Psalm 147:11
“The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his mercy!”
In the Psalms of David we have innumerable exhortations to praise our God. At the same time, we have innumerable grounds of praise set before us. In the Psalm before us we are told how abundant he is in mercy both to the Church and to the whole creation; and that, while there is nothing of created excellence that merits his regard, verse 10, “he takes pleasure” in those who manifest the very smallest symptoms of a new creation within them.
The words of my text are, in this view, worthy of peculiar attention. In them we see,
I. How low God stoops to the objects of his favor.
Had he spoken of himself as noticing angels—it would have been a wonderful mark of his condescension and grace; for “he humbles himself when he beholds the things that are in Heaven, Psalm 113:6,” and “charges even his angels with folly, Job 4:18.”
But the people whom he speaks of here, as objects of his favor, are of the lowest possible order of saints. In point of regard for God, they rise no higher than “fear;” and in point of confidence in God, they go not beyond a “hope in his mercy.”
What can be lower than the mere “fear” of God?
A person destitute of this has not the smallest evidence whatever of the divine approbation. He cannot have it. A man without the fear of God is a decided enemy to God; and God is, and must be, an enemy to him.
A person, the very instant he is born of God, must of necessity fear to offend him, and endeavor, by a holy conformity to his will, to please him. After having made a progress in the divine life, he will attain to higher exercises of grace; but in this the lowest state of conversion, God will regard him as an object of his favor.
And what lower attainment can we conceive, than a mere “hope in his mercy?”
This supposes that a man feels himself a sinner, justly liable to God’s wrathful indignation. It supposes, too, that he despairs of ever being able to do anything that shall conciliate the divine power! He sees and feels that he must entirely cast himself on the mercy of God in Christ Jesus. At the same time, he sees that there is a sufficiency for him in Christ; a sufficiency in his death to atone for all sin; and a sufficiency in his righteousness, to justify all who shall be clothed in it before God. With these views, he indulges a hope that even he may obtain mercy at God’s hands; and on God’s mercy he casts himself without reserve; determining, if he perishes, to perish at the foot of the cross, imploring mercy of God for Christ’s sake.
Lower than this we cannot go; for if a person has not attained to this, he has not entered into the fold of Christ. He may be an outward-court worshiper; but on the threshold of God’s sanctuary he has not so much as once set his foot.
Yet, as low as their condition is, the text informs us,
II. How high God soars in his regards towards them.
Had it been said that God would look with pity and compassion upon such feeble worms, it would have displayed in him a most astonishing extent of condescension and grace. But we are told, not that he will show favor to them, and accept them, but that “he takes pleasure” in them. Yet how can this be conceived? What can he ever see in them, that shall afford him pleasure? However little we may be able to conceive it, he does “take pleasure” in them.
1. God takes pleasure in looking upon them.
He himself draws this very character, and says, “To this man will I look, even to him who is of a broken and contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word! Isaiah 57:15; Isaiah 66:2.” If it is asked, What can he find in them to engage his regards? I answer, What can a mother behold in a new-born infant to engage her affections? The child, though so weak and helpless, is hers, a partaker of her nature, and an heir of her inheritance; and therefore she feels an intensity of interest in the child, and finds in the sight of it an exquisite delight!
2. God takes pleasure in answering their prayers.
A mother understands the cry of her child, and needs no further incentive to fulfill its desires. In the same way, God, too, understands the sigh, the groan, the very look of his children, and will grant to them whatever they can desire, provided it is really conducive to their good. “Even before they call, he will answer; and while they are yet speaking, he will hear! Isaiah 65:24.”
3. God takes pleasure in administering to all their needs.
All Heaven, as it were, shall be at their command, Jeremiah 31:20 with Psalm 34:10. In the aid that he affords, God will exert himself effectually, even “with his whole heart and his whole soul, Jeremiah 32:41;” and in the bestowment of his blessings, he will rejoice over the beloved object with such a joy and delight as God alone can feel, Zephaniah 3:17.
Are you, then, my brethren, partakers of this character?
Consider who it is that “has made us for this very purpose, 2 Corinthians 5:5;” and endeavor to “render to him according to the benefits he has conferred on you.” Do not say, ‘My attainments are so small, that they call for shame and sorrow, rather than for joy.’ For “God does not despise the day of small things, Zechariah 4:10;” neither must you despise it. Methinks the least that I can ask of you is this; If “God takes such pleasure” in you, then you must also take pleasure in him. The more you “delight yourselves in him,” the more assuredly shall you grow in everything that is good, until you have attained “the full measure of the stature of Christ.”
Is there one among you who is not of this character!
What pleasure can God ever take in you? Can he look with delight on a rebellious man that does not “fear him,” or on a self-righteous man that does not “hope in his mercy?” Impossible! for you counteract all the designs of his grace, and run, as it were, upon the thick bosses of his buckler, in your opposition to him. In such a state as this, what can you be but objects of his wrathful indignation, left for a season to fill up the measure of your iniquities, and to perish under an accumulated weight of misery!
Let me, then, entreat you to seek the graces which are here specified. Beg of God, for Christ’s sake, to “put his fear in your hearts;” and cast yourselves upon his mercy in Christ Jesus, “hoping even against hope.” Then, notwithstanding your deservings, you shall not perish, but have in yourselves an experience of that truth which God has revealed for the comfort and support of all his people, “that the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses from all sin!”
Charles Simeon