Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3291
“The sea is His, for He made it: and His hands formed the dry land.” Psalm 95:5.
THIS Psalm exhorts us to sing joyfully unto God. Whether we contemplate the land or the sea, there will be found upon them both abundant reasons for adoring the great Creator. Some, I know, as they walk upon the land, can no more praise Him than if it were one vast desert of Sahara—and yet the earth is full of His goodness—it is as a garden yielding not only food for man and beast, but lovely and fragrant flowers! Forest and field, mountain and plain alike sing out the praises of the Lord! Nor is the sea less rich in excitements to worship the Lord our Maker. Ignorant persons regard the sea as a dreary waste of waters. In the olden times, our home-loving forefathers were desperately afraid of the sea and looked upon it as a devouring monster. It was a “melancholy ocean” to them—a place of constant sorrow and sudden death—they shuddered as they thought of it. But, indeed, to him who is rightly taught, the sea is full of beauty! Its every wave is lit up with splendor—the sea is the Lord’s, for He made it! You see then, that both on the land and on the sea adoration is in its place. Praise is never out of season at any time and worship is never foreign in any land. It matters not whether we travel over sand or snow, or how we are tossed about on Arctic or tropical sea—we are still in the pasture of the Great Shepherd, and within the palace of the Great King. Praise the Lord from the earth and let dragons and all deeps join in the Psalm. “Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.”
“He formed the deeps unknown,
He gave the seas their bound.
The watery worlds are all His own,
And all the solid ground.”
There is no need for any labored division in our sermon tonight. Our first one will be that God made the sea. And the second will be that therefore it is His. And the third shall come out of the next verse—He is therefore to be adored. “O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker!”
I. Our first thought is that GOD MADE THE SEA.
Somebody made it and who else could have made it but God It is not often that you find a seafaring man who is an atheist. Addison tells us of a time when he was aboard ship and there was a passenger on deck who was an infidel. He was reported to the captain as an atheist and neither he nor the sailors could make out what sort of a strange fish that might be—and so asked him what he meant. They were told that he did not believe in a God. A storm coming on, the men proposed that they should pitch him overboard seeing he did not believe in God Almighty! But he was soon cured of his unbelief, for, when things looked threatening, the first person who was down on his knees crying for mercy in great terror was the precious atheist, who soon got rid of his atheism when he felt in danger of his life! A little while ago, a Christian
minister crossing to America was walking the deck with a gentleman who called himself an atheist. It was a very bad night and the vessel had to steam on in the teeth of a head wind. It would have been fatal to let her drift. The captain said, “We cannot keep any watch, we must drive ahead, and if we run into an iceberg, there’s an end of us.” Our friend, who believed in God, hearing this, said that he should turn in and go to sleep. His companion declared that he could not think of doing any such thing—he should not like to die in his sleep—and so he would walk the deck, rough as it was. All night long he who had no God was cold and wet with watching, fretting and worrying because he was afraid he should die, while my friend slept sweetly and rose in the morning fresh as a lark! Coming on deck, he accosted the philosopher, “What? Have you not turned in?” “No, no.” He was miserable, he was unhappy. “Why,” said the Believer, “I trust in my heavenly Father and I fell asleep, and I feel quite refreshed. What good have you got by staying here?” “I must confess,” said the other, “you Believers have the best of it when you get to sea.” Yes, and assuredly we have the best of it on land, too! We have the best of it in health, in sickness, in death—and we shall have the best of it forever!
God made the sea, and the prints of His hands are still to be seen. Skillful persons can tell that a picture is by a certain artist by its style. It is not everybody that can judge well, but a man skilled in art knows the touch of each painter’s brush. “That is Rembrandt,” cries the artist, “he alone could produce such lights and shadows! And the other is by Sal-vator Rosa—I know the master’s hand.” He also who has sought out the works of the Lord and has pleasure therein, knows the great Father’s style. The same sublime mind which gave us the Holy Scriptures also ordained the channels of the deep. I am absolutely sure that He who reveals the secrets of the soul is He in whose hands are the deep places of the sea. His commandment is exceedingly broad, even as the main ocean—and of His Divine Grace we are compelled to cry, “O the depth!” even as when we sound the Atlantic!