May the Lord help us each to
consider together from Psalm 68 verse 19. Psalm 68 and the
19th verse. Blessed be the Lord who daily
loatheth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation, Selah. Psalm 68 verse 19. Blessed be
the Lord, who daily loatheth us with benefits, even the God
of our salvation, Selah. That word Selah, as I'm sure
we are all aware, really indicates a pause that we should perhaps
just take a bit of time to consider what has been said so far. and
perhaps to think about it. It may have been a musical direction,
but in some ways the thought is the same. I would just in
passing draw your attention to a couple of other silas in this
psalm, one in verse 7 and the other one in verse 32. In some ways, they're almost
unexpected because they don't come at the end of a sentence, almost in the middle of a phrase.
And perhaps without them, I'm sure I'm as guilty as anyone
perhaps more so of reading through the words as it were and registering
the meaning as I think it might be in my head and then moving
on. But that Selah, especially at the end of verse seven, really
I think arrests our attention a bit and almost says to us,
just think about that for a moment. When God was going with his people,
that's the children of Israel when they went through the wilderness,
And he was with them, leading them from Egypt up to Canaan. And then when they were faithless
and wouldn't go into Canaan because they didn't trust him, then he
was still with them for another 40 years in the wilderness and
led them back again. And that Selah makes us remember
that, the amazing wonder of God staying with his people in the
wilderness over 40 years while they were being punished because
of their sins, yet God was still with them. When thou didst march
through the wilderness, Selah. And also it does, I think that
time refers especially to the giving of the Ten Commandments.
As it speaks in verse eight, even Sinai itself was moved at
the presence of God, the God of Israel. when the mountain
shook at the presence of God. Again that Selah makes us just
think about that, the wonder of God as it were coming to be
with his people. And then it's the same in the
Selah at the end of verse 32. And now it speaks about the Lord
riding upon the heaven of heavens, which were of old. Lo, he doth
send out his voice, and that a mighty voice. And there we
see the Lord also present. I think especially the thunder
reminded the Lord's people of the voice of God. But there,
again, it makes us pause and think about what he's actually
been saying there, that God is in the heavens and God is upon
the earth. Well, in some ways that might
seem to be a digression, but perhaps just to make the point
that when there is a Selah, it's always worth noticing and thinking
about why that particular point. And this verse 19, I think in
many ways to me, sums up the praise to the Lord that there
is in this Psalm for his great power and for his mercies to
his people. Blessed be the Lord, who daily
loatheth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Well
as the Lord may help, I want to try to speak about some of
the benefits that the Lord gives to us, not to give a list as
it were. perhaps as something best done
by ourselves in private, because I know we share things like food
and drink and clothing and warmth and fellowship and so on, but
there are many other things that the Lord does for us personally,
and I think this is something that must be considered personally
really. So it's not to go through a list of them, but what has
really been thinking about really is that whether we notice them,
whether we notice the wonder of them. That's really what I
want to try and speak about a little bit. That was where I read that
passage in Mark chapter eight. They were beyond measure, astonished,
saying he had done all things well. And I want to try and speak
about these daily benefits. And to ask this question, do
we not only do we notice them, but do we, as it were, are we
astonished at them at what the Lord has done? But then we have
You'll notice that the word or the words with benefits are in
italics. And so I want to just speak about.
