Latest / Reformed Thinking / He Heals the Brokenhearted and Sustains the Universe (Psalm 147) | Charles Spurgeon

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He Heals the Brokenhearted and Sustains the Universe (Psalm 147) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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Imagine an intelligence that is vast enough to name, track, and,
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you know, sustain billions of burning galaxies.
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Right, a mind that holds the actual physics of the universe
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together. Yeah, orchestrating the the
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trajectory of every comet, the precise nuclear fusion of every
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star. But then imagine that same
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infinite intelligence suddenly stopping all of that cosmic
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management just to get down on his knees, sit on the sidewalk,
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and carefully bandage the scraped knee of a discarded,
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forgotten outcast. It's a staggering paradox.
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It really is the tension between that supreme cosmic sovereignty
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and this like intimate, condescending tenderness.
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And that tension is the heart of today's deep dive here on Formed
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Thinking. And it's a paradox that
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completely shatters how we, you know, usually define greatness.
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I mean, human leaders consider themselves great based on how
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far they are elevated above the mundane.
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Right. The higher you go up the
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corporate. Ladder.
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Yeah, the more insulated you become from the granular
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suffering on the ground, you aren't dealing with the painful
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details. But the source material we are
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looking at today argues the complete opposite regarding God.
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We're looking at Charles Spurgeon's exposition of Psalm
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147 from the Treasury of David. Yes, alongside commentaries from
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various naturalists and theologians.
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And it presents a Creator who is so immense that nothing is great
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to him, yet so fiercely attentive that nothing is little
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to him. I want you, the listener, to
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think about it like a scientist trying to look through a Hubble
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telescope and a stethoscope at the exact same time.
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Oh that is a great image. It feels like an impossible
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tension, right? Yeah.
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How can the same hands that Marshall the astronomical hosts
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be the hands that apply like soft bandages to bleeding
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spiritual wounds? It's hard to wrap your mind
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around. It is.
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So today we are going to look at how this plays out, not just in
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theology, but in the physical anatomy of a broken heart, the
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brutal winters we face, and even the bizarre biology of grass
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growing in the freezing Swiss Alps.
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We are going to challenge how you view the seemingly random
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events of your own life from the drief you might be carrying
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right now to the weather outside your window.
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So to start, the exposition begins with a call to praise a
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Hallelujah simply because praising God is good, pleasant
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and fitting. Which makes sense.
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Right, But it doesn't stay in the abstract for very long.
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The text immediately grounds this praise in a specific
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action. It pictures God acting as an
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architect and a builder of Jerusalem.
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And the text says he gathers together the outcasts.
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The commentators draw a Direct Line between the historical
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moment of Nehemiah repairing the physical ruined walls of
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Jerusalem with literal broken stones, right, and David in the
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wilderness gathering a band of outcasts, men who were, you
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know, in distress and debt and discontented.
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Let's stop right there and look at this building method because
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humanly speaking, it makes absolutely zero sense.
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None at all. If you are building a
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magnificent city or a global enterprise, human logic dictates
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that you select the best materials available.
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Right, you want the brightest. Minds the most polished, resumes
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the pristine marble. You actively avoid the broken,
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the banished, and the ruined. So if I'm trying to build
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something that lasts, why would I intentionally go to the scrap
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heap? It feels counterintuitive to the
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point of being reckless. It does seem reckless, yeah,
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especially if you evaluate it through the lens of human
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meritocracy. But the commentary from
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theologians like Stephen Charnock explains the precise
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logic behind this. What is?
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He argues that God choosing the outcasts is a deliberate
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demonstration of his sovereign skill.
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Charnock points out that there are none of his people so
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despised in the eyes of society, but they are known and regarded
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by God. Wow.
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In fact, Charnock uses this brilliant phrase.
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He notes that although these outcasts are clouded and
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despised by the world, they are actually the stars of the world.
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The stars of the world. Yeah, by selecting the broken
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and the ruined, the Builder ensures that the glory of the
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finished structure comes entirely from the Maker skill,
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not the innate quality of the materials.
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I see it's it's like a master Craftsman working with reclaimed
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wood. Yes, precisely.
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A truly brilliant Carpenter doesn't prove his skill by going
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to a high end store and buying a prefabricated, flawless piece of
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furniture. Anyone with enough money can do
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that. The true master takes shattered
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weather, beaten discarded wood, wood full of nails and rot that
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everyone else threw away, and he sands it down, planes it, and
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turns it into a breathtaking masterpiece.
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Yeah, the worse the material starts out, the more it
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highlights the genius of the Carpenter.
