Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3149
“What You give them they gather.” Psalm 104:28.
THIS sentence describes the commissariat of creation. The problem is the feeding of the “creeping things innumerable, both small and great beasts,” which swarm the sea, the armies of birds which fill the air and the vast hordes of animals which people the dry land! But in this sentence we have the problem solved, “What You give them they gather.” The work is stupendous, but it is done with ease because the Worker is Infinite—if He were not at the head of it, the task would never be accomplished! Blessed be God for the great You of the text! It is every way our sweetest consolation that the personal God is still at work in the world—leviathan in the ocean and the sparrow on the bough may be, alike, glad of this, and we, the children of the great Father, much more!
The notion of modern philosophers appears to be that the world is like a clock which an omnipotent phantom has set going and left to run on, each wheel acting upon its fellow by rigid law or, as a Brother remarked to me, they think the Lord has wound up the universe like a watch and put it under His pillow and gone to sleep! What do you think, Brothers and Sisters—do you find pleasure in a world bereaved of its God? To me, such philosophy is dreary, for my soul pines for an Infinite Love which will give itself to me and receive my love in return. I am orphaned, indeed, if my Maker will not pity me as His child and hear my prayers, compassionate my tears and succor and comfort me! Babes need a mother’s heart as much as her hands. Would you wish to be a child brought up by machinery, washed by a millwheel, rocked by a pendulum, fed from a pipe, dressed by a steel hand and, in fine, committed to the care of a wonderful engine which could do everything except love you? You would miss the eyes which weep with you and smile upon you, the lips which kiss you and speak lovingly to you and the dear countenance which laughs as you are fondled and pressed to a warm bosom. No, I can neither accept a steam engine instead of my mother, nor a set of laws in exchange for my God! There is a God who cares for all His creatures and makes the grass to grow for the cattle and herbs for the service of man. There is a Father to whom we speak and who hears us! One who waters the hills from His chambers and satisfies the earth with the fruit of His works—to whom we may come boldly in every time of need! Because Jehovah lives, the creatures are fed! He gives them their daily food, they gather it and so the work is done.
The general principle of the text is God gives to His creatures, and His creatures gather. That general principle we shall apply to our own case as men and women, for it is as true of us as it is of the fish of the sea and the cattle on the hills. “What You give them they gather.”
I. Our first point is this, WE HAVE ONLY TO GATHER, FOR GOD GIVES.
In temporal things, God gives us day by day our daily bread, and our business is simply to gather it. In the wilderness, the manna fell outside the camp of Israel—they had not to make the manna, but to go out in the morning and gather it before the sun was hot. Providence has guaranteed to the child of God his necessary food. “Bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.” Our part in the business is to go forth unto our labor and gather it. True, in some cases, necessary food is not gathered without excessive labor but this is occasioned by the injustice of man—not by the arrangements of God. And when true religion shall have fully operated upon all classes of mankind, none shall need to toil like slaves. They shall only need to perform such an amount of labor as shall be healthful and endurable. When no man oppresses his fellow, the work of gathering what God gives will be no hardship, but a wholesome exercise! The sweat of labor will then be a blessed medicine.
In this light let us view our worldly business. We are to go forth unto our work and our labor until the evening and to expect that bounteous Providence will thus enable us to gather what the Lord, Himself, bestows. And if by this means He gives us food and raiment, we are to be therewith content. If our faith can see the hand of God in it all, it will be sweet to pick up the manna from the ground and eat it with gratitude because it tastes of the place from where it came.
As to spirituals, the principle is most emphatically true. We have, in the matter of Grace, only to gather what God gives. The natural man thinks that he has to earn Divine favor, that he has to purchase the blessings of Heaven, but he is in grave error—the soul has only to receive that which Jesus freely gives! Mercy is a gift, salvation is a gift, all Covenant blessings are gifts! We need not bring a price in our hands, but come empty-handed and gather what is laid before us, even as the birds gather their food and the cattle on the hills feed on the grass which freely grows for them. This is one of the first principles of the Gospel. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of Lights.” And it is for us by faith to take our omer and fill it with the angels’ food which has fallen all around us, take it into our tent and there feast, even to the fullest! ‘Tis God’s part to give, ‘tis ours to gather. Faith’s sphere is that of the fleece which absorbs the dew, or the pool which is filled with the rain. Believer, this is the rule in all spiritual things! You are to be a diligent gatherer and to strive after high spiritual attainments, but still remember that your heavenly Father knows what you have need of before you ask Him. These superior blessings are His gifts—and the surest way of obtaining them is to come to Him for them and receive them by faith. You have not to pluck Covenant blessings out of a closed hand—you have only to take from the Lord’s open palm what He delights to bestow. For you to be straitened and poor gives no pleasure to Him. Rather will it delight Him to fill you with His favor and to enrich you with all the blessings of His Grace.