In many ways, that that almost gives a new depth to the verse,
doesn't it? Because blessed be the Lord who daily loatheth us
with benefits. Well, we're thanking the Lord for what he's done for
us, the things that we giving us our needs and the things that
we enjoy. If you take away the with benefits, blessed be the
Lord who daily loaded us. And I believe that as a valid
way of reading this verse. But now it's loading us where
the emphasis is on on heavy things, the weights and the burdens that
he gives us. And then. So do we thank the
Lord for that? Do I thank the Lord? Can I say blessed be the
Lord who has this day given me a burden, a weight, something
that I cannot carry. And then lastly, I want to just
speak about how all that these things that we see in our lives
might lead us to the God of our salvation, that the as we see
God around us, as we as the Lord, we see the Lord and know the
Lord working in our lives. Do we know that he is the God
of our salvation and does that As we see the blessings that
he gives us daily, does that affirm, as it were, our faith
spiritually? Well, may the Lord help us to
consider these things then. So to go back to the first bit,
blessed be the Lord who daily loatheth us with benefits. And
especially in conjunction with this verse in Mark, and I want
to come back to that at the end as well. But in Mark, the Lord
had worked a miracle, and the people saw it. And because of
that, they were beyond measure astonished, saying, he hath done
all things well. Just in that, in some ways it's
not quite what we expect them to say. It's almost like I would
expect them to say, they were beyond measure and astonished,
saying, what a wonder he has performed, the one that we've
just seen. But they didn't say that. From
that they said, he has done all things well. And so I want to
come back to the blessings that we see daily and ask this question
of myself as much as anyone else. Do I even notice them, first
of all? But do I still see the wonder of the Lord working in
the giving of those benefits? Now, just to explain what I mean,
I expect Many of you know much more about this than me. I'm
thinking about the farming now and the growing of crops. My
only connection is one of my brother's-in-law, he runs a farm
and I fairly frequently ask him how it's going and how he's getting
on with sowing and the harvesting and everything else. But this
year, I think especially, from the things he said to me, I think
both of us really have perhaps had to ponder it a bit because
my understanding, if I'm remembering this rightly, was that at the
end of last year, after the harvest, that it would have been normally
the time for planting. but it was too wet and they couldn't
really get on the ground to prepare it or to sow the fields. And that carried on over the
winter. And I think in his case, he put
some seed in and then it was so wet that the seed didn't grow.
And I might not have got the details quite right, but I think
it couldn't then have been sprayed. So it couldn't have been sort
of cared for. So when it did, when it did grow it was full
of weeds and I know one crop he had to actually just scrap
completely and I think he had to plough it in or whatever he
had to do with it. And if I remember rightly it
came to quite late at the beginning of this year and I think he said
to me that I can't remember the exact figure now but it was quite
an alarming amount of his land hadn't been even sown. So you'd
think that this was going to be a year where if anything grew,
it would be almost like a miracle. But then, I don't remember which
month it is, but I think I remember him saying to me that there's
really only another, I think it was three weeks or something,
left, naturally speaking, to plant the seeds. And if that
went past, then it would be too late. And in that three weeks,
the Lord sent weather, dried the land out, and he got all
of his land sown. And so that was amazing. And it did feel really like the
Lord almost was intervening in that. And then at the harvest
this year, I was asking him how it was going and he was saying
that, he's not a man of many words, but I could tell from
the way he spoke that he was quietly impressed by how much
and how well the crops were actually growing. And when he came to
harvest it, I believe it's been a very good harvest. And again,
that made me stop really and thought, think how the Lord there
shown that up to the point almost where it seemed that there wouldn't
be a harvest. And then the Lord, as it were,
dries the land. So there could be the sowing. and then the Lord has sent the
right weather so that it grew and then almost as it were out
of an impossibility has been this a good harvest at least
for him and I said I don't know much about these things that's
really my only contact with farming and that made me think really
it's so easy to take it for granted when I drive past the fields, I suppose,
and see them. How often do I really notice
the fields when the wheat or the crops are growing? How often
do I notice something? If it's not a wheat crop, it's
a different sort of crop. Don't often look at it, really.
Don't often think about it. But each year the Lord has worked
that miracle. Now, I've just spoken about really
the the wonder of how the Lord, to me, gave that favorable weather
so that the crop grew. But behind all that is that wonderful
miracle that the Lord gives every year. And that is that if you
put a seed in the ground with the right conditions, it will
grow. And that is the miracle that the Lord gives of the harvest.
And I've sometimes stopped and thought about that as well. For
a while, quite a few years ago now, I tried to grow vegetables
in my garden. I think, um, uh, one of the things
that I, uh, think it was parsnips I was trying to plant. I think
that if I remember that rightly, but they're really tiny seeds.
And so I emptied out in my palm and I could hardly see them and
almost like grains of sand really. But if you think, just think
about it, if you took one of them, And then you took a parsnip
in the other hand. And if you said to somebody who
had never seen or knew about this, that's come from that.
