Jesus was the poor man's friend

JESUS WAS THE POOR MAN'S FRIEND
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Psalm72:12 For he shall deliver the needy who cry
out and the afflictedwho have no helper.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
The Glory Of Christ's Kingdom
Psalm72:1-20
W. Forsyth
It is written that Satantook our Lord "up into an exceeding high mountain,
and showedhim all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them"
(Matthew 4:8); but they had no charm, for him. In this psalm we are, so to
speak, takenup by the Spirit, and shown the kingdom of Messiah;and as its
glory opens to our sight our hearts are thrilled with admiration and delight.
With renewedardour we cry, "Thy kingdom come." Considersome things
testified here as to the glory of Christ's kingdom.
I. THE GREATNESS OF THE SOVEREIGN. Davidand Solomonwere in
some respects greatkings;and their greatness, so faras it was real, arose
from their feeling their dependence upon God, and that it was their first duty
to rule themselves and their people according to God's Law. We know how in
many things they offended. But here is a King spokenof whose greatnessis of
a nobler kind, and who comes shortin nothing of God's glory. As respects his
nature, his character, his relationships, he is supremely fitted to rule. In him
"righteousness" and"judgment" are found as in God. The will of God, on the
one hand, and the welfare of his people are his highest ends. "God is light;"

and this King saith, "I am the Light of the world." "God is love;" and this
King's advent was proclaimed by angels as the Saviour who should bring
down love to men: "Glory to God in the highest, peace onearth, goodwill to
the children of men."
II. THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE ADMINISTRATION. (Vers. 2-4.)
David, in his last words, describes Messiah's manner of government (2 Samuel
23:1-4). It is characterizedby justice;there is no respectof persons;friends
are not unduly favored, nor enemies unfairly punished (Isaiah 11:4, 5); the
condition and interests of all are considered, and the poor are specially
regarded;but justice is blended with mercy. It is the glory of Christ's
government that it provides for the return of the rebellious, and for the
restorationof the fallen.
III. THE HAPPINESS OF THE PEOPLE. (Vers. 6, 7.) The laws of the
kingdom are not only adapted to the nature and necessitiesofman, but
designedfor the welfare of those who obey them (Deuteronomy 32:47; Isaiah
48:18); they are not arbitrary, but. founded in truth; they are not alterable,
but eternally fixed. Earthly governments so far regulate their laws according
to circumstances, andthere may be improvements made and reforms carried
out from time to time for the greateradvantage ofthe people; but the laws of
this kingdom do not need improvement - they are perfect as God is perfect.
We see the result in the characterand privileges of the people (Isaiah43:21;
Matthew 5:1-10). They are enlightened, contented, law-abiding; they strive to
mould their lives according to the will of their King, and in loyalty and
devotion to him they find their highest honour and their highest happiness. In
this kingdom alone can liberty, equality, and fraternity, in the truest sense, be
enjoyed.
IV. THE FUTURE TRIUMPHS THAT MAY BE CONFIDENTLY
EXPECTED.This kingdom is destined to grow from more to more; it has an
unlimited power of expansiveness (vers. 8, 13); it is also marked by stability.
Earthly kingdoms have their rise and fall; but this kingdom is unshakable and
eternal. It begins on earth, but is carried up to heaven. Other kings may have
successors, thoughoften the direct successionfails;but this King has no
successor, but will reign foreverand ever. - W.F.

Biblical Illustrator
For He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also and him that hath
no helper.
Psalm72:12
The poor man's friend
I. THE SPECIALOBJECTSOF GRACE.
1. They are needy. This we all are, all our life long, for body and for soul. But
God's peculiar people feel their spiritual need as others do not. They are full
of needs. Once they thought they had need of nothing, but they do not think so
now.
2. They are poor: "the poor also." A man might be needy, and yet be able to
supply his own need, so far as temporal things are concerned. But in things
spiritual we are not only needy, but poor also.
3. They have no helper. Now, until God enlightens us, we seemto have a great
many helpers. Priests, ministers, parents, preachers and many earthly things.
But we have done with all such help now; we have found them all broken
reeds. We felt this at our conversion, and we feel it now when we would
advance in grace;and we feel it also when Satantempts us, and in our trials
and sorrows. Butthe Lord has not castus off, for "He shall deliver the
needy," etc. Now, why does God selectthese for His favour? Partly because
He is a Sovereign, and choosethwhom He will; then, they are the most willing
to acceptit; and they will never setthemselves up in rivalry with Christ; they
are glad to be savedin God's way; the Lord finds in them warm friends. If the
Lord were to save the Pharisees,they would hardly say, "Thank you," they
are so goodthemselves. But these poor and needy ones, they feel like that good
old womanwho said, that if ever the Lord saved her, He should never hear the
last of it. They will praise and bless God with their whole soul.

II. THE SPECIAL BLESSING WHICH THE GREAT KING HAS STORED
UP FOR THESE PEOPLE.
1. They shall be judged with judgment — they are often judged now with
harshness. The Lord will right them.
2. Savedfrom oppression.
3. Deliverance shallbe theirs, and —
4. He shall redeem their souls.
III. THE SPECIAL SEASON WHEN ALL THIS SHALL BE TRUE. "When
he crieth," when the needy cry unto Him. A cry is more than an ordinary
prayer. We cry unto God when it gets so with us that we must have His grace,
and our heart breaks for it when we will not let Him go unless He blesses, then
deliverance is not far off. Oh, to feelour need, to know our utter poverty and
helplessness, then shall we cry unto God, and He will save us.
( C. H. Spurgeon.)
The cry of the needy heard and answered
A French tourist relates that some time ago he setout to cross St. Bernard's
Pass by himself, and gotcaught in the fog near the top. He sat on a rock and
waited for one of the dogs to come and attend to him, but in vain, and when
the fog clearedawayhe managed to reachthe Hospice. On arrival he
observedthat he thought the dog a rather overrated animal. "There I was,"
he said, "for at leastsix hours, and not one came near me." "But why,"
exclaimed one of the monks, "did you not ring us up on the telephone?" To
the astonishedtourist it was explained that the whole of the pass is provided
with shelters at short distances from eachother, all in direct telephonic
communication with the Hospice. When the bell rings the monks send off a
hound loadedwith bread and wine and other comforts. The dog on duty is
told what number has rung, and he goes straightto that shelter. This system
saves the hounds their old duty of patrolling the pass on the chance of a stray
traveller being found, and as the pass is for about eight months of the year

under snow, this entailed very hard and often fruitless labour. There are
many people in need of spiritual help who have not yet realized that there is
One who will hear and answerdirectly the troubled soulcries to Him for aid.
The PoorMan’s Friend
Charles Haddon SpurgeonJune 22, 2020
Scripture: Psalms 72:12
From: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Volume 18
The PoorMan's Friend
"Forhe shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that
hath no helper."—Psalm72:12
This is a royal psalm. In it you see predictions of Christ, not upon the cross,
but upon the throne. In reference to his manhood as wellas to his godhead, he
is exalted and extolled and very high. He is the king—the king's son, truly
with absolute sway, stretching his scepterfrom sea to sea, and "from the river
even unto the ends of the earth." It is remarkable that in this psalm which so
fully celebrates the extent of his realm and the sovereigntyof his government,
there is so much attention drawn to the minuteness of his care for the lowly,
his personalsympathy with the poor, and the large benefits they are to enjoy
from his kingdom. Where Christ is highestand we are lowest, and the two
meet, there is "gloryto God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill
towards men." I might almost raise the question whether this psalm is more a
tribute of homage to the Messiah, ora treasury of comfort for his poor
subjects. We will compound the controversyby saying that as Christ here is

highly exalted, so his poor needy ones are highly blessed, and while it is a
blessing to them that he is exalted, it is an exaltationto him that they are
blessed.
Turning to our text without further preface, we shall note in it the special
objects of greatgrace. "He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor
also, and him that hath no helper;" then, the specialblessings whichare
allotted to them. Here it is said that he shall deliver them, but all through the
psalms there are scatteredpromises full of instruction and consolationall
meant for them. And, lastly, the specialseasonwhichGod has appointed for
the dispensing of these favors. "He shall deliver the needy when he crieth."
That shall be God's time. When it is our time to cry, it shall be God's time to
deliver.
I. First, then, notice THE SPECIALOBJECTSOF GREAT GRACE.
There is a three-fold description—they are needy, they are poor, they have no
helper.
They are needy. In this they are like all the sons of men. We begin life in a
needy state. We are full of needs in our infancy, and cannothelp ourselves.
We continue throughout life in a needy state. The very breath in our nostrils
hath to be the gift of God's goodness. In him we live, and move, and have our
being. And, as we grow old our needs become even more apparent. The staff
on which we lean reveals to us our needs, and our infirmities all tell us what
needy creatures we are. We need temporal things and we need spiritual
things. Our body needs, our soul needs, our spirit needs. We need to be kept
from evil; we need to be led into the paths of righteousness;we need on the
outsetthat grace should be implanted; when implanted, we need that it be
nurtured; when nurtured, we need that it be perfected and made to bring
forth fruit. We are never a moment without need. We wake up, and our first
glance might revealour needs to us, and when we fall asleepit is upon a poor
man's pillow, for we need that God should preserve us through the night. We
have needs when we are on our knees, else where wouldbe the energy of our
prayers? We have needs when we try to sing, else how should our
uncircumcised lips praise him aright? We have needs when we are relieving
the needs of others, lest we become proud of our almsgiving. We have need in

preaching, need in hearing; we have need in working, need in suffering, need
in resting. What is our life but one long need? All men are full of needs. But
God's peculiar people feel this need—they not only confess it is so, but they
know it experimentally. They are full of needs. Once they thought that they
were rich and increasedin goods, and had need of nothing, but now, through
the enlightenment of God's Spirit, they feel themselves to be naked, and poor,
and miserable. Their needs were greatbefore, but they appear now to be
incalculable, more in number than the hairs of their heads. They have need of
a covering for the sin of the past; they have need of help againstthe
temptation of the present; they have need of perseverance as to the entire
future. If there are any people under heavenwho could claim the title of
"needy," above all others, it is not the pauper in the workhouse,nor the
mendicant who asks alms in the streets, but it is the child of God, for he feels
himself to be so dependent that the more he gets from his greatBenefactorthe
more he requires, and the more he must have to satisfy the enlarged desires of
a heart that begins to know the will of Godconcerning us. Our needs are great
and constant.
The seconddescription given is that he is poor—"the poor also." A man
might be needy, and be able to supply his own need. As fast as his needs arose,
he might have sufficient wealth to be able to procure what he wanted. I speak
merely of his temporal wants. But, with regard to us in spiritual things, we are
not only needy, but we are poor to utter destitution—there is nothing within
our reachthat we can help ourselves with. We have need of waterfor our
thirst, but nature's buckets are empty, and her cisterns are broken. We have
need of bread, but nature's granary is bare. Like the prodigal son in a far off
country, there is a famine, a mighty famine, in that land, and we are in want.
We have need of clothing; we have found that we are naked, and we are
ashamed, but our fig leaves will not serve us, and we are too poor to buy a
garment for ourselves. We are so poor that when a want comes it only shows
us how empty the treasury is; and every want while it draws upon us meets
with no fitting response;there is nothing, nothing, nothing, in human nature
at its very best, that can keeppace with its own needs. Speak ofself-
reliance!—'tis well enoughin matters of the world, but self-reliance is
absolutely madness in the things of God. We have heard of self-made men, but

