Remember me, O Lord, with the favour that Thou bearest unto Thy people.
Sharing the blessings of God’s people
I. Who the lord’s people are. They are a people who, deeply sensible of their own guiltiness and vileness, rest simply upon Jesus as their Saviour from the wrath to come. They are a people led also by the Spirit of the Saviour they believe in; actuated by His love; conformed to His image.
II. The favour which the Lord bears unto His people.
1. He sends His Spirit into their hearts to dwell with and abide in them--to work in them both to will and to do what is pleasing in His eyes.
2. He gives them His Word, full of precious things--comforts, invitations, promises, directions.
3. He makes all things work together for their good.
4. He gives them free access to Himself in prayer.
III. The prayer in the text.
I. We are here taught what to do, if we fear that we have no part nor lot in the Lord’s favour to His people. Pray for it.
2. Imitate the fervency of the psalmist in seeking for a clear, personal interest in these privileges. (A. Roberts, M.A.)
The poor man’s prayer
I. This is an admirable prayer for a poor humble Christian. Notice with interest the first fear felt by this poor, trembling Christian. He is afraid that he is such a little one that God will forget him, and so he begins with, “O remember me with the favour which Thou bearest to Thy people.” He is a true believer, but he is a sad doubter. He is on the road to heaven, but he is often afraid he is not, and that makes him watch every step he takes. I almost wish some confident professors were altogether as doubtful as he is if they would be half as cautious. Now, I am not quite sure about this good man’s name,--it may be Littlefaith, or Feeblemind. Or is it Mr. Despondency I am thinking of? Or Miss Much-afraid? Or Mr. Ready-to-halt? Well, it is some one of that numerous family. This poor soul thinks, “Surely God will forget me I” No, no, dear heart, he will not forget you. It is wonderful how God does think of little things. Mungo Park picked up a little bit Of moss in the desert, and as he marked how beautifully it was variegated, he said, “God is here: He is thinking of the moss, and therefore He will think of me.” Observe next, that this poor, trembling heart seems to be in great trouble for fear the Lord should pass it by, but at the same time feels that every good thing it can possibly receive must come from the Lord, and must be brought to it by the Lord. Thou needest not say, if thou hast a broken heart, “Lord, visit me.” Do you not know that He dwells in you, for is it not written (Isaiah 66:2)? Are you not the very person? Poor sorrowing heart, let me say to thee, and say in God’s name, if thou lovest thy Lord, all things are thine. They are thine freely to enjoy even at this moment. The Lord denies thee no covenant blessing. Make bold to appropriate the sacred joys, for if thou be the least child in the family, yet the heritage of God’s children is the same for every one.
II. This is a suitable petition for a poor, penitent backslider. It is clear that this poor, pleading backslider feels that he has forgotten his God. Have you done that? You have been a Church-member, and you have gone sadly astray; have you quite forgotten His commandments? You thought you loved Him. You used to pray at one time: you had some enjoyment in reading and in hearing the Word; but now you find your pleasure somewhere else. You have left your first love and gone after many lovers. But, oh, if the Lord is gracious to you, you are lamenting your forgetfulness; and though you have not remembered Him, the prayer leaps to your lips, “Lord, remember me.” Blessed be His name, He does not so easily forget us as we forget Him. It is He that sets thee weeping, and makes thee sorrow for thy sin. And then, I think, your next trouble will be this: you feel that you have lost your fellowship with Christ: and you are right in so feeling, for “How can two walk together except they be agreed?” How could Christ have fellowship with you in the ways of folly?” Come back, my Lord, and visit me with Thy salvation.” Is not this a prayer made on purpose for you? And, next, you observe in the text that the poor backslider is longing to get a sight of the good things which for a long time have been hid from him He cries, “That I may see the good of Thy chosen. He has been out amongst the swine, but he could not fill his belly with the husks. He has been hungering and thirsting, and now he remembers that in his Father’s house there is bread enough and to spare. The poor backslider praying in the words of my text longs to taste once more the joy he used to feel, and therefore he says, “That I may rejoice in the gladness of Thy nation”; and, again, he wants to be able to speak as he once could--“that I may glory with Thine inheritance.” Come back even now, my brother, and get another application of the blood of sprinkling. Look again to Jesus. Ah, and I may here say, if you have not backslidden, look again to Jesus. We have all wandered to some extent. Come, let us look to those dear wounds anew. Looking, my heart begins to love, and then begins to leap. Looking, I come back again to where I stood before; and now, once again, Christ is my all, and I rejoice in Him. Have you gone through that process, backslider?