You think that's unbelievable. And how how can it be that that
seed there knows how to grow, as it were, into the parsnip
to convert water and soil into something that is then good for
food? Again, it's something that we I don't often I don't think
enough about. But that's the miracle that the
Lord gives every year. That's the seed time and harvest
shall never fail. And I also remember Again, going
back to my brother-in-law and his family, one there saying
about the miracle of when the crops first start to grow. And
I remember her saying this, looking out on a, this is a different
year, when the field outside their house had been, I suppose,
ploughed and harrowed and whatever else is done and then drilled
with the seed. And then for a number of weeks,
I suppose, Every time she looked out, it was just the bare soil
and nothing else. And then she said one morning
when she looked out, it was green all over. It was green, just
a little faint, almost like a haze of green. And the Lord had caused
those little seeds to grow. And she noticed that and saying
how remarkable it was that it was almost like it happened.
It did happen overnight. And she noticed that. And again,
things like that make us see the wonder of how the Lord provides
for us. Blessed be the Lord who daily
loatheth us with benefits. And we have this every year,
don't we? And I'm not preaching to anybody else, really, in one
sense, apart from myself. I know I take it for granted
because I've grown up with it. But may the Lord open our eyes
to the wonder of what the Lord has done, even naturally speaking,
and the amazing power of what the Lord does, what there is
as we thought about that little seed growing into a vegetable
of whatever sort it might be. And how can that be? When we
actually stop and think about it, it seems impossible, doesn't
it? And then in that other psalm that we read, Psalm 65, There
is that that speaks in especially in verse nine. It speaks about
the Lord's the Lord's blessing and the grace of God. I'm speaking simply just about
giving the rain. Thou visitest the earth, and
waterest it. Thou greatly enrichest it with
the river of God, which is full of water. Thou preparest them
corn, when thou hast so provided for it. Thou waterest the ridges
thereof abundantly. Thou settlest the furrows thereof.
Thou makest it soft with showers. Thou blessest the springing thereof.
Thou crownest the year with thy goodness, and thy paths drop
fatness. All those three verses do especially seem to me to speak
of this year, just in that small way that I've understood it will
come into contact with it. And I know that the year when
my brother-in-law was saying about the state of the soil,
I was praying that the Lord would dry it out. And I wonder how
many times, when it's raining, I have complained about it. I do try not to, because I've
been reproved for it quite rightly by others, I do try not to complain
about it, but inwardly, if it rains, sometimes we make perhaps
almost like a joking comment about it, or we joke about it
saying it's always raining and that. how far that is, again
speaking simply from what we have in these verses, praising
the Lord for the rain. And as I said, I'm at least as
guilty as others, but what a mercy it is that we have the rain,
that the Lord sends the rain. I know, again, going back to
when I was much younger, I went abroad. after I'd done my O-Levels
with a friend and we went down to the south of France. And it
was really hot down there. We spent most of the time actually
indoors because it was hot. But when I did go out in bare
feet, the grass was actually sparse, brown and spiky. And it wasn't pleasant to walk
on just because it was so hot and so dry. And then I came back,
we came back to England after that, and I remember we arrived
in the rain, and I remember looking out from the train and thinking,
it's bursting with greenery. And that was the effect of the
rain. And may the Lord make me grateful for the rain, really
for all weather. I know it's, as I say, in one
sense, it's only a small thing, but may the Lord make us grateful
for what the Lord does, and may we see the wonder of it and the
miracle that there is in the Lord sending the rain. How thankful
I am that we don't control that either. We all have different
conflicting needs in a sense for the rain. Gardeners might
want rain for this or might want it dry for a particular flower
at the same time as the farmer wants the rain and so on. It's
the Lord sends it and the Lord in his wisdom knows what we need.
Thou visitest the earth and waterest it. Thou greatly enriches it
with the river of God, which is full of water. So it is that
wonder of the things that the Lord does for us. And again,
sometimes it's in the little things. I'm trying to avoid,
at the moment, speaking about those things that the Lord does
that we notice, that are out of the ordinary. Those answers
to prayer when we have a difficulty, even if it's something that might
be quite small in a sense, And we pray about it and the Lord
helps us. I'm trying to avoid those for the moment, not because
we shouldn't be grateful, but just because I feel I want to
try and focus, as it were, on the things that we so often don't
notice that the Lord does for us day by day by day. And I want
to really relate that to the children of Israel and the manor
and the way that the Lord led them through the wilderness.
