Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2356
“O God, in the multitude of Your mercy hear me, in the Truth of your salvation.” Psalm 69:13.
I WOULD have you admire the educational power of prayer, for prayer is, in itself, an education for a saint. God might have given us every blessing at once without our asking Him for anything, but He says, even of that which He has promised to His people, “I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them,” the reason being that, sometimes, the prayer for the blessing is as beneficial to us as the blessing, itself, and thus we are twice blessed—first in asking—and then in receiving! Prayer brings the mercy, but in fetching it for us, prayer, itself, gives us an additional blessing. We are, ourselves, graciously helped of God as we pray, and we grow thereby.
Will you also observe that, usually, when saints plead mightily with God, they draw their arguments from the Lord Himself? In this case, David speaks to God of, “Your mercy,” and, “the Truth of your salvation.” We do not bring pleas to God from abroad—we find them in Him with whom we plead. We say to Him, “You are such a One, therefore, will You not do this for me?” Or, “You have said it, therefore, do as You have said.” Our best pleas lie within the compass of God’s Character and God’s promises.
Now, because of this fact, you will at once see why prayer is so beneficial, for thus it helps us to communion. If we come to God and plead with Him on account of what He, Himself, is, we have, in that very pleading, fellowship and communion with Him. We have to think of Him, to consider Him, to endeavor to understand His attributes, and so we come into His Presence intelligently and profitably. This is no small gift, to have our fellowship with the Father fostered by our prayer to Him.
Out of this communion comes edification. Coming near to God, we learn more and more of Him, and we get that kind of knowledge which does not puff us up because it first breeds love, and then builds us up, and we, knowing more of God, are established in Him. “They that know Your name will put their trust in You.” Thus we grow in faith, love and every Grace, while prayer leads us to search out the Character of God in order to find these pleas that we use in our supplication. So that, praying is communion and praying is edification! I think that you will grow more in half an hour’s prayer than you will in an hour’s sermon-hearing! I am not sure that it will be so in every case, for God may bless a variety of means to different men and women, but I think that the most of us make our great advances in the Divine Life when we are pleading with God—pleading God’s own Character with our God, we are then getting near Him and being built up into Him.
And thus, you see, prayer even becomes a confession of faith. Public prayer may thus furnish a very useful means of instruction. That is not its main purpose, but it incidentally happens that, when we are seeking God, first, then other things are added to us in our public prayer. David, in this Psalm, instructs us concerning the multitude of God’s mercy and the Truth of His salvation. It does one good to hear a godly man pray. When he pours out his heart before God, his language may be very simple—as simple as it is fervent—but there is a kind of insensible teaching and a force of latent instruction which gets into our soul, almost unawares, when we are joining in the prayers of devout persons. Prayer may thus be speaking to the souls of others as well as unto God and, may be, for some men, the best testimony and witness to the Gospel which they are able to hear. It was certainly so with David.
But it is not my objective, tonight, to enlarge upon the manifold uses of prayer. I could not leave this point without notice, so I have given it to you by way of preface. Let it suggest to you to think still more how large a blessing has come
to you through prayer, especially when prayer has taken the form of arguing with God because of the characteristics of His own Nature, finding pleas with Him in Himself.
In the words before us, David pleads with God the Truth of His salvation—“Hear me in the Truth of your salvation,” upon which I shall only make these two remarks—first, God’s salvation is a great reality and, secondly, We have proved it to be so.
I. First, GOD’S SALVATION IS A GREAT REALITY, a great Truth of God—“The Truth of your salvation.” There is a substance in it. It is not a shadow, it is not a myth, it is not a mere type or figure of speech. It is a substantial thing, there is the Truth of God in it—“The Truth of your salvation.”
And, first, let us view it in reference to the Lord, Himself. To God, His salvation is, in the highest sense, full of Grace and His Truth.
If I may venture to speak concerning Him of whom we can know nothing except as He reveals Himself, I may say that the truest and deepest thought of God is for the salvation of His people. This lies in the very center of His heart and the drift of His other thoughts and acts is all towards this point. He has ordained His Son to be the Head of a great family, of which He is to be the First-Born among many brethren, and the planning of the whole of creation was arranged in reference to the saved ones—those who are to be redeemed from among men. At the present time, the whole scheme of God’s Providential working has a bearing upon the salvation of those whom He gave to His Son to be the reward of the travail of His soul. God’s thoughts are high and not as our thoughts, but they are directed toward this central idea. They rest on this foundation principle—the underlying thought of all His works is the display of the Glory of His Grace in the salvation of the sons of men. This is the white of the target at which He shoots all His arrows and He fails not to hit it. In the grand gathering of all the redeemed, this shall be the loudest note in their song, “Unto Him that loved us, and that washed us from our sins in His own blood, to Him be Glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” The display of all the characteristics of God in the salvation of His people is the subject of His truest, deepest thought.