Psalms 89:19

I have laid help upon One that is mighty.

Our helper

I. We need help. Christianity does three things for us, which Deism does not.

1. It tells us that this was not our original state; that God made man upright, but he sought out many inventions.

2. It checks much of the evil now: by its direct influence in many cases, and by its indirect influence in many more; in humanizing war, in abolishing slavery, in taming the human passions; it has been the harbinger of peace, and has done more for man than all human institutions in the aggregate beside.

3. It tells us of a remedy for all this, and this is placed within our reach, if we would avail ourselves of it; and therefore if we perish in this state, the blame will be our own.

II. God has provided help for us.

1. This help includes redemption. “With the Lord there is plenteous redemption.” “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.” Thus the burden too heavy to be borne is rolled off the conscience, and we now “joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have received the Atonement.”

2. It includes justification. We must have a title to heaven before we can obtain it; and from whence is this to be derived but from the righteousness of Christ by faith, “which is unto all and upon all them that believe”?

3. It takes in renovation. Man is not only guilty but depraved. Therefore he cannot be happy while in his natural state and under the dominion and love of sin.

4. It takes in strength. His duties are arduous; they are numerous and various; and he is inadequate to any one; but says the Saviour, “My strength is made perfect in weakness.” “As thy day so shall thy strength be.” Here is the blessed spirit of promise also enjoyed, and now the man lives in the Spirit, and walks in the Spirit, and prays in the Holy Ghost, and the Spirit helpeth his infirmities.

5. It takes in persevering grace, for “he only that endureth to the end shall be saved.”

III. God lays this help upon another. We may observe two principles upon which this dispensation is founded, and by which it is justified.

1. It is an honour to Christ, it being a part of the reward for His doings and sufferings.

2. It is for our encouragement and comfort. The grandeur of the Supreme Being so terrified the Jews that they desired Moses to be their mediator, and said, “Speak thou with us; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” So we are encouraged to go to God through Christ, and “we have boldness and access with confidence through the faith of Him.”

IV. He on whom help is laid is equal to the engagement. He is not only human, but Divine--“able to save to the uttermost.” He can by His influences, so mighty is He, penetrate and enlighten the darkest understanding; He can subdue the most rebellious will; He can take away the stony heart and give you a heart of flesh. Conclusion:--

1. See the importance of knowing your spiritual state. Without this knowledge it would be impossible for you ever to see the beauty of the Gospel, ever to appreciate the evil of sin, or the excellence of purity, or to relish the privileges of the righteous.

2. See the folly of every other dependence but upon that rock which God has laid in Zion. Christ is the only ark in which you can be preserved; if you enter into this, you may be safe. (W. Jay.)

The mighty man

This refers to David, whom God had raised as a stripling out of the people, raised to be the leader and the ruler of the Jewish nation.

I. The sovereignty of God amongst men. Why was David selected--a shepherd youth--from the millions of Israel to this high position? Because it was according to the counsel of the Eternal will. The positions of all mankind are determined by His will. Some high and some low, etc.

II. The Divine method of helping man. The Jewish people wanted help, and David is raised up to help them. God helps man by man. Thus--

1. He honours human nature.

2. He links men together by the bonds of interdependence.

III. The superiority of one man over many. David was made the greatest man of his age, greater, perhaps, than any thousand ordinary men. Whilst all men have the same common nature and responsibilities, all men are not alike valuable. There is often one man in a generation, a Plato, a Luther, a Bacon, a Cromwell, of more worth than ten millions of others--one whom God has made “mighty to help,” mighty in intellect, in genius, in power, in philanthropy, in force of character, in consecration to truth. (Homilist.)

I have exalted one chosen out of the people.

The people’s Christ

I. Our Saviour’s extraction.

1. Christ, by His very birth, was one of the people. True, he was born of a royal ancestry. Mary and Joseph were both of them descendants of a kingly race, but the glory had departed; a stranger sat on the throne of Judah; while the lawful heir grasped the hammer and the adze.

2. His education, too, demands our attention. He was not taken, as Moses was, from his mother’s breast, to be educated in the halls of a monarch. He was not brought up as the lordling, to look with disdain on every one; but His father being a carpenter, doubtless He toiled in His father’s workshop.

3. When our Lord entered into public life, still He was the same. What was His rank? He was a poor man--“one of the people.”

II. His election. God chooses sovereignty, but He always chooses wisely.

1. First, we see that justice is thereby fully, satisfied by the choice of one out of the people.

2. Thereby the whole race receives honour. He made us, originally, a little lower than the angels, and now, despite our fall in Adam, He hath crowned us with glory and honour.

3. But let us take a sweeter view than that. Why was He chosen out of the people? Here, Christian: what dost thou think is the sweet reason for the election of thy Lord, He being one of the people? Was it not this--that He might be able to be thy brother, in the blest tie of kindred blood?

4. Christ was chosen out of the people that He might know our wants and sympathize with us.

III. His exaltation.

1. It was exaltation for the body of Christ to be exalted into union with the Divinity. That was honour which none of us can ever receive. Of no other man shall it be said that the Deity tabernacled in him, and that God was manifest in His flesh, seen of angels, justified of the spirit, and carried up to glory.

2. Christ was exalted by His resurrection. Out He came, and the watchmen fled away. Startling with glory, radiant with light, effulgent with divinity, He stood before them. Christ was then exalted in His resurrection.

3. But how exalted was He in His ascension! Up He climbs to that high throne, side by side with the Paternal Deity. “I have exalted one chosen out of the people.”

4. The last exaltation of Christ which I shall mention is that which is to come, when He shall sit upon the throne of His Father David, and shall judge all nations. (C. H. Spurgeon.)