III. This is a very sweet prayer for a poor sorrowing seeker. To begin with, it is a sinner’s prayer. The dying thief rejoiced to use the words. This is the best of prayers,--“Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.” Trembling sinner, what suited the dying thief may well suit you. Note, again, it is the prayer of a lost one. “Visit me with Thy salvation.” Jesus Christ has not come to seek and to save those who do not want saving, but He has come on purpose to seek and to save that which was lost. Look to Him, and thou shalt find that He is the Saviour thou dost require. Further, remark that our text is the prayer of one who has a dim eye--“That I may see the good of Thy chosen.” We have told the seeker to look to Jesus, but he complains, “I do try to look, but I cannot see.” Beloved seeker, I do not know that you are bidden to see. You are bidden to look; and if you could not see when you looked you would at least have obeyed the Gospel command. The looking, the looking would bring salvation to you. But for dim eyes Christ is the great cure. He can take away the cataract and remove the gutta serena. Then it is a prayer for a heavy heart. “That I may rejoice in the gladness of Thy nation.” The seeking soul moans out, “O that I had a little joy, or even a trembling hope. If it were ever so small a portion of light I should be glad.” Pray for joy. The Lord waits to give it, and if you believe in Jesus your joy shall be full. And in the last place our text, is the prayer of a spirit that is humble and laid in the very dust, which cries to God to enable it to glory with His inheritance, because it is stripped of all other glory, emptied of its own boastings. Practically its plea is, “Lord, give me to boast in Thy mercy and Thy goodness, for I have nothing else to boast of.” Now, this prayer I would most earnestly press upon you, and I would press it upon you for these reasons. Just think for a moment. Supposing you are living now without seeing the good of God’s chosen, without being saved, what a wretched life it is to live! I cannot understand what men do without God: I cannot comprehend how they live. Do you have no cares, men? “Oh,” you say, “we have anxieties in shoals.” Well, where do you take them? Poor man without a God, how do you keep up your spirits? What comfort is there in your life? No prayer in the morning, no prayer at night: what days, what nights! Oh, men, I could as soon think of living without eating, or living without breathing, as living without prayer. Wretched naked spirits, your souls must be with no God to cover them! But if it be bad to live without Christ--and I am sure it is,--what will it be to die without Him? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The abounding prayer
I. The immediate requests.
1. The first solicits a specially loving Divine remembrance. He knew that general providential mercy and visible Church privilege mould profit him but little, if he had nothing more, if he had not over and above a personal interest in a much more special favour, in the Lord’s covenant-favour towards His own elect; and hence it was his earnest prayer, his constant prayer, to be remembered with this favour.
2. The second solicits a graciously saving Divine visit. Come, Lord, and by Thine own finger, write upon my heart the assurance of Thy love. Come, Lord, and by Thine own Spirit witness with my spirit that I am Thy adopted child. Come, Lord, and by Thine own counsel, guide me while I live; and afterwards by Thine own hand receive me, when I die, into everlasting habitations.
II. The ulterior requests.
1. There is the consciousness of gracious well-being. “That I may see the good of Thy chosen.” He desired to see it as the “chosen” do, with the eye of a conscious faith, of a spiritually illumined soul; to see it so as to be sustained, stimulated, rejoiced, and beautified by it; to see it as made over to himself, so that it might become his own, just as when the owner of an estate looks over it and says, “This farm, that goodly mansion, those spacious parks, the domain all round, the whole is mine.” Such was the sight which he desired, the only sight which is ever satisfying.