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That analogy captures it perfectly.
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If the church were built with spiritual stones that were
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already polished and perfect, humanity would praise the
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stones. Right, we'd say, look at how
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great these people are. Yeah, we would.
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I would assume these people were chosen because of their
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intrinsic value or moral superiority.
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But by gathering the outcasts, those who are morally, socially
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or spiritually bankrupt, God makes it undeniable that the
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strength and beauty of the city are entirely His doing.
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It requires an infinitely capable hand to build an eternal
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city out of banished people. It does, and this concept sets
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the stage for everything else we will discuss today.
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God is drawn to the broken. And if God's building project
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requires broken materials, that brings up a massive question.
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How does he handle the brokenness of the individuals he
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gathers? Because it's one thing to pick
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up a broken stone and another to handle a human soul.
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Exactly. There is a huge difference.
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The source material moves directly into this, stating that
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God healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds.
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And the commentary here brings in a 17th century writer named
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William Fenner. He provides this incredibly
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intense clinical diagnosis of what a broken heart actually is.
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But interestingly, before he talks about the broken heart, he
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talks about the danger of having a whole heart.
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Right, which sounds weird. He describes mankind naturally,
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starting with a whole heart in sin.
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What does he mean by a whole heart?
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Usually we think of a whole heart is a good thing, like
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being healthy. Fenner's diagnostic language is
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fascinating because it turns our modern psychological assumptions
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upside down. When Fenner talks about a whole
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heart in sin, he is referring to the natural, unregenerate state
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of humanity. OK, a whole heart in this
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context is a heart that is completely unified in its
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rebellion. It feels no friction, no guilt,
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no conviction, no sorrow over its condition.
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It is entirely comfortable in its fallen state.
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So it's not a healthy hole, it's a pure.
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It's a desperate, fatal disease, he argues.
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This unbroken state is like a patient who has a deadly tumor
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but feels absolutely no pain. Oh wow.
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The lack of pain is not a sign of health, it is the reason the
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patient will not seek a physician.
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So the wholeness is an illusion. It's a fatal numbness.
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Yes. And before the physician can
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apply healing, that dangerous numbness, that fatal wholeness
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must be shattered, right? Fenner explains the mechanism of
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how God breaks the heart. He says the law acts like a
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hammer. The moral demands of God's law
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strike the human conscience, breaking it with a terrifying
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realization of guilt and impending judgement.
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The law shatters the illusion that we are good people.
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Precisely. It proves we can't stand on our
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own merit. Wait, I have to push back on
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that process for a second? Sure.
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If a heart is just smashed with a hammer, it is destroyed.
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If you hit a piece of glass with a hammer, you don't heal the
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glass you obliterated into 1000 unrecovered.
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That's. True.
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If the goal is healing, how does terrifying someone with the law
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result in anything other than absolute despair?
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That is the critical turning point in Fenner's theology.
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If the process stopped with the hammer of the law, it would
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indeed lead only to destruction and despair.
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But Fenner notes that while the Law breaks the heart with guilt,
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the Gospel breaks it with mercy. The Gospel breaks it, not just
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the law. Yes, the realization of grace,
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the sheer unmerited compassion of the physician bleeding for
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the patient, shatters the heart in a completely different way.
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It produces genuine repentance rather than just terror.
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The hammer of the law produces a legal fear of punishment, but
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the warmth of the gospel melts the heart into a filial, loving
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sorrow. So it's a completely different
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kind of brokenness. Exactly.
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The heart is broken from its sin by the law, but it is broken for
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its sin by the Gospel. And Fenner is adamant that Jesus
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is the specific physician appointed for this exact malady.
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He's the only one who can handle it.
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Yeah, he uses a striking historical contrast.
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He mentions the Roman emperor Trajan, who supposedly died at
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the hands of his own physician. Fenner contrasts this by stating
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that Christ never loses a patient.
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He is perfectly appointed to bind up the specific wounds he
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has allowed the law to open. You know the rhetorical drop
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that happens right after this and the text is an absolute
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shock to the system. Oh, from stars to size.
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Yes, from stars to size. We go from this intimate
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bleeding, psychological surgery straight into the cosmos.
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Right after talking about binding up wounds, the tech says
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he telleth the number of the stars.
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He calleth them all by their names.
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It is a jarring transition. To put it in modern terms, it's
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as if the CEO of a multi trillion dollar global supply
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chain walked out of a boardroom where they were managing the
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logistics of continents just to sit on the sidewalk, pull out a
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first aid kit and carefully bandage the scraped knee of a
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street child. That transition is entirely
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deliberate. The biblical authors frequently
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juxtapose these extremes to force us to expand our theology.