I know there's probably things that I've spoken of before, and
I'm sure others have as well. But just going back to that,
you think of that manor that the Lord gave it. And when it
was first given, the people were, it was a source of wonder to
them, wasn't it really? Because they didn't know what
it was. And they hadn't seen it before. That's where the name
manor comes from, I think, because it was something that they hadn't
seen before. It's something that was unknown to them. And there
was that first few days, wasn't there, where the Lord gave it.
And he clearly said, don't keep it until the next day. And they
ignored that. Again, they wanted to try it
for themselves. And it went rotten. And then on the Friday, the Lord
said, gather double. So you've got enough for the
Sabbath, the Saturday as we know it now. And there were still
some that went out on the Sabbath, expecting to get the manna. But
we have that description of how it started off, with how the
Lord started doing that. But then it wasn't just for a
week, for a month, for six months, or for a year. It was for another
40 years, for more than 40 years, that the Lord did that. Every
week, every day, apart from the Sabbath, every day the Lord giving
them that food, miraculously in the wilderness. And I wonder
how often the children of Israel thanked the Lord for that. I
know that they also got sick of it, didn't they? Because they
said it was tasteless, or I'm putting it into my own words,
but you know what I mean, they got sick of it and they wanted
meat. And so the Lord sent them quails.
But I wonder, how do we compare If, as it were, obviously we're
different ages, I'm 50, 55 I think, or six. All those years the Lord
has given me food, I wonder how many times as I sit down to a
meal now, do I notice the wonder of the Lord in providing that
food and providing that drink for us, the water out of the
tap, these daily benefits? Do you and I, do we notice the
hand of the Lord or do we just take it for granted? Or are you
secretly sort of disagreeing and saying, well, the water is
what man has done. The water companies clean it
and so on and pipe it and all the rest of it. But it comes
from heaven, doesn't it, the rain? And if there's no rain,
would you end up with nothing to drink? And may the Lord help
us to, as it were, in that daily, those blessings that we perhaps
wouldn't notice because they're no different from the day before.
May the Lord help us to notice them. And may the Lord help us
to see the wonder of his provision in them. May they draw us closer
to the Lord. I want to come back to that Psalm
65 in the third part really of trying to consider this Psalm.
But the second part, I want to come back to this now. Blessed
be the Lord who daily loatheth us. The Lord who daily loatheth
us. And may the Lord help us as we consider
this. This is really, I believe, the
Lord giving us grace, first of all, and submission to his will,
but also faith to trust in him, that as he loads upon us difficulties,
burdens, Sometimes impossibilities. Sometimes troubles of great or
varying things. You notice that it says daily.
It's not something that I've really considered before. that
the Lord does daily give us something to pray about, if I can just
put it simply like that. But you just think about your
week this week. Has there been a day this week
where you've had nothing to pray about, nothing that has been
a trouble to you, where everything has been absolutely perfect?
Well, it hasn't been for me, and I don't suppose there has
been for you. And I haven't thanked the Lord
for those difficulties that have come. I've got to be honest now,
and I am wrong in that, because I'm not doing what this verse
of this psalm tells us. Where there have been difficulties,
then there has been fearfulness, there's been dismay, There's been perhaps perplexity. There's been anxiety and stress. Sometimes it keeps us awake.
You think, well, I didn't sleep very well. Why not? Well, it's
because you're worrying about something else. It might be sometimes just
something in the back of your mind. But that's what there's
been from the load that the Lord has given and the daily loads. The Lord has helped me to take
some of them to him, but it's not something that I do naturally.
