“Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings
will I rejoice.”—PSA. lxiii. 7.
I WISH to speak on the important use of Christian experience in the
confirmation of faith. I say in the confirmation of faith, for there is
the widest possible difference between confirmation and commencement.
Experience may confirm the faith when it already exists, but the faith
must obviously be there before there can be any experience of its result.
At the outset of our Christian course we have nothing to do but throw
ourselves absolutely in naked trust on the sure promises of the covenant
of God, and rest exclusively on what He has done and promised. We have
nothing then to do with our own history, our own feelings, or our own
progress, it is Christ and Christ alone on whom the soul must rest for
life. And so, if we look to the real foundation of faith, it must be to
the last day of our pilgrimage. It is a fatal-moment for us if we are
led to look away for a single moment from Him. But at the same time we
must remember that we are not always at the beginning of our Christian
life. One who has trusted the Lord Jesus Christ and walked with Him for
many years is not in the same position as one who is to-day seeking Him
for the first time. He has had the experience of the loving-kindness of
the Lord. He has never found Him to fail in any of the anxieties of his
life, and if he could trust many years ago when he had nothing but the
bare promise, how much more may he trust the Saviour now when the truth
of His word has been tried and tested in all the varied experiences of
life?
The Lord Jesus Christ is described as “a sure foundation;” {63a} sure,
because He is the foundation laid by God; sure, because of His own
eternal Godhead; sure, therefore, as an object of simple trust before a
person has had any experience of His grace. To the trembling sinner who
has hitherto been a total stranger to Him, and has never known anything
of His love, even to him He is a sure foundation, and though knowing Him
only through the word, that trembling sinner may come to Him and trust.
But according to that same verse He is also a tried foundation. He has
been tried by the whole church of God for eighteen centuries and has
never once been found to fail any one that has come to Him in faith. He
has been tried by us who have known Him for the greater part of our
lives, and we are not to ignore all He has done for us, but say, as St.
John did, not merely that we have believed, but that “we have known and
believed the love that God hath towards us.” {63b}
Now this is the principle of the text. The Psalm was written when David
was in great trouble, having taken flight from Saul in the wilderness of
Judah. He was there hidden in such caves as Adullam, and cut off from
the sanctuary of God. But it is a very cheerful and thankful Psalm. He
was not downhearted because of his troubles, but he had such an assurance
of the loving-kindness of the Lord that his heart was full of praise. He
could praise Him, and that with joyful lips, even in the wilderness. The
reason was that he could trust Him, and though he was only a young man
his trust had been confirmed by experience. He had been in difficulty
almost the whole time since his call, but he had found a strong arm with
him all the way, and therefore he said, “Because thou has been my help,
therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice.” In this verse
there are two things to be observed—