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Because we like to put God in a box.
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We do. We either view him as a distant
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cosmic force who spun the universe into existence but
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cares nothing for our individual lives, or we view him as a
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personal therapist who is very attentive to our feelings but
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lacks the sovereign muscle to actually change the
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circumstances of the universe. The text fuses the two.
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It's both at once. Yes, his infinite understanding
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bridges the macro and the micro. He doesn't just count the stars
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as a collective mass or a rough estimate.
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He calls them by name. He knows their individual
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constitution, their distance, their heat, their precise orbit.
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And the implication is that the exact same individualized,
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granular attention he gives to the burning stars he gives to a
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single sigh of a grieving person listening to this right now.
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Precisely. If he has a name for a ball of
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gas running millions of light years away, he certainly has a
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precise, calculated understanding of the heartbreak
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you were experiencing in your living room.
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He has a Ledger for the stars and he has a bottle for your
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tears. The commentators point out that
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God reverses the human order entirely.
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The same infinite mind that lifts the meek and binds their
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wounds is the mind that casts the wicked to the ground.
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So. His tenderness has actual teeth,
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yes. When he binds up a wound, it
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stays bound because all the forces of the universe are at
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his disposal to ensure the safety of the outcast he has
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gathered. So if God's infinite mind
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micromanages the distant stars, and his tender hands micromanage
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the hidden human heart, it begs the question, what about
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everything in between? The messy middle.
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Right. What about the wild, untamed,
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uninhabited parts of the Earth where humans don't even exist?
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Does he care about the spaces where no one is looking?
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The text shifts its focus entirely to nature here, talking
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about God preparing rain, making grass grow in the mountains, and
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feeding the beasts and the young crying Ravens.
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This is where we get a massive injection of Natural History
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from writers like Hugh McMillan. He takes us away from human
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civilization entirely and brings us to the Swiss Alps.
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OK, the Swiss Alps. Specifically, he looks at the
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Coup and Schaff Alpen, cow and sheep pastures situated high up
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on these desolate, freezing, treacherous mountain slopes.
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Let's build the picture of these Alps for the listener, because
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these are not rolling, gentle green hills in the countryside.
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Not at all. These are brutal, sheer rock
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faces. The wind is freezing, the
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altitude is extreme, and it is a place completely hostile to
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human agriculture. No farmer is hiking up there
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with a tractor and a bag of fertilizer.
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And yet, McMillan points out that God irrigates these remote
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areas with absolute precision vision without any human
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cultivation. The ecosystem is meticulously
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balanced. Millions of cattle graze there
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in the summer, and the glass thrives.
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Wow. But McMillan raises A biological
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problem. In an environment that delicate,
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how does the grass survive being eaten combined with the harsh
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condition? Yeah, how does it?
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He notes that God arranged for carnivorous insects to exist in
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those specific Alpine pastures at a ratio 4 times higher than
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herbivorous insects. Wait, carnivorous insects?
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Yes, insects that eat other insects.
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If that specific mathematical check were not in place, the
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herb eating insects would devour every single blade of mountain
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grass. And then the cows would have
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nothing to eat. Right.
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The cattle would starve and the entire ecosystem would collapse
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into a barren rock. Face God maintains the balance
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of a microscopic war between insects just to ensure the grass
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survives. That is wild.
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He's orchestrating bug warfare to feed cows in a place no human
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lives. It is wild and the grass itself.
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Macmillan's observation about the biology of the Alpine grass
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completely blew my mind, he says.
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The grass in these high mountains is viviperous.
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Viviperous. Let's break that down.
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Most plants produce seeds, right?
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The wind blows the seas, they land in the dirt, and eventually
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they grow. Normally, yes.
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But on a jagged Alpine Cliff, if a blade of grass releases a tiny
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weightless seed, the freezing, violent mountain wind is going
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to blow it straight off the Cliff and bury it in a glacier.
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It will perish. So what does this specific grass
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do? Well, because the environment is
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so hostile to traditional reproduction, this viviperous
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grass skips the seed stage entirely.
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It just skips it. Yeah, it produces fully formed,
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miniature young plants right on the parent stock.
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These tiny plants cling to the stem until they are heavy and
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developed. Oh wow.
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Then the parent stock Withers and bends down to the earth,
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dropping the heavy, fully formed young plant directly into the
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soil where it immediately takes root.
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It bypasses the danger of the wind entirely.