2. There is the experience of spiritual joy. “That I may rejoice in the gladness of Thy nation.” Not see it merely, but share it too in a way answerable to its high and holy character, singing with grace in my heart to the Lord in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs.
3. There is the exultation of holy triumph. “That I may glory with Thine inheritance.” The heirs of an earthly inheritance are but heirs apparent or heirs presumptive, and either in one way or in another they may be disappointed of the inheritance after all. But not so here. The Lord is their inheritance, and they are His inheritance; and there can he no shortcoming of the mutual inheritance on either His part or theirs. What is it to glory with His inheritance in the Lord? It is to exalt Him highest in our affection and esteem; to claim Him as our own and only Lord; to confess Him before men; to place on Him the crown of our salvation; to give all the glory of it from first to last to Him to whom it all belongs. (E. A. Thomson.)
The blessed lot of the saints desired
I. The blessedness of the saints of God. See this from--
1. The names given them.
(1) The people of God.
(2) His chosen.
(3) His nation.
(4) His inheritance.
They are the richest treasures, it says, that God possesses; the prized and the loved of His soul; of all things in heaven and earth the most delighted in.
2. What they may be said to possess.
(1) The good of His chosen (Proverbs 8:20). All the treasures of God--of Omnipotence--are at their disposal.
(2) The gladness of His nation--a portion of the gladness of heaven, vouchsafed to the heirs of heaven before they get there.
(3) The glory of His inheritance.
II. The prayer drawn from the psalmist by the contemplation of this blessedness.
1. Here is, first, a belief expressed both in the existence and in the happiness of God’s people. This is generally the first step a man takes towards obtaining a part in their blessedness. It is a great point gained when we are brought really to believe that such a people exist on the earth as you have now been hearing of. Here is a proof that light is breaking in upon your minds. And what a call is here, Christian brethren, on you, for a conduct consistent with your high profession!
2. We discover in this prayer a tracing of all the blessedness of God’s people to His special “favour” and “His salvation.” “Remember me,” the psalmist says, “with”--what? “That ‘tender mercy’ which is ‘over all Thy works‘? that universal goodness of Thine, which shines in the sun, which falls down in the rain ‘on the evil and on the good‘?” No; with that “favour,” that special favour, “that Thou bearest unto Thy people.” “O visit me,” he says again, “with Thy salvation.” And this special favour and this salvation he asks for, observe, in order that he may obtain and rejoice in “the good of God’s chosen”: letting us see, that all this “good” and all this “rejoicing” and all this “glory” have their origin and spring out of God’s “favour” and God’s “salvation.”
3. We may trace in this prayer an earnest desire of making the blessedness of God’s saints his own. It is, you observe, a personal prayer: “Remember me, O Lord; O visit me with Thy salvation.” This is the turning-point. Such a prayer is indeed an indication of favour already gone forth for the soul that offers it. Such a prayer proceeds from grace already at work in the soul. (C. Bradley, M.A.)
Prayer for the Lord’s favour to His people
The text contains a petition which is very expressive of the desires of the renewed soul; and which no one in truth can really offer who is not under the influence of the Spirit of God.
I. What are the things which the person, who sincerely uses this petition, believes.
1. That the Lord has a people, a people in this world peculiar to Himself, who in an especial manner belong to Him, and in a way different from others, are His property, the objects of His care, and the sheep of His pasture.
2. That the Lord has a peculiar favour to His people.
(1) Gracious and free in its origin.
(2) Active in its operation.
(3) Constant in its exercise.
(4) Unchangeable both as to its degree and duration.
It does not depend upon their feelings, neither is it the less because of their fears.