if any man would enter heaven, he must be a God-made man from first to last,
for all that cancome out of human nature will still be defiled. The stream
shall never mount higher than the fountain-head, and the fountain-head of
human nature is pollution, total depravity. It cannotrise higher than that, let
it do its best. We are very needy, and very poor. If there be any poor in all the
world, who have tastedthe bitter ingredients of this cup of sorrow, it is God's
people. We are very needy and very poor, though we did not always think so.
When the discoverywas first made to us, we felt the smart as those do "who
have seenbetter days." Once we fancied ourselves able to do our work and
sure to get our wages;we did hope to merit a rewardfor our good conduct;
and we thought it was only for us to add a little piety to our decentmorals in
order to be well pleasing to God and our own conscience. Ah, sirs! when we
woke from these foolish dreams, and facedour own abjectpoverty, how
ashamedwe were;how we shunned the light; how we satalone and avoided
company; how fear preyed on our heart; with what anguish we chatteredto
ourselves, saying, "Whatshall I do? What shall I do?" Poorindeed we are
and we know it.
Moreover, it is said they have no helper. Now, until God enlightens us, we
seemto have a greatmany helpers. We fancy—perhaps we once fancied—that
a priest could save us. If we have a grain of grace we have given up that idea.
Perhaps we imagined that our parents would help us, that our godly ancestry
might stand us in some stead:—but we have long ago beenbrought to the
conviction that we must eachstand personally before God, for only personal
religion is of any value. At one time we placed some dependence upon the
ministry we attended, and hoped that in some favored hour that ministry
might be of use to us; but, if God has awakenedus, we look higher than
pulpits and preachers now. Our eyes are up towards the hills whence cometh
our help, and as to all earthly things, we see no help in them. "Cursedis he
that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm." "He shall be like the heath in
the desert—he shallnot see when goodcometh." The Lord grant us all to be
reduced to this—that we have no helper, because whenwe have no helper
here, he will become our helper and our salvation. Put the three words
togetherand you have a very correctdescription of the awakenedpeople of
God—needy, poor, and having no helper.

We have felt this, beloved, very keenly some of us just before we lookedto
Christ. Oh! we can remember now when we wanted to have our sins forgiven
us, we would have given all we had if we could but have found mercy;—we
were full of needs. We turned all our goodworks over, but they had all
become mouldy and worm-eaten, and they stank in our nostrils. We tried our
prayers. We used to fancy if we began to pray earnestlyit would all be well
with us, but alas!alas!we found our prayers to be poor comforts—broken
reeds. We lookedall around us, and we could getno consolation. Even
Scripture did not seemto cheerus; the very promises seemedto shut their
doors againstus. We had no helper. Oh, do you remember then when you
cried to God in your trouble, and he delivered you? I know you verified the
truth of the promise in our text, "He shall deliver the needy when he crieth."
Since that time, we have been equally needy; we have been making fresh
proof of our indigence; and getting into straits from which we could by no
means extricate ourselves. Indeed, when a Christian is richestin grace he is
poorestin himself. The way to grow rich in grace is to feel your poverty.
Whenever you think you have stored up a little strength, a little comfort, a
little provision againsta rainy day, you are pretty sure to have the trouble you
bargained for, and to miss the resources youcounted on. Estimate your true
wealth before God by your entire dependence on him. The more you have, the
less you have, and the less you have, the more you have. When you have
nothing at all in yourself, then Christ is all in all to you. The perpetual
condition of every child of God in himself is that of a needy and a poor and a
helpless one—onthe high mountains with his Lord, rejoicing in his love, yet is
he even there in himself less than nothing and vanity—still poor and needy.
There have been times when we felt this very powerfully, perhaps, very
painfully. Has Satanever besetyou, my brethren, with his fierce temptations?
No doubt many of you have had to feel the ferocity of his attacks. Perhaps,
blasphemous thoughts have been injected into your mind—dark forebodings,
such as these, "Godhas forsakenme." Perhaps, he has said, "He has sinned
himself out of the covenant—he is a castaway," andyour poor little faith has
tried to hold on to Christ, but it seemedas if she must be driven from her
hold. While others found it as you thought easyto get to heaven, you realised
the truth of the text—"The righteous scarcelyare saved." You have had to

fight for every inch of ground, and it seemedto you often as though you had
not a spark of grace in you, not a ray of hope, and not so much as a single
grain of the grace ofGod within your heart. Ah! and at such times you have
been poor and needy, and you have had no helper. And, perhaps, at such
seasons, too, temporaltrouble may have come in. Whoevermay go through
the world without trouble, God's people never do.
"The path of sorrow, and that path alone,
Leads to the place where sorrow is unknown."
"In the world ye shall have tribulation" is as sure a promise as that other,
"In me ye shall have peace."The trials of God's servants are sometimes
extremely severe. Nota few are literally as well as spiritually poor. Hunger,
privation, and embarrassmenthaunt their steps. And when you once come to
be poor, how often does it happen that you have no helper. In the summer of
prosperity your friends and acquaintances are numerous as the leaves of the
forest, but in the winter of your losses anddistresses, yourfriends are few
indeed; your neighbors stand aloof, your old mates desert you, for like the
wind your trials have borne them all awayas sere leaves, andyou cannot find
them.
But, do not think that the Lord has castyou off, because he is thus
chastening you with the rod of men; take it as an exercise ofyour faith, and go
to him and plead this promise, "He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the
poor also, and him that hath no helper."
Thus I have set before you the characterofGod's especialobjects of
sovereigngrace;they are poor and needy spiritually. Do you ask why is it that
God selects these?Our first answeris, he giveth no accountof his matters; he
doeth as he will. He is a sovereign;who shall say unto him, "Whatdoest
thou?" And, in order that he may make that sovereigntyclearto the sons of
men, he is pleasedto selectthose whom naturally we might expect him to pass
by. Did not Jesus lift his eyes to heavenfull of gratitude and say, "I thank

thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hasthid these things from
the wise and prudent, and hast revealedthem unto babes. Even so, Father, for
so it seemedgoodin thy sight." Not many greatmen after the flesh, not many
mighty are chosen, but God hath chosenthe poor of this world, he hath
chosenthe things that are despised, (and as the Apostle puts it) "Things that
are not hath God chosento bring to nought the things that are, that no flesh
should glory in his presence."Whenthe chariotof the Eternal comes from
above, he bids it roll far downwardfrom the skies;he passesby the towers of
haughty kings; he leaves the palaces ofprinces and the halls of senates, and
down to the hovels of cottagersthe chariotof his grace descends,for there he
sees with joy and delight the objects of his everlasting love. "I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassiononwhom I will have
compassion,"is the word of divine sovereignty, and God makes it true by
taking the poor and the needy, and them that have no helper.
Still, if we may enquire into the reason, we see in the poor, and the needy,
and the helpless, a reasonfor God's grace. Theyare the persons who are most
willing to acceptit, for they are the persons who most require it. Your
generositywill not stand to be dictated to, but, at the same time, you usually
prefer to give to those who want most. Wise mercy seeks outchief misery, and
God therefore delights to give his blessings to those who need them most, not
to those who fancy they deserve them—they shall have none of them, but
those who need them, they shall have all of them.
When a soul is made to feel its own poverty, it does not set itself up in
rivalry with Christ; it does not pretend to be able to help itself; it has no
disputing about the terms of the gospel. A sinner, when he is thoroughly
famished, has such an appetite that he eats such things as God's mercy sets
before him, and he raises no question. A proud Pharisee will say, "I will not
submit to this, to be savedby faith alone—Iwill not have it. To acceptmercy
as the absolute gift of heaven, irrespective of my character, I cannot endure
it." The high soul of a Pharisee, I say, kicks atit. But when God has brought a
man low, till like the publican he cries, "Godbe merciful to me a sinner," he is
glad to be saved in God's way, and no matter howeverhumbling the plan of
grace, nor how the sinner is debasedand Christ exalted, the poor sinner loves
to have it so. It is a waysuitable to his own wants, a way which he accepts for

the very reasonthat God has adapted it to his position. Hence, if there be
reasons they lie here, not in man's merit but on the Lord's mercy. The fact
that bare misery, when touched and guided by the Spirit of God, makes the
soul to open its mouth like the hard chapped soilto drink in the rain, as soon
as the rain descends from above, is an argument why grace so commonly
flows in this course.
In choosing to bless the poor and needy by his grace, the Lord finds for
himself warm friends, those who will give him much praise, contend earnestly
for his reign and for his sovereignty, and endure much obloquy for very love
to his dear name. Why if the Lord were to save the Pharisees, theywould
hardly say, "thank you," they are so goodthemselves. They reckonthemselves
to be so excellent, that if they had salvation they would take it as a matter of
course, and, like the lepers, they would never return to thank him that healed
them. But when the Lord saves a greatsinner, a man that feels there is
nothing goodin him; oh, how that man talks of it and tells it to others. He
cannot take any praise to himself, he knows that he had nothing to do with it,
that it is all of the grace of God. And, oh, see that man how he will stand up
for the doctrines of grace!He is as the valiant men in Solomon's song, "each
man with a swordon his thigh because of fearin the night;" for the doctrines
of grace are not to him matters of opinion, but matters of experience. They
are dear to him as his own life. "What," says he, "is not God the giver of
salvation? Is not salvation all of God, from first to last? I know it is," saith he.
"Don't tell me. Whatever your arguments, howeversmooth may be the form
and fashion of your theology, it does not tally with what I have tasted and
handled and felt; for unless it is grace from first to last, I am a lost man; and,
if I be indeed a child of God, then can I contend for the doctrines of grace, and
will do till I die." I know I felt myself last Sunday night, after I had talkedto
you about the difficulties of salvation, that if ever I got to heaven, I would
praise and bless God with all my soul. I felt like that goodold woman who
said, that if the Lord ever savedher he should never hear the lastof it, for she
would tell it everywhere, and publish it abroad throughout all eternity, that
the Lord had done it, that he was a goodand gracious Godto have mercy on
such a soul as she was. Now, since one objectof God in bestowing his mercy is
to glorify himself, he does wiselyin bestowing his mercy upon the poor and

