Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3433
“Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him. I will set him on high because he has known My name.” Psalm 91:14.
THAT this Psalm was written by David we see no reason to doubt. In the previous verses we have the words of the Psalmist himself. Here, however, there is a change of speaker. The promise is spoken by God, Himself, in these three closing sentences. Doubtless the words of Inspired men are very precious as a Divine testimony, but when God, Himself, directly speaks to us in His own name, what an extraordinary weight attaches to every syllable He utters! Dear child of God, you who are a believer in Jesus, can you not think that you hear your God saying, concerning you, with His own, gracious assuring voice, “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him”? And notice that He repeats these words, “I will,” four times, as if to give them the most striking emphasis! Surely this is intended to minister some comfort and refreshing to the Lord’s people. I pray the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, to give the Word and to apply it.
“Because,” says the Most High, “he has set his love upon Me.” We must look at this carefully, for it contains a description of character. If we can find ourselves classified here, it will be well for us, otherwise we shall have reason for deep anxiety. Is our love set upon God? Search your hearts, for the question is very pungent. The original Hebrew has more force in it than our translation expresses, although I do not know exactly how to improve upon our version. The idea, however, is something like this—“To have fallen in love”—as though with all the tenderness of passion and all the transport of devotion, the creature yearned for his Creator, and mortal man cherished an intense affection for the eternal God.
I. The Heart’s Supreme Love
“He has set his love upon Me.” His love! Such love as draws the sympathies with its irresistible attraction, as brightens the thoughts with its fervent glow, as knits the heart with its indissoluble bonds! Yes, such love as melts the soul with its potent charms. I would have you think of it, now, as a fact, not as a fiction, or a fancy. That word, love, is translatable into the many tongues of earth, and so it passes current among the millions in every age and every clime. But only hearts attuned can feel it—it finds echo only in the purest minds. But, to explain it, why, one had need combine a poet’s genius with the emotions of a child, a husband or wife, a parent, a friend, all earthly relations in one to paint genuine love in living language! And even then it were all felt, and little, very little, told! Oh, but this is a high matter, for a man to set his love upon God! His love—not a cold sentiment, not a languid approbation, not a mild complacency, not any mere formal respect, but love, burning love, which, like coals ofjuniper, give forth a vehement flame—“his love set upon God,” like a river that is set upon its course to the sea, its volume always swelling, its tide becoming more and more rapid.
Answer now, dear Hearer, can you say that you have set your love upon God? If so, you have been the subject of a great change—a mysterious transformation—for your heart was naturally at enmity to God, and the instincts of your mind and the desires of the flesh were alien to Him. Look back. Compare your present self with your former self and consider the difference. If you were not, in your unregenerate state, in active hostility to God, yet you were indifferent towards Him. God was not in all your thoughts. You could rise at morn and lay down to rest at night without enquiring after God. You could go forth to your work and labor, and return to seek your recreation without seeking or acknowledging God in all your ways. Gladly would you try even to suffer, to die upon the bed of sickness when called to it, struggling with weakness, confiding in the physician’s skill—without appealing to God your Creator and your Preserver! This was your natural state, the bent and bias of your perverse will! And in such waywardness you would have continued to this hour if the free, rich, undeserved Sovereign efficacious Grace of God had not interposed! Is your love now set upon God? Then a great change has passed over you as though a dead man had been quickened into life! As though the darkness of midnight had been suddenly turned to the brightness of midday! A great wonder of Grace, a miracle of saving mercy has been worked in you!
Though you must know to whom it is to be ascribed, let me refresh your memory, awhile, that I may awaken your gratitude. Comes not this of the Lord, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working? Depend upon it, only He who made you, could make you new! Only that Voice which brought light out of darkness, and order out of chaos, could have dispelled your vain infatuations or inflamed your soul with love, and made your known apathy and aversion give place to a sacred ardor and a devout affection! Surely the Kingdom of God has come near unto you! Salvation has come to your house! The Lord has looked upon you and spoken to you! The Eternal Spirit has brooded over your dull faculties and, as it were, by the breath of God’s mouth you have been regenerated! You are born-again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible—by the Word of God which lives and abides forever. Therefore you are in Christ, a new creature! Revolve these things in your soul, this array of lively blessings, that your gratitude may bloom with joy in God and your praise to the Lord may burst into melodious song! Do I not speak of a matter which should compel the tongue of every redeemed man to cry, “Hosanna in the highest”? Were it marvelous if a thousand voices should utter a loud hallelujah?