Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1475
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Evening, May 18, 1879
“You crown the year with Your goodness.” Psalm 65:11.
(The second Sermon in commemoration of the completion of 25 years of his Ministry in the midst of the Church assembling in the Tabernacle).
GODLY men in olden times felt God to be very near them and they attributed everything they saw in Nature to the direct operation of His hand. They were not accustomed to speak of “the laws of matter,” “the operation of natural forces” and “the outcome of different causes.” They thought more of the First Cause, the foundation and pillar of all existence—and they saw Him at work on all sides. Hear how the Psalmist sings, “You make the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice. You visit the earth and water it. You prepare them corn when you have so provided for it. You water the ridges thereof abundantly; you settle the furrows thereof: you make it soft with showers; you bless the springing thereof. You crown the year with Your goodness.”
God was very near in those days. As Herbert says—
“One might ha ve sought and found You presently At some fair oak, or bush, or cave, or well.” If the result of our philosophy has been to put God farther off from the consciousness of His creatures, God save us from such philosophy and let us get back, again, into the simple state in which we were children at home and God, our great Father, worked all things for us! Let us note the distinct mention of God throughout the Psalm, for it is well worthy of notice. And let our speech be more after the olden sort—with less of our supposed knowledge in it and a good deal more concerning the Presence and the goodness of God.
I am not about to use our text in reference to the outside world and to the husbandry of man, but we shall see how true it is within the Church, which is the husbandry of God. The language was meant to describe the field of Nature. but it is equally true of the garden of the Church. I am going to use the text in this way because of the peculiar circumstances under which we meet, celebrating, as we do, the 25th year of our happy union together as pastor and flock—a period which has, to the fullest extent been crowned with the goodness of the Lord! If I use the text for spiritual purposes I shall not err, for there is always a most striking analogy between the world of Grace and the world of Nature so that it would be hard to find anything said by Inspiration concerning the visible world which might not be correctly spoken with regard to the spiritual world.
But I do not depend upon that fact for my justification—I refer you to the Psalm itself. It is clear that it was written to praise God, not alone for His works in the harvest field and abroad upon the sea, but for His wonderful goodness towards His people, for thus the Psalm begins, “Praise waits for You, O God, in Sion.” It is Zion’s hymn which lies before us and, therefore, the Church which Zion represented may well appropriate the language and use it for herself! She may well say, concerning all the Lord’s mercy to her in her plowing, her sowing, her watching and the glad harvest of her spiritual husbandry, “You crown the year with Your goodness.”
The spirit of the text is joyful gratitude and my soul is so filled with it that I do not need so much to preach to you as to lead you in holy adoration of God for the great mercies with which He has surrounded us as a Church and congregation from the first day even until now!
I. And so our first head is DIVINE GOODNESS ADORED. “You crown the year with Your goodness.” Whatever of acceptable service we have rendered and whatever of real success we have achieved has come from the Lord of Hosts who has worked all our works in us! Whatever holy results may have followed from earnest efforts and whatever honor
has redounded unto God from them is the Lord’s doings and it is marvelous in our eyes! “Not unto us, not unto us, O Lord, but unto Your name be glory for Your mercy and for Your Truth’s sake.” Your goodness, not ours, has crowned the work! Your goodness, indeed, makes every good work good and gives to every good its crown. From its first conception, even to its ultimate conclusion, all virtue is of You. From blade to full corn all the harvest is of You, O Lord, and to You let it be ascribed! Let us, therefore, praise the Lord with all our hearts for 25 years of prayer and effort, of planning and working, of believing and rejoicing which He has crowned with His goodness!
We will try to follow the run of the Psalm and our first note shall be this—praise must be for God alone. “Praise waits for You, O God, in Sion.” Not for men, nor for priests, nor for pastors, presbyters, bishops, ministers, or whatever you choose to call them—“Praise waits for YOU, O God, in Sion.” Whoever shall have done well in the midst of the Church, let him have the love of his Brethren, but let all the praise be unto You, O Most High! Far be it for the axe to exalt itself and forget him that fells therewith, or for the sword to deprive the conqueror of his glory. Praise is silent while the best of men are passing by—it lays its finger on its lips till the Lord approaches and then bursts forth in gladsome song because He appears!