Psalms 59:16 By Spurgeon

Pslm 59:16

EXPOSITION

Verse 16. But I will sing of thy power. The wicked howl, but I sing and will sing. Their power is weakness, but thine is omnipotence; I see them vanquished and thy power victorious, and for ever and ever will I sing of thee.

Yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning. When those lovers of darkness find their game is up, and their midnight howlings die away, then will I lift up my voice on high and praise the lovingkindness of God without fear of being disturbed. What a blessed morning will soon break for the righteous, and what a song will be theirs! Sons of the morning, ye may sigh tonight, but joy will come on the wings of the rising sun. Tune your harps even now, for the signal to commence the eternal music will soon be given; the morning cometh and your sun shall go no more down for ever.

For thou hast been my defence. The song is for God alone, and it is one which none can sing but those who have experienced the lovingkindness of their God. Looking back upon a past all full of mercy, the saints will bless the Lord with their whole hearts, and triumph in him as the high place of their security.

And refuge in the day of my trouble. The greater our present trials the louder will our future songs be, and the more intense our joyful gratitude. Had we no day of trouble, where were our season of retrospective thanksgiving? David’s besetment by Saul’s bloodhounds creates an opportunity for divine interposition and so for triumphant praise.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 16. We must not pass by the contrast with the wretched condition of the wicked, which is indicated by the pronoun hmh, they, in Psalms 59:15 , an ygaw, but I, which are in exact antithesis; also the “evening,” mentioned above, and the “morning,” now occurring for the times of trouble and happiness, and the dog like noise of the wicked, and the singing with joyful sound of David, to pass by other particulars, likewise give to the diverse states additional difference. Hermann Venema.

Verse 16. Cantabo and exaltabo, I will sing, and I will sing aloud. Here is singing only of God’s power; but there is singing aloud of his mercy; as if his mercy were more exaltable than his power, and that reached the very heavens; this unto the clouds. Psalms 26:5 . From Humphrey Sydenham’s Sermon, entitled, “The Well toned Cymball,” 1637.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 16. The heavenly chorister.

1. His song is sweet in contrast with the revilings of
   others — but I.
2. It treats of subjects which terrify others — thy
   power.
3. It grows louder on tender themes — thy mercy.
4. It has its choice seasons — in the morning.
5. It is tuned by experience — for thou hast.
6. It is all to God’s glory — thy power,
   thy mercy, thou hast.

What Might Charles Spurgeon have sounded like?

What Did Charles Spurgeon Sound Like? A Recording of His Son

Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) and his wife Susannah were married in January 1856, and she became pregnant right away with fraternal twins. Charles Jr. and Thomas Spurgeon (1856-1917) were born later that year in September, just a month prior to the tragedy at the Royal Surrey Gardens Music Hall while Charles was preaching.

After his father died in 1892, Thomas returned to England from New Zealand and served for 15 years as pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London.

The comparisons between father and son were inevitable, as W.Y. Fullerton recorded in his 1909 biography:

Seen from the midst of the congregation he is not very dissimilar in appearance from his father. There is the frock coat, the little black tie, the quiet self-possessed demeanour, the clear, studied articulation; a voice, not quite that of Charles Spurgeon, not quite so strong and not quite so musical, so marvellously expressive and flexible, as his father’s, but clear and pleasant and melodious, and with many of the late pastor’s modulations and inflexions.

When presently, after the manner of the great preacher, he breaks off from the chapter he is reading and begins to comment upon it, it immediately becomes apparent that he has the same ready fluency of speech, the same easy, familiar style of address, and when he announces his text and plunges into his sermon, he soon shows himself not altogether lacking in the racy way of putting things, the terse and vigorous English, and the strong sense of humour that were so characteristic of the Tabernacle pulpit for many a long year.

Many of the gifts of his father—though no doubt in smaller measure—he certainly possesses, and every here and there one might have shut one’s eyes and fancied that it was the old pastor back again.

During Thomas Spurgeon’s pastorate—August 2, 1905, to be precise—he spoke into a Edison-Bell phonograph, recording the closing paragraph of his father’s final printed sermon. Since no audio exists of the Prince of Preachers himself, this must suffice as the closest approximation.

Source: Spurgeon Online,

[If there are any audio engineers out there who want to engineer a better quality version, let me know.]

Transcript:

C. H. Spurgeon’s last words, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, June 7, 1891, recited by his son and successor, Thomas Spurgeon, Edison-Bell Records.

It is cause for real regret that none of my late, dear father’s words were preserved by means of the phonograph. Perhaps the next best thing is for me, his son and successor, to repeat what proved to be his passing message. It should not be less forceful now, fourteen years after its delivery, for the truth of God is unchanging.

If you wear the livery of Christ, you will find him so meek and lowly of heart that you will find rest unto your souls. He is the most magnanimous of captains. There never was his like the choicest of princes. He is always to be found in the thickest part of the battle. When the wind blows cold he always takes the bleak side of the hill. The heaviest end of the cross lies ever on his shoulders. If he bids us carry a burden, he carries it also. If there is anything that is gracious, generous, kind, and tender, yea lavish and superabundant in love, you always find it in him. His service is life, peace, and joy. Oh, that you would enter on it at once! God help you to enlist under the banner of JESUS CHRIST!

