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Lead Me to the Rock That Is Higher Than I (Psalm 61) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reform Thinking. We are glad you have joined us.
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It is good to be here. Today we were doing something a
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little a little different. Usually we tackle a broad
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subject, maybe a specific doctrine, but today we're going
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to act as your guides through a very specific and frankly
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beautiful piece of source material.
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We're looking at Charles Spurgeon's The Treasury of
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David, but we're narrowing our lens right down to his
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commentary on Psalm 61. And just to set the table for
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you, listening as we go through this, we're coming at it from
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our shared perspective. We are Protestant Christians, we
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hold to Reformed theology, and we stand on the Westminster
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Confession, right? So when we read Spurgeon, we
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aren't just reading literature. We are looking at factual
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content and, well, theological truth.
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We're taking this text very seriously now.
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Spurgeon calls Psalm 61-A Pearl. I just love that description it.
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Fits perfectly, doesn't it? It's small in size.
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It is not a long Psalm, but it holds immense value.
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You don't need a massive diamond to have something precious.
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Sometimes the small Pearl is what captures the light best.
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And before we even get to the text itself, there is this
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fascinating detail in the superscription.
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It says it is directed to the chief musician upon negina.
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Now usually we see Neganoth, which is plural.
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Is that correct? That is correct.
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Usually it implies a full orchestral accompaniment, or at
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least a group of stringed instruments.
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But here the Hebrew is singular negina.
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So what does that tell us? What's the setting here?
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Well, it suggests A solitary stringed instrument, Spurgeon
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notes. It was likely a hand harp,
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something played with a bow or a plectrum.
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OK, and the implication is that David played this himself.
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This wasn't a public corporate worship service with a choir.
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This was David alone with one instrument.
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It is intensely personal. That sets the mood immediately.
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It's intimate, it's private devotion, and looking at the
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historical context helps us understand why he was alone.
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Spurgeon and the Scholar Delic both seem to agree on the timing
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here. Yes, the evidence points to the
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time of Absalom's rebellion. This is the prayer of an
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expelled king. David has been forced out of
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Jerusalem by his own son. He is cut off from the throne.
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He is cut off from the Tabernacle and he is seeking his
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way back. O picture that you have a king,
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but he is in exile, He is on the run, and he sits down with this
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one small harp to cry out to God.
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Let's unpack the first section verses one and two.
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It starts with hear my cry. Oh God.
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And we have to be careful not to just gloss over that word cry.
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Right, because we hear prayer and we might think of something
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polite, maybe a bit formal. Spurgeon Contrast this sharply
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with the Pharisees who rest in their prayers.
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You know the type, people who are satisfied because they said
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the right words. Or, you know, finish the
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liturgy. They did their duty.
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They feel good because they performed the religious duty,
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but David isn't performing a duty here.
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No, no, this is terrible earnestness.
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That is the phrase Spurgeon uses.
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A living child of God cannot rest just because they said the
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words. They can only rest when they
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know the prayer has actually entered the ears of the Lord God
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of Sabeth. There's a note in the source
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material referring to Aquinas, Thomas Aquinas, about the Hebrew
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word here, Rana. It signifies shouting or even
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shrilling for joy or pain. A shrilling Yeah, it's a loud,
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piercing sound. It's not a whisper.
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Oh no, it's a shout, and Aquinas suggests that to God.
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These desperate prayers of the Saints are like pleasant songs.
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That intense emotion, that raw honesty, is music to God's ears.
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That is a comforting thought actually, that our desperation
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doesn't annoy God, it engages him.
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But let's look at where David is when he's crying out.
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Verse 2 says from the end of the earth.
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Physically, this is well, it's literal.
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If he's running from Absalom, he is across the Jordan, likely in
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the wilderness near Mahane. He was banished from Jerusalem,
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which was the center of his life in worship.
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But Spurgeon and the other commentators dig into the text
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more than just the geography, right?
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There's an ecclesiastical meaning here too, yes.
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For the Old Testament believer, the Tabernacle was the localized
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presence of God. So being away from the tokens
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and pledges of God's favor, the sacrifices, the incense, the
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priesthood, it felt like being at the very edge of reality.
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And then there's the internal meaning.
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I found this note from Alfred Bowen Evans really striking.
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He talks about the end of the earth being the Iceland of man's
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spirit. That is a powerful image, a
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region of sterility and darkness.