the needy, and such as have no helper. The Lord give to you, my dear hearer,
to be brought down to this tonight. I know many of you have been brought
there and are there now. Let my text encourage and cheeryou. Dearobjects
of Almighty love, he finds you on the dunghill, but he lifts you from it. He
finds you in the dust, but is not this the song of Hannah and the song of Mary
too—"He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and he hath exalted them
of low degree:he hath filled the hungry with good things, but the rich he hath
sent empty away?" It is God's way of dealing with the poor and lost; rejoice at
it, it is full of encouragementto you. But I say to any of you that have never
been humbled, goodpeople, who have always been goodpeople, you that have
always kept the law from your youth up, and gone to church regularly, or to
chapel regularly, very people—The Lord have mercy upon you, and let you
see that your goodness is filthiness, that your righteousnessis unrighteousness,
and that the best that is in you is bad, and that the bad that is in you that you
have never seenas yet will be your ruin, your eternaldestruction, unless God
setit before your eyes, and bring you down to loathe yourself, and feel
yourself to be abominable in his sight, and abominable also in your own sight,
when his law comes with powerhome to your souls. Thus I have spokenupon
the specialobjects ofdivine grace.
II. Now, a few words upon THE SPECIAL BLESSING WHICH THE
GREAT KING HAS STOREDUP FOR THESE PEOPLE. Kindly look at the
secondverse. "He shall judge thy people with righteousness,and thy poor
with judgment;" so that one of the specialblessings forGod's poor is that they
shall be judged with judgment. Alas! they are often judged with harshness;or
they are judged in ignorance;or they are judged by malice—notjudged by
righteousness, norby judgment. When their enemies see them, they say,
"These are a broken-spirited people; they are moping and melancholy,
wretchedand sad." Thus hard things are spokenagainstthem, and unkind
stories are told of them. Sometimes they saythey are out of their minds, and
then they will insinuate that they are only hypocrites and pretenders. Slander
is very busy with the children of God. God had a Son that had no fault; but he
never had a son that was not found fault with. Ay, God himself was slandered
in paradise by Satan:let us not expect, therefore, to escape from the
venomous tongue.

One blessing, however, that will always come to God's needy ones is this—
Christ will right them, he will judge them with judgment. Are you harshly
spokenof at home? Don't be angry, don't provoke in return, don't answer
railing with railing. "He shall judge his poor with righteousness."Leave it to
him. Wait, wait, till the judgment sits, for who are these that they should
judge you? Their opinion, though it is bitter as gallto your spirit, does not
really affect your characteroryour destiny. If you are right before the Lord,
through faith in Christ, they cannot make you wrong by anything they say.
God judges and God knows. "He searcheththe heart and tries the reins." You
remember how David, among his brethren, was much despised. He had not
the appearance andthe carriage that his elder brethren had, and even
Samuel, the Lord's prophet, thought the others to be better than David, and
said of them, "Surely the Lord hath chosenthese." David was therefore
despisedof his brethren, but what mattered it? The Lord lookednot as man
looks, forman lookedupon the outward appearance, but God lookethat the
heart. Bide your time you that are one of a family and alone. Or, if for
Christ's sake you have been despised, have courage to-nightand let not your
spirit be boweddown. "Rejoice ye in this day and leap for joy, for so
persecutedthey the prophets that were before you." The King will speedily
come, and when he cometh then will this word be verified. "He shall judge his
people with righteousness and his poor with judgment." There is one mercy
for you—to have your wrongs righted and your charactercleared.
God's poor and needy ones, you will perceive, if you turn a little further
down, shall be saved from oppression. Fourth verse:"He shall judge the poor
of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces
the oppressor."The Lord's people are like sheep among wolves, the wolves
treat them injuriously. Christ himself was oppressedand afflicted, yet he
opened not his mouth. His people may expect to be oppressedtoo; but they
have this for their comfort, that Christ will surely deliver them, and he will
break their oppressors in pieces. Are you to-night oppressedby Satan? Have
you things laid to your charge by him that you know not of, and doth
conscienceoppress youwith the remembrance of sins which have been
forgiven? Have you ever believed concerning them in the atonement of
Christ? Well, bow your head meekly, and go to the mercy-seatonce again,

pleading the precious blood, and he shall break in pieces the oppressor. There
is no answerfor Satanlike the blood! and there is no answerfor conscience
but the blood. Pleadit before God, plead it in your own soul, and you shall
find that the greatand glorious King in Zion shall, in your hearts, break in
pieces the oppressor. There is another specialmercy, then—help againstthe
oppressor.
The third blessing is that of our text: "He shall deliver the needy." Deliver
them! You are brought into greattroubles; you shall be delivered out of them.
You are just now the subjectof many fears:you shall be delivered from your
fears. It seems as though the enemy would soonexult over you, and put his
foot upon your neck, and make an end of you; you shall be delivered. You are
like a bird takenin the fowler's net, and he is ready to wring your neck and
take the breath out of you; but you shall be delivered out of the hand of the
fowler, and brought safelythrough the perils that threaten you. Oh, that we
all had faith! Oh, that we all could exercise faith when in deep waters. It is a
fine thing to talk about faith on land, but we want faith to swim with when we
are thrown into the flood. May you, tonight, get such a grip of this precious
word that you may take it before the Lord and say, "I am poor and needy,
and have no helper. O God, deliver my soul now."
But, we have not exhaustedthe string of blessings. A little further down in
the psalm, at the thirteenth verse, you will notice it is said of the King: "He
shall spare the poor and needy." If he lays heavily upon them apparently, yet
will he by-and-by stay his hand; if he bids one of his rough winds blow, he will
save the other. As he is said to temper the wind to the shorn lamb, so will he
certainly temper it to his people;they shall be afflicted, but it shall be in
measure;he shall spare them as a man spareth his own sonthat serveth him:
the rod shall make them smart, but shall not make them bleed; they shall be
made to suffer, but they shall not be calledto die. Perplexed, but not in
despair; persecuted, but not forsaken;there shall always be a gracious limit
put to the blows that come from Jehovah's hand for his ownpeople. Oh, what
a mercy to be amongsthis poor ones, and to feel that he will spare us; he
spared not his own Son, but he will spare us, the poor and needy; he smote
him with the blows of avenging justice, but concerning us it is written, "The
mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but the covenantof my love

shall not depart. As I have sworn that the waters shall no more go over the
earth; so have I swornthat I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee."
He will spare his people; he will bring them safelythrough, and, meanwhile,
he will not let the waters be deep enoughto overwhelmthem.
There is one other blessing which sums up all the rest; you find it in the
fourteenth verse:"He shall redeem their souls from deceitand violence."
Redemption belongs to the Lord's poor people. He bought with a price his
poor ones, and as the ransom has all been paid, they belong to Christ, and
none shall take them out of his hand. He that redeemedthem by price will
redeem them by power. He will, if it be needful, divide the Red Sea againto
redeem his people; and, if by no usual means his servants canbe preserved, he
will bring unusual means into the field. There are no miracles now, we say,
but if they are ever wanted for the safetyof God's people, there shall be
miracles as timely and as plentiful as of yore. "Heavenand earth may pass
away, but his word shall never pass away." He would soonershake the
heavens themselves than suffer one of his children to famish, or utterly to
perish, rest assuredof that. Oh, what glorious comfort there is in all this! We
shall be spared, we shall be redeemed, we shall be delivered, we shall be saved,
we shall be revengedand clearedbefore the judgment-bar of God; and, all
because the great King has made the poor and needy the specialobjects ofhis
love. Oh! my soul revels in this. I cannotspeak out the thoughts I feel, much
less the joy that arises out of them; but what a mercy it really is, that the great
King, the King who rules from the river to the ends of the earth, is the poor
man's friend. I am very poor and needy and helpless to-night, but the king has
made me his favourite, counts me one of his courtiers:it is the same with you,
dear brother, if you too are poor and needy, he rules, and he rules on the
throne for us; he is greatand hath dominion, but he uses all his greatness and
his dominion for us. As Josephin Egypt was invested with powerfor the good
of his brethren, or at leastsuch sovereigntyas he held of Pharaohhe laid out
for the welfare of his father's house, so Jesus has all powerand authority in
heaven and earth; all might, majesty, and dominion for the goodof his people.
He has the king's signetring upon his finger, but he uses it for his own beloved
ones that he may enrich, and honor, and cheer, and perfect them. His glory is
concernedin every one of us. If one of the leastof his people should perish, his

crownwould suffer damage. He is the shepherd and surety of the flock, and at
his hand will the Father require all those who are committed to him. He
cannot, therefore, let us perish, for then he would not be able to say at the last,
"Of all that thou hast given me I have lostnone." He must and will preserve
us. We are wrapped up in his honor. His power, I say, his crown, his glory, his
very name, as the Christ of God anointed to save sinners, all are wrapped up
and intertwisted in the salvationof every poor and needy soulthat is brought
to rest in him.
III. And, now, our closing word is, THE SPECIAL SEASON WHEN ALL
THIS SHALL BE TRUE. He shall deliver the needy when he crieth.
Ah! while I have been preaching there may have been some poor child of
God here who has said, "I am poor and needy, and I am in greatdistress, but
I have not been delivered." And there may be some sinner here who has said,
"Godhas taught me my poverty and need, and I know I have no helper, but I
cannot find I have been delivered." Perhaps, dearfriends, you have been
praying for months, praying very bitterly too, after a sort, and you have been
desirous that you might find mercy. God's time, when will it come? Well, it
will come when you cry. That is something more, I take it, than a mere
ordinary prayer. A child asks youfor something, and you may perhaps deny
it; but you know there is a difference betweenasking for a thing and crying
for a thing. Oh, when you getso that you must have it, and your heart breaks
for it, when your needs are so extreme that you cannot stand up under them—
well, now, it comes to this, that you must have Christ or perish. "Give me
Christ or else I die," when it seems as if you could not put your prayer into
words any more, that you could only fall at the foot of the cross, andsay, "O
God, I cannotpray, but my very soul groans afterthee, to have mercy upon
me," then is the time, then is the time, but not till then, when God will deliver
you. The Lord loves to hear the prayers of his people, and he sometimes keeps
them waiting at the posts of his door, that they may pray more. It is always a
blessing for us to pray as well as to getthe answerto prayer. Prayer is in itself
a blessing. When the Lord hears us knock faintly at the door, he does not
open; we may knock and knock again—he likes us to knock;it does us goodto
knock. But when it comes to this, that it is all knocking with us, and our very
soul and body seemto knock, and our heart and flesh cry after God, the living