II. What is the desire which the person who sincerely users this petition, heartily feels and expresses. “Remember me, O Lord,” etc. Believing that the Lord has a peculiar people, and that He beareth to them a peculiar favour, he longs to be included in their number, and to participate in their privileges. Do you feel a lively interest for your own salvation, and do you anxiously pray for your own soul? Do you look upon true religion as s personal transaction between yourself and God? Be then of good courage. If you heartily desire His favour, you have already obtained it. None but those who are His people, and possess His favour, ever thus heartily desire, and sincerely pray for these things. (E. Cooper, M.A.)
O visit me with Thy salvation.
A visit from the Lord
I. The psalmist here prays for salvation. He says, first, that God saved the people out of Egypt. There they were, a nation of captives and bond-slaves; and He began to work with a high hand and an outstretched arm to bring them out of their captivity; and though they did not understand His wonders, yet, nevertheless, He saved them. That is a salvation in which you and I also delight,--salvation by the sprinkled blood,--salvation by the Paschal Lamb,--salvation by the right hand of God and His stretched-out arm,--a salvation which reveals His faithfulness, His mercy, and His power. Let us bless God if we know experimentally what this salvation means; and if we do not, let this be the prayer of each one of us, “O visit me with Thy salvation.” Further on in the psalm, the writer sings of a second salvation when the people were delivered at the Red Sea. Its waves rolled before them, and they could not tell how they were to escape from Pharaoh, who was close behind with all the chariots and horsemen of Egypt pursuing them. So it was when you and I, having cried to God for mercy, at last found it through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Then we saw our sins cast into the depths of the sea, and we were ready to dance for joy as we said, “The depths have covered them; there is not one of them left.” It may be that you and I have gone further on than this. We have been saved from our natural ruin, and saved from the power of despair wrought in us by conviction; and now we are fighting with our uprising corruptions. Our inbred sin is like the deep that lieth under, and perhaps, lately, the fountains of the great deep have been broken up within us. We cannot sin without being grieved and troubled by it; it is a vexation even to hear the report of it. Oh, that we could live without sinning at all! Well, now, if you are struggling against it, let this be your prayer to the Most High, “O visit me with Thy salvation.” Our text may also be used in another sense, for salvation means deliverance from grievous affliction, just as, in this psalm, when the children of Israel were brought into great distress by their enemies, then God came, and saved them from their foes. So, at this time, you may be in great distress. Whether you are suffering in body, or in mind, or in heart, God knows how to deliver you.
II. Vistation. Mark the condescension which the psalmist feels that the Lord will thus manifest. “O visit me with Thy salvation.” Lord, I cannot be saved unless Thou wilt visit me. Visit me not as a saved one, but “visit me with Thy salvation.” I am lost until Thou dost come to me. O come, Lord, and visit me as a Saviour. Come and visit me as a Physician, for I am sick. Pay me a visit of mercy, a visit of grace and tenderness. O thou great and glorious Lord, I beseech Thee, come and visit me. By the remembrance of Bethlehem’s manger, come and visit me. And, as the angels sang when Thou didst thus descend to the lowliest of lowliness, so shall my heart sing yet more sweetly if Thou wilt visit me,--even me. It will be a great condescension on Thy part, but ‘O visit me with Thy salvation.’” And it will be compassion, too, “‘O visit me.’ I am a prisoner; yet come, Lord, and visit me. I am lame and very weak. Lord, I have not a leg to carry me to Thy house; so come to my house, Lord. ‘O visit me.’ My heart is heavy, and sorely burdened; my very wishes lag, my prayers limp, my desires halt. O come and visit me. If I cannot come to Thee, yet come Thou to me, my God.” But there is more in it even than that, there is also communion: “O visit me with Thy salvation.” A visit from a beloved friend,--oh, what a joy it is! Most of you must have some friends who love you so much that, when they see you at their house, they do not want to know when you are going, but, if they could, they would make you always stop there. Dr. Watts went to see Sir Thomas Abney, at Abney Park, to spend a week; but that week lasted through all the rest of his life, for he never went away from there, and he lies buried in Abney Park, and Sir Thomas is buried there also, so that even in death the friends are not divided from one another. They never meant to part after they once came together. That is the kind of visit we want from the Lord, so let us breathe this prayer now, “O Lord, come and visit me; but do not merely pay me a brief visit, but come to stay with me.”