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You can be sitting in a crowded church Pew and yet feel like you
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are in the Iceland of man's spirit.
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You can feel spiritually banished, cold and distant.
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So David feels like he's on the edge of the world, physically
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and spiritually. But here's the kicker, he says I
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will cry. That's the resolve of faith.
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He does not let the distance silence him.
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Spurgeon makes a great point here.
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Even on creation's verge, God is within call.
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There is no spot so dreary, no conditions so deplorable, that
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prayer cannot reach God. It's a deliberate choice.
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I will cry because if he stops praying.
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Then despair wins. There's an end to a man when he
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makes an end to prayer. Now we get to one of the most
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famous phrases in this Psalm and I think one of the most
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relatable descriptions of human suffering when my heart is
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overwhelmed. The Hebrew imagery there is so
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specific it means to be covered over, submerged or drowned.
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Spurgeon uses the illustration of the tide.
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You can almost see it. Imagine standing on the beach
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and the tide is just coming in, sweeping over the sands.
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Or a person struggling in the ocean and the waves are just
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washing over their head one after another.
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It's the feeling of being completely swamped, and Philip
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Bennett Power adds A physiological dimension to this.
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In the notes, he talks about how when the heart is smothered in
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or paralyzed by grief, the whole body loses vitality.
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It's so true. When you're truly heartbroken or
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terrified, you physically feel it.
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You can't move, you can't think. And that is where Satan wants
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us. He attacks the heart to paralyze
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the spiritual life. If he can get you to feel
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drowned, he thinks he has silenced you.
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But this is where it gets interesting.
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Spurgeon points out a paradox. He says gracious men plead best
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when they are drowning. It's a paradox of the Christian
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life, isn't it? Faith's victories often happen
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in the deepest waters. When you have no other option,
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when you are completely overwhelmed, that is when you
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cry out with that Rana, that terrible earnestness we talked
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about. Tribulation brings us to God.
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So David is drowning, he is overwhelmed, and he makes a very
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specific request in verse 2. Lead me to the rock that is
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higher than I. This is a pivotal moment in the
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Psalm. He sees where he needs to go,
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but he acknowledges he cannot get there himself.
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Lead me not I will swim to. No.
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And think about the theology in Heron in that request.
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This is the Reformed doctrine of total inability in a nutshell.
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Unpack that for us. Well, the psalmist sees the
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refuge. He knows there is a walk, but he
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says, lead me to it. Why?
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Because he is too exhausted, too overwhelmed to swim there or
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climb it on his own. There are two great
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illustrations in the source material for this.
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One is the Shipwrecked Mariner. Right.
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He is in the water. He sees the rock, but the waves
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are battering him. He is spent.
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He needs a rope or a hand. He needs someone to pull him up.
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Seeing the rock isn't enough, he needs to be led to it and placed
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upon it. And the other one is the chalk
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cliffs. I like this one because it felt
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very tangible. Yes, this was a story about a
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clergyman on the coast. He had cut steps into the chalk
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cliffs so that sailors who are wrecked could climb up to a
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safety chamber. But over time, the storms wore
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the steps away. So the sailors could see the
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safety chamber, but the way up was just gone.
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It was too high. That's correct.
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They would perish within sight of the refuge because they
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couldn't reach it. They needed ladders or
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stanchions put in. And the theological application
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there is just. It is fundamental.
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A Savior is of no use to us if the Holy Spirit does not lead us
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to Him, right? We can know the theology of
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Christ, we can know He's as the Rock, but in our sin and our
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weakness, we cannot climb to Him.
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We need grace upon grace. We need the rock and we need the
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power to get to the rock. Lead me.
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It's such a humble prayer. It admits total dependence.
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Now let's talk about the rock itself.
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Why does he say the rock that is higher than I?
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This is pure Christology, the study of who Christ is.
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Spurgeon argues that for a rock to save a drowning man, it has
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to be higher than the man. Sure, if the rock is just at
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water level, the waves are still going to sweep over you.
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Correct. If Christ were only a man, if he
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were a rock no higher than a man, he couldn't save us.
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He has to be high as heaven. As Job says, this points to his
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divinity. He must be God to be a
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sufficient refuge. But the notes also mentioned the
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deep aspect of the rock. Yes, and this is the balance.
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The rock goes down to the ocean bed.
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It's rooted in the depths. This represents Christ's
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humanity. He descended into our depths.
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He went to the incarnation. He went into the grave.