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Looking at that viviperous grass, a plant that produces
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fully formed clones of itself because the wind is too strong
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for seeds, I look at the modern scientific mind that wants to
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attribute all of this to blind secondary laws of nature.
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Right, the typical evolutionary adaptation over millions of
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years. Revival of the fittest random
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mutations, yeah, but the source material and certainly the
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reformed theological worldview pushes back on that entirely.
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Right. Absolutely.
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The commentators, specifically a writer named G Hubbard, address
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this directly. The Hebrews and the Puritans who
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exposition these texts had no concept of independent secondary
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laws that ran and the universe on autopilot like a wound up
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clock. No autopilot.
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No, they didn't view the clouds as sustained just by specific
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gravity, or the grass as adapting through blind chance.
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They saw God's immediate, efficient hand acting upon
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matter. I think an analogy helps clarify
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the difference. Imagine walking into a massive,
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highly automated greenhouse. You see an intricate system of
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pipes adjusting the humidity based on the barometric pressure
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outside. You see mechanical arms
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deploying pest control at the exact ratio needed.
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You see a machine calculating the wind currents in the room
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and planting heavy seeds accordingly.
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Like a high tech facility? Yeah, if you looked at all that
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and said, wow, look at how these pipes and machines just
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naturally adapted themselves over time to keep these plants
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alive, you would sound insane. You really would.
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You would know a genius engineer built the system, program the
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code and actively maintains the power grid running it.
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And that is the crucial point. A law of nature is not an
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entity, it is simply the observed pattern of God's
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habitual action. God's habitual action.
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I love that. Right when we say gravity pulls
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an object down, we are just describing the consistent way
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God actively moves matter. Recognizing the direct cause of
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nature's phenomena means seeing God's immediate hand in the
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viviparous grass adapting to the Alpine wind.
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It is his engineering, not the grass's ingenuity.
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The text then moves from the grass to the birds, specifically
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the Ravens. We see observations from a
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naturalist named Gilbert White, who watched rooks gathering at
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dusk, cawing in a way that sounded almost liturgical, like
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evening prayers. Yeah, and JG Wood, who notes a
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brutal biological reality about young raisins.
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They apparently fall out of their nests heavily to the
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ground, croaking and utterly helpless before they can fly.
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Yet the text says God ensures they are fed.
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The Raven is a significant choice of animal here.
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Under the Levitical law, the Raven was an unclean bird.
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It is a scavenger. It is not a beautiful songbird
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or a noble eagle. It's just a Raven.
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Yet God hears the cry of an unclean scavenger falling out of
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a tree. The theological implication is
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clear. If God bends his ear to the
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croak of an unclean, helpless bird, how much more will he
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listen to the cry of his own people when they are helpless?
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Which perfectly sets up that brilliant anecdote about Edward
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Taylor, the sailor preacher of Boston.
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Oh, that's a great story. The story goes that he was
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praying before sailing for Europe, and he was agonizing
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over his congregation. He was stressing out, praying
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frantically about who would take care of his church, who would
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feed them spiritually, who would protect them while he was gone.
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He was carrying the entire weight of his church on his own
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shoulders. Yeah, full of anxiety.
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Exactly. But suddenly he stops himself
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right in the middle of his prayer and rebukes himself.
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He says, What have I done? Distrust the Providence of
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heaven? A God that gives a whale a ton
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of herrings for a breakfast? Will he not care for my
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children? It is an airtight, logical
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argument based on general Providence.
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If God meticulously manages the oceanic food chain to ensure a
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whale gets a ton of herrings every single morning, and if he
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manages the insect ratios in the Alps to feed cows, the people of
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God are certainly secure. The anxiety Taylor felt was a
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result of him temporarily forgetting the staggering scale
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of the management system he was submitting to.
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So if nature is completely dependent on God's sovereign
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provision, and if he is handling the whales, the Ravens and the
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grass, what is the proper posture for human beings?
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Because we don't act like the Ravens.
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We try to rely on our own strengths.
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We do. The text addresses our human
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arrogance directly. In verses 10 and 11.
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It says God does not delight in the strength of the horse or the
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legs of a man. Instead, He takes pleasure in
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those who fear him and hope in his mercy.
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This is a direct assault on everything our culture values.
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Society is utterly obsessed with the strength of the horse and
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the legs of a man. We idolize military might,
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physical athleticism, mental prowess, financial independence.
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And absolute self-reliance. Yes, we build entire educational
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and corporate systems around rewarding, arrogant
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self-confidence. The message we receive every day
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is that you must be strong enough, smart enough, and
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capable enough to secure your own future.