III. Personality. “Visit me.” This petition of the psalmist shows great necessity, great unworthiness, and great concentration of desire. If anybody says that it is selfish to pray for yourself so much, just ask him what he would do if he were drowning? Does anybody say that it is selfish for him to strike out and try to swim, or selfish to seize the lifebouy that is thrown to him? If you were in a fire, and likely to be burned to death, would anybody call you selfish because you looked out for the fire-escape, and climbed on to it as soon as it touched your window? And when your very soul is in danger, it is a hallowed selfishness to seek first its salvation. If your own soul be lost, what can you do for the salvation of other people? If you perish, what benefit can you be to your fellow-men? Therefore, keep to this personal prayer till it is answered, and when it is, then pray for all others as earnestly as you have prayed for yourself.
IV. Notice one thing more in this text, and that is, a speciality: “O visit me with Thy salvation,”--the kind of salvation he has been describing in this psalm, the salvation wrought by omnipotent grace, the salvation of enduring love. The psalmist prayed, “O visit me with Thy salvation,” and by that he meant real salvation, a radical change, a thorough work of grace. God’s salvation includes a perfect cleansing in the precious blood of Jesus, a supernatural work in renewing the heart, a resurrection work in raising the dead, and giving a new life. This salvation is also complete salvation. It saves the man from the love of sin. It not merely saves him from getting drunk, from lying, and from thieving, and from uncleanness; but it saves him within as well as without. It is a thorough renewal,--a work of grace that takes effect upon every part of his nature, Lastly, and chiefly, God’s salvation is eternal salvation. A good old divine was once asked whether he believed in the final perseverance of the saints. “Well,” said he, “I do not know much about that matter, but I firmly believe in the final perseverance of God, that where He has begun a good work He will carry it on until it is complete.” To my mind, that truth includes the final perseverance of the saints; they persevere in the way of salvation because God keeps them in it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The visit of salvation
Looked at from the standpoint of a true and sincere Christian, the one great salvation which runs through all his experience presents to his mind three distinct aspects. He contemplates a salvation of the past, a fact complete in itself, the starting-point of his new experiences, the commencement of his new life. But further, he recognizes a salvation of the present, a salvation that is going forward from day to day, a salvation which is as needful to the development and maintenance of the new life as the salvation of the past was to its commencement. And he looks forward to a salvation of the future, in which the life thus received and maintained will be crowned with glory, honour, and immortality, a salvation which shall lift him into a state in which danger is unknown, and in which therefore salvation is required no longer; so we may say, a state in which salvation shall be merged in glory. Let me offer a very simple illustration. We will suppose that this country is at war with some barbarous foe, and that a soldier, in whom our King is specially interested, has been captured by the enemy and condemned to death. Such a man is in present danger, and requires an instant salvation. Our King hears that he is to be executed, and he represents to the king with whom he is at war that he is particularly anxious that this man should not die, and backs the application with the offer of a large ransom. The terms are arranged, and the ransom is accepted. That moment the man is saved, saved by the King’s grace. Such is the salvation of the past, to which the believer looks back with feelings of joyous certainty and of deep and fervent gratitude to Him who has rescued him from so great a death. But let us carry our illustration further. We will suppose that on his return home from that scene of terribly close danger the soldier approaches his sovereign to offer his thanks, and that he puts it to him, “I have saved you from death; now are you willing to fight my battles for me?” Surely, if the man has a spark of gratitude in his nature, his reply will be, “I am at your service, my King, from this time. My body and my blood are yours, and all my faculties, to my latest breath. Command what you will, I am ready.” “Very well,” replies his sovereign, “you shall go to the battle-field and fight my battles once more.” But here, to complete our figure, we must suppose a thing impossible under the conditions of modern