Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1372
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, September 2, 1877
“You are my portion, O Lord: I have said that I would keep Your Words.” Psalm 119:57.
OBSERVE the close connection between privilege and duty. “You are my portion, O Lord.” This is an unspeakable happiness. “I have said that I would keep Your Words”—this is the fitting return for such a blessing. Every mercy given us by the Lord brings with it a claim which we ought, in gratitude, to recognize. Notice very carefully the order in which the privilege and the duty are arranged. The blessing of Grace is first and the fruit of gratitude next. The Grace given is the root and the resolve is the fruit growing out of it. It is not, “I have said that I would keep Your Words, that You may be my portion, O Lord.” No, first the portion is enjoyed by faith and then the resolution is formed. “You are my portion, O Lord, I have You already in present possession. Therefore will I, as You shall help me, keep Your Words.”
Duty in order to privilege is the Law—God be thanked that we are not under it, for we should never obtain a single blessing thereby! But privilege in order to obedience is the Gospel—God grant that we may know the fullness of its power to sanctify our souls! The Lord must first be your portion before you will be able to keep His Words. How can a man keep what he has not received? Without God to be our portion, where will the strength come from to accomplish so difficult a duty as the keeping of God’s Words? See to it, all of you, that you do not reverse the order! Do not, as the old proverb says, put the cart before the horse.
Let all things come in their due course and keep due rank, for mischief comes of the wrong placing of things. First receive from Divine Grace until you can say, “You are my portion, O Lord,” and then give forth, by daily service, what God has worked within, and say, “I will keep Your Words.” Each possession not only involves service, but appropriate service, even as each plant bears it own flower. The general principle which calls for service bears a particular application, for each particular Gospel benefit is linked with some special Gospel service. The unspeakable gift of having God for our portion has here fastened to it the peculiar excellence of keeping God’s Words and one objective of the present sermon will be to show that this is by no means an accidental arrangement, but that a true connection really exists and ought to be earnestly acknowledged by every child of God.
Because you can say, “You are my portion, O Lord,” you ought, also, to add, “I will keep Your Words.” First, this morning, let us consider the infinite possession—“You are my portion, O Lord.” Secondly, the appropriate resolution—“I have said that I would keep Your Words.”
I. Begin, then, where the text begins, with THE INFINITE POSSESSION. “You are my portion, O Lord.” Here,
first, notice a clear distinction. The Psalmist declares the Lord to be his portion in distinction to the portion of the ungodly. “These often have their portion in this life; they increase in riches.” The 73rd Psalm gives a full and particular description of the ungodly in their prime and glory when, “their eyes stand out with fatness” and, “they have more than heart can wish.”
But David did not desire to share their short-lived joys. He sought his happiness elsewhere, looking to the Creator rather than the creatures and to eternity rather than time—
“What sinners value I resign, Lord, ‘tis enough if You are mine.” “You are my portion, O Lord.” It is better to have our good God than all the goods in the world! It is better to have God for our All than to have all and be without Him. He who possesses God lives at the wellhead and drinks from the ever-flowing fountain. He who owns the choicest worldly goods, apart from Him, only drinks of the foul leavings which remain in the corners of earth’s broken cisterns. What is the whole universe compared with Him who made it? What are the base pleasures of sin compared with the fullness of joy which always dwells at God’s right hand?
David says, “You are my portion,” evidently in opposition to the future portion of the wicked. “Upon the wicked, God shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.” There is to come to the ungodly a dreadful awakening from their dream of security. They shall wake up in another world to find that their wealth has vanished, their joys have forever fled and that they must forever suffer the loss of all things and remain utterly undone. For them an unutterable woe is prepared and wrath like a fierce hurricane shall heat upon their guilty souls without end!
But, “You are my portion, O Lord.” For me there shall be no deadly snares in life, nor horrible tempest in death. So long as I abide in this body, I shall be fed upon Your goodness, and when I shall fall asleep and shall afterwards awaken in the likeness of my Redeemer, I shall find myself in eternal possession of my God who is my All in All. Nor does the distinction end here. David here makes a distinction between his true position and the earthly comforts with which the Lord had endowed him. He was a king and had many possessions, but none of these were his portion! Some of the Lord’s people are not the subjects of distressing poverty—on the contrary, they are blessed with many comforts for which they ought to praise God day and night—but none of these things are their peculiar heritage as joint heirs with Jesus.