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Right. Believe in yourself.
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You are enough. Pull yourself up by your
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bootstraps. But the text says God actively
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rejects that mindset. He takes zero pleasure in our
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muscle, our brain power, or our independent capabilities.
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Because relying on those things is an illusion.
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It is trying to be the engineer of the greenhouse instead of
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acknowledging you are the grass. That's.
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A great way to put it. The text says he only takes
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pleasure in this very specific dual posture, Fear and hope.
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The commentators, particularly Thomas Manton and Matthew Henry,
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provide a brilliant psychological and theological
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breakdown of this balance between fear and hope.
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To the modern mind, fear and hope seem like opposing forces.
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Right, we think if you are afraid, you cannot be hopeful.
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Exactly. And if you were hopeful, you
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shouldn't have any fear. But Manton and Henry argue they
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were entirely complementary. They are the two stabilizing
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forces of a healthy soul. Let's unpack how they actually
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function, because this is intensely practical for the
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listener. How does fear work in this
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context? We aren't talking about a phobia
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like being afraid of spiders, right?
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Yeah. No, this is filial fear.
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A holy reverence and an acute awareness of God's holiness
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combined with an awareness of our own sinful tendencies.
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Manton explains that fear acts as a curb against sin.
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A curb. Yeah, a curb is the part of a
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bit used to control a horse. When the soul is tempted to run
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into presumption, arrogance, or independent rebellion, the fear
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of God pulls back on the reins. It shows you that God is a
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consuming fire, that he demands holiness, and that your own
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strength is fragile. Fear keeps you from flying off
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the Cliff of pride. But if you only have fear, you
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become paralyzed, You become terrified of making a mistake,
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and you view God as an abusive tyrant waiting to strike you
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down. Which is why hope is the
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necessary counterweight, Manson says.
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Hope acts as a spur to duty. OK, the Spur.
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When the fear of your own inadequacy threatens to sink you
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into despair, A lethargy hope in God's mercy spurs you forward.
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Matthew Henry points out that a holy fear of God checks our hope
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so it doesn't become toxic presumption, while a pious hope
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in God checks our fear so it doesn't become crushing despair.
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The text provides a fantastic tactile visual for this from
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George Seton Bose. He says fear and hope are like
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the cork and the lead of a fisherman's net.
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Oh, I love this analogy. Imagine you are casting a net
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into the sea. If the net only has heavy lead
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weights attached to the bottom, the money you throw it in, it
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sinks straight into the mud at the bottom of the ocean and
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becomes completely useless. That is a soul overwhelmed by
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fear and legalism. It sinks into despondency.
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On the other hand, if the net only has corks attached to the
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top, it just floats on the surface of the water, drifting
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aimlessly with the wind. It never goes deep enough to
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catch anything that is a soul with hope but No Fear.
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It floats into trivial shallow presumption.
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The net only works. It only catches fish.
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When the lead pulls it down and the cork pulls it up
21:51
simultaneously, the tension between the two holds the net
21:54
perfectly open in the middle of the water.
21:56
Maintaining this psychological balance is essential for
21:59
spiritual health. So to the person listening right
22:01
now, walking through a high stakes career, dealing with
22:04
modern anxieties, constantly being told to cut off the lead
22:07
weights and just float on their own self esteem, how do they
22:10
actively maintain this balance? It requires A deliberate daily
22:14
submission to the truth of our own frailty.
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It means waking up and acknowledging I do not have the
22:20
strength of the horse or the legs of a man to save myself
22:23
today. That is the lead weight of fear.
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But immediately following that with however the God who feeds
22:29
the Ravens and clothes the Alps has infinite mercy available.
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For me, that is the cork of hope.
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When individuals adopt this posture, shifting their reliance
22:38
off their own resume and onto God's character, the result is a
22:42
corporate blessing. Which leads us out of the
22:44
individual psychological realm and into the corporate communal
22:47
realm. Verses 12 through 14 expand the
22:50
focus from the individual heart to the entire city of Jerusalem.
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God strengthens the bars of Jerusalem's gates, makes peace
22:56
in her borders, and fills her with the finest of the wheat.
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A commentator named William Nicholson gives 4 structured
23:03
arguments for why this should produce immense praise,
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Security, benediction, peace, and abundance.
23:10
Let's examine that security. Strengthening the bars of the
23:13
gates implies that there are enemies outside trying to get
23:16
in. The city is not in a vacuum, it
23:18
is in a hostile world. But God acts as the divine
23:22
security system. But security alone is a
23:24
miserable existence if you are starving.