Again, I'm being honest this evening. It's something that
I need the Lord to always, as it were, push me to take these
things to the Lord. Sometimes the temptation is to
try and solve something by ourselves or to perhaps give reign to our
fears or our imagination, what might happen if this or that
or whatever else. But may the Lord help me to always
bring them to him. But I notice that the Lord daily
loatheth us with these things. Now one of the verses that to
me has always stood out. Again, it might be something
that I've quoted before, is connected with David, the time when he
was, before he was crowned king and when Saul was persecuted
him in the wilderness. And we see that in 1 Samuel chapter
23 and verse 14, And in this account, these chapters here,
we have this quite exciting account, really, naturally speaking, of
how the Lord helped David escape from Saul. And there are a number
of occasions that are particularly mentioned, for example, when
Saul came into the same cave as where David was, and yet the
Lord miraculously saved him, and so on. But the verse that
I keep coming back to in all of that is this verse 14 of 1
Samuel 23, where it says, And Saul sought him every day, but
God delivered him not into his hand. Every day. And that's,
I think, easy to miss when we read about the account of how
the Lord worked in David's life. If you think of the different
episodes, then think in between that Saul had it, sorry, that
David, he was left quietly then. But it says here, Saul sought
him every day. And you think of what that must
have been, that continual wait on David. And what did it teach
him? It taught him that the Lord would
save him. Now his faith in that failed
because he then went down to It was Gath wasn't it? I think
and he said I think it's actually soon after that. He said I shall
now one day perish at the hand of Saul. In other words, the
Lord isn't going to preserve me, even though he'd had that
every day. And I think what that shows us is that when we have
something daily, when the Lord loads things onto us daily, then
it can, as it were, cumulatively build up. And unless the Lord
help us, then it can make us sink like David did. We don't
think we're any stronger than David. May the Lord take that
thought far away from our minds if any of us were to think that
we were, as it were, stronger in faith than David in and of
ourselves. But I think it does show us that
it was that daily, I think, that led to that. And perhaps we all
know what that is in a sense. Where it might be, not a huge
trouble, perhaps in one sense, but sometimes it can be the daily
things, the daily things that the Lord loads upon us. And they
might be small things in and of ourselves. But sometimes the
Lord, by doing that, as it were, he brings, he's bringing us down.
And the cumulative weight, almost as it were, brings us down so
that we find that we come to the end of our tether and the
Lord is teaching us. ultimately to rely on him. Remember
what happened to David. He went to Gath. He got himself
in a mess there. And the Lord, at that time where
the Lord, the Amalekites came to Ziklag and captured all of
the wives and children and families and took the possessions of David
and his men. And David, they came to that point where he was
there amidst the, I think, the smoking ruins of his city, none
of his family or those of his men there, his men turning against
him, wanting to stone him. And at that point, David having
brought all of this upon himself, but at that point, David, it
says David encouraged himself in the Lord. That's a very remarkable
word, isn't it? Because it shows us that a sinner
can still turn to the Lord and ask the Lord for help, even when
we have done something and brought it on ourselves. And it may be
that we can empathize in a sense with this thought that there
are our daily tasks, if you like, our daily burdens that the Lord
gives us. We may feel that perhaps I can't carry on. I don't know
if that might apply but sometimes it is just that carrying on that
can be so hard just doing the same thing time and time again
sometimes it might seem to be futile it might seem to be pointless
but the Lord that load is from the Lord and it will bring us
to this point where all confidence in ourself must go because the
Lord has shown us what sinners we are what errors we make sorry,
what sins we commit, but then he is showing us, still turn
to him. David encouraged himself in the
Lord. Blessed be the Lord who daily loatheth us with benefits. Now, sorry, blessed be the Lord
who daily loatheth us. And then it's coming really to
this thought, isn't it, that the Lord that we can thank the
Lord for loading us in this way. Thank the Lord for our trials.
I find it hard to speak about this because it's something that's
very easy to say and it might sound quite trite and shallow
as I say it. I know I could easily fall into
sounding like that. Because it is easy to say, but
it's a very, very different thing, isn't it? To be in a place where
we thank the Lord because he has brought something upon us.
