Sermon XVI. Human power defeated.1
“The stout-hearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep; and none of the men of might have found their hands. — Ps. lxxvi. 5.
The common circumstances of this psalm, concerning the penman, title, and the like, I shall not at all inquire after. The time of its being given to the church is alone to us considerable; and yet all the knowledge thereof, also, is but conjectural. What particular time it was wherein it was given we know not; but that it was given for the use of all times, that we know. Probable it is, from verse 3, that it was established as a monument of praise in the days of Hezekiah, when, by the immediate hand of God, Jerusalem was delivered from the army of Sennacherib. For a return of which mercy though good Hezekiah came short of the obligation laid on him, rendering not again according to the benefit done unto him, yet the Lord himself takes care for his own glory, setting forth this psalm as a monument of the praise due to his name unto all generations.
The deliverance of Jerusalem, then, from so great ruin as that impending over it from the threatening army of Sennacherib under their walls, being the occasion of penning this psalm, it cannot but yield us a meet foundation of making mention of the name of the Lord in a suitable work this day.
In general the whole is eucharistical, and hath two parts:— first, Narratory, concerning the work of God for his people; secondly, Laudatory, or the praise of his people for those works.
The first part hath three particulars:— 1. An exordium, by way of exultation and rejoicing, verses 1, 2. 2. A special narration of the work of God, for which the praise of the whole is intended, verses 3, 5, 6. 3. An apostrophe to the Lord concerning the one and the other, verse 4.
The latter containeth, — 1. A doctrinal observation for the use of the church, from the whole, verse 7. 2. The reasons and confirmation of the doctrine so laid down, taken from the power and righteousness of God in the actions recounted, verses 8, 9. 3. A threefold use of the doctrine so confirmed:— of instruction, verse 10; of exhortation, verse 11; of establishment and consolation, verse 12.
The particulars, preceding my text I shall a little touch upon, that the mind of the Holy Ghost therein may be the more clear unto you, and the doctrine from thence appear with the greater evidence:—
1. In the exordium, verses 1, 2, you have two things:— (1.) The names of the place wherein the work mentioned was wrought and the praise returned held forth; — and these are, Judah, Israel, Salem, Zion. (2.) The relation of God unto this place, which lies at the bottom of the work he did for them and the praise they returned unto him. He was known, his name was great amongst them; there was his tabernacle and his dwelling-place: which may be referred to two heads. — the knowledge of his will, verse 1; and the establishment of his worship, verse 2.
(1.) For the description of the place, by its several names titles, I shall not insist upon it; they are all but various expressions of the same thing. It is the church of God that is adorned with all these titles and names of singular endearment:— Judah, that single tribe of which the Messiah was to come; Israel, a prevailing people, the posterity of him that prevailed with God; Salem, the place he chose above all the places of the earth to settle his name therein; and Zion, the choice ornament of that Salem, — a model wherein the beauty and excellency of all the other are contracted, whose gates were then so dear unto the Lord. Or perhaps you have the distribution of the whole into its several parts; — Judah, the governing tribe; Israel, the body of the people; Salem, the chief place of their residence and glory; and Zion, the presence of God in his worship amongst them all. Now, the mention of these titles of the church, so dear to the Lord, doth front the following narration, to afford us this observation:—
Observation. The care of Salem, of Zion, lies at the bottom of all God’s powerful actings and workings among the sons of men. Every mighty work of God throughout the world may be prefaced with these two verses. The whole course of affairs in the world is steered by Providence in reference to the good of Salem. Zion hath been the rise and downfall of all the powers of the world; it is her deliverance or trial that is intended in their raising, and her recompense and vengeance in their ruin. God works not among the nations for their own sakes. When they are sifted with a sieve, they are but the chaff; Israel is the corn for whose sake it is done: whereof not the least grain shall fall to the ground, Amos ix. 9. She is precious in God’s sight and honourable; he loves her: therefore he giveth men for her, and people for her life, Isa. xliii. 4. The men of the world are very apt to pride themselves in their thoughts, as though great were their share and interest in the glorious things that God is accomplishing; like a fly that sat on the chariot wheel, and cried, “What a dust have I raised round about!” The truth is, their names are written in the dust, and they are of no account in the eyes of the Lord in all he is accomplishing, but only to exalt his name in their miscarriage and destruction. Was it not in the thoughts of some lately amongst us, that their right hand had accomplished the work of the Lord, and that the end of it must be the satisfaction of their lusts? And hath not the Lord declared that they have neither part nor lot in this matter? It was Salem, not self, — Zion, not Babylon or confusion, that lay at the bottom of the whole.