All People Have A Will To Do and Not To Do

The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Romans 8:7

As I was reading and studying this early morning

Man, created in God’s image, possesses a mind, a heart, and a will. The mind, or intellect, allows him to think rationally, not by sheer instinct like an animal. The heart, or emotion, enables him to feel, unlike a robot or machine, human experience. The will, or volition, enables him to make decisions and choices that have moral consequences. It is his capacity for action, a capacity that allows him to choose this over that and those instead of these.

In his unfallen , that is before Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden (which we take as been literal, and there was a read Adam and Eve)  state, man was good and very good. The fall, however, affected every part of man’s being. Man’s mind, by virtue of his fallen nature was darkened, incapable of understanding the things of the Spirit of God (Ephesians 4:18; 1 Corinthians 2:14). Further, his emotions are now deceptive and untrustworthy (Jeremiah 17:9) and his will, that is, his ability to choose good over evil and right over wrong, is bound.

The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith reads,

• “Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation, so as a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able by his own strength to commit himself, or to prepare himself thereto.”

So, is man free? If by the word “free” one means that people have the ability to make certain choices on their own (i.e. free from compulsion, force, or coercion), then the answer is “yes.” For example, people have the ability to choose to go to the store or stay home, to buy a newspaper or not, to eat beef or to eat fish, etc.; such choices are within the natural capacity of human beings. People are free to act according to their nature.

                    

If by the word “free”, however, one means free without any limitation, then the answer is “no.” People are not free to act contrary to their nature. I cannot choose to fly. Yes, I can choose to travel by airplane, but I cannot choose to sprout wings or become a bird. My will, you see, is not entirely free. It is bound by the limits of my nature. We do not have the freedom to be anything we are not.
Man, in other words, is not free to act outside the boundaries of his human nature. He cannot live the life of a fish in the ocean or fly like a bird in the air without external resources enabling him to duplicate his natural environment. Just as that is true on a natural level, it is also true on a spiritual level. In his fallen state, man cannot choose to be righteous. The Ethiopian cannot by his own sheer willpower, change the color of his skin, nor the leopard his spots. Neither can those whose nature is depraved voluntarily do good (Jeremiah 13:23). Man’s will is enslaved to his sinful nature. Left to himself, his only capacity is fleshly.

Unregenerate people (those who have not been born again, or not a Christian) are not free to choose righteousness or wickedness; they are, on the contrary, “free from righteousness” (Romans 6:20). By nature, man’s will is a “will not” (Psalm 10:4; Psalm 58:3; John 5:40, Isaiah 26:10). His only inclination is toward carnality. The natural man will never choose anything but sin,(that is, that which is not pleasing to God)  because he cannot operate outside the parameters of his sinful nature (Romans 8:7). The nature of man’s will is not free to do just anything this is mind wants him to do. Mankind cannot just want to become a Christians. His nature is dead to the things of God as to salvation.

Not until his nature is changed does he have the desire or the capacity to choose righteousness. Prior to God’s work of regeneration in the soul, therefore, man’s will is bound by the old nature. In regeneration, the fallen sinner is made “willing in the day of God’s power” (Psalm 110:3). He is given a new nature, a righteous nature, capable of responding to God. Because the old nature is not eradicated, however, a warfare between the Spirit and the flesh ensues (Romans 7) – requiring deliberate and decisive efforts of the will for righteousness (Romans 6:11-23). In other words, the believer must choose, every day, between the options of serving sin or righteousness (Joshua 24:15; Romans 6:13). With such a conflict facing us, we should be glad that the Holy Spirit will continue to work within us “both to will and to do His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

Because man’s will, apart from the new nature given in the new birth, is bound, it is incapable of choosing eternal life. Man’s only hope of eternal life, then, is rooted in God’s initiative and choice. Salvation, in other words, depends on God’s choice, not mine, and upon His sovereign will, not man’s fallen will (John 1:13; Romans 9:16; Ephesians 1:5,11; Hebrews 10:10). That, my friend, is a firm foundation!

Charles Spurgeon put it this way:  (Spuregon spend much time and study into the Word of God, he was given a gift of understanding and words that most of us don’t have, he was able to .frame thoughts in a way that those that hear him could understand. He was a pastor for 30 years, Thus I believe we can trust his interpretation of the scriptures.

And, dear friends, is it not a wonderful proof of grace that God does this without destroying man in any degree whatever? Man is a creature with a will,—a “free will” as they sometimes call it,—a creature who is responsible for his actions; so God does not come and change our hearts by a physical process, as some seem to dream, but by a spiritual process in which he never mars our nature, but sets our nature right.

If a man becomes a child of God, he still has a will. God does not destroy the delicate machinery of our nature, but he puts it into proper gear. We become Christians with our own full assent and consent; and we keep the law of God not by any compulsion except the sweet compulsion of love. We do not keep it because we cannot do otherwise, but we keep it because we would not do otherwise, because we have come to delight therein, and this seems to me the greatest wonder of divine grace.