Every change of condition is specially trying-and what are you in yourself ?

Posted : 2 Jul, 2013 05:42 AM

Psalm 119:116 Uphold me according unto Your word, that I may live: and let me not be ashamed of my hope.





Lest the Psalmist should seem to have been self-confident in

his rejection of the society of the ungodly, and his

determination to adhere to his God; here, as on former occasions, mindful of his own weakness, he commits himself

to the upholding grace of God. He does not content himself

with commanding the evil-doer to depart. He pleads for his

God to come to him. He wants not only the hindrances to be

removed, but the vouchsafe of present supporting grace.

Such is our urgent continual need! Every circumstance has its

temptation. Every change of condition is specially trying-and

what is he in himself? unstable as water! Indeed the highest

Archangel before the throne stands only as he is upheld by

the Lord, and may unite with the weakest child in the Lord's

family in the acknowledgment,-"By the grace of God I am what

I am." Much more, therefore, must I, pressed on every side

with daily conflict and temptation, and conscious of my own

weakness and liability to fall, "come to the throne of grace," for

"grace to help in time of need." My plea is the word of

promise-according to Your word-"as your days, so shall your

strength be." "Fear not"-is the language of my upholding God-

"for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God: I will

strengthen you: yes, I will help you: yes, I will uphold you with

the right hand of My righteousness." Blessed be the goodness

that made the promise, and that guides the hand of my faith,

as it were, to fasten upon it!

But why do I need the promise? why do I plead it? but that I

may live-that I may know that life, which is found and enjoyed

"in the favor" of God? Nothing seems worth a serious thought

besides; nothing else deserves the name. And therefore new

life-"life more abundantly"-let it be the burden of every prayer the cry of every moment. Thus upheld by the Lord's grace,

and living in His presence, I hope to feel the increasing

support of my Christian hope. Though I have just before

expressed it in God's word-though I have "made my boast in

the Lord," as my hiding-place and my shield, yet conscious

helplessness leads me earnestly to pray-Let me not be

ashamed of my hope. Yes-Jesus is the sinner's hope-"the hope set before" His

people, to which they "flee for the refuge" of their souls. And

well may our "hope" in Him be called "an anchor of the soul,

sure and steadfast." How does the distressed church plead

with the hope of Israel, and put her God in remembrance of

this His own name, that she might not be ashamed of her

hope! And how does she-with every member of her body eventually learn by this pleading, to say in the confidence of

faith-"I know whom I have believed!" And is there not a solid

ground for this confidence? Is not the "stone that is laid in Zion

for a foundation," a "tried stone?" Has it not been tried by

thousands and millions of sinners-no, more, tried by God

Himself, and found to be "a sure foundation?" Yet still, that I

may "hold fast the beginning of my confidence," and "the

rejoicing of my hope, firm unto the end," I must persevere in

prayer-Uphold me according unto Your word.

David, when left to his own weakness, was ashamed of his

hope:-"I said in my haste, I am cut off from before Your eyes."

At another time, when upheld in a season of accumulated

trial, "he encouraged himself in the Lord his God." Thus I see

"wherein my great strength lies," and how impotent I am,

when left to myself. What a mercy, that my salvation will never

for a single moment be in my own keeping! what need have I

to pray to be saved from myself! How delightful is the exercise

of faith in going to the Strong for strength! The issue of my

spiritual conflicts is certain. He who is the author, will ever be

the upholder, of the "hidden life" in His people. It is a part of

His own life, and therefore can never perish. The Tempter

himself will flee, when he marks the poor, feeble, fainting soul,

upheld according to the word of his God, and placed in safety

beyond the reach of his malice. Not, however, that, as I once

supposed, my weakness will ever be made strong; but that I

shall daily grow more sensible of it, shall, stay myself more

simply upon infinite everlasting strength; and "most gladly shall I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest

upon me."



by

Charles Bridges

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