Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3137
“Say unto my soul, I am your salvation.” Psalm 35:3.
[Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon upon the same text is Sermon #384, Volume 7—FULL ASSURANCE.]
THIS text may very properly be understood as a request that God would teach the soul to rest upon Him in temporal difficulties, straits and distresses. We are all apt to try to work out our own deliverance. We would go back to Egypt, or we would climb the rock on our right hand, or we would, if it were possible, force a passage on the left, but when the Red Sea rolls in front of us, when Pharaoh is behind and there are frowning rocks on the right hand and on the left, this most delightful Truth of God is learned—and probably it is the only occasion when we can learn it—God is our salvation! If you are in trouble, Christian, ask who brought you there, for He shall bring you out again. If you are sorely vexed and deeply grieved, why should you look to a human arm for succor, or why should you turn your eyes to the horses and to the chariots of Pharaoh? Lift up your eyes to the hills, from where your help came, and in the solemn silence of your soul hear the soft and cheering word, “I am your salvation; I have been with you in six troubles, and no evil has touched you; now I have brought you into another trouble, but I will deliver you out of them all; call upon ME in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you.” O Believer, the strongest sinew in an arm of flesh will crack and the strongest band of human strength will give way! But trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength! Learn to stand still and to see the salvation of God, as He says to you, “I the Omnipotent, I the Omnipresent, I who have servants everywhere will work your rescue, for I am your salvation.”
It is also very necessary for us to learn this verse in its teaching as to soul-matters, for no man is saved, or can be saved, unless he knows that God is his salvation. The greatest enemy to human souls—I think I am not wrong in saying this—is the self-righteous spirit which makes men look to themselves for salvation—
“From the Cross uplifted high, Where the Savior deigns to die”— there comes a voice, as soft as it is potent, “I am your salvation.” But the sinner stops his ears and listens, perhaps, to the enchantments of Rome, or to the mutterings of some false priest, or to the equal lying of his own heart while these say, “We are your salvation.” We must get away, Brothers and Sisters, from every form of confidence which would take us from the finished work of Jesus Christ! From the beginning to the end of the entire matter, the great “I AM,” comprehends our whole salvation! Jesus, the “Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief,” was, nevertheless, JEHOVAH, the “I AM,” and as the “I AM,” He speaks tonight to every soul that desires to know the way of salvation and He says, “I am your salvation.”
Sinner, there is no hope for you anywhere else! “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid.” Your hopes, poor Sinner, shall be baseless—they shall be as the fabric of a dream. Rest not in them, but forsake them, pitying your own folly for having ever trusted in them. Jesus bids you renounce them now. Flee away from everything which has up to now yielded you a gleam of comfort, or a ray of joy, to the wounds of Him who suffered in the sinner’s place, and to the Cross of Him who was made a curse for us that we might be made a blessing! “I am your salvation.” You are to trust now. Are you saying, “How can I be saved?” Jesus answers, “I am your salvation.” Not “I will be,” but “I am.” Present salvation is stored up in Christ—
“There is life for a look at the Crucified One!
There is life at this moment for you.”
“But,” you say, “what am I to do? What am I to feel? What am I to be?” The answer is—
“Nothing, either great or small, Nothing, sinner, no! Jesus did it, did it all, Long, long ago!”
“Yes, but surely there is something needed to fit me for Him?” No, come just as you are. He does not say, “I will be your salvation when you have done this and that, so as to fit yourself for Me.” No, but He says, “I am your salvation.” If you do but trust Him unfeignedly and with your whole heart—He this moment forgives you, He this moment takes you into the family of Grace, regenerates you and makes you “a new creature” in Himself! May God grant that we may all spiritually learn this Doctrine, “I am your salvation.”
Not that I intend just now to use the text in this sense alone, though I think it is highly proper both in temporal and in spiritual dilemmas to feel that God is our salvation. Rather let me show you how it embodies a prayer of the Psalmist for the full assurance of faith. He is asking that, having believed in God, he may have a token for good, that he may be able to—
“Read his title clear-To mansions in the skies.”