Psalms 57:7-11

Let me say, before we begin our reading, that the 108 th Psalm is made up partly of the 60 th and partly of the 57 th; yet we are sure that the Holy Spirit is not short of language, so that he needs to repeat himself. It is always a pity to think that any portion of Scripture can be tautology. It cannot be; there is some good reason for every repetition; and you will see that, in the two Psalms, which we are about to read, the latter part of the 57 th coincides with the first part of the 108 th; and that, in the 57 th Psalm, we have prayer and praise, and, in the 108 th, we have praise and prayer. It is well that we should see how these two holy exercises can change places, so that, sometimes, we begin with prayer, and pray ourselves up into praise, and, at other times, we begin with praise, and find in it the strength we need to aid us in prayer.

Psalms 57:7. My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.

Let the lions open their cruel mouths, and roar, and let wicked men, «whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword, do their worst against me; let my every footstep be among the nets and pits that they have set and dug to catch me; even in the midst of danger, ‘my heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I still sing and give praise.'»

Psalms 57:8. Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.

«I will awake the dawn,» so the Hebrew has it; «I will wake up the morning and chide it for being so long in opening its eyes to look upon God's works. David did this, notwithstanding all the trials of his surrounding circumstances. He calls on his «glory» perhaps he means his tongue, possibly, his poetic faculty, perchance, his musical skill, it may be that he means his intellect, whatever his «glory» is, he calls upon his highest powers to awake to praise his God. Then he takes his psaltery and harp, strange companions for a man whose soul is among lions but saints know how to evoke sweetest music even when their enemies are fighting fiercely against them; and he sings,

Psalms 57:9. I will praise thee, O lord, among the people: I will sing unto the among the nations. For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth.

Have not some of you found God's mercy to be «great unto the heavens»? It even seemed to reach above the heavens; and as for God's truth, you followed it till you could follow it no further, for it had ascended above the clouds. We could scarcely, I think, ever expect to understand here all the truth which God has pleased to let us hear or read. It reaches «unto the clouds,» and there we must leave it for the present. When God ceases to reveal anything, we may cease to inquire concerning it. I saw, in Florence, a picture of «The Sleeping Saviour.» He is represented as sleeping in the manger at Bethlehem, and the artist depicts the angels hovering round him, with their fingers on their lips as though they would not wake him from his holy slumbers. So, when God bids truth sleep, do not try to wake it. There is enough revealed for thee to know, and more that thou wilt know by-and-by, so, pry not between the folded leaves; but wait your Lord's appointed time to teach you more of his will.

This exposition consisted of readings from Psalms 57:7; Psalms 108:1,