Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2342
“LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble: You will prepare their heart, You will cause Your ear to hear.” Psalm 10:17.
IT has been sometimes said that a good Sabbath makes a good week. Sir Matthew Hale long ago said—
“A Sabbath well spent Brings a week of content,” while George Herbert quaintly wrote—
“The Sundays of man’s life Threaded together on Time’s string,
Make bracelets to adorn the wife Of the eternal, glorious King. On Sunday, Heaven’s gate stands ope, Blessings are plentiful and rife; More plentiful than hope.”
Sunday is the market day of the week and if a man does well at market, he considers that he has done well for all the week. The Sabbath oils the wheels of the week—its bodily rest is useful, but its spiritual anointing is far more so!
Now, if that is the case, and I think it is, I might venture to say that a good first Sabbath in the year will go a long way towards making a good year. Very often things go on as they begin. It is very seldom that troubles come alone and it is still more seldom that mercies are given to us singly. We may always say, when we get a blessing, “Gad, a troop comes.” So I would that we might receive a great blessing on this first Sabbath of another year, that a troop of blessings might follow on the heels thereof, and that a host of mercies might continue to come to us even till we reach the last day of the year— and then that we might begin, again, with new tokens of our Lord’s loving kindness and tender mercy~
I thought our text might be a very serviceable Word of God for this first Sabbath evening in the year of Grace, 1871. It is intended to be of use, not only for tonight’s sermon, but to be remembered all the year round. I think there is something in it which will render it suitable to all of us at all times during the next 12 months and, indeed, during the whole of the rest of our lives. We do not know, as we said in prayer just now, which way our pilgrimage may lead us, but I feel persuaded that, with this Inspired passage laid up in our hearts, if we make a right use of it, beneath the cover of Jehovah’s wings we may go happily on from this place till again we pitch our tent upon the borders of another year.
Looking at the text, we may divide it into two parts. In the first portion, we have a very blessed fact—“Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble.” In the second part, we have two very blessed assurances—“You will prepare their heart, You will cause Your ear to hear.”
I. We will begin with what the text says about A VERY BLESSED FACT—“Lord, You have heard the desire of the
humble.”
I call this a very blessed fact, first, because it always has been a fact. In all ages and in all places, wherever there has been a humble heart that has lifted up its desire to God, the Lord has heard that desire! Whether Jew or Gentile, whether in the palace or in the poorhouse, whether in sickness or in health, whether in poverty or in wealth, whether in life or in death, no difference has ever been made—if the desire has been a humble one, from the first man who ever prayed down to this present time—God has always been ready to hear.
And, blessed be His holy name! It is not only an old fact, it is as much a fact, tonight, as it was when David first penned these words, “Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble.” At this very moment, God’s ear is hearing the beating of your hearts. O humble Soul, Jehovah’s heart discerns the throbbing of your desire though they are unexpressed in words! His eyes of fire, which pierce us through and through, are reading every longing desire of every anxious bosom here.
It is so now and it will be a fact all through this year, God will hear the desire of the humble. It is a fact of the olden times, but it is also a fact of present import and of the future, too. Notice how the Psalmist puts this fact—“Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble.” David does not say, “You have heard the prayer of the humble.” He means that, but he also means a great deal more. Sometimes we have desires that we cannot express—they are too big, too deep—we cannot clothe them in language. At other times we have desires which we dare not express—we feel too bowed down, we see too much of our own unworthiness to be able to venture near the Throne of God to utter our desires—but the Lord hears the desire when we cannot or dare not turn it into the actual form of a prayer. I know you have sometimes said, “I wish I could pray like So-and-So.” Often you have thought, “If I could only put a great many beautiful sentences together into goodly shape, then I might be heard.” Do not talk so foolishly! If you cannot put two words together correctly, if your desire is right, God will hear the desire—
“Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire, Uttered or unexpressed.”
Prayer is not in the expression or the non-expression—prayer is the soul’s sincere desire. The very heart of prayer is in the desire—the essence of the whole matter, the kernel of the nut—is the desire of the heart, not the utterance of the lips. Words without the desire are mere empty husks, but the desire, even without words, is sweet to God, and He accepts it. Can you catch the blessedness of this thought? I say again, before your desire takes a shape in which language could cover it, God will hear it!