God: when we shall thus come to appear before God, and open our mouth and
pant vehemently for the mercy he has promised, then it will come. When thou
canstnot take a denial, thou shalt not have a denial. The kingdom of heaven
suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. There is none so violent as
the man who is in desperate need. There is a person who has been without
bread many hours, and he asks youfor charity in the street. You would pass
him by, but he is famished, and he says, "Oh give me bread! I die." He
compels you to it. And such is the prayer that prevails with God. When the
soul cannotwait, dare not wait, fears lest it should shut its eyes and open them
in hell. Oh! God will not keepsuch a soul long waiting. I am always glad when
I hear of convinced souls saying, "I went up into my chamber with the
resolution that I would never come down again till I had found the Savior." I
always delight to hearof men and women who say, "I went upon my knees
and cried to him, saying, I will not let thee go exceptthou bless me." He will
bless thee. If thou wilt let him go, he will go, but if thou wilt not let him go,
thou shalt have thy requestof him. "But who am I," saith one, "that I should
plead thus? I have no right to hold him thus." 'Tis true, but when a man is
hungry, when a man is dying, he does not think of rights. He holds you right
or wrong. His need is his right. Poorsoul, go and plead your need before God.
Pleadyour sin, tell him you are wretchedand undone without his sovereign
grace. Use the strange argument which David used, the strangest in all the
world, "Forthy name's sake, O Lord! pardon mine iniquity, for it is great."
Pleadthe very greatnessofyour sin as a reasonfor mercy; the damnable
characterof your sin; the certainty that you will soonbe castinto hell, the fact
that he might justly drive you from his presence for ever; plead all that before
him; and say, "Lord, if ever the heights and depths of thy grace might be seen
in saving an undeserving soul, I am just that one. If thy mercy wants to honor
itself by saving the most undeserving, ill deserving, hell deserving sinner that
ever lived, Lord, I am the man. If thou wantesta platform on which to erecta
monument of infinite grace, thatmen shall stand and wonder, and angels shall
gaze on it with astonishment, Lord, here am I. If thou wantestemptiness, here
is one who is all emptiness. If thou as the goodphysician wantesta bad case,a
glaring case, a desperate case, to operate on, thou wilt never have a worse case
than mine. O God, turn aside and have pity upon me, and show thy mighty
power." This is the way to plead. Not your merits—they will never get a

hearing, but your misery, your sin, your guiltiness before God—these are the
arguments. And then if faith can come in and plead the blood, and say, "Didst
thou not send thy Son to save sinners?" has he not said he came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance? Is it not written that the Son of Man is
come to seek and to save not the good, but that which was lost? Oh! if you can
plead the blood in that fashion, you will not fail. His name is the Savior—he
came to save his people from their sins. He died for the ungodly, he justifieth
the ungodly—the unrighteous he makes righteous through his own merits. If
you canplead this, oh, then, you shall not long wait, for though God does not
deliver till we cry, yet he does deliver when we cry. "He will deliver the needy
when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper." Oh, what a
mercy it is when the tide is ebbed right out, and there is nothing left. It will
turn now, it will turn now. The streams of grace will turn now. When you are
empty, when you are overwhelmed, when you are like a dish wiped out, and
there is not anything goodleft in you—now will God come to you. The darkest
part of the night is that which precedes the dawn of the day. When God has
killed you, he will make you live. When he has wounded you through and
through, he will come to your healing.
The PoorMan’s Friend
C. H. SPURGEON,
“The poor committeth himself unto thee.” Psalm 10:14.
GOD IS THE POOR MAN’S FRIEND;the poor man, in His
helplessnessand despair, leaves his case in
the hands of God, and God undertakes to care for him. In the days of
David, and I suppose, in this

respect, the world has but little improved, the poor man was the victim
of almost everybody’s cruelty,
and sometimes he was very shamefully oppressed. If he soughtredress
for his wrongs, he generallyonly
increasedthem, for he was regardedas a rebel againstthe existing order
of things; and when he askedfor even a
part of what was his by right, the very magistrates and rulers of the land
became the instruments of his oppressors,
and made the yoke of his bondage to be yet heavier than it was before.
Tens of thousands of eyes, full of tears,
have been turned to Jehovah, and he has been invoked to interpose
betweenthe oppressorand the oppressed;for
God is the ultimate resort of the helpless. The Lord executeth
righteousness andjudgment for all that are
oppressed;he undertakes the cause of all those that are downtrodden.
If the history of the world be, rightly read, it will be found that no
case ofoppressionhas been suffered to go
long unpunished. The Assyrian empire weana very cruel one, but what
is now left of Nineveh and Babylon? Go
to the heaps of ruins by the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates, and
see what will become of an empire which
is made to be only an instrument of oppressionin the hands of an
emperor and the great men under him. It has
ceasedto he more than a name; its powerhas vanished, and its palaces
have been destroyed. In latertimes, there
sprang up the mighty empire of Rome; and even now, whereverwe
wander, we see traces ofits greatness and

splendour. How came it to fall? Many reasons have been assigned, but
you may restassuredthat at the bottom of
them all was the. cruelty practisedtowards the slaves, and other poor
people, who here absolutely in the power of
the aristocracyand oligarchywho formed the dominant party in the
empire. There is a fatal flaw in the
foundations of any throne that executes not justice; and it matters not
though the empire seems to stand high as
heaven, and to raise its pinnacles to the skies, downit must come if it be
not founded upon right. When ten
thousand slaves have cried to God apparently in vain, it has not really
been in vain, for he has registeredtheir
cries, and in due seasonhas avengedtheir wrongs;and when the poor
toilers, who have reaped the rich rnan’s
fields, have been deprived of their hardly-earned wages,and have cast
their plaints into the court of heaven, they
have been registeredthere, and God has, at the right time, takenup
their cause, and punished their oppressors.
For many years the Negro slaves criedto God to deliver them, and at
last deliverance came, to the joy of the
emancipatedmultitudes, yet not without suffering to all the nations that
had been concernedin that great wrong.
And here, too, if the employers of labour refuse to give to the
agricultural labourer his just wage, Godwill surely
visit them, in his wrath. At this very day, we have; serfs in England who,
with sternesttoil, cannot earn enough to
keepbody and soultogether, and to maintain their families as they
ought to be maintained; and where masters are

thus refusing to their labourers a fair remuneration for their work, let
them know that, whoevermay excuse them,
and whatever may be said of the laws of political economy, God does not
judge the world by political economy.
He judges the world by this rule, that men are bound to do that which is
just and right to their fellow-men; and it
cannever he right that a man should work like a slave, be housed worse
than a horse, and have food scarcelyfit
for a dog. But if the poor commit their case to God, he will undertake it;
and I, as one of God’s ministers, will
never ceaseto speak on behalf of the rights of the poor. The whole
question has two sides, the rights of the
masters, and the rights of the men. Let not the men do as some
workmendo, ask more than they ought; yet, on
the other hand, let not the masters domineer over their men, but
remember that God is the Masterof us all, and he
will see that right is done to all. Let us all actrightly towards one
another, or we shall feel the weightof his hand,
and the force of his anger.
Now, having thus given the literal meaning of my text, I am going to
spiritualize it, which I should have no
right to do if I had not first explained the primary reference ofDavid’s
words, “The poor committeth himself unto
thee.”
I. THERE ARE SPIRITUALLY POOR MEN; and these do what
other poor men have done in temporal
things, they commit their case,into the hands of God.

Let me try to find out the spiritually poor. They are, first, those who
have no merits of their own. There are
some people, in the world, who are, according to their own estimate,
very rich in goodworks. Theythink that
they beganwell, and that they have gone on well, and they hope to
continue to do well right to the end of their
lives. They do confess, sometimes, thatthey are miserable sinners, but
total. is merely because that expressionis
in the Prayer Book. Theyare half sorry it is there, but they suppose that
it must have been meant for other
people, not for themselves. So far as they know, they have kept all the
commandments from their youth up, they
have been just in their dealings with their fellow-men, and they do not
feel that they are under any very serious
obligations even to God himself. I have nothing to say to such people
exceptto remind them that the, Lord Jesus
Christ said, “Theythat are whole have no need of the physician, but
they that are sick:I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Christ came to bring healing to
those who are spiritually sick;you say that
you are perfectly well, so you must go your own way, and Christ will go
in another direction, towards sinners.
Further, the poor peoples of whom I am speaking, are not only totally
without, anything like merit, absolutely
bankrupt of any goodness,and devoid of anything of which they could
boast, but they are also without strength to
perform any such good works in the future. They are so poor,
spiritually, that they cannot even pray as they

would, and they do not evenfeel their poverty as they would like to feel
it. After having read this Bible, they wish
they could re-read it with greaterprofit; and when they weepoven sin,
they feel their ownsin in their very tears,
and want to weepin penitence overtheir tears. Theyare such poor
people that they can do absolutely nothing
without Christ, and so poor that, in them, that is, in their flesh, there
dwelleth no good thing. They did think once
that there might be something goodin them; but they have searched
their nature through most painfully, and they
have discoveredthat, unless grace shall do everything for them, where
God is they can never come.
Perhaps some of you say, “These must be very bad people.” Well, they
are no better that they should be, yet
I may tell you another thing concerning them, they are no worse than
many of those who think themselves a great
deal better. They have this lowly opinion of themselves because the
grace ofGod has taught them to think rightly
and truthfully about themselves in relation to God. They are, in outward
appearance, andas far as we, canjudge,
quite. as goodas others, and better than some. In certain respects, they
might be held up as examples to others.
This is what we say of them, but they have not a goodword to sayof
themselves;rather, do they put their finger
upon their lips, and blush at the remembrance of what they feel
themselves to be; or if they must speak of
themselves at all, they say, “All we like sheephave gone astray, we have
turned every one to his own way.”