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I look at it this way, a fortress is utterly useless if
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the people inside have no food. Imagine having a massive,
23:35
impenetrable bank vault. The steel walls are 10 feet
23:38
thick, the combination lock is uncrackable, and you are
23:42
completely secure from any outside threat.
23:44
But you are locked inside with absolutely nothing to eat or
23:47
drink. You will survive the enemies,
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but you will die of starvation. Right, that's a grim picture.
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God doesn't just provide the external bars on the gates to
23:54
keep the enemies out, He provides the finest, most
23:57
satisfying nourishment within. And the quality of that internal
24:00
nourishment is vital. Johannes Palace Palantarius,
24:03
another commentator in the text, explains that while human
24:07
leaders often distribute cheap course commodities to the masses
24:10
just to keep them quiet, God gives the most and best the
24:14
finest wheat. The finest wheat.
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In the Reformed tradition, this wheat is frequently interpreted
24:20
spiritually. It represents the pure,
24:23
unadulterated gospel truth, the nourishment of the Scriptures,
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and in the end, Christ himself as the bread of life.
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The soul of the believer is not just protected from the wrath of
24:33
God, it is fed with the highest quality of divine sustenance.
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Thomas Watson, a famous Puritan writer, adds an interesting
24:40
layer to the idea of peace within these borders.
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He compares this political and spiritual peace to the building
24:46
of Solomon's Temple, where no noise of a hammer or axe was
24:50
heard during its construction. Right.
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The stones were prepared beforehand.
24:53
Exactly. The stones were cut at the
24:54
quarry, so the actual building site was silent.
24:57
It represents a quiet, staggering stability that allows
25:00
the inhabitants to thrive without constant alarm.
25:02
But the text is very honest. It doesn't pretend that God's
25:05
provision always looks like warm sunshine, quiet temples, and
25:09
golden wheat. Sometimes his blessings arrive
25:12
wrapped in bitter freezing cold. And that brings us to what I
25:16
think is the most surprising and frankly the most challenging
25:19
section of the entire deep dive. We move from the warmth of the
25:22
harvest into the winter of Providence.
25:25
Verses 15 through 17 it says God gives snow like wool, scatters
25:30
hoarfrost like ashes, and casts forth ice like morsels.
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Who can stand before his cold? The scientific and spiritual
25:37
paradox of snow like wool is thoroughly examined in the
25:40
source material by writers like Hugh McMillan and the physicist
25:43
John Tyndall. To the naked eye, comparing
25:45
freezing snow to warm wool makes no sense.
25:48
But scientifically, the analogy is brilliant.
25:50
Both snow and wool are terrible conductors of heat.
25:53
Meaning they trap heat inside rather than letting it escape.
25:56
Correct. Macmillan observes that snow
25:58
acts as a literal blanket for the earth.
26:01
During the harsh winter, the outside air temperature can drop
26:04
far below freezing. If the soil were exposed
26:07
directly to that air, the frost would penetrate deep into the
26:10
ground and kill the dormant seeds and roots.
26:13
So the plants would die. Yes, but God sends a thick layer
26:17
of snow. The snow traps the latent heat
26:20
of the earth underneath it, protecting the plant life from
26:22
the freezing rigor of the atmosphere above.
26:25
The text mentions the historical practice of Eskimos building
26:29
huts of hardened snow, utilizing the very element of coal to
26:32
protect themselves against the cold.
26:34
So the snow, which looks like death, is actually an incubator
26:38
for life. Macmillan goes even further,
26:40
pointing out the massive geological work of the glacial
26:43
period, the secular winter, the massive sheets of ice that once
26:46
covered continents didn't just destroy.
26:48
No, they shaped the landscape. Those glaciers crushed rocks,
26:51
ground up minerals, and scooped out valleys to form the fertile
26:54
plains of Europe. The ice was literally grinding
26:57
the fertilizer for future civilizations.
27:00
But we must bridge this natural science to our spiritual
27:03
reality, because when you are the one enduring the winter,
27:06
when you are the one getting crushed by the glacier, it is
27:09
incredibly difficult to see it as a blessing.
27:12
I want to ask for clarification on this paradox because this is
27:15
where the theology meets the pavement for the listener.
27:17
Yeah. How can something that
27:19
inherently brings pain, loss, freezing cold and isolation be
27:24
the very instrument that preserves life?
27:26
That's the big question. Let's use the analogy of a
27:28
surgeon's scalpel. A scalpel is a terrifying
27:31
instrument. It is razor sharp when it is
27:33
applied to human flesh. It cuts, it causes bleeding, it
27:37
severs tissue, and it inflicts a trauma on the body.