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He grounded himself in our reality so that he could lift us
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up to his height. There's a reference to Jacob's
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Ladder as well in here. It's the same idea, a ladder
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that reaches from earth to heaven.
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It's too high for men or devils to scale on their own merits,
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yet it's accessible through grace.
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Christ bridges that gap. Yes, he is the rock higher than
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I, but he is also the rock that came down to me.
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Moving into Section 3, verses 3 and 4, the tone shifts a bit.
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Here David stops crying out for help and starts remembering.
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For thou has been a shelter for me.
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This is a. Crucial strategy in the
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Christian life, Spurgeon says. Experience is the nurse of
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faith. I like that.
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The nurse of faith. When you are in a crisis, you
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look back. David recalls escaping Saul.
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He recalls the bears and the lions.
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He recalls the perils of battle. He says, God, you are a strong
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tower for me. Then you are impregnable.
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So the logic is because you have been, you will be.
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Precisely. God is unchangeable.
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If he was a shelter in the past, he is a shelter now.
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And that leads to this desire in verse four.
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I will abide in thy Tabernacle forever.
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Now remember, he's in exile. He is physically far away from
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the Tabernacle. Which makes this statement an
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act of faith. He is saying my heart is there,
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but more than that, he is realizing that communion with
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God creates a sense of home anywhere.
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The source material contrasts the temporary exile with the
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eternal home. Yes, if you dwell in God, you
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are never truly an outcast. You might be banished from your
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country or your city or your church building, but if you
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abide in Him, you are home. Spurgeon has a great line here.
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Hewers of wood in God's tent are better off than Princess in
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Royal Pavilions. It's better to be a servant in
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God's presence than a ruler in the world without him.
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Absolutely. Then we get this beautiful soft
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imagery. Trust in the covert of thy
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wings. It's a double image.
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First, you have the visual of the Tabernacle itself, the
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cherubim wings that stretched over the mercy seat that is the
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ultimate place of atonement and presence.
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The Holy of Holies, right? But then there is the natural
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image. The hen in her chicks, the.
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Hen in her chicks. It implies safety, warmth,
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comfort. I love Spurgeon's comment on
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this. He says this is better than
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ransacking creation for novel metaphors.
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We don't need clever new ways to describe God.
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We need the old reliable truth. We need to be like chicks under
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a wing. It implies unbroken repose, just
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resting. And notice the progression we
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started with a man drowning, screaming.
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Hear my cry. Now, just a few verses later, he
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is talking about unbroken repose under the wings of God.
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That is the result of prayer. It moves you from the ocean to
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the nest. It changes the internal reality,
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even if the external reality hasn't changed yet.
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Remember, David is still in exile when he writes this.
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That's a key point. He hasn't gone back to Jerusalem
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yet, but his heart has found rest.
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That's correct. Let's move to Section 4, verses
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5 through 7. Thou, O God, has heard my vows.
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Thows are interesting here. In the Reformed perspective, we
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often shy away from making deals with God.
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But Spurgeon notes that prayer often includes vows, promises of
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praise or service. And the amazing thing is that
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God graciously accepts these from faithless creatures.
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We are pretty bad at keeping promises.
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We are terrible at it, but God in his mercy treats him
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seriously. He listens.
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And then David mentions the heritage of those that fear thy
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name. This brings up the concept of
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joint heirs. If you fear God, which means you
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Revere Him, you trust Him, you have a heritage, you share the
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same portion as the first born who is Christ.
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Theodore and Chrysostom, the early Church Fathers mentioned
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in the notes, say this true inheritance is eternal life.
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And it is vital to remember this heritage is not earned by works,
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it's given. It's a gift of grace.
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You don't inherit something because you worked for it, you
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inherit it because of who your father is.
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Then we get to verse 6, which sounds a bit odd if you don't
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know the context. Yeah, prolong the King's life.
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David is already old. He's nearing the end of his
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reign. Why ask for a prolonged life?
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This is a lesson in hermeneutics, how we interpret
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the Bible. Yes, it applies to David
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personally. He did live a long time, and it
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applies to his dynasty. His descendants sat on the
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throne for generations. But that's not the main point.
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Main point? No, it's messianic.
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It is about Jesus. It has to be years as many
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generations. That points to eternity.
