very dire. Verse 10 says Thou, O God has
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  proved us. And notice the active agent
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  there thou it's God who proves we must never fall into the trap
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  of thinking that our trials are accidents or merely the result
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  of bad luck or being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
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  No, in the Reformed view, all things come to pass by God's
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  decree. All things, Spurgeon says.
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  We must not complain of the rule common to the family.
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  And then he has that beautiful line.
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  God had one son without sin, but no son without trial.
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  If even Jesus was tested, who are we to expect to pass?
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  We can't. It's part of the family
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  inheritance. And that brings us to the silver
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  analogy. Thou has tried us as Silver is
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  tried now. Spurgeon goes into quite a bit
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  of technical detail here regarding the refining process.
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  It's not just a poetic image, it's a technical one.
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  It is, and it's so helpful. Why does he focus on silver?
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  Why not gold? That's a great question.
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  In metallurgy, silver is notoriously difficult to refine.
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  It clings to its dross, its impurities, much more stubbornly
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  than gold does. It doesn't want to let go of the
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  junk. Not at all.
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  Spurgeon points out that this is a picture of the human heart.
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  We are not gold that shines up with a quick wipe.
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  We are silver. The sin is baked into us.
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  It clings to us. So the process has to be more
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  intense, has to be more specific.
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  It has to be, and Spurgeon draws from the real world process of
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  essing. First, he notes that it requires
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  personal care. The refiner does not delegate
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  this task to a novice or an assistant.
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  It's too delicate. So God himself overseas your
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  trial. He's the one with the with his
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  hand on the thermostat. He does not outsource your
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  sanctification. And he also talks about the
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  furnace being skillfully constructed.
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  Yes. The trials we face are not
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  random bludgeonings. They are designed.
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  This is the doctrine of Providence.
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  The heat is not accidental. The circumstances are not
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  coincidental. The whole thing is an engineered
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  environment for our good. Let's talk about that heat.
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  The regulation of the temperature is critical in
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  silver refining. It is everything.
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  It's the whole ball game. If the furnace is too cool, the
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  dross and the tin and the other impurities are not separated.
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  The scum stays in the metal. The process fails.
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  You've gone through the fire for nothing.
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  For nothing. But, and this is the terrifying
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  part, if it's too hot, the silver itself can be damaged.
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  It can vaporize or be lost in the slag.
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  The heat must be precise. So the refiner has to walk
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  Razor's Edge. Too little heat and it doesn't
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  work. Too much and you destroy what
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  you're trying to save. He does, and Spurgeon argues
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  that God knows the exact temperature required to consume
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  our dross, our sin, our pride, our reliance on self without
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  destroying the silver of our faith.
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  He pushes us right to the limit, but not 1° past it.
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  That is comforting and terrifying at the same.
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  Time it is. It means that the heat you are
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  feeling right now in whatever trial you're in is not out of
• 18:32
  control. It is calculated.
• 18:34
  It is precise. Spurgeon also mentions how the
• 18:36
  refiner knows when the process is finished.
• 18:39
  How does he know when to turn the heat down?
• 18:41
  The old silversmiths used to say that the process is finished
• 18:43
  when the refiner can see his own face reflected in the metal.
• 18:46
  When the scum and the dross are burned away, the surface of the
• 18:50
  molten silver becomes a perfect mirror.
• 18:52
  And that is the goal of our trial.
• 18:54
  God is not burning us because he's angry.
• 18:57
  He is burning us until he can see the image of Christ
• 19:00
  reflected in our character. That puts a whole new
• 19:02
  perspective on suffering. I mean a completely new one.
• 19:06
  It has to. But the song keeps piling on the
• 19:08
  images. Verse 11 says Thou brought us us
• 19:11
  into the net. The imagery changes from the
• 19:13
  furnace to the trap. It's the picture of fish or
• 19:16
  birds being enclosed. We feel trapped.
• 19:19
  We look for a way out and there is none.
• 19:21
  We try to solve the problem, but every door is shut.
• 19:24
  We've all been there. And the hard truth again, is
• 19:27
  that God brought us there, that brought us to us, Spurgeon says.
• 19:30
  The only comfort in the net is that God is the one holding the
• 19:33
  strings. Even if it's a punishment or a
• 19:35
  discipline, it is his hand that is in control.
• 19:39
  And it adds the latest affliction upon our loins.
