How happy is it to bring to God a heart as large in praise as in prayer!

Posted : 21 Sep, 2013 02:23 AM

Psalm 119:171 My lips shall utter praise, when You have taught me Your statutes.





How happy is it to bring to God a heart as large in praise as in

prayer! The answer of the supplication for spiritual

understanding and deliverance naturally issues in the sacrifice

of praise. Guilt had sealed David's lips; while living in sin, and

restrained alike the utterance of praise and prayer. But when

awakened to a sense of his sin, how earnest were his cries!-

"Restore to me the joy of Your salvation. O Lord, open my

lips; and my mouth shall show forth Your praise." And if guilt

or unbelief has made us dumb, his petitions will tune our hearts to the "songs of Zion." When the Lord has taught us in

His statutes the revelation of Himself, as having given His

dear Son for us and to us, "the tongue of the dumb is made to

sing." "Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift!"

And do I not remember "the time of love," when I first knew

myself to be "a brand plucked out of the fire"-a redeemed

sinner-a pardoned rebel- destined for a seat on the throne of

God-indulged with a taste, and assured of the completion, of

heavenly bliss? This was a work worthy of God-a work, which

none but God could have wrought. What mercy is this!

Everlasting! Unchangeable! Let me cast myself daily upon it;

yes, let me bury myself in it! What gratitude is demanded! My

lips shall utter praise, now that He has taught me His statutes.

"O Lord, I will praise You; though You were angry with me,

Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me."

Again-I seemed to have sunk beyond all help. No means, no

ministers, no providences, could reach my extremity. All were

"physicians of no value," tried and tried again: but tried in vain.

But "in weakness" thoroughly felt, "strength was made

perfect." The threatening clouds were dispersed; the breaches

were healed; the veil of unbelief was rent. "The right hand of

the Lord has brought mighty things to pass."-"He has both

spoken unto me, and Himself has done it," and it is

"marvelous in our eyes." Let my stammering lips utter praise.

What a display of power! It is the spark preserved in the

ocean unquenched, the drop in the flames unconsumed; the

feather in the storm unshaken. "Who is a God like unto You?

Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us; but unto Your name give

glory."

And again-I was perplexed in a dark and bewildered path.

Every dispensation appeared to frown upon me. One dark

hour had blotted out all the recollections of my former

comforts; and it was as if I never could, never should, rejoice again. But little did I think how the Lord was "abounding

towards me in all wisdom and prudence"-how His arrows were

sharpened with love-how He was "humbling me, and proving

me, to know what was in my heart" and in the moment of

chastening was speaking to me-"I know the thoughts that I

think towards you, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give

you an expected end." What a display of "wisdom!" My lips

shall utter praise; for if I "should hold my peace, the stones

would immediately cry out."

The thought of what I was before my conversion-what I have

been since- what I am now, overwhelms me with shame and

with praise. "Lord, how is it that You should have manifested

Yourself to me, as You have not unto the world?" "Who am I,

O Lord God, that You have brought me hitherto?" And how

much more "that You have spoken of Your servant for a great

while to come!" For You have prepared for me a happy

eternity in Your unclouded presence. Should not then my

praise be bubbling up, as from a fountain- pouring forth, as

from a rich treasure-house? Should not my instrument, if not

always employed, be always kept in tune? Forward we may

be in prayer. But how backward we are in praise! Self-love

may constrain the one. Only the love of God will quicken the

other. And yet ought we not to be more touched in receiving

mercies, than we were in asking for them? In the one case we

only knew them by testimony or report. In the other we know

them by our own experience. We hear of one, who had much

forgiven, and who "loved much." And surely the more sin

pardoned-the more mercies received-does not God justly

expect of us more love in the heart-more utterance of praise

from the lips?

And yet who of us are fit to praise, except those whom God

has taught? The "new song" ill accords with the old heart. God

vouchsafes His grace for the praise of His grace. Ought not

we then to glory in our Savior-a privilege as high as to enjoy Him-no-the very means of increasing our enjoyment of Him, in

the active excitement of our love, and every grace for His

sake? Let not the enemy rob me, as too often he has done, of

my high privilege. Let me prize secret prayer. Let me be

separated from an ensnaring world. Let me dread separation

from my God; and if ever estranged from Him, let me never

rest, until, by "receiving the atonement," always presented

and accepted on my behalf, I once more walk in the light of

His countenance. Let me then fix the eye of my faith, weak

and dim as it may be, constantly upon Jesus. He must do all

for me, in me, by me; He must teach me more and more of

the statutes of my God, that my heart may be delightfully

engaged with my lips in uttering His praise.



by

Charles Bridges

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