Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1312
“They shall praise the Lord that seek Him.” Psalm 22:26.
THESE are the words of Jesus on the Cross, which the inspired Prophet wrote beforehand concerning Him. When the Savior uttered this sentence, He had just passed through the experience of a seeker as far as it was possible for Him to do so. He had been engaged in earnest, fervent, pleading prayer on account of His having been left without His Father’s Presence. He had cried, “Be not You far from Me, O Lord: O My Strength, hasten You to help Me.” With strong crying and tears He had implored salvation from the lion’s mouth. He had, at last, been heard and delivered, and He exclaimed with joy, “He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the Afflicted, neither has He hid His face from Him; but when He cried unto Him He heard. My praise shall be of You in the great congregation: I will pay My vows before them that fear Him.”
Thus, you see, because He had known the agony of an anxious seeker, had been heard in His seeking and, therefore, felt praise rising in His own soul. He learned sympathy with all seeking souls of every age and foresaw that they, also, would magnify the name of the Lord. Jesus knows every experience, for He has passed through the same. Does not this thought already whisper comfort to your soul? My seeking Friend, is it not a good omen that Jesus was heard in that He feared? Does not the fact that Jesus can sympathize with you raise some hope in your heart? It is true He never lived without the Presence of God, as you have done, in consequence of personal sin, but for a grand reason, namely, because He stood in our place, He was forsaken of God and, therefore, was compelled to cry after Him, even as you are doing, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me?”
He, therefore, understands the grief which troubles your fainting heart and enters into all your distresses while you are bewailing yourself and lamenting that you cry in the daytime and the Lord hears not, and that in the night season you plead in vain. This reflection, at the outset of our discourse, should be as the note of a silver bell, soft and restful to your wearied ears! Jesus foretells your success in seeking as the result of His own experience! Our Lord’s great objective in laying down His life upon the Cross was the Father’s Glory. No other objective was worthy of Him. He sought the salvation of men in order to the Glory of God and, so, in His extreme agonies our Lord Jesus placed this joy before Him and consoled Himself by foreseeing that God would be praised by seeking souls in consequence of His death.
He solaces Himself with the reflection, “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship You.” He dwells upon the Truth of God that, “They shall praise the Lord that seek Him,” and He sees in this honoring of God the reward which His soul sought after! What He foresaw from His lookout upon the Cross is actually taking place everyday—for seekers are learning to be singers! The choirs of Heaven, how shall they be filled? As yet there are many vacant seats and the full chorus is not as yet heard. From where shall they come who shall complete that orchestra? They shall be called by Grace from among ungodly men and led to long for God—“They shall praise the Lord that seek Him.”
Fear not, for the number of the elect shall be accomplished, and no part of Heaven’s music shall flag for lack of minstrels. From the choirs of earth the saintly souls are being withdrawn, one by one, to unite in the harmonies of Heaven. Just when their voices become most mellow and most clear, they leave us for the ivory palaces and their ceaseless melodies. How shall the praises of God be maintained here below? If one by one the sweet voices grow dumb and the singers are laid in the sepulcher, from where shall we replenish our numbers and maintain the daily praise? Fear not, there are new voices on the way. “They shall praise the Lord that seek Him.” There are souls now weeping because of sin and longing for a Savior who will soon find Him—and then will become most hearty singers of the new song! They are coming, coming in their thousands even now!
The music of praise shall be continued as long as the sun and the Glory of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. From generation to generation shall the name of the Lord be praised! This brings great gladness to my spirit as a pastor, for I know that there are some present here this day who are seeking the Savior, and it rejoices me to know that they will soon be among the most earnest in praising the name of the Lord! They will not always wear sackcloth. They will put on the silken garments of praise before long. We do not know where they are, for seekers are usually very quiet and retired, but there are some present whom I suspect of secret searches after my Lord. The Lord has seen them as He did Nathanael under the fig tree and even His servant begins to spy them out.