• 19:42
  What does that mean? The loins are considered the
• 19:44
  seed of strength in Hebrew thought to have affliction on
• 19:47
  the loins is to have your strength crushed.
• 19:49
  It's not just a burden on your back that you can carry, it's a
• 19:52
  burden that squeezes the very strength out of you.
• 19:55
  It's that feeling of being completely overwhelmed.
• 19:57
  Yes, where your natural capacity to cope is just exhausted.
• 20:01
  God brings us to the end of our own strength so that we have no
• 20:04
  choice but to rely on His. And if that wasn't enough, verse
• 20:08
  12 says Thou has caused men to ride over our heads.
• 20:12
  This seems to speak to the humiliation of the trial.
• 20:15
  It does. It's one thing to be afflicted
• 20:17
  by nature or by circumstances like a sickness or a storm.
• 20:21
  It is another thing entirely to be humiliated by other human
• 20:24
  beings. Yeah, that's a different kind of
• 20:26
  pain. Spurgeon describes this as mean
• 20:29
  men riding high horses. It's the indignity of it.
• 20:32
  To have someone ride a horse is proud.
• 20:34
  To ride a horse over you is malicious, but to ride over your
• 20:37
  head, that is bloody oppression. It implies drowning the person
• 20:41
  pushing their face under the mire.
• 20:43
  He quotes a source that says lions fight not with lions, but
• 20:47
  man is the main suborner of mischief to his own kind.
• 20:50
  It's true, isn't it? Man is off of the cruelest
• 20:53
  instrument in God's hand for the refining of his people.
• 20:56
  But again, notice the sovereignty thou has caused men
• 21:00
  to ride. Even the wicked men humiliating
• 21:03
  us are, in the end under God's control.
• 21:06
  And Speaking of drowning, the text continues.
• 21:08
  We went through fire and through water.
• 21:11
  Fire and water represent the extremes of evil.
• 21:14
  They're opposites, yet both are destructive.
• 21:16
  Fire consumes, water drowns. Spurgeon links this biblically
• 21:20
  to the history of Israel. Right, it does.
• 21:23
  The fire represents the brick kilns of Egypt, the labor, the
• 21:26
  heat, the oppression. The water represents the Nile
• 21:28
  River, where the male babies were drowned by Pharaoh's
• 21:31
  decree. So the believer is tossed
• 21:33
  between these extremes. Exactly 1 moment you feel like
• 21:36
  you're burning up, the next moment you feel like you were
• 21:37
  drowning. It feel like there's no safe
• 21:39
  place, no middle ground. But Spurgeon offers a
• 21:41
  magnificent promise here. He does.
• 21:43
  He says the fire is not kindled that can burn the woman's seed.
• 21:47
  The church will pass through the fire, not remain in it.
• 21:50
  We go through the water, but we do not stay there.
• 21:53
  It is a passage, not a destination.
• 21:55
  And that leads to the resolution of this whole section.
• 21:58
  But thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.
• 22:00
  That, but the verintamin in Latin is the pivot point of the
• 22:05
  whole Psalm. Really.
• 22:06
  Yeah. Spurgeon calls it the happy ore
• 22:08
  that turns the vessel away from the rocks of despair.
• 22:11
  Because God is the author of the trial that causes, but He is
• 22:14
  also the author of the deliverance thou broughtest.
• 22:17
  He starts it, he overseas it and he ends it.
• 22:20
  Tell us about this wealthy place in modern English.
• 22:23
  When we hear wealthy, we think of money, bank accounts, stocks.
• 22:27
  We do, but the Hebrew meaning is so much richer than that.
• 22:31
  The Hebrew root implies A moist place, a saturated place.
• 22:35
  Moist. Think about it, if you live in
• 22:37
  an arid climate like the biblical lands, wealth isn't
• 22:40
  gold. Wealth is water.
• 22:42
  A wealthy place is a place that is fruitful, green, well watered
• 22:46
  and balanced. So it's neither the fire of the
• 22:48
  brick kiln nor the drowning flood of the Nile.
• 22:50
  It is the moist garden. It's a place of restoration, of
• 22:53
  abundance, of life. And the paradox Spurgeon wants
• 22:56
  us to see, and this is so hard for us to grasp, is that the
• 22:58
  weight of the moist place is through the fire and water.
• 23:01
  You can't bypass the refinery and expect to reach the wealthy
• 23:04
  place. It doesn't work that way.