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Calvin makes a great note here. He says David speaks of the days
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of the King to show the promise relates to the Kingdom continued
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in Christ. So when we read Prolong the
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King's Lies, we're really praying for the continued reign
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of Christ. And the implication is that
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Christ lives in his members. The Church survives all attacks,
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Absalom's rebellion, Roman persecution, modern secularism.
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Because the king lives forever. As long as the head is alive,
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the body cannot die. That gives a lot of confidence.
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Then in verse 7 we see the guards of the throne prepare
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mercy and truth. I love this personification.
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Mercy and truth are the bodyguards.
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Not soldiers with swords. Wow.
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Spurgeon calls them the providers and preservers.
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We cannot keep ourselves. If it were up to our strength,
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we would fall, right? But Divine Mercy and Divine
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Truth stand guard over the believer.
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Mercy forgives us. Truth keeps God's promises to
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us. It's a double lock on our
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safety. It is, and it connects back to
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the rock. We are safe not because we are
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strong, but because our guards are strong.
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We're coming to the final section now, verse 8.
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So will I sing praise unto thy name forever.
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Notice the connection. Verse one was hear my cry.
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Verse 8 is I will sing praise. The prayer has been answered, so
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the song begins. Spurgeon has a witty aphorism
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here. We ought not to leap in prayer
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and limp in praise. It is a convicting thought,
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isn't it? We are often so energetic when
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we want something, jumping up and down, crying out.
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But when we get it, our thanks is often a bit lame.
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We limp. David says he will sing forever.
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It's a perpetual song. Because the salvation is
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eternal. If the rock is eternal and the
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Tabernacle is eternal, the song must be eternal.
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And then the very last phrase that I may daily perform my
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vows. In Latin, the die in DM from
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day-to-day. This brings it down to earth.
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We have been talking about eternal rocks and high towers
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and wings of cherubim, but it ends with daily performance.
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That is the practical application of sanctification.
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We have this high theology, this incredible security in Christ.
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So what does it look like on a Tuesday?
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Yeah, what now? It looks like daily obedience.
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There's no vacation from this vocation.
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No, as God is daily faithful to His promises, giving us new
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mercies every morning, the believer must be daily faithful
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to their vows. It is a daily dedication of time
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and service. It's not just a one time
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spiritual high, it's the grind. The holy grind of walking with
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God. That is correct.
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The man who is drowning in verse 2 is now walking steadily in
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verse 8. Let's.
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Pull this all together, we've covered a lot of ground in this
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deep dive. We have think about the movement
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of the Psalm. It is a complete narrative arc
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of the soul. You start with the drowning man.
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He's at the end of the earth. He's overwhelmed.
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The tide is coming in. He sees a rock, but it's too
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high. He can't reach it, so he cries
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out in total dependence. Lead me.
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And the Holy Spirit, though not named explicitly, we know it's
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his work, leads him to the Rock, which is Christ.
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And once he's on that rock, his perspective changes.
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He remembers God's past faithfulness.
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He finds shelter under the wings.
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He realizes he's a joint heir. And finally, he settles into a
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life of daily praise and daily obedience.
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It's the story of salvation from the depths of the ocean to the
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service of the sanctuary, and the Central Reformed theme rings
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through it all. Salvation is entirely of the
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Lord. From the leading to the rock.
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To the preserving by mercy and truth.
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None of it was David's doing. He didn't swim to the rock, he
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was led. He didn't build the tower.
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He ran into it. He doesn't preserve his own
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life. Mercy and truth do it.
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It really takes the pressure off, doesn't it?
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It takes the weight of the world off our shoulders and places it
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where it belongs, on the rock that is higher than us.
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Now, before we go, we want to leave you with a thought to chew
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on. It comes from Spurgeon's logic
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regarding that shift from prayer to praise.
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Yes, we talked about not leaping in prayer and limping in praise.
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So here's the question for you. If our prayers are so often
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shouts of earnestness when we are in trouble, when the bank
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account is empty, when the diagnosis is bad, when the
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relationship is breaking, why are our praises often so quiet
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when we are safe? It's a good question.
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If God adds days to our days, if he prolongs the King's life, are
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we adding praise to his praise? Or do we just take the safety
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for granted? If the crisis produced a shout,
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surely The Deliverance deserves a song.
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Something to think about as you go about your week.
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Deanna, Liam. Indeed.
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Thank you for listening to Reformed Thinking.
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We hope this deep dive into Psalm 61 has been as encouraging
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to you as it was to us. Until next time.