II. That brings me to notice, secondly, WHAT THESE POOR
PEOPLE DO. They commit themselves unto
God. This is a very blesseddescription of what true faith does. The poor
in spirit feel that their case is so
desperate that they cannotkept it in their own charge, and therefore
they commit it to God. I will try to show you
how they do that.
First, they commit their case to God as a debtor commits his case to a
surety. The man is so deeply in debt
that he cannotpay his creditors even a farthing in the pound; but here is
someone who can pay everything that the
debtor owes, and he says to him, “I will stand as security for you; I will
be bondsman for you; I will give full
satisfactionto all your creditors, and discharge all your debts.” There is
no person who is thus deeply in debt, who
would not be glad to know of such a surety, both able and willing to
stand in his stead, and to discharge all his
responsibilities. If the surety saidto this poor debtor, “Will you make
over all your liabilities to me? Will you sign
this document, empowering me to take all your debts upon myself, and
to be responsible for you? Will you let me
be your bondsman and surety?” “Ah!” the poor man would reply, “that
I will, most gladly.” That is just what
spiritually poor men have done to the Lord Jesus Christ, committed
their case, with all their debts and liabilities,
into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he has undertaken all the.
responsibility for them.

I think I hear someone say, “But will Christ really stand in the
sinner’s place in such a way as that?” Oh, yes!
for he did stand, in anticipation, in the sinner’s place before the
foundation of the world, and he actually stood
there when he died upon the accursedtree, by his death obtaining a full
discharge of the debts of all those whose
Surety he had become.* Dearsoul, wilt, thou not commit all thy affairs
into his hands? Art thou not, willing to let
him stand as thy Surety, to clearthee of all thy liabilities? “Willing?”
say you; “ah! that I am; and not only willing,
but, right glad shall I be for him to take my place, and relieve mo of the
burden that is crushing me to the dust.”
Then it is done for you, and so done that it can never be undone.
Suppose that one of you had taken all my debts
upon you, and that you were quite able and willing to pay them, I should
not go home, and fret myself about my
debts. I should rejoice to think that, you had takenthem upon yourself,
and that therefore they would no longerbe
mine. If Christ has takenyour sins upon himself, and he has done so if
you have truly trusted him, your sins
have ceasedto be; they are blotted out for ever. Christ nailed to his
cross the recordof everything that was
against, us; and, now, every poor sinner, who is indebted to God’s law,
and who trusteth in Christ, may know that
his debt is cancelled, and that he is clearof all liability for it for ever.
Next, we commit our case to Christ as a client does to a solicitorand
advocate.**Youknow that, when a

man has a suit at law, (I hope that none of you may everhave such a
suit,) if he has an advocate to plead his
cause, he does not plead for himself. He will probably get into trouble if
he does. It is said that, when Erskine was
pleading for a Man who was being tried for murder, his client, being
dissatisfiedwith the way in which his defense
was being conducted, wrote on a slip of paper, “I’ll be hanged if I don’t
plead for myself.” Erskine wrote in reply,
“You’ll be hanged if you do!” It is very much like that with us; if we
attempt to plead for ourselves, we shallbe
sure to go wrong. We must have the Divine Advocate who alone can
defend us againstthe suits of Satan, and
speak with authority on our behalf even before the bar of God. We must
commit our case to him, that he may
plead for us, and then it will go rightly enough.
Remember also that any man, who has committed his case to an
advocate, must not interfere with it himself.
If anybody from the other side should wait upon him, and say, “I wish
to speak to you about that suit,” he must
reply, I cannot go into the matter with you; I must refer you to my
solicitor.” “ButI want to reasonabout it; I
want to ask you a, few questions about the case.”“No,”says he, “I
cannot listen to what you have to say, you
must go to my solicitor.” How much trouble Christians would save
themselves if, when they have committed their
case into the hands of Jesus, theywould leave it there, and not attempt
to deal with it on their ownaccount! I say

to the devil, when he comes to tempt me to doubt and fear, “I have
committed my soul to Jesus Christ, and he will
keepit in safety. You must bring your accusations to him, not to me. I
am his client, and he is my Counsellor.
Why should I have such an Advocate as he is, and then plead for
myself” John does not say, “If any man sin, let
him be his own adovcate;” but he says, “If any man sin, we have an
Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous.” Dearbrother, leave your case with Christ; he canhandle it
wisely, you cannot. Remember that, if the
devil and you get into an argument, he is much older than you are, and
far more cleverthan you are, and he
knows a greatmany points of law that you do not know. You should
always refer him to the Saviour, who is older
than he is, and knows much more about law and everything else than he
does, and who will answerhim so
effectuallyas to silence him forever. So, poor tried and tempted soul,
commit your case to the great Advocate, and
he will plead for you before the Court of King’s Benchin heaven, and
your suit will be sure to succeedthrough his
advocacy.
Further, sinners commit their case to Christ as a patient commits his
case to the physician. We, poor
sin-sick sinners, put our case into the hands of Jesus, that he may heal
us of all our depravities, and evil
tendencies, and infirmities. If anyone asks, “Willhe undertake my case,
if I come to him?” I answer;Yes, he

came to be the Physicianof souls, to heal all who trust him. There never
was a case in which he could not heal,
for he has a wonderful remedy, a catholicon, a cure for all diseases.If
you put your case, into his hands, the Holy
Spirit will shed abroadhis love in your heart, and there is no spiritual
disease that canwithstand that wondrous
remedy. Are you predisposedto quickness of temper? He can cure that.
Are you inclined to be indolent? Is there a
sluggishspirit within you? He can cure that. Are you proud, or are your
tendencies towards covetousness,
worldliness, lust, or ambitions? Christ, can cure all these evils. When he
was on this earth, he had all manner of
patients brought to him, yet he never was baffled by one case, andyour
case, whateverit may be, will be quite an
easyone to him if you only go and commit it into his hands. This
building seems to me like a greathospital*** full
of sin-sick souls, and I pray the greatPhysicianto come here, and heal
them. Nay, I must correctmyself, for he is
here; and, as he walks through these aisles, and round these galleries, I
beseechyou to sayto him, “GoodMaster,
I commit myself to thee. I take thee to be my Saviour. O save me from
my constitutionaltemperament, and my
besetting sins, and everything else that is contrary to thy holy will!” He
will hear you, for he never yet refused to
heed the cry of a poor sin-sick soul. Do not let him go by you without
praying to, him, “Sonof David, have mercy
on me!” Come, Lord, and lay thy hands upon eachone of us and we
shall be made perfectly whole!

As to the future, the spiritually poor commit themselves to Christ in
the same way in which the pilgrims
describedin The Pilgrim’s Progress committeth themselves to the
charge of Mr. Greatheart, that he might fight all
their battles for them, and conduct them safely to the CelestialCity. In
the old war time, when the captains of
merchant vessels wantedto go to foreign countries, and they were afraid
of being captured by the privateers of
other nations, they generally went in company under the convoy of a
man-of-war to protect them, and that is the
way you and I must go to heaven. Satan’s privateers will try to capture
us, but we commit ourselves to the
protectionof Jesus, the Lord High Admiral of all the seas,and we poor
little vessels sailsafelyunder his convoy.
When any enemy seeks to attack us, we need not be afraid. He can blow
them all out of the waterif he pleased,
but he will never suffer one of them to injure a solitary vesselthat is
entrusted to his charge. Sinner, give thyself
up to the charge of Jesus, to be convoyed to heaven; and thou over-
anxious child of God, lay down all thine
anxieties at the feetof Jesus, andrest in his infinite power and love,
which will never let thee be lost.
I might thus multiply figures and illustrations of how we commit
ourselves to Christ. We do it very much in
the way in which our blind friends, sitting under the pulpit, gothere this
evening, they came by committing
themselves to the care of guides. Some of them can walk a good long way
without a guide, but others could not

have found their way here to-night without some friend upon whose arm
they could lean. That is the way to getto
heaven, by leaning upon Jesus. Do not expect to see him, but trust
yourself to him, and lean hard upon him. He
loves to be trusted, and faith has a wonderful charm for him. I was once
near the MansionHouse, and as I stood
there, a poor blind man, who wished to cross overto the Bank, said to
me, “Please, sir, lead me across;I know
you will, for I am blind.” I was not sure that I could do so, for it is not
an easytask to lead a blind man across that
part where so many cabs and omnibuses are constantlypassing, but I
managedit as bestI could. I do not think I
could have, done it if the poor man had not said to me, “I know you
will;” for then I thought that I must; and if
you come to Christ, and say, “Lord Jesus, wiltthou lead me to heaven?”
and tell him that you are sure that he will
never let a poor blind soulmiss its way, that you are sure you can trust
him, that he is such a kind-hearted Saviour
that he will never thrust awaya guilty sinner who thus commits himself
into his hands, and I am sure that he will
be glad to save you, and that he will rejoice over you as he leads you
safelyhome to heaven. If any of you can see
with your natural eyes, and yet are blind spiritually, be glad that there is
a blessedGuide, to whom you can
commit yourself, and do commit yourself to him. Christ leads the blind
by a way that they know not, and he will
continue to lead them until he brings them to the land where they will
open their eyes, and see with rapture and

surprise the splendours of paradise, and rejoice that they are all their
own for ever.
Is not this work of the poor committing themselves to Christ, a very
easytask? It is a very easything for a
debtor to commit his debts to his surety, for anyone to commit his case
to his advocate, fora patient to trust
himself to his physician, for a pilgrim to feel safe under a powerful
convoy, and for a blind man to trust in his
guide; all this is very simple and easy. It does not need much
explanation, and faith in Jesus is just as simple and
just as easyas that. Why is it, that we sometimes find that faith is
difficult? It is because we are to proud to
believe in Jesus. If we did but see ourselves as we really are, we should
be willing enough to trust the Saviour; but
we do not like going to heaven like blind people who need a guide, or
like debtors who cannot pay a farthing in the
pound. We want to have a finger in the pie, we want to do something
towards our own salvation, we want to have
some of the praise and glory of it. God save us from this evil spirit!
While it is a very simple thing for the Spiritually poor to commit
themselves to Christ, let me also saythat it is
an act which greatly glorifies God. Christ is honoured when any soul
trusts in him; it is a joy to his heart to be
trusted. When the feeble cling to him, he feels such joy as mothers feel
when their little ones cling to them. Christ
is glad when poor sin-sick souls come and trust him. It was for this very
purpose that he came into the world, to