It doesn't mean after we have come out of it. It doesn't mean
after the Lord has delivered us. It's not thanking the Lord
for, it's not saying, blessed be the Lord who has delivered
us. There's plenty of that in the Psalms. But this is saying,
blessed be the Lord who daily loatheth us. Blessing the Lord
for the things that he has brought upon us. Oh, may the Lord deepen
us spiritually, as it were. That's what I feel I need to
when these things come upon us. Oh, that we might, as it were,
see this as yet another opportunity where the Lord will show us to
make us decrease, but make him increase, where he will show
us that, yes, our limitations, our sinfulness, uh utter despicableness
in his eyes but also where the lord will show us how gracious
he is and how the lord does receive sinners again that's a that's
a lovely truth isn't it one that many of us cling to i i know
but We have to feel that we're a sinner to really appreciate
that. And I don't think it's just feeling it once. I think
it's, if I may say so, I believe that we have to, this is something
that we need to be taught every day. And the Lord, as it were,
showing us daily what sinners we are, to feel it anew, to feel
as it were, we might, as it were, see a little bit of sin within
us, but the Lord will keep going and he'll keep going all the
way down, as it were, to show us that we're made of nothing
but sin. And I believe that this is how the Lord does it. Blessed
be the Lord who daily loatheth us. But as he does that, the
more we know of our sins, the more we find out of his grace
and of his mercy and of his love. The more we understand, the more
despicable we appear in our eyes and the more we understand of
how naturally our sins are abhorrent unto the Lord, the more we will
see of the grace and love and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord help us to bring
us to this point. Blessed be the Lord who daily
loatheth us with benefits. And we thank the Lord for that.
May we be astonished still at the wonder of those. But may
we also be able to brought to that spiritual place of being
able to bless the Lord for those burdens also that he gives to
us. But now I want to just come on
to this last bit. Even the God of our salvation.
And I know that word even has been added by the translators. The italics show us that it's
not in the original. I do like the fact that it's
there because it's it's the reminder. Blessed be the Lord who daily
loatheth us might seem like one who is not a God of love, not
a God who has a purpose of salvation. But the psalmist reminds us that
it is the God of salvation, that he is doing it to work towards
to work that salvation within us. And it's going back to that
Psalm 65, I believe, that illustrates that point to an extent. Just
that description that we've already read from verse nine down to
the end of the psalm, it speaks about the rain coming and then
the results of the rain, the crops that grow, and thou crownest
the year with thy goodness. The margin says, It was very
lovely, really. Thou crownest the year of thy
goodness. And especially today, that's
very appropriate. But we looked at it as it were
in Providence, but spiritually, that is also a lovely, a lovely
verse. And may the Lord, as we, if the
Lord opens our eyes to see the wonder and the faithfulness of
his works to us daily, of his faithfulness to us and indeed
to many, the common grace, if you like, of the Lord, the miracles
that he works in the crops that grow, the fruit that grows on
the tree and all of our food. If the Lord enables us to see
that and to ponder it, may that then increase our faith in the
spiritual benefits, the spiritual riches that there are in the
Lord Jesus Christ. In this, we have this vision
of the, or this picture of the rain falling on the earth. And
the Lord, and speaking of the effect of the water, as it were,
on the earth, we see that the Lord waters the earth. He enriches
it with the river of God, which is full of water. And through
that there is corn. And then it says, Thou waterest
the ridges thereof abundantly. Thou settlest the furrows thereof.
Thou makest it soft with showers. Thou blessest the springing thereof.
