Psalm 69:32-33

“The humble shall see this and be glad; and you who seek God, your hearts shall live. For the Lord hears the poor, and does not despise his prisoners.”

Sweetly encouraging are the records of God’s people as contained in the sacred oracles. We see their complaints exactly agreeing with those which we ourselves are constrained to utter. We see:
with what confidence they betook themselves to prayer,
and how wonderfully their efforts were crowned with success,
and how pleased God himself was with magnifying his grace and mercy towards them
—and from all this we derive encouragement, at once suited to our necessities, and sufficient for our needs.

Behold the experience of David in the preceding context, “I am poor and sorrowful.” (In the same way, his experience accords with what is felt by every contrite soul.) and to what has David recourse? To prayer; and with an enlargement of heart which we should scarcely have expected to see, “let your salvation, O God, set me up on high!” in the same way, it is thus that we also should pray; not being straitened in our petitions; but “opening our mouths wide, in order that they may be filled.”

And now mark the success of David’s prayer; behold, without the delay of a moment, he is enabled to add, “I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.” (Such is the success which we also may hope for, if we pray in humility and faith.) and was God displeased with this holy boldness? No! David adds, “this also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that has horns and hoofs,” yes, better than the cattle upon a thousand hills.

Now mark the improvement we are to make of this, “the humble shall see this, and be glad; and (whoever you are) your heart shall live who seek God; for the Lord hears the needy (wherever they may be found), and despises not his prisoners,” however low or abject their condition.

Now, to encourage you, my brethren, from this example, I will proceed (in the simplest way imaginable, and not with any artificial arrangement), to address you on the subject before us:

I trust that many of you are “seeking after God”.

It can scarcely be, that after having so long had the gospel faithfully ministered unto you, there should be the same indifference among you as in the ignorant ungodly world. I hope and trust there is among you:

Some desire after God.
Some hope in the savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And some endeavor to flee from the wrath to come.

And, if you are seeking him aright, God promises that “your heart shall live”.

Doubtless it is necessary that you seek after God in earnest; for “the kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent must take it by force.” You may seek to enter in, and not be able;” you must therefore not only seek, but “strive.” Moreover, you must strive in God’s appointed way. To win a race, you must not only run, but run lawfully;” that is, agreeably to the laws prescribed for you; and the only way by which any of you can succeed, is by renouncing all dependence on yourselves, and founding your hopes altogether on the Lord Jesus Christ, even on his meritorious death and passion, as an expiation for your sins.

Now, if you are indeed fleeing to him for refuge, you shall assuredly find mercy from the Lord, or, as my text expresses it, “your heart shall live.” This expression deserves peculiar notice. The heart of an unregenerate man is as dead and senseless as the nether millstone!

The gospel, with all its alluring promises, may be proclaimed to him—but the unregenerate man does not receive it. The gospel has no allurements for him. Nor do the denunciations of judgment and Hell excite any alarm in him.

But when God gives him a new heart, and puts a new spirit within him, and takes away his heart of stone—then all of his views, desires, and pursuits, become changed! Being alive to God, he will be alive to all holy exercises, and find his happiness in the enjoyment of his God!

“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in you and cause you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws! Ezekiel 36:25-27.”

Nor let anyone be discouraged on account of his poverty.

The poor of this world are not less regarded by Jehovah than the rich. And those who are spiritually poor, are objects of his peculiar care. Not one such person will he ever overlook. Though surrounded by myriads of holy angels, he will not allow them to attract his attention in comparison with a poor and contrite soul. No, “this is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word! Isaiah 66:2.” There is not a sigh which such a one utters, but it is heard by him, and is as music in God’s ears; and every tear he sheds is treasured up by God in his vial. But, not to rest on mere assertions, let us look at an example.

In the prophet Jeremiah, we find a poor mourning penitent, just such a one as we are speaking of; and there we may see in what light he is viewed by God,

“I have surely heard Ephraim’s moaning: ‘you disciplined me like an unruly calf, and I have been disciplined. Restore me, and I will return, because you are the Lord my God. After I strayed, I repented; after I came to understand, I beat my breast. I was ashamed and humiliated because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’

Is not Ephraim my dear son, the child in whom I delight? Though I often speak against him, I still remember him. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I have great compassion for him,” declares the Lord, Jeremiah 31:18-20.” This shows what favor the poor shall find in his sight; and gives the full explanation of those words, “the Lord hears the poor.”

Even though a person should feel himself like a prisoner under actual sentence of death, let him not despond.

It is only in Hell that men are prisoners of despair; but while they are in this world, the worst among them is only a “prisoner of hope; and to such there is a special promise from God himself, “turn to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope; even today do I declare that I will render double unto you, Zechariah 9:12.” Whatever your deserts of judgment have been, God will award to you a “double” measure in a way of mercy. God even condescends to assume this as his own character, whereby he may be known, even as clearly as by his works of creation, or the dispensations of his providence. “Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, the maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—the Lord, who remains faithful forever. He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous! Psalm 146:5-8.”

To them in a special manner he had respect in the gift of his son; as our Lord himself has said, “the spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Luke 4:18-19.”

Only conceive of a poor wretch that has wasted all his substance, and sold himself for a slave, returning in an instant, at the sound of the trumpet, to the enjoyment of liberty, and of all his possessions; and then you have a just view of God’s dealings with the most abject prisoners of hope, the very instant that they call upon him. Let every one, then, take courage, however desperate his state may appear; for this is the true character of Jehovah; and such he will approve himself to be to all who come to him in his son’s name.

And now let me entreat you all to seek the savior without delay.

“Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation!” O beloved, “seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon! Isaiah 55:6-7.”

Charles Simeon