meet the needs of guilty sinners. So this plan, while it is easyfor us, is
glorifying to him
And I will add that it is a plan that never fails any who trust to it.
There never was a single soul that committed
its case to Christ, and theft found him fail, and there never shall be such
a soul so long as the earth endureth. He
that believeth in Christ shall not be ashamedor confounded, world
without end. “He that believeth on the Son hath
everlasting life,” and everlasting life can never be taken awayfrom one
who has receivedit.
I close by asking a question, If the spiritually poor commit themselves
unto God, what comes ofit? Why, it
makes them very happy. But, are they not sinful? Oh, yes; but they
commit themselves to God’s grace, and His
grace blots out all their sins for ever. Are they not feeble? Oh, yes; but,
their feebleness leads them to commit
themselves to his omnipotence; and his strength is made perfect in their
weakness.Are they not needy? Oh, yes;
but then they bring their needs to him, and they receive out of his
fulness “grace forgrace.”But, are they not often
in danger? Oh, yes, in a thousand dangers;but they come, and hide
beneath the shadow of God’s wings, and he
covers them with his feathers, and there they rest in perfect security. His
truth becomes their shield and buckler,
so that they need not fear any foe. But are they not apt to slip? Oh, yes,
but they commit themselves to him who
gives his angels charge overthem, to keepthem in all their ways, and to
bear them up in their hands, lest they

should dash their feet againsta stone. But are they not, very fickle and
changeable? Oh, yes;but they commit,
themselves to him who says, “I am Jehovah;I change not.” But are they
not unworthy? 0h, yes, in themselves
they are utterly unworthy; but they commit themselves to him who is
calledThe Lord their righteousness;and
when they are clothed in his righteousness, theyare lookedupon by God
as being “without spot or wrinkle, or any
such thing.” But have they no sickness? Yes, but they commit
themselves to Jehovah-Rophi, the lord, the Healer,
and he either heals their sickness,orgives them the grace to endure it.
Are they not poor? Yes, many of them are
extremely so; but they commit themselves to the faithful Promiser, and
so bread is given them, and their water
sure. But don’t they expect to die? 0h, yes, unless the Lord should first
come;but they are not afraid to die. This
is the point, above all others, in which the spiritually poor commit
themselves unto God. They have learnt that
sweetprayer of David so well that it is often on their tongues, “Into
thine hand I commit my spirit thou hast
redeemedme, O Lord God of truth.” They did commit their spirit into
God’s hands years ago, and he has kept
them until now, and they know that, he will not fail them in their dying
hour.
In conclusion, I pray every spiritually poor heart to commit itself to
God. I like to do this every morning. Satan
often comes and says, “You are no Christian; all your supposed
Christian experience is false.” Very Well, suppose

it has been false; then I will start afresh; saint or no saint, I will begin
over againby trusting Christ to be my
Saviour. When you, dear friend, wake tomorrow morning, let this be the
first thing that you do, commit yourself
to Jesus Christ for the whole of the day. Say, “My Lord, here is my
heart, which I commit to thee. While I am
awayfrom home, may my heart be full of fragrance ofthy blessed
presence;and when I return at night, may I still
find my heart, in thy kind keeping!“And every night, ere we go to sleep,
let us pray,
“Should swift death this night o’ertake us,
And our couch become our tomb;
May the morn in heavenawake us.
Clad in light and deathless bloom.”
Are you going to a foreignland? Then, renew the committal of your life
to God. Are you going to change your
state, and enter upon the joys and responsibilities of married life? Then
commit yourself to God. Are you going to
a new situation, or opening a new business? Is any change coming over
you? Then, make a new committal, or a
re-committal of your soul to the Lord Jesus, only take care that you do it
heartily and thoroughly, and make no
reserve. I rejoice to feelthat I have committed myself to Christ as the
slave of old committed himself to his
master. When the time came for him to be setfree under the Jewishlaw,
he said to his master, “No, I do not want

to go. I love you, I love your children, I love your household, I love your
service;I do not want to be free.” Then
you know that the master was to take an awl, and fasten him by the ear
to the door-post. I supposes this was done
to see whetherthe man really wanted to remain with his master, or not.
Ah, beloved! some, of us have had our
ears bored long ago;we have given ourselves up to Christ, and we have
a mark upon us which we cannever
loses. Were we not buried with him by baptism unto death, a symbol
that we are dead to the world, and buried
to the world, for his dear sake?Well, in that same way, give yourself
wholly up to Jesus;commit yourself to him.
As that young bride, commits all her life’s joys and hopes to that dear
bridegroom into whose face she looks so
lovingly, so, O souls, commit yourselves to that dearestBridegroomin
earth or heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Commit yourselves to him, to love and to be loved, his to obey, his to
serve, and his to be kept, his in
life, and you need not add “till death us do part,” but you may say“till
death shall wed us more completely, and
we shall sit togetherat the marriage banquet above;and be for ever and
for everone before the throne of God.”
Thus the poor soul commits itself unto Christ, is married unto Christ,
gets the portion which Christ possesses,
becomes Christ’s own, and then lives with Christ for ever. Oh, that this
might be the time in which many a man
and many a woman would commit themselves unto Christ! I do not
merely mean you who are poor in pocket, but

you who are poor in spirit, I am asking you to commit yourselves unto
Christ. Do not put it off, but may this be
the very hour in which you shall be committed to Christ, and he shall
take possessionofyou to be his for ever and
for ever! Amen and Amen.
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
ALEXANDER MACLAREN
Psalms 72:1-20
RIGHTLY or wrongly, the superscription ascribes this psalm to Solomon. Its
contents have led severalcommentators to take the superscription in a
meaning for which there is no warrant, as designating the subject, not the
author. Clearly, the whole is a prayer for the king; but why should not he be
both suppliant and object of supplication? Modern critics rejectthis as
incompatible with the "phraseologicalevidence," andadduce the difference
betweenthe historicalSolomonand the ideal of the psalm as negativing
reference to him. Psalms 72:8 is said by them to be quoted from Zechariah
9:10, though Cheyne doubts whether there is borrowing. Psalms 72:17 b is
said to be dependent on Genesis 22:18 andGenesis 26:4, which are assumedto
be later than the seventh century. Psalms 72:12 is taken to be a reminiscence
of Job 29:12, and Psalms 72:16 b of Job 5:25. But these are too uncertain
criteria to use as conclusive, -partly because coincidencedoes notnecessarily
imply quotation; partly because, quotationbeing admitted, the delicate
question of priority remains, which can rarely be settledby comparisonof the
passagesin question; and partly because, quotationand priority being

admitted, the date of the original is still under discussion. The impossibility of
Solomon’s praying thus for himself does not seemto the present writer so
completely establishedthat the hypothesis must be abandoned, especiallyif
the alternative is to be, as Hitzig, followedby Olshausenand Cheyne,
proposes, that the king in the psalm is Ptolemy Philadelphus, to whom Psalms
45:1-17 is fitted by the same authorities. Baethgenputs the objections which
most will feelto such a theory with studied moderation when he says "that the
promises given to the patriarchs in Genesis 22:18;Genesis 26:4, should be
transferred by a pious Israelite to a foreign king appears to me improbable."
But another course is open-namely, to admit that the psalm gives no materials
for defining its date, beyond the fact that a king of Davidic descentwas
reigning when it was composed. The authorship may be left uncertain, as may
the name of the king for whom such far-reaching blessings were invoked:for
he was but a partial embodiment of the kingly idea, and the very
disproportion betweenthe reality seenin any Jewish monarch and the lofty
idealisms of the psalm compels us to regard the earthly ruler as but a shadow,
and the true theme of the singer as being the Messianic King. We are not
justified, however, in attempting to transfer every point of the psalmist’s
prayer to the Messiah. The historicaloccasionof the psalm is to be kept in
mind. A human monarch stands in the foreground; but the aspirations
expressedare so far beyond anything that he is or can be, that they are either
extravagantflattery, or reachout beyond their immediate occasionto the
King Messiah.
The psalm is not properly a prediction, but prayer. There is some divergence
of opinion as to the proper rendering of the principal verbs, -some, as the A.V.
and R.V. (text), taking them as uniformly futures, which is manifestly wrong;
some taking them as expressions ofwish throughout, which is also
questionable; and others recognising pure futures intermingled with petitions,
which seems best. The boundaries of the two are difficult to settle, just
because the petitions are so confident that they are all but predictions, and the
two melt into eachother in the singer’s mind. The flow of thought is simple.
The psalmist’s prayers are broadly massed. In Psalms 72:1-4 he prays for the
foundation of the king’s reign in righteousness, whichwill bring peace;in
Psalms 72:5-7 for its perpetuity, and in Psalms 72:8-11 for its universality;

while in Psalms 72:12-15 the ground of both these characteristicsis laid in the
king’s becoming the champion of the oppressed. A final prayer for the
increase ofhis people and the perpetuity and world wide glory of his name
concludes the psalm, to which is appended in Psalms 72:18-20 a doxology,
closing the SecondBook ofthe Psalter.
The first petitions of the psalm all ask for one thing for the king-namely, that
he should give righteous judgment. They reflect the antique conceptionof a
king as the fountain of justice, himself making and administering law and
giving decisions. Thrice in these four verses does "righteousness"occuras the
foundation attribute of an ideal king. Caprice, self-interest, and tyrannous
injustice were rank in the world’s monarchies round the psalmist. Bitter
experience and sad observationhad taught him that the first condition of
national prosperity was a righteous ruler. These petitions are also animated
by the conception, which is as true in the modern as in the ancient world, that
righteousness has its seatin the bosom of God, and that earthly judgments are
righteous when they conform to and are the echo of His. "Righteousness"is
the quality of mind, of which the several"judgments" are the expressions.
This king sits on an ancestralthrone. His people are God’s people. Since, then,
he is God’s viceroy, the desire cannot be vain that in his heart there may be
some reflectionof God’s righteousness, andthat his decisions may accordwith
God’s. One cannot but remember Solomon’s prayer for "anunderstanding
heart," that he might judge this people; nor forget how darkly his later reign
showedagainstits bright beginning. A righteous king makes a peaceful
people, especiallyin a despotic monarchy. The sure results of such a reign-
which are, likewise, the psalmist’s chief reasonfor his petitions-are set forth in
the vivid metaphor of Psalms 72:3, in which peace is regardedas the fruit
which springs, by reasonof the king’s righteousness, frommountains and
hills. This psalmist has specialfondness for that figure of vegetable growth
(Psalms 72:7, Psalms 72:16-17);and it is especiallysuitable in this connection,
as peace is frequently representedin Scripture as the fruit of righteousness,
both in single souls and in a nation’s history. The mountains come into view
here simply as being the most prominent features of the land, and not, as in
Psalms 72:16, with any reference to their barrenness, which would make