That's a lovely picture of what the rain does. And I'm sure we've
all seen the rain in our gardens, doing those things literally,
where you've dug something and then the rain comes. It does
soften it. And when there's ridges, we've left a ridge perhaps where
we've dug, then the rain will eventually will level it all,
level all those out, waters the ridges thereof abundantly. They'll
settle the furrows thereof, smoothens it out. And it's soft, isn't
it, when the rain and the waters come on the earth. Where we used
to live, it was heavy clay. And I know we don't grow stuff
in clay, If you tried to dig it when it was hard, you needed
a kanga hammer. If you tried to dig it when it was soft, when
it was wet, you could get your spade in, but then it was really
heavy. I never could decide what was easiest. But it was a remarkable
transformation with the water. And thou makest it soft with
showers, thou blessest the spring in thereof. But look at that
spiritually. And that is a picture of why
the Lord loads us daily, not just with benefits, but with
those burdens as well. It is because he is working that
salvation within us. It is that purpose of love that
he will bring us to that greater knowledge of ourselves and to
grow in grace and into a greater knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And these verses do speak beautifully, don't they, of that spiritual
work. If you think of the soil, as it were, as our heart, Our
heart, which is hard, if you like that clay, that you can't
grow anything in it, and it's really hard, you can't even hardly
get a fork into it when it's dry, when it's been really baked
by the sun, really hard to dig. And then the rain comes, and
it does soften. And then you can work it, you
can poke your finger into it, and make a hole and put a plant
in, and the plant will grow. And think of the Lord doing that
in our hearts. This is, I believe, his daily work, as it were. As
the rain comes down, Sometimes daily, the dew comes daily, doesn't
it? But frequently, then the Lord
is, as it were, softening the soil of our hearts when he gives
us those loads and also those benefits. And you notice that
there is, it isn't just softening the heart, but then there is
that growing. Again, thinking back to that farmer's wife who
noticed the bare earth. Then that little mist of green
just there the next morning, where the corn had just begun
to grow, thou makest it soft with showers, thou blessest the
springing thereof. And in that dry soil, fruitless
soil of our hearts, the rain of the Lord coming down daily,
the rain of the Lord coming down, both with benefits and with loads. This is how it works, that softening,
that there might be that spiritual life, as it were, springing up.
Thou crownest the year of thy goodness. Thou crownest the year
with thy goodness. Yes, I trust that the Lord will
bring us to that right or has given us those thankful hearts
for what he does for us providentially. But spiritually, this speaks
of the Lord, as it were, that that corn begins to grow. You
can't eat it then, can you? You can't eat it when it's just
that high. You can't eat it when it's that high. You can't eat
it until the ear has grown and then the It's ripened and then it's dried
so it can be harvested. And then, of course, it has to
be ground as well. But you think to start with that little blade
of grass it looks like when it first grows, you think, what
good is that going to be? That's too small to do anything.
But may there be encouragement spiritually in this, because
thou blessest the springing thereof and that leads to thou crownest
the year with goodness and spiritually There may be, as it were, only
tiny beginnings. There may be, as it were, we
can hardly see them. We can't even see the seed when
it's in our hearts and before it comes and breaks through the
soil. Then it seems so vulnerable, so fragile, so weak. and also
contemptible in a sense. So small is that ever going to
grow. But where the Lord has given
that life, then that will grow. And the Lord will crown the year
with his goodness, his goodness spiritually, to bring us into
that knowledge of him, to give us that assurance of faith, to
bring us to know that our sins are forgiven, to bring us, as
it were, to that knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, Perhaps
even as Moses, he could say to God, didn't he? Thou hast said
that thou knowest me, that thou knowest my name. And what a wonder
that is, what a great spiritual blessing that is, isn't it? When
the Lord has said to us, I know thee by name. And it's you that
I'm speaking to, as it were, that the Lord is speaking to
us and that he has died for our sins and that he loves us. Oh,
what a great moment that is when the Lord speaks to us like that.
Sometimes it's gradual. Not always sudden. Thou crownest
the year with thy goodness, and thy paths drop fatness. Now finally,
just want to come back to that account in Mark, chapter seven. And really not much to say about
that, apart from just to notice the miracle, as it were, that
led to the comment, and just to notice that comment again. I've spoken so far about trying
to speak about those daily blessings, as it were, the things that perhaps
we may not notice, the way that the Lord is working and that
we might not notice. But also how wonderful when the
Lord works signally, miraculously, like he did with this man. I
hadn't seen it before, I have to admit that, but thinking of
what we were trying to preach from this afternoon, tarry thou
not. Here we have a man who could
not hear and who could not speak. One that was deaf and had an
impediment in his speech. He wasn't able to speak very
well. And yet, the Lord, to the Lord, that was an impossibility
to him. Presumably, I don't know much
about this, But I'm fairly sure that if you
are deaf, that is a real impediment to learning how to speak. If
you can't hear other people speaking to you, how can you learn to
speak? We've heard people who have been deaf, as it were, from
their birth, they often speak in a slightly different accent
or intonation as we do. And so what an impossibility
this was. But may the Lord help us to,
may the Lord bless to us and give us that faith to know that
the Lord Jesus Christ, he can make deaf ears to hear. And by
deaf, I mean spiritually deaf ears to hear. You know that and
we get that from this thing. But he can also, he can make
those who have an impediment in their speech, he can take
that away. And I think there's something very basic, if I can
put it that way, about this miracle. I don't mean that it's not wonderful.
