there is but a step between me and death

Posted : 24 Jun, 2013 02:13 AM

Psalm 119:109 My soul is continually in my hand, yet do I not forget Your law.

110. The wicked have laid a snare for me: yet I erred not

from Your precepts.





Precarious health, or familiarity with dangers, may give

peculiar emphasis to the phrase-My soul is continually in my

hand. David, in his early public life, was in constant

apprehension from the open violence and the secret

machinations of his bitter enemy. Hunted down "as a partridge

in the mountains," and often scarcely escaping the snare

which the wicked laid for him; at one time he could not but

acknowledge-"there is but a step between me and death;" at

another time he was tempted to say, "I shall now perish one

day by the hand of Saul." Subsequently the hand of his own

son was aimed at his throne and his life. Yet could no peril

shake his undaunted adherence to the law and precepts of

God.

What was the life of Jesus upon earth? Through the enmity of

foes-various, opposite, yet combined-his soul was continually

in his hand. Yet how wonderful was his calmness and serenity

of mind, when surrounded by them all, like "lions" in power,

"dogs" in cruelty, wolves in malice! A measure of this spirit

belongs to every faithful disciple-not natural courage, but "the

spirit of power," as the gift of God, enabling him in the path of

the precepts "to withstand in the evil day, and having done all,

to stand."

Let us again mark this confidence, illustrated in the open trials

of the servants of God. Mark the Apostle, when "the Holy

Spirit witnessed to him in every city, that bonds and

imprisonment awaited him. None of these things"-said he-"move me. I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at

Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." He could look

"tribulation, or persecution, or peril, or sword," in the face;

and, while he carried his soul continually in his hand, in true

Christian heroism, in the most exalted triumph of faith, he

could say in the name of himself and his companions in

tribulation-"No, in all these things we are more than

conquerors." Nothing could make him flinch. Nothing could

turn him back. Nothing could wring the love of the service of

his God out of his heart. His principle was found invincible in

the hour of trial-not, however, as a native energy of his heart,

but "through Him that loved him." Did he not speak and live in

the spirit of this fearless confidence- Yet do I not forget Your

law? Daniel's history again shows the utter impotency of

secret devices to produce apostasy in the children of God.

When the wicked, after many an ineffectual attempt to "find

occasion or fault," were driven to lay a snare for him in "the

law of his God," this noble confessor of the faith continued to

"kneel upon his knees three times a day, and prayed and

gave thanks before his God, as he did afore-time." The den of

lions was far less fearful in his eyes than one devious step

from the straight and narrow path. Sin was dreaded as worse

than a thousand deaths. He surely then could have said-Yet I

erred not from Your precepts.

But how striking must it have been to David, in his imminent

peril, to have seen the "counsel of Ahithophel"-regarded as

oracular, when employed in the cause of God-now, when

directed against the church, "turned to foolishness!"-an

instance, only "one of a thousand," of the ever-watchful

keeping of the Great Head and Guardian of His Church. Thus

does He overrule the devices of the enemy for the

establishment of His people's dependence upon Himself. "The

wrath of man praises Him," and He "takes the wise in his own

craftiness." But the day of difficulty is a "perilous time" in the church.

"Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried." Have we

been able to sustain the shock in a steady adherence to the

law and precepts of God? This is indeed the time, when

genuine faith will be found of inestimable value. In such a

time, David experienced the present blessing of having

chosen the Lord for his God. When clouds began to gather

blackness, and surrounding circumstances to the eye of

sense engendered despondency-faith realized All-sufficient

support; and "David encouraged himself in the Lord his God."

And is not David's God "our God, the health of our

countenance," the guide of our path, the God of our salvation?

Oh, let us not rest, until his confidence becomes ours-"What

time I am afraid, I will trust in You."

But the cross, which proves and establishes the Christian,

sifts the unsound professor as chaff. Nothing but this solid

principle of faith can resist either the persecution or the snare.

Many desire conformity to Christ and His people in everything

but in their cross. They would attain their honor without the

steps that led them to it. Dread this flinching spirit. Reject it-as

did our Lord- with indignation. It "savors not of God." It is the

voice of Satan, who would promise a pillow of carnal ease

under our heads-a path of roses under our feet-but a path of

slumber, of delusion, and of ruin.

The time of special need is at hand with us all, when we shall

need substance and reality for our support-the true confidence

of a living faith. Those who have never felt the nearness of

eternity, can have but a faint idea of what we shall need in the

hour when "flesh and heart fail," to fix a sure unshaken foot

upon "the Rock of ages." "Watch, therefore," for you know not

how soon you may be ready to say, My soul is in my hand,

quivering on the eve of departure to the Judge. "Let your loins

be girded about, and your lights burning! and you yourselves

like men that wait for the Lord, when He will return from the wedding; that when He comes and knocks, they may open

unto Him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the

Lord, when He comes, shall find watching; verily I say unto

you, that He shall gird Himself, and make them to sit down to

meat, and will come forth and serve them."



by

Charles Bridges

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