abundant growth on them more wonderful, and indicative of yet greater
abundance on the plains.
A specialmanifestationof judicial righteousness is the vindication of the
oppressedand the punishment of the oppressor(Psalms 72:4). The word
rendered "judge" in Psalms 72:4 differs from that in Psalms 72:2, and is the
same from which the name of the "Judges" in Israelis derived. Like them,
this king is not only to pronounce decisions, as the word in Psalms 72:2 means,
but is to execute justice by acts of deliverance, which smite in order to rescue.
Functions which policy and dignity require to be kept apart in the case of
earthly rulers arc united in the ideal monarch. He executes his own sentences.
His acts are decisions. The psalmist has no thought of inferior officers by the
king’s side. One figure fills his mind and his canvas. Surely such an ideal is
either destined to remain forever a fair dream, or its fulfilment is to be
recognisedin the historicalPersonin whom God’s righteousness dweltin
higher fashionthan psalmists knew, who was, "first, King of righteousness,
and then, after that, also King of peace," andwho, by His deed, has broken
every yoke, and appearedas the defender of all the needy. The poet prayed
that Israel’s king might perfectly discharge his office by Divine help: the
Christian gives thanks that the King of men has been and done all which
Israel’s monarchs failed to be and do.
The perpetuity of the king’s reign and of his subjects’ peace is the psalmist’s
secondaspiration(Psalms 72:5-7). The "Thee" ofPsalms 72:5 presents a
difficulty, as it is doubtful to whom it refers. Throughout the psalm the king is
spokenof, and never to; and if it is further noticed that, in the preceding
verses, Godhas been directly addressed, and "Thy" used thrice in regardto
Him, it will appear more natural to take the reference in Psalms 72:5 to be to
Him. The fear of God would be dig fused among the king’s subjects, as a
consequence ofhis rule in righteousness. Hupfeld takes the word as referring
to the king, and suggests changing the text to "him" insteadof "Thee";while
others, among whom are Cheyne and Baethgen, follow the track of the LXX
in adopting a reading which may be translated "Mayhe live," or "Prolong his
days." But the thought yielded by the existing text, if referred to God, is most
natural and worthy. The king is, as it were, the shadow on earth of God’s
righteousness, andconsequentlybecomes an organfor the manifestation

thereof, in such manner as to draw men to true devotion. The psalmist’s
desires are for something higher than external prosperity, and his conceptions
of the kingly office are very sacred. Notonly peace and material well-being,
but also the fear of Jehovah, are longed for by him to be diffused in Israel.
And he prays that these blessings may be perpetual. The connectionbetween
the king’s righteousness andthe fear of God requires that that permanence
should belong to both. The cause is as lasting as its effect. Through generation
after generationhe desires that eachshall abide. He uses peculiar expressions
for continual duration "with the sun"-i.e., contemporaneous withthat
unfading splendour; "before the face of the moon"-i.e., as long as she shines.
But could the singeranticipate such length of dominion for any human king?
Psalms 21:1-13 has similar language in regard to the same person, and here,
as there, it seems sufficiently accountedfor by the considerationthat, while
the psalmist was speaking ofan individual, he was thinking of the office
rather than of the person, and that the perpetual continuance of the Davidic
dynasty, not the undying life of anyone representative of it, was meant. The
full light of the truth that there is a king whose royalty, like his priesthood,
passes to no other is not to be forcedupon the psalm. It stands as a witness
that devout and inspired souls longed for the establishment of a kingdom,
againstwhich revolutions and enemies and mortality were powerless.They
knew not that their desires could not be fulfilled by the longestsuccessionof
dying kings, but were to be more than accomplishedby One, "of whom it is
witnessedthat He liveth."
The psalmist turns for a moment from his prayer for the perpetuity of the
king’s rule, to linger upon the thought of its blessednessas setforth in the
lovely image of Psalms 72:6. Rain upon mown grass is no blessing, as every
farmer knows:but what is meant is, not the grass whichhas already been
mown, but the naked meadow from which it has been taken. It needs
drenching showers, in order to sprout againand produce an aftermath. The
poet’s eye is caught by the contrastbetweenthe bare look of the field
immediately after cutting and the rich growth that springs, as by magic, from
the yellow roots after a plentiful shower. This king’s gracious influences shall
fall upon even what seems dead, and charm forth hidden life that will flush
the plain with greenness. The psalmist dwells on the picture, reiterating the

comparisonin Psalms 72:6 b, and using there an uncommon word, which
seems bestrendered as meaning a heavy rainfall. With such affluence of
quickening powers will the righteous king bless his people. The "Mirror for
Magistrates."whichis held up in the lovely poem 2 Samuel 23:4, has a
remarkable parallel in its description of the just ruler as resembling a
"morning without clouds, when the tender grass springeth out of the earth
through clearshining after rain"; but the psalmist heightens the metaphor by
the introduction of the mown meadow as stimulated to new growth. This
image of the rain lingers with him and shapes his prayer in Psalms 72:7 a. A
righteous king will insure prosperity to the righteous, and the number of such
will increase. Boththese ideas seemto be contained in the figure of their
flourishing, which is literally bud or shoot. And, as the people become more
and more prevailingly righteous, they receive more abundant and unbroken
peace. The psalmist had seendeeply into the conditions of national prosperity,
as well as those of individual tranquillity, when he basedthese on rectitude.
With Psalms 72:8 the singer takes a still loftier flight, and prays for the
universality of the king’s dominion. In that verse the form of the verb is that
which expresses desire, but in Psalms 72:9 and following verses the verbs may
be rendered as simple futures. Confident prayers insensibly melt into
assurancesoftheir own fulfilment. As the psalmist pours out his petitions,
they glide into prophecies;for they are desires fashionedupon promises, and
bear, in their very earnestness, the pledge of their realisation. As to the details
of the form which the expectationof universal dominion here takes, it need
only be noted that we have to do with a poet, not with a geographer. We are
not to treat the expressions as if they were instructions to a boundary
commission, and to be laid down upon a map. "The sea" is probably the
Mediterranean;but what the other sea which makes the opposite boundary
may be is hard to say. Commentators have thought of the PersianGulf, or of
an imaginary oceanencircling the flat earth, according to ancientideas. But
more probably the expressionis as indeterminate as the parallel one, "the
ends of the earth." In the first clause ofthe verse the psalmist starts from the
Mediterranean, the westernboundary, and his anticipations travel awayinto
the unknown easternregions;while, in the secondclause, he begins with the
Euphrates, which was the easternboundary of the dominion promised to

Israel, and, coming westward, he passesout in thought to the dim regions
beyond. The very impossibility of defining the boundaries declares the
boundlessness ofthe kingdom. The poet’s eyes have lookedeastand west, and
in Psalms 72:9 he turns to the south, and sees the desert tribes, unconquered
as they have hitherto been, grovelling before the king, and his enemies in
abjectsubmission at his feet. The word rendered "desertpeoples" is that used
in Psalms 74:14 for wild beasts inhabiting the desert, but here it can only
mean wilderness tribes. There seems no need to alter the text, as has been
proposed, and to read "adversaries." In Psalms 72:10 the psalmist again looks
westward, acrossthe mysterious oceanofwhich he, like all his nation, knew so
little. The great city of Tarshishlay for him at the farthest bounds of the
world; and betweenhim and it, or perhaps still farther out in the waste
unknown, were islands from which rich and strange things sometimes reached
Judaea. These shallbring their wealth in tokenof fealty. Again he looks
southward to Sheba in Arabia, and Seba far south below Egypt, and foresees
their submission. His knowledge ofdistant lands is exhausted, and therefore
he ceasesenumeration, and falls back on comprehensiveness. How little he
knew, and how much he believed! His conceptions ofthe sweepof that "all"
were childish; his faith that, howevermany these unknown kings and nations
were, God’s anointed was their king was either extravagantexaggeration, orit
was nurtured in him by God, and meant to be fulfilled when a world, wide
beyond his dreams and needy beyond his imagination, should own the sway of
a King, endowedwith God’s righteousness and communicative of God’s
peace, in a manner and measure beyond his desires.
The triumphant swellof these anticipations passeswith wonderful pathos into
gentler music, as if the softertones of flutes should follow trumpet blasts. How
tenderly and profoundly the psalm bases the universality of the dominion on
the pitying care and delivering power of the King! The whole secretof sway
over men lies in that "For," whichushers in the gracious picture of the
beneficent and tender-hearted Monarch. The world is so full of sorrow, and
men are so miserable and needy, that he who can stanchtheir wounds, solace
their griefs, and sheltertheir lives will win their hearts and be crowned their
king. Thrones basedon force are as if set on an iceberg which melts away.
There is no solid foundation for rule except helpfulness. In the world and for a

little while "they that exercise authority are calledbenefactors";but in the
long run the terms of the sentence are inverted, and they that are rightly
calledbenefactors exercise authority. The more earthly rulers approximate to
this ideal portrait, the more "broad basedupon their people’s will" and love
will their thrones stand. If Israel’s kings had adhered to it, their throne would
have endured. But their failures point to Him in whom the principle declared
by the psalmist receives its most tender illustration. The universal dominion of
Jesus Christ is basedupon the fact that He "tasteddeath for every man." In
the Divine purpose, He has won the right to rule men because He has died for
them. In historicalrealisation, He wins men’s submission because He has
given Himself for them. Therefore does He command with absolute authority;
therefore do we obey with entire submission. His swaynot only reaches out
over all the earth, inasmuch as the powerof His cross extends to all men, but
it lays hold of the inmost will and makes submissiona delight.
The king is representedin Psalms 72:14 as taking on himself the office of
Goel, or Kinsman-Redeemer, and ransoming his subjects’lives from "deceit
and violence." That"their blood is precious in his eyes" is another way of
saying that they are too dear to him to be suffered to perish. This king’s
treasure is the life of his subjects. Therefore he will put forth his powerto
preserve them and deliver them. The result of such tender care and delivering
love is setforth in Psalms 72:15, but in obscure language. The ambiguity
arises from the absence ofexpressedsubjects for the four verbs in the verse.
Who is he who "lives"? Is the same person the giver of the gold of Sheba, and
to whom is it given? Who prays, and for whom? And who blesses, andwhom
does he bless? The plain wayof understanding the verse is to suppose that the
person spokenof in all the clauses is the same;and then the question comes
whether he is the king or the ransomedman. Difficulties arise in carrying out
either reference through all the clauses;and hence attempts have been made
to vary the subjectof the verbs. Delitzsch, for instance, supposes thatit is the
ransomed man who "lives," the king who gives to the ransomed man gold,
and the man who prays for and blesses the king. But such an arbitrary
shuttling about of the reference of "he" and "him" is impossible. Other
attempts of a similar kind need not be noticed here. The only satisfactory
course is to take one person as spokenof by all the verbs. But then the

