"The LORD GOD is a Sun and Shield:
the LORD will give grace and glory:
"No good thing will He withhold from them
that walk uprightly."
--PSALM LXXXIV. 11.
How pleasant to the heart of a true child to hear his father well
spoken of, and to rejoice that he is the child of such a father. We
feel that we can never thank GOD sufficiently for our privileged lot,
who have been blessed with true and loving Christian parents. But if
this be the case with regard to the dim and at best imperfect earthly
reflections, what of the glorious Reality--the great FATHER--the
source of all fatherhood, of all protection--of all that is blessed
here, and true, and noble, and good--and of all the glories to which
we look forward in the future? "The LORD GOD is a Sun and Shield: the
LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will He withhold from
them that walk uprightly."
"The LORD GOD is a Sun and Shield," and this in the fullest
conceivable sense. None of His works can fully reveal the great
Designer, and Executor, and Upholder; and the loftiest thoughts and
imaginations of the finite mind can never rise up to and comprehend
the Infinite. The natural sun is inconceivably great, we cannot grasp
its magnitude; it is inconceivably glorious, we cannot bear to gaze
for one moment on its untempered light. The source to us of all heat,
we have to shield ourselves from its tropical power, though millions
of miles from its surface: the sustainer of the essential conditions
of physical life, and the great ruler and centre of the solar
system--how great and glorious is the natural sun! And yet it may be
the very smallest of all the countless suns that GOD has made! What
of the glorious MAKER of them all!
"The LORD GOD is a Sun." Ah! He deserves the name, He is the Reality
of all that sun or suns exhibit or suggest. My reader, is he the Sun
to you? Do you count all that to be darkness which does not come form
and accord with His light: all that to be disorder which does not
implicitly accept and delight in His rule? "O LORD of Hosts, blessed
is the man that trusteth to Thee!" Self-will is unmingled folly, and
can only end in injury and loss.
And the LORD GOD is a Shield. Dangers encompass us, unseen at every
moment. Within us, in the wonderful and delicate organisation of our
bodies--around us, when in circumstances of the greatest comfort and
apparent safety--are dangers unseen, which at any moment might
terminate our earthly career. Dangers seen sometimes appal us, or
appal those who love us: but they are not more real than many we
never dream of. Why do we live so safely, then? Because the LORD GOD
is a Shield.
Foes, too, are never far from us. The world, the flesh, and the devil
are very real; and unaided we have no power to keep or deliver
ourselves from them. But the LORD GOD is a Shield. It is a small
matter then to go to China, a very small additional risk to run; for
there, as here, the LORD GOD is a Shield. Should war break out, in
this we may be confident; for He has said He will never fail nor
forsake His own. Only when our work is done will He take us home; and
this He will do whether we serve Him here or there. To know and to do
His will--this is our safety; this is our rest.
Sweet are his promises--grace will He give, and glory. Grace all
unmerited and free--that which is really for our good, for CHRIST'S
deservings, not for ours. And glory too--glory NOW, the glory of
being His, of serving Him in each least duty of life, and glory in
the soul. Glory apparent, too, as with unveiled faces we behold and
rejoice in His glory, and reflect it ever more and more. And glory to
come, when we have done and suffered His will here, and are "for ever
with the LORD!"
"No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly." Ah!
How often, when we have been dissatisfied with the ways of GOD, we
ought to have been dissatisfied with our own ways! We did not think,
perhaps, that in some matter or other we were not walking uprightly.
If not so, however, then the thing we desired was not for our good,
and therefore was not given; or the thing we feared was essential to
our good, and hence was not withheld. We are often mistaken: GOD,
never. "No good thing will He withhold": shall we be so foolish, so
wayward, as after this to desire that which our Father in heaven
withholds?
But sweet as are GOD'S promises, the PROMISER is greater and better.
Finite human words fetter the expression of the heart of the Infinite
GIVER. Hence if we had claimed all the promises, had opened our
mouths most wide, and had asked with all the blessed presumption of
loved and favoured children--yet, above and beyond the promises, He
would still be able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or
think. He delights to do so! Let not low thoughts, GOD-dishonouring
thoughts, unbelieving, distrustful thoughts, limit His blessings; for
"No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly."