DISCOURSE: 729
GOD’S WORD MAGNIFIED
Psalms 138:2. Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.
A DEVOUT mind will never want occasions for praising God: but there are some occasions whereon it will find peculiar liberty and enlargement. If, for instance, we have been in deep affliction; if we have had recourse to God in prayer; if we have laid hold on his promises, and pleaded them before him; and, in particular, if we have had them accomplished to our souls; this process prepares the mind, quickens it, elevates it, and so fills it, that it cannot but express its feelings in gratitude and praise.
David had, under some deep affliction, used these means for relief, and found their efficacy: “In the day when I cried, thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul [Note: ver. 3.].” Constrained by a sense of this great mercy, he breaks forth into this devout acknowledgment: “I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods (that is, in the presence of all the great ones of the earth) will I sing praise unto thee. I will worship towards thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy loving-kindness and for thy truth (which, in this particular instance, thou hast so signally displayed:) for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name;” and hast shewn that it shall infallibly be fulfilled to all who trust in it.
From these words I will take occasion to shew,
I. What honour God puts upon his word—
“He magnifies it above all his name,” that is, above every thing whereby he has made himself known to mortal man. He has revealed himself in part, by his works of Creation and Providence; but far more abundantly by his word. He has sent it to us,
1. As a mirror, to reflect his glory—
[“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handy-work [Note: Psalms 19:1.].” “From them may his eternal power and Godhead be clearly seen [Note: Romans 1:20.].” In his providential dealings, also, is much of his wisdom and goodness exhibited. But of his perfections, generally, we can form no idea from these things: of his purposes we can know nothing. The state of the heathen world clearly attests this: for they behold the wonders of creation and providence, as well as we: “There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard: their line is gone out into all the earth, and their words unto the end of the world [Note: Psalms 19:3-4.].” But in the sacred volume all the glory of the Godhead shines: there we are admitted, so to speak, even to the council-chamber of the Most High; to hear the covenant entered into between the Father and the Son; the Father engaging to give to him a seed, whom he should have for his inheritance, if he, on his part, would “make his soul an offering for their sins,” and, in their nature, expiate the guilt of their iniquities [Note: Isaiah 53:10. with Psalms 40:6-8.]. This mysterious transaction having taken place in the incarnation and death of the Lord Jesus Christ, we behold all the perfections of God united and harmonizing in a way that they never did, nor could, by any other means: we see justice more inexorable, than if it had executed vengeance on the whole human race; and mercy more abundant, than if it had spared the whole human race without any such atonement. There, as it is well expressed, “Mercy and truth are met together, and righteousness and peace kiss each other [Note: Psalms 85:10.].” Of this great mystery we find not a trace in the whole creation besides: but in the word it is reflected, as in a mirror [Note: 2 Corinthians 3:18.]; and shines so bright, that the very angels around the throne are made wiser by the revelation of it to the Church [Note: Ephesians 3:10.]
2. As a standard, to which every thing may be referred—
[Of God’s will we know nothing, but from the word: “we know neither good nor evil from all that is before us.” What God requires of us, nothing in creation or providence can inform us: what he will do for us, we cannot ascertain: how he will deal with us in the eternal world, we cannot learn. But, in the sacred volume, all is written as with a sun-beam. There is nothing which God expects us to do for him, which is not there most explicitly declared: nothing which he engages to do for us, that does not form the subject of a distinct promise. The whole of his procedure in the day of judgment is there laid open: the laws by which we shall be judged; the manner in which the testimony, whether against us or in our favour, shall be produced; the grounds on which the sentence of condemnation or acquittal shall be passed; yea, the very state to which every person, either as acquitted or condemned, shall be consigned; all is so clearly made known, that every person, who will judge himself with candour now, may assuredly anticipate his fate. There is nothing left to conjecture. Every man has a standard to which he may refer, for the rectifying of his judgment in every particular: so that nothing can be added, for the instruction of our minds, or the regulation of our future expectations.]
3. As a fountain, from whence all his blessings emanate—
[Great blessings, beyond all doubt, flow down to us through the works of creation and providence: in fact, they are incessantly administering to our welfare; for “God opens his hands, and fills all things living with plenteousness.” Still, however, the benefits derived from them are only temporal; whereas those which the inspired volume imparts are spiritual and eternal: from thence we derive all our knowledge of divine truth, and all our hopes of everlasting salvation. Nor is it the knowledge only of truth that we obtain, but the operation and efficacy of it on our souls. There is in divine truth, when applied by the Holy Spirit, a power to wound, to heal, to sanctify, to save [Note: Psalms 19:7-11.]. When it comes to the soul with power, the stoutest heart in the universe is made to tremble: when it is poured out as balm, the most afflicted creature under heaven is made to leap for joy. Look over the face of the globe, and see how many, who were once under the unrestrained dominion of sin, are now transformed into the image of their God. And then ascend to heaven, and behold the myriads of the redeemed around the throne of God, uniting their hallelujahs to God and to the Lamb: to this state were they all brought by that blessed word, which alone could ever prevail for so great a work. Thus it is that God has magnified his word; and thus it is that he will magnify it to the end of time; yea, through eternity will it be acknowledged as the one source of all the blessings that shall ever be enjoyed.]
Does God so honour his word? Surely, then, we may see,
II.
What honour we should put upon it—
I will here content myself with specifying only two particulars:
1. We should regulate ourselves altogether by it—
[We should know no other rule, either for our faith or practice. Whatever that speaks, we should receive with the most implicit confidence. Reason must judge whether there be sufficient evidence of its divine origin: but, that once admitted, the whole must be received by faith. We are not to be sitting in judgment on God’s word, and saying, I cannot understand how there should be three persons in the Godhead; or how the Son should become incarnate; or how the Holy Spirit should dwell in the heart of a believer; or how we should be ultimately saved by a righteousness not our own. I say, we are not called to sit in judgment upon these things, but to receive them on the authority of God himself, who alone knows the manner of his own subsistence, or what is that mode of imparting salvation which is most suited to his own divine character.
If it be thought, that to expect a rational being so to submit his reason to the authority of revelation, is to require a sacrifice that is unworthy of him; I answer, that this is the very way in which all human knowledge is acquired. What knows a child, for instance, respecting the elements of language? You tell him, but in terms which he cannot comprehend, what grammar is, and what its rules are for the construction of language. What your instructions mean, he has no conception: but he takes for granted, that what you tell him is true: and from first receiving it simply on your authority, he comes, in time, to see that things are so, and must be so; that there is, in fact, no other way of communicating any abstract idea; and that, by that contrivance, we may open to the mind of another person the very inmost recesses of our own. Thus, in receiving the mysterious truths of God, we first take them on the authority of our Divine Teacher; then, gradually finding that they correspond with our own experience, we see that they are precisely as they have been represented to us: then we come to find that they could not be otherwise: and, in the issue, we obtain such views of their individual importance, their general harmony, and their mutual subserviency to the glory of God in the salvation of man, that we have no more doubt of them than of our own existence.
But it is not in speculative views that we must rest: we must, if we would indeed magnify the word, take it also as the rule of our conduct. We must not take offence at any thing because it requires more than we are disposed to yield: but, instead of lowering the command to our attainments, we must endeavour to elevate our attainments to it. The very “thoughts and imaginations of our hearts must be brought into obedience to God’s blessed word;” and our whole souls be cast into it, as into a mould [Note: Romans 6:17. The Greek.], not leaving a lineament in that unimpressed upon our souls, or retaining a feature upon our souls unconformed to that.
This is the way in which we are to honour the word; and to fail in any part of this, is to refuse it that entire submission which it requires at our hands.]
2. We should endeavour to circulate it to the very ends of the earth—
[This must follow as a matter of course. For, do we possess a mirror that reflects all the glory of our God; and shall we not desire that every human being may behold its light? Have we a standard to which every thing that is interesting to man may be referred; and shall we not give to the whole world the advantage of it? Have we a fountain from whence all imaginable blessings flow; and shall we keep it to ourselves, and not endeavour to impart its blessings to every child of man? Surely we must rather pant for an opportunity to make it known to the whole world. We must strive to circulate it through every country under heaven, whether civilized or savage: we must be ready to engage in translating it into every language in the world, in order that all men may be able to read in their own tongue the wonderful works of God. To preach it, too, we should account our highest honour, though it be amongst the most uncivilized nations of the earth: nor let it be thought that the most transcendent talents can be applied to any better purpose than this. On the contrary, the more eminent any person’s talents are, the more would we urge him to consecrate them to the blessed work of translating this sacred volume into languages in which it has never yet appeared, and of instructing his fellow-creatures who are yet sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. Even an angel from heaven accounts it an honour to carry this book through the vast expanse of heaven, “to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people [Note: Revelation 14:6].” Let it not then be thought an occupation unworthy of us; and, whilst we are earnestly praying to God that he would send forth his light and his truth to every quarter of the globe, let us, by every possible means, endeavour to promote this glorious and blessed object. Let us first seek to have “the word of Christ dwelling richly in all wisdom” in our own souls, and then labour that “it may have free course, and be glorified” throughout the earth.]