question comes, Who is he? There is much to be said in favour of either
hypothesis as answering that question. The phrase which is rendered above
"So that he lives," is so like the common invocation"May the king live," that
it strongly favours taking the whole verse as a continuance of the petitions for
the monarch. But if so, the verb in the secondclause (he shall give) must be
takenimpersonally, as equivalent to "one will give" or "there shall be given,"
and those in the remaining clauses must be similarly dealt with, or the text
altered so as to make them plurals, reading, "Theyshall pray for him (the
king), and shall bless him." On the whole;it is bestto suppose that the
ransomed man is the subject throughout, and that the verse describes his glad
tribute, and continual thankfulness. Ransomedfrom death, he brings
offerings to his deliverer. It seems singularthat he should be conceivedofboth
as "needy" and as owning "gold" which he canoffer; but in the literal
application the incongruity is not sufficient to prevent the adoption of this
view of the clause;and in the higher applicationof the words to Christ and
His subjects, which we conceive to be warranted, the incongruity becomes fine
and deep truth; for the poorestsoul, delivered by Him, can bring tribute,
which He esteems as precious beyond all earthly treasure. Nor need the
remaining clauses militate againstthe view that the ransomedman is the
subject in them, The psalm had, a historical basis, and all its points cannotbe
introduced into the Messianic interpretation. This one of praying for the king
cannot be; notwithstanding the attempts of some commentators to find a
meaning for it in Christian prayers for the spread of Christ’s kingdom. That
explanation does violence to the language, mistakesthe nature of Messianic
prophecy, and brings discredit on the view that the psalm has a Messianic
character.
The lastpart of the psalm (Psalms 72:16-17)recurs to petitions for the growth
of the nation and the perpetual flourishing of the king’s name. The fertility of
the land and the increase ofits people are the psalmist’s desires, whichare
also certainties, as expressedin Psalms 72:16. He sees in imagination the
whole land waving with abundant harvests, which reacheven to the tops of
the mountains, and rustle in the summer air, with a sound like the cedars of
Lebanon, when they move their layers of greenness to the breeze. The word
rendered above "abundance" is doubtful; but there does not seemto be in the

psalmist’s mind the contrastwhich he is often supposed to be expressing,
beautiful and true as it is, betweenthe small beginnings and the magnificent
end of the kingdom on earth. The mountains are here thought of as lofty and
barren. If waving harvests clothe their gaunt sides, how will the vales laugh in
plentiful crops! As the earth yields her increase, so the people of the king shall
be multiplied, and from all his cities they shall spring forth abundant as grass.
That figure would bear much expansion; for what could more beautifully set
forth rapidity of growth, close-knitcommunity, multiplication of units, and
absorption of these in a lovely whole, than the picture of a meadow clothed
with its grassycarpet? Such hopes had only partial fulfilment in Israel. Nor
have they had adequate fulfilment up till now. But they lie on the horizon of
the future, and they shall one day be reached. Much that is dim is treasuredin
them. There may be a renovated world, from which the curse of barrenness
has been banished. There shall be a swift increase of the subjects of the King,
until the earlierhope of the psalm is fulfilled, and all nations shall serve him.
But bright as are the poet’s visions concerning the kingdom, his lastgaze is
fastenedon its king, and he prays that his name may last forever, and may
send forth shoots as long as the sun shines in the sky. He probably meant no
more than a prayer for the continual duration of the dynasty, and his
conceptionof the name as sending forth shoots was probably that of its being
perpetuated in descendants. But, as has been alreadynoticed, the perpetuity,
which he conceivedofas belonging to a family and an office, really belongs to
the One King, Jesus Christ, whose Name is above every name, and will
blossomanew in fresh revelations of its infinite contents, not only while the
sun shines, but when its fires are coldand its light quenched. The psalmist’s
last desire is that the ancientpromise to the fathers may be fulfilled in the
King, their descendant, in whom men shall bless themselves. So full of
blessednessmay He seemto all men, that they shall take Him for the very type
of felicity, and desire to be even as He is! In men’s relation to Christ the
phrase assumes a deepermeaning still: and though that is not intended by the
psalmist, and is not the expositionof his words, it still is true that in Christ all
blessings for humanity are stored, and that therefore if men are to be truly
blessedthey must plunge themselves into Him, and in Him find all that they
need for blessednessandnobility of life and character. If He is our supreme

type of whatsoeverthings are fair and of goodreport, and if we have bowed
ourselves to Him because He has delivered us from death, then we share in
His life, and all His blessings are parted among us.
The Christian Experience of the Attributes of God’s Appointed King
Sermon by J. Ligon Duncan on September21, 2004
Psalms 72:1-20
Turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm72. Let me just remind you that at the
time of the response atthe end of the service, after the benediction, that we’ll
sing the last stanza of that arrangementof Psalm 72. You will have noticed
that everything we’ve sung tonight, except for the word before the Children’s
Devotional, is relatedto Psalm 72. We sang at the beginning of the service,
Hail to the Lord’s Anointed, which is four stanzas of–Idon’t know, about
twelve or thirteen stanzas of James Montgomery’s greathymn basedupon
Psalm72. Really, it’s just a paraphrase or a rendering of Psalm72. We love to
sing James Montgomeryhymns. We don’t have as many of them in our
hymnal as you would find in British evangelicalchurches. He was one of the
greathymn writers. We know Isaac Watts and William Cowperperhaps
better than James Montgomery, but he was one of the greathymn writers,
and this song, Hail to the Lord’s Anointed, is reckonedto be his greatest
hymn. And it’s a beautiful setting. In fact, I’m going to quote some lines of it
that you don’t find in your hymnal. But we opened the service with that.
And then we sang, Jesus ShallReign Where’erthe Sun. We’re used to singing
that at Missions Conference time, and indeed it is a wonderful hymn to sing at
the time of Missions Conference, but all it is, is Isaac Watts’paraphrase of the
seventy-secondpsalm. He inserts the name of Jesus, becausesurely, as we’re

going to see, this psalm is ultimately about the Lord Jesus Christand His
reign.
And then, the song we just sang one stanza of is The Psalterof 1912 versionof
the seventy-secondpsalm. So you are being seventy-second-psalmedto death
tonight in the worship service!And the whole idea is for us to catch something
of the delight that this psalm is designedto evoke in the believer at the
contemplation of the reign of God in His Son, Messiah. The MessiahKing,
Jesus Christ.
Now, you’ll notice as you look at this psalm that it is titled, A Psalmof
Solomon. Many of the psalms in the Secondand the First Book have a name.
Very often it’s the name “David.” And in the original it simply means “of
David.” Now, that could mean “to David,” or “for David,” or it could mean
“by David.” Typically we understand that phrase to mean “by David,”
especiallyin the first two Books ofthe Psalter, the books that we’ve studied
togetheron Sunday night overthe last severalyears. Thatis, that the psalm
itself was written by David. There are various reasons we readit that way.
Sometimes it’s because ofthe content of the psalm itself. It may be
autobiographical. It may be referring to events in the life of David. But other
times it’s because the New Testamentindicates that these were David’s words.
Now with this psalm it is a little difficult to know whether when it says “of
Solomon” that it’s written by Solomon, or whether it’s written for Solomon.
Either way would be a proper translation. If we follow the generalpattern of
that ascriptionin the First and SecondBooks ofthe Psalms that “ofDavid”
means “by David,” then we would leanto seeing this as a psalm written by
Solomon. But of course, atthe end of this psalm there is a doxologyand a
transition verse that was written to conclude the SecondBook ofthe Psalms,
and you’ll see it in verse twenty. And it says, “Thus ends the prayers of
David.” Now that makes us wonder whether maybe this was a prayer of David
for his son, Solomon the king, to reign in accordance withthe principles of
God’s justice. So, goodcommentators have differed on this. Is it a psalm of
David written for Solomon, his son; or is it a psalm of Solomon, written about
his ownreign, and a prayer that he’s praying to God, that he would follow

after these attributes of the ideal king? Or is it perhaps Solomon praying for
his son?
Well, frankly, whichever way, it doesn’t’ matter, because, ultimately this song
is about Jesus Christ. It is a Messianic psalm.
Before we even getinto the psalm, I’d like to prove that point to you. Let’s
first turn to Zechariah 9:9. In Zechariah 9, listen to this language:
“Rejoicegreatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of
Jerusalem!Behold, you king is coming to you; He is just and endowedwith
salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a
donkey. I will cut off the chariotfrom Ephraim, and the horse from
Jerusalem;and the bow will be cut off. And He will speak peace to the
nations; and His dominion will be from sea to sea, and from the River to the
ends of the earth. As for you also, because ofthe blood of My covenantwith
you, I have set your prisoners free from the waterlesspit. Return to the
stronghold, O prisoners who have the hope; this very day I am declaring that
I will restore double to you. ForI will bend Judah as My bow, I will fill the
bow with Ephraim. And I will stir up your sons, O Zion, againstyour sons, O
Greece;and I will make you like a warrior’s sword.”
Now, you will see some of those same images for the King pictured in Psalm
72. He is going to be righteous, and yet He is going to be compassionate
towards those who are oppressed. He is going to destroy the oppressor, and at
the same time He is going to make the land of God’s people bountiful and
peaceful. And those themes echo through Psalm 72. And as you know, in the
Gospelof Matthew, we are told that Jesus is the fulfillment of this prophecy.
We could go also to Isaiah, chapter eleven. Let me ask you to turn there,
Isaiah11, and listen to these themes echoing from Psalm 72 in Isaiah’s
prophecy. Isaiah11:1.
“Then a shootwill spring from the stem of Jesse, anda branch from his roots
will bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the spirit of
wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counseland strength, the spirit of

Jesus was the poor man's friend

Jesus was the poor man's friend

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Jesus was the poor man's friend

Similar to Jesus was the poor man's friend (20)

More from GLENN PEASE

More from GLENN PEASE (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Jesus was the poor man's friend