Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2284
“As the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.” 2 Samuel 23:4.
WHAT a blessing it is to the country if, at certain seasons, we have a time of clear shining after the rain! Under some circumstances, nothing but sunshine will save the crops that are ready to be reaped, and there will be great loss to the farming interest, and, indeed, to us all, unless we have the sunshine when it is needed. We must never neglect to pray to the Lord who alone can give, to the natural world, clear shining after rain.
Our text, however, has a higher meaning than this. These words occur in David’s description of a fit, true and wise ruler. All rulers have not been fit to rule. Indeed, in David’s day, and in most Oriental countries at the present time, the King, the Sultan, the Emperor, the Shah, all rule for themselves. Their one great business is to extort all the taxes they can from the people and to give them as little as possible in return. To fleece the sheep is the great business of an Oriental shepherd—to feed them does not seem to enter into his mind. But David says that where rulers were wise, just, and upright, their country flourished. A good ruler, especially in the East, where he had everything in his own hands when he came to the throne, was like “a morning without clouds,” and the people round him grew like the grass in times when, after heavy showers of rain, the sun looks forth with cheerful rays and warms the earth into verdure. We may be thankful, dear Friends, that we do not know what despotic rule means, for, good as it may occasionally happen to be, it may also be intolerably bad. Let other lands have what masters they will, but let us be free and our own masters, as we still are, thanks to the gracious Providence of God that has smiled upon us.
The beautiful simile by which David sets forth the rule of a good king, I will first take out of its connection and look at it for other purposes. And then I will put it back into its connection and use it as David used it, only in a higher sense. The beautiful picture that he draws is produced by a combination—first rain, and then, clear shining after rain—and the most flourishing condition of spirituality is produced by the same two causes! It comes as the result of a combination of rain and sunshine. We shall never rise to the highest spiritual state by having all rain and no sunshine. Although we may prefer it, we shall never attain to the fullest fruit-bearing by having all sunshine and no rain. God puts the one over against the other, the dark day of cloud and tempest against the bright day of sunshine and calm—and when the two influences work together in the soul, as they do in the natural world, they produce the greatest degree of fertility and the best condition of heart and life.
I intend to use the text in four ways. First, I shall show you how the “clear shining after rain” is manifested in the heart of the convert. In the second place, I shall point out to you how this “clear shining after rain” often produces the best condition of things in the soul of the Believer. Thirdly, I shall prove to you that our text makes a very happy combination in the ministry of the Word. And, in closing, I shall speak to you about the “clear shining after rain” in the ages to come.
I. I shall begin by showing you how the “clear shining after rain” is manifested IN THE HEART OF THE CONVERT.
When a man is truly converted, do you know how it is manifested? All conversions are not alike, there is a very great difference between them. Some are very definite—you can tell to a minute when the man is converted. Others are very indistinct—there is a long previous preparatory process and you cannot say exactly when the man turned to God. If you get up tomorrow morning and do not look at the Almanac, but look toward the east and take a pencil and try to mark
down exactly when the sun rises, I think it is highly probable that you will not manage the task correctly. On an extremely clear and bright morning, you might tell, to a second, when the rim of the sun appeared above the horizon, but we do not often have clear, bright mornings nowadays. We have not seen the sun much, lately and, probably, you would find that he was up before you had made the pencil mark—and most likely you would learn that he was up before you had discovered when he rose!
So it is often in the workings of Divine Grace. Some men have the Light of God, but they cannot tell when the Light first came to them. Let none of you imagine that you are not converted because you do not know the hour when it occurred! Otherwise, you would be as foolish as I should be if I said to some old lady, “How old are you?” “Well, I am somewhere about eighty.” “But when was your birthday? Do you not remember your birthday?” “No, Sir, I do not.” Suppose I were to tell her she was not alive because she did not know her birthday? I would be very foolish! And if you say to yourself, “Soul, you were never born again because you do not know when the event happened,” you will be very foolish, too! If you can say, “One thing I know, whereas I was blind, but now I see,” be satisfied and grateful, even though you cannot tell when the great miracle was worked. Conversions, then, are not all alike.