warfare. We will suppose that the King points to a suit of armour hanging mayhap on the wall. “Put on that suit of armour,” he says, “and I will guarantee that as long as you wear it you will be safe, even in the midst of the battle--safe from all danger and death.” Watch that man go forth to the battle. Here he is surrounded by danger. You ask the question, “Is he in danger, or is he not?” Look at him outwardly, and he is in great and unquestionable danger. Can you not hear the whistling of the bullets as they fly around him? At any moment he may fall, so you think, until you are let into the secret of that mysterious armour; but then, when you see him wearing that armour in the midst of every danger, you know that, since nothing can touch him or harm him as long as he wears it, in the midst of danger he is being saved. It is clear, then, that his part in this matter of his continuous salvation consists in the carefulness with which he sees to it that he never omits to clothe himself in the panoply of safety. If he becomes careless and despises his foe, or forgets that his safety is dependent upon the provision which his King has made to ensure it, he may still fall, but the fault will be his own. Even so we are being saved so long as we trust to and appropriate to ourselves the Divine provision for our safety; but when we cease to walk by faith we cease to live in safety; we are no longer being saved. Let us look at another picture. The campaign ends at last in victory; the enemy is crushed and slain; the soldier returns in triumph to his native land. His salvation is complete now, because he is not only rescued, not only armed with an impervious suit, but he is saved from all possibilities of carelessness that might have exposed him afresh to the powers of the foe. He is received into the palace, and becomes a member of the royal household, and his perils are of the past. Even so are we to be saved when the long conflict which has run through all human history comes to its close, and the latest foe is crushed under our great Victor’s feet; then shall we join the great company that no man can number in the cry--“Salvation unto our God and to the Lamb.” (W. H. M. H. Aitken, M.A.)
That I may see the good of Thy chosen.--
The good of God’s chosen
I. God has a chosen people. That God does choose men is beyond question. Why, how, and when He chooses them, are quite a different matter. It will be enough if we point out that the people of Israel were chosen of God, to enjoy as a nation such a good and happy lot as should serve to set forth in a figure the spiritual good of the spiritual Israel of the future. Similarly, even now, God has His chosen ones, who, like the ancient Israel, are brought into a very close relation with Himself; only that those relations with God are spiritual, where the relations of Israel with God were national and ecclesiastical. But who are these chosen ones, and how are they distinguished from others? If any of you to whom I speak imagine that you are in a position to enjoy the good of God’s chosen, just because of your membership in the outward Church and your participation in the external ordinances of religion, this utterance alone is surely enough to undeceive you. Called you certainly have been, but do you wear the wedding garment? Are you clothed with that “righteousness which is of God by faith”? God dwells in hearts that are submitted--willingly and cheerfully submitted--to Him in the obedience of faith. These are God’s peculiar treasures in a world that disowns and rejects Him; they are His “people of possession,” and no wonder that He should reserve for them some special good, of which others can know nothing, until they too join this favoured company.
II. These chosen ones have a special good of their own. It consists primarily in the possession of God. “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” Surely in a world where foes are strong, and we are only too conscious of our weakness, it is no small matter to enjoy the help of Omnipotence. And in a world where trials and troubles are so numerous, it is something to have a refuge open unto us whereunto we may always resort. Why should you condemn yourselves to perpetual restlessness, when you have God’s own peace which passeth all understanding within your reach? Why should you prefer the evil of God’s enemies, the cruel Nemesis which they bring upon their own heads, to the good which might be yours if you were His? Have you not had enough of weariness and restless toil? Why not listen to the voice to-night which proclaims, “Peace, peace to those that are far off, to those that are near”? Why not offer the prayer, “O visit me with Thy salvation, that I may see the good of Thy chosen”? (W. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A. )