• 23:06
  We often want the wealthy place without the fire, don't we?
• 23:08
  We want the crown without the cross.
• 23:10
  Every single day. But in God's economy, the path
• 23:14
  is fixed. The outcome is guaranteed for
• 23:16
  the elect, but the road goes through the furnace.
• 23:19
  Now in Section 4, the Psalm shifts gears significantly.
• 23:23
  We move from we went through fire to I will go into thy house
• 23:28
  in verse 13. Why this shift from the
• 23:31
  corporate to the individual? Spurgeon observes that public
• 23:34
  praise is not enough. The corporate we is essential,
• 23:38
  but at some point, the individual must record their
• 23:40
  special mercies. You can't hide in the crowd
• 23:42
  forever. It has to get personal.
• 23:44
  It has to. There comes a moment where the
• 23:45
  believer must stand up and say I have a personal debt of
• 23:48
  gratitude to pay. The community went through the
• 23:51
  fire, but I experienced God's grace in a specific way that I
• 23:54
  need to acknowledge. And the psalmist says I will pay
• 23:57
  be my vows. This brings up the whole topic
• 23:59
  of making vows to God. Spurgeon and the expert sources
• 24:03
  he uses offer some caution here. They do.
• 24:06
  The caution is this be slow to make vows, but prompt to
• 24:11
  discharge them. That sounds wise.
• 24:13
  It is because we have a human tendency, when we're in the net
• 24:16
  or under the wheel, to promise God everything.
• 24:19
  We call them foxhole prayers. Lord, Get Me Out of this and
• 24:21
  I'll do anything. I'll be a missionary.
• 24:23
  I'll sell my house. I'll never sin again.
• 24:25
  All of that but once the trouble passes.
• 24:27
  We forget, we rationalize, we say, well, you know, I was
• 24:30
  emotional then. I didn't really mean it,
• 24:33
  Spurgeon says. This is a dangerous game to
• 24:35
  play. God takes those vows seriously.
• 24:38
  There's a linguistic detail in verse 14 which my licks have
• 24:42
  uttered that really sheds light on the intensity of these vows.
• 24:45
  Yes, the Hebrew literally means lips widely opened.
• 24:48
  It indicates vehemence. It indicates pressure.
• 24:51
  It's the picture of a man gasping for air, crying out,
• 24:54
  opening his mouth wide in distress to make this promise.
• 24:56
  So it wasn't a casual whisper. It was a desperate cry.
• 24:59
  It was, and Spurgeon warns us not to forget what we promised
• 25:02
  when our lips were widely opened in agony.
• 25:05
  And the payment of these vows is not cheap.
• 25:07
  Verse 15 lists burnt sacrifices of fatlings.
• 25:10
  Fatlings, that is the keyword. Spurgeon notes that the believer
• 25:15
  does not bring the starving goat from the hills.
• 25:18
  We don't give God the leftovers. Not the stuff we were going to
• 25:21
  get rid of anyway. No, we don't give him the blind
• 25:23
  sheep or the lame ox. We give the well fed Bullock.
• 25:28
  This speaks to the quality of our sacrifice.
• 25:30
  We give God our best. Spurgeon is very direct here
• 25:33
  about stinginess. He is, he says, being miserly
• 25:37
  with God is wretched. I mean, if God has saved you
• 25:40
  from the fire in the water, how can you be stingy with him?
• 25:43
  He argues that large gifts to God are not a diminution of a
• 25:46
  man's estate. It's money put to good interest.
• 25:49
  It's an investment in eternity. That's how he sees it.
• 25:52
  And notice the scope too. Bullocks with goats.
• 25:54
  The great and the little. The great and the little.
• 25:57
  It implies A comprehensive giving of 1's resources.
• 26:00
  We magnify the Lord with everything we have, the big
• 26:02
  things and the small things. Now we arrive at the final
• 26:04
  section, Section 5, the logic of sincerity and prayer.
• 26:08
  Verse 16 says Come and hear all ye that fear God.
• 26:11
  And again, there's a specific audience selected here.
• 26:14
  This is a crucial discernment. He does not say Come and hear
• 26:17
  everyone. He says, Come and hear all ye
• 26:20
  that fear God. Why?
• 26:22
  That's the question. Why not tell everyone?
