Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1256
“O God, You ha ve taught me from my youth: and until this time ha ve I declared Your wondrous works. Now, also, when I am old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not, until I have showed Your strength unto this generation, and Your power to everyone that is to come.” Psalm 71:17,18.
I EXPECT, during the present week, to have the pleasure of preaching at Kettering, to celebrate the centenary of the ministry in that place of Mr. Toller and his father. My esteemed friend, Mr. Toller, has for about 55 years proclaimed the Gospel of the Grace of God to the same people, and with the 45 years of his father’s previous pastorate the century is completed! Having this very pleasant task before me, I have been led to consider the subject of old age and especially the old age of Believers, and have concluded that “the reminiscences of an old man” would furnish us a suitable topic for this morning’s discourse. I was the more led to choose the subject because on Sabbath week the children and young people will have a claim upon the preacher, since that day has been selected by the Sunday School Union for special prayer.
To balance accounts, let us give this morning’s service to our grave and reverend seniors. David has here spoken as an aged man and what he has said has been echoed by thousands of venerable Believers. His experience of the past, his prayer for the present and his aspiration for the future have all occurred to others who are his equals in years. And those of us who are in middle life will, before long, be glad to say, “Amen” thereto. “O God, You have taught me from my youth: and until this time have I declared Your wondrous works. Now also when I am old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not.”
David, in this passage, may be regarded as the model of an aged Believer converted in early life. And we feel quite safe in taking all his expressions and putting them into the mouths of veteran soldiers of the Cross.
I. The first thing we shall dwell upon, this morning, will be HIS SCHOLARSHIP, or a good beginning. “O God, You have taught me from my youth.” The Psalmist was an instructed Believer. He had not merely been saved, but taught— conversion had led to instruction. I call the attention of all young Christians to this. How desirable it is, not merely that you should be forgiven your sins and justified by faith in Christ Jesus, and that your hearts should be renewed by the operations of the Holy Spirit, but that you should go to Jesus’ school and take His yoke upon you and learn of Him.
Do you not know that this is the good part which Mary chose, and which the Lord declared should not be taken away from her? She chose to sit at His feet to learn of Him. Do not suppose that to be saved from Hell is everything! You need, also, to be instructed in righteousness. If you seek to know the Lord more and more, it will save you from a thousand snares, cause you to grow in Divine Grace and enable you to be useful. That will be a fruitful old age which was preceded by an instructed youth. We ought to know the Truth of God and understand it, for if we do not, we shall always be weak in the faith.
That David was exceedingly well instructed is clear from his Psalms which contain a mine of doctrine and a wealth of experience never surpassed even by other Inspired writings. If one had no other book than the Psalms to study, he might, by the blessing of God’s Spirit, become one of the wisest of men. Aim, then, my Brothers and Sisters to be disciples now, that in your old age you may look back with joy on the days spent in heavenly learning. All his instruction the Psalmist traced to his God. “O God, You have taught me.” He had entered Christ’s College as a scholar. Most wisely had he chosen to learn of Him who has Infinite Wisdom to impart and Divine skill in communicating it.
The Lord not only endeavors to teach, but He does so. He knows how to make His children learn, for He speaks to the heart and teaches us to profit. “O God, You have taught me.” What a blessed thing it is when we are fully convinced
by the Holy Spirit that to learn anything aright we must be taught of God! Too many appear to fancy that everything they need to know they can discover for themselves. They think they can work it out by their own thoughts, or, at any rate, the profound learning of their favorite authors will carry them through.
My Brother, my Sister, you who have grown gray in your Master’s service, I am sure you have learned to mistrust your own understanding and are glad to receive the kingdom of Heaven as a little child. You know by experience that all you have ever learned apart from God has been a lesson of sorrow or of folly. You have obtained no true light except from the great Father of lights. No heavenly truths are learned aright till by the Holy Spirit they are burnt into the soul. Blessed are those who have gone to school of such a Master—they shall be among the wise who shall shine as the brightness of the firmament!