27:41
If you just looked at the action of the scalpel, it looks like an
27:43
act of violence. But in the hands of a skilled,
27:46
compassionate surgeon, that violent wound is precisely what
27:50
removes the malignant tumor and saves the patient's life.
27:53
Are the commentators arguing that adversity acts as a glacial
27:57
period in a person's life, carving out the landscape of the
28:00
soul to hold more grace? Yes, and they take it even
28:03
further than just removing a tumor.
28:05
They argue it prepares the soil for a harvest.
28:08
Joseph Carroll and Jon Trapp, 2 commentators cited in the text,
28:12
note that frost and ice are like morsels of bread.
28:15
It sounds completely counterintuitive to call ice
28:17
bread. It does, but they explain that
28:19
the wintry cold is profitable to the earth.
28:22
The freezing and thawing action breaks up the hard clods of
28:25
dirt, kills off harmful pests in the soil and fits the ground for
28:29
bearing future harvests. So the frost is quite literally
28:32
preparing the ground to receive the seed.
28:34
Exactly adversity, chilling and blighting as it may feel to our
28:38
personal ambitions or our comfort, has a protective and
28:41
preparatory influence. It guards the soul against
28:44
greater evils like the pestilence of pride,
28:46
self-reliance, and worldly complacency.
28:49
The freeze is entirely purposeful, and the text points
28:52
out a critical pronoun that asks who can stand before his cold.
28:56
His cold. Right.
28:57
The cold doesn't come from a random chaotic universe.
29:00
It is his cold. He measured it, he sent it, and
29:02
therefore he controls its duration.
29:04
That is massive, his cold. If you were going through a
29:07
season of intense isolation, failure or grief, A winter where
29:11
nothing is growing and you feel buried, the text insists that
29:14
this winter is not an accident. It is not a sign that God has
29:18
abandoned the thermostat of the universe.
29:20
It is his cold, operating as a blanket and a plow to ensure you
29:24
do not perish from spiritual pride.
29:26
And because it is his cold, the freeze is purposeful, but it's
29:30
never final. The cold always yields to the
29:33
warmth of God's most spectacular gift, His Word.
29:37
This brings us to verses 18 through 20, the climax of the
29:39
Psalm. We see the thought of grace.
29:42
He sendeth out His word and melteth them.
29:44
He causes his wind to blow, and the waters flow.
29:47
The deep freeze of winter is broken by two elements working
29:51
together, the word and the wind. Christopher Wordsworth provides
29:54
a beautiful theological explanation of this thaw in the
29:57
Reformed tradition. The word in the Spirit,
29:59
represented here by the wind, always cooperate in salvation.
30:02
The frozen human heart, locked in the ice of its own sin and
30:06
wholeness that we discussed earlier with Fenner, cannot melt
30:09
itself. You cannot just decide to
30:11
generate warmth in a freezing corpse.
30:13
Right. The Spirit of God must breathe
30:15
upon the frozen heart. Wordsworth says it is just as
30:18
the vernal breeze melts the Arctic ice, causing streams of
30:21
penitence and love to gush forth where before there was only
30:25
rigid, unyielding frost. This transition from the natural
30:28
elements melting ice to the spiritual reality of God's Word
30:32
melting hearts brings the entire deep dive to its ultimate focal
30:36
point, the massive distinction between general Providence and
30:40
special revelation. Right, because up until this
30:42
final section, we have been looking almost exclusively at
30:45
general Providence. God feeding the Ravens.
30:48
The mathematics of carnivorous Alpine insects.
30:50
The thermodynamics of snow. The grass dropping clones of
30:53
itself. All of that is available for
30:55
anyone to observe in nature. But now the text shifts gears
30:59
entirely. It says he shows his word to
31:01
Jacob dealing with Israel in a way he has not dealt with any
31:03
other nation. Thomas Watson, the Puritan we
31:05
mentioned earlier, makes this distinction exceptionally clear.
31:09
He notes that while the heathen nations have the light of
31:11
nature, they can look up and see the stars, they can feel the
31:14
snow, they can observe the grass.
31:16
That natural light is insufficient for salvation.
31:19
It's just not enough. General Revelation proves that a
31:22
Creator exists, that He is powerful, and that He is
31:26
orderly, but it cannot tell you how to be reconciled to Him.
31:31
Believers, however, have the blessed Book to resolve all
31:33
doubts and point out the way of life.