• 26:24
  Spurgeon, referencing the scriptures, says we must not
• 26:28
  cast pearls before swine. Because they'll just trample
• 26:31
  them. They'll trample them wanton
• 26:32
  minds. Those who mock or trivialize
• 26:35
  spiritual things will just burlesque the experience of the
• 26:38
  soul. They'll make a comedy out of
• 26:39
  your tragedy. So if you tell a skeptic about
• 26:42
  how God answered your prayer. They might laugh.
• 26:44
  They might call it coincidence. They might mock your piety,
• 26:47
  Spurgeon says. Don't waste your breath on them.
• 26:50
  Share your soul's testimony with those who fear God.
• 26:53
  They are the only ones who can understand the spiritual logic
• 26:56
  of deliverance. There's a story about Latimer
• 26:58
  and Billney that illustrates this right.
• 27:00
  Yes, Hugh Latimer, the great English reformer, said he
• 27:04
  learned more from hearing Billney's humble confession of
• 27:06
  faith than he did from years of scholastic study.
• 27:10
  When a God fearing man shares what God has done for his soul,
• 27:13
  not just his external life, but his soul, it builds up the
• 27:16
  brethren in a way that abstract theology sometimes cannot.
• 27:19
  Verse 17 gives us the mechanics of this prayer.
• 27:22
  Cried with my mouth extolled with my tongue.
• 27:25
  Spurgeon analysis this connection beautifully.
• 27:28
  He says prayer and praise should run together like horses in a
• 27:31
  chariot. The cry is the petition Help me.
• 27:34
  The extolling is the praise. You are good.
• 27:37
  They go together. They should.
• 27:39
  He also notes that the dumb devil is cast out meaning
• 27:42
  meaning even those who are not fluent speakers can be eloquent
• 27:46
  with their hearts. The phrase extolling was under
• 27:49
  my tongue suggests readiness. It was like a piece of candy
• 27:53
  under the tongue, ready to be enjoyed.
• 27:56
  He was ready to praise even while he was crying for help.
• 27:58
  He had the praise ready before the answer even came.
• 28:01
  Now we come to perhaps the most rigorous theological point in
• 28:03
  the whole Psalm, verse 18. If I regard iniquity in my
• 28:07
  heart, the Lord will not hear me.
• 28:09
  This is the great condition. Yeah, we need to be very, very
• 28:12
  careful to define our terms here because this verse can cause a
• 28:15
  lot of anxiety for believers. Right, because if regarding
• 28:18
  iniquity just means having sin, then we are all in trouble.
• 28:22
  Exactly, if it meant if I have any sin in my heart God won't
• 28:26
  hear me, then no one would ever be heard.
• 28:28
  Paul wouldn't be heard, Spurgeon wouldn't be heard.
• 28:31
  We all have indwelling sin. So what does regard mean in this
• 28:35
  context? It means to look with favor upon
• 28:38
  it, to cherish it, to have a side glance of love toward it.
• 28:43
  Spurgeon defines it as harboring a traitor in the house.
• 28:46
  OK, explain that traitor analogy.
• 28:48
  Imagine you're a king in a castle and you're being attacked
• 28:51
  by enemies outside. You cry out to the Emperor God
• 28:53
  for help. Save me from these enemies.
• 28:56
  OK, but secretly you have one of the enemies, spies, hiding in
• 29:00
  your basement and you're feeding him.
• 29:02
  You're protecting me. Well, you kind of like him.
• 29:04
  You enjoy his company. That is regarding iniquity.
• 29:07
  Yes, you're asking God to save you from sin while you are
• 29:11
  secretly loving a specific sin. You're petting the cat while
• 29:14
  asking God to get rid of the rats, Spurgeon says.
• 29:17
  If I'm praying for deliverance from sin in general, but
• 29:19
  secretly I'm keeping a back door open for my favorite sin because
• 29:22
  I love it, I am regarding iniquity.
• 29:25
  And the result is silence. The Lord will not hear me.
• 29:29
  It cuts the connection. God cannot be the God of
• 29:32
  hypocrites. If I'm asking God to be holy
• 29:35
  toward me while I am being unholy toward Him and loving it,
• 29:38
  I'm asking God to join a conspiracy against Himself.
• 29:42
  I am asking Him to condone my sin.
• 29:45
  Spurgeon mentions the wretched fallacy of praying against sin
• 29:49
  while secretly wishing not to prevail.
• 29:51
  It reminds me of the famous prayer of Augustine before his
• 29:54
  full conversion. Lord, give me chastity, but not
• 29:57
  yet. That is regarding iniquity.