What I mean is that it's very earthy, if you like. This man,
he couldn't hear and he had an impediment in his speech. Jesus
took him aside and he put his fingers into his ears. And that's,
in a sense, a very simple thing to do, isn't it? And then it
says very graphically, he spit and touched his tongue. Again,
that's very graphic, but it's a very basic thing, isn't it?
In a sense, it's very earthy. And then we read that Jesus,
looking up to heaven, he sighed and saith unto him, et fatha,
which means be opened. The ears be opened, the mouth
be opened. And then it says this. Straightway
his ears were opened and the string of his tongue was loosed.
Now that's a really simple way of saying to isn't it. You imagine
the tongue. We still have that expression tongue tied. Meaning
that when we're in a situation and we don't know what to say.
Somebody asks us a question and you're like a rabbit in the headlights
and you don't know what to say. And you say they're tongue tied.
His tongue, the string of his tongue was loose. And then it
doesn't say anything more that he spake plain. And that's what
the Lord Jesus did for that man. I don't think I quite got the
right words, but I hope you understand what I mean when I say it was
like a very basic thing in that sense. The Lord healing this
man where he needed healing. And the Lord, as it were, just
doing what was needed and doing it in a very direct way. But
the result was that this man spoke plain. And in the next
verse, it says, he charged them that they should tell no man.
I don't know who that them and they is. It's probably the same
they as in verse 32. They bring unto him one that
was deaf. I imagine a group of people,
this man that they knew. But I wonder if it also now includes
the man who can now speak plain. And I don't know. But I can imagine
that Jesus Christ, having loosened his tongue, I imagine he wouldn't
want to stop talking about it. He spake plain. Now, may the
Lord give us that faith. If there are those who do have
a fear that they have, as it were, they feel they've got an
impediment in their speech, may there be that trust in the Lord
that he is able to take that away, just simply to take it
away so that you can speak plain. They were beyond measure astonished,
saying, he has done all things well. And that's where I want
to end this little word, all. It wasn't just this miracle.
the miracle, as it were, I think, released this. So then there
was this public proclamation that the Lord Jesus Christ had
done all things well. And may the Lord give us that
same astonishment, if you like, of what the Lord has done. May
that not die away, the wonder of his saving grace. But also
may we have that grace, humility, submission, and faith to say
that he hath done all things well. Whether it's the benefits,
or whether it's the loads that he gives us. And may the Lord
help us to be able to say that even before we have seen the
outcome. Blessed be the Lord who daily
loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation, Selah. Amen. Our closing hymn this evening
is Hymn 267 to the tune 511. Children of the Heavenly King,
as ye journey, sweetly sing. Sing your Saviour's worthy praise,
glorious in his works and ways. Ye are travelling home to God,
in the way the fathers trod. They are happy now, and ye, soon,
their happiness shall see. Hymn 267 to the tune 511. Children of the Heavenly King,
As ye journeys sweetly sing, Sing your Saviour's worthy praise,
Glorious in His works and ways. We are traveling home to God
In the way the fathers trod They are happy now, and ye soon The
happiness shall see Through ebenecy be glad, Christ
your Advocate is made. You to save your flesh assumes,
brother to your souls become. ? O ye little flock unblessed ?
? You on Jesus' throne shall rest ? ? There you'll seek His
love prepared ? ? There you'll kingdom and reward ? ? Hear not, brethren, joyful stand
? ? On the borders of your land ? ? Jesus Christ, your Father's
Son ? ? Vigilant is thy growth ? ? Lord submissive make us good
? ? Gladly leaving all we love ? ? Earnly thou our leader be
? ? And we still will follow thee ? Dear Lord, once more we ask that
thou wouldst bless all that has come from thee, and forgive and
take from our minds anything else. The grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy
Ghost be with you each. Amen.