31:35
Let's use an analogy to draw a sharp line between these two
31:38
types of revelation. General revelation, Looking at
31:41
nature, the Swiss Alps, The Hubble Telescope.
31:44
It's like walking down the street and admiring A
31:46
beautifully constructed massive mansion.
31:49
From the sidewalk you can look at the stonework, the slope of
31:52
the roof, the reinforced glass and the manicured gardens.
31:56
By observing the house, you know without a shadow of a doubt that
32:00
a genius architect and builder exists.
32:03
You can deduce his intelligence and his power, but you cannot
32:07
know his name, you cannot know what he loves, and you cannot
32:10
know if he wants you to come inside just by looking at the
32:12
bricks. And that is the limit of natural
32:15
theology. It leaves you on the sidewalk.
32:17
But special revelation, the Scriptures, the word sent to
32:20
Jacob is the architect himself, walking out the front door,
32:23
walking down to the sidewalk, taking you by the hand and
32:26
inviting you inside the house. Oh, that's.
32:28
Beautiful. He sends you down at his dining
32:30
table, tells you his name, explains his redemptive plans
32:33
for history, and tells you how you can be adopted into his
32:36
family. You cannot get that from looking
32:38
at a Raven or studying a snowflake.
32:40
You can only get that if he chooses to speak.
32:43
Watson describes this special revelation as sovereign electing
32:46
grace in its fullest noontide. The surrounding nations were
32:50
covered with the darkness of paganism, but Israel sat in the
32:54
light of divine truth. God did not owe this special
32:57
revelation to anyone. He was not obligated to write a
33:00
book which makes the gift of His statutes and judgments an act of
33:04
pure, unmerited mercy. He gave them the law to break
33:07
their hearts and the gospel to heal them.
33:10
And that intimate invitation, that staggering grace of the
33:12
architect opening the door, is exactly why the Psalm begins and
33:16
ends with the exact same word. Hallelujah.
33:18
When you recognize that the God who commands the blizzards and
33:21
numbers the billions of galaxies has also chosen to stoop down,
33:25
reveal His mind, bandage your specific wounds, and speak
33:28
directly to you through His Word, the only rational, logical
33:31
response for human being is continuous, overwhelming praise.
33:34
The consistency of his character is what makes this text so
33:37
striking. Whether we observe him through
33:40
the macro lens of cosmic sovereignty, watching him name
33:43
the stars, or through the micro lens of intimate healing,
33:46
watching him gather the discarded outcasts of society,
33:50
his meticulous care remains perfectly balanced.
33:52
He's not a chaotic deity. Not at all.
33:54
He is the Sovereign Lord who manages the universe and the
33:57
human soul with the exact same level of infinite precision.
34:01
So as we wrap up this massive scope of source material, I want
34:04
to pull all these threads together for you, the listener.
34:07
You have been shown a God who commands the galaxies and the
34:10
brutal winter blizzards, but he is the same God who bends down
34:14
to feed the young unclean Raven crying in the dirt.
34:17
He is the architect who intentionally goes to the scrap
34:20
heap to gather outcasts and ruins to build his eternal city.
34:24
He is the physician who uses the hammer of the law to break your
34:27
dangerous illusion of self righteousness only so he can use
34:30
the gospel to bind up your wounds.
34:32
He sends the freezing, isolating snow to protect the soil of your
34:35
soul and prepare it for the finest wheat.
34:37
And he does all of this not as a distant clockmaker, but as an
34:41
active, immediate presence, orchestrating the ecosystem of
34:45
your life. Just as deliberately as Shuol,
34:48
he orchestrates the carnivorous insects in the Alps.
34:51
Which leaves us with a final provocative thought for you to
34:54
Mull over as we close. We spent a lot of time talking
34:57
about Hugh Mcmillan's observation of that the viperous
35:01
grass high up in the freezing, uninhabited Swiss Alps, a plant
35:05
that got engineered to drop fully formed clones of itself so
35:08
it wouldn't be blown away by the wind.
35:10
Such a specific design. Right.
35:12
If God expends such flawless, intricate genius engineering on
35:15
a tiny patch of grass, on a jagged Cliff, in a place no
35:19
human eye might ever see. A place that offers him nothing
35:21
in return. What hidden, unobserved
35:23
provisions is he making right now in the harsh, freezing,
35:26
unseen corners of your own life? What mechanisms of graces has
35:30
already put in place in your blind spots to ensure that the
35:32
wind of your current adversity does not blow you off the Cliff?
35:35
Keep asking the hard questions, keep looking intensely at the
35:37
tech, and we will see you next time on reform thinking.