• 29:59
  You want the consequence of sin removed, but you don't want the
• 30:02
  pleasure of sin removed. So how does the psalmist know
• 30:05
  he's clear of this? Because in verses 19 and 20 he
• 30:08
  moves to this triumphant conclusion.
• 30:10
  But verily God hath heard me. Spurgeon sees a syllogism here.
• 30:14
  It's a logic puzzle. The psalmist is using deductive
• 30:17
  reasoning to prove his own sincerity to himself.
• 30:20
  OK, walk us through that logic. It's really interesting.
• 30:22
  It goes like this premise, a If I loved sin, if I regarded
• 30:26
  iniquity in my heart, God would not hear me.
• 30:29
  That is the established rule from verse 18.
• 30:31
  OK, that's the principle. Premise B.
• 30:33
  But look at the facts, Look at the evidence.
• 30:35
  God has heard me. He answered my prayer.
• 30:37
  The deliverance from the fire and water came.
• 30:39
  The proof is in the pudding. It is so.
• 30:42
  The conclusion is therefore I must be sincere.
• 30:45
  I do not regard iniquity in my heart.
• 30:47
  That is powerful. His assurance of his own
• 30:50
  sincerity isn't based on looking inward and asking, do I feel
• 30:53
  sincere today? It's based on the objective fact
• 30:56
  that God answered him. Yes, it turns the subjective
• 30:59
  worry into an objective certainty, and it's sealed with
• 31:03
  a verily. It's not a guess, it's a fact.
• 31:06
  The fact that the mercy came through proves that the channel
• 31:09
  was not blocked by cherished sin.
• 31:11
  And so the Psalm ends on its keynote.
• 31:14
  Blessed be God. It ends where it began, with
• 31:16
  praise. Blessed be God, He has not
• 31:19
  turned away the prayer nor His mercy.
• 31:22
  Spurgeon notes that the prayer and the mercy meet they embrace
• 31:25
  is the happy ending to the long hard Rd. through fire and water.
• 31:29
  What a text this has been. I mean, we've gone from the
• 31:31
  joyful noise of the nations, through the terrible works of
• 31:33
  judgement, into the refinery of silver, through the net and the
• 31:36
  crushing of the loins. A difficult path.
• 31:39
  And finally emerging into the moist, wealthy place of answered
• 31:42
  prayer and a clear conscience. It really encapsulates the
• 31:46
  reformed worldview, doesn't it? Got a sovereign over the nations
• 31:49
  and the elements. He shakes the continents.
• 31:51
  He is sovereign over our suffering.
• 31:53
  He puts us in the furnace and He regulates the heat, and He is
• 31:57
  sovereign over our deliverance. He brings us to a place of
• 32:00
  abundance. But it also places a demand on
• 32:02
  us. A huge one.
• 32:03
  We have a responsibility to praise, to pay our vows, and to
• 32:07
  cleanse our hearts of any secret love for sin that would block
• 32:10
  our prayers. It brings us back to that
• 32:12
  provocative thought regarding the relationship between public
• 32:15
  calamity and private purity. We saw the nation's trembling at
• 32:19
  God's terrible works, submitting out of fear.
• 32:21
  They were just part of the crowd, right?
• 32:23
  But at the end we see one man in private having his whisper heard
• 32:27
  by the Creator of the universe because his heart was sincere.
• 32:29
  That is the contrast that matters.
• 32:31
  God rules the nation's with a rod of iron.
• 32:33
  That's the macro picture. But His ear is intimately tuned
• 32:36
  to the whisper of a single sincere heart that harbors no
• 32:39
  secret love for sin. That is the micro picture.
• 32:42
  So the question we have to leave you with is the one that's
• 32:46
  spurred by verse 18. Is there a side glance of love
• 32:49
  toward iniquity that is currently silencing the heavens
• 32:52
  toward you? Are you praying for a wealthy
• 32:54
  place while secretly holding on to the drops?
• 32:58
  That's the question. We all want the silver, but we
• 33:00
  often fear the fire that removes the dross.
• 33:03
  But the fire is God's severe mercy.
• 33:05
  Thank you for walking us through this, and thank you for
• 33:07
  listening to Reformed Thinking. We hope this deep dive into
• 33:10
  Psalm 66 has encouraged your soul and fortified your mind.
• 33:14
  Until next time, keep thinking and keep reforming.