a license “to trust in the Lord,” with an affirmation that he is their
help, and their shield—“Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord; he is
their help and their shield” (Psa 115:11). Now what a privilege is
this! an exhortation in general to sinners, as sinners, to trust in
him, is a privilege great and glorious; but for a man to be singled out
from his neighbours, for a man to be spoken to from heaven, as it were
by name, and to be told that God hath given him a license, a special
and peculiar grant to trust in him, this is abundantly more; and yet
this is the grant that God hath given that man! He hath, I say, a
license to do it—a license indicted by the Holy Ghost, and left upon
record for those to be born that shall fear the Lord, to trust in him.
And not only so, but as the text affirmeth, “he is their help and their
shield.” Their help under all their weaknesses and infirmities, and a
shield to defend them against all the assaults of the devil and this
world. So then, the man that feareth the Lord is licensed to make the
Lord his stay and God of his salvation, the succour and deliverer of
his soul. He will defend him because his fear is in his heart. O ye
servants of the Lord, ye that fear him, live in the comfort of this;
boldly make use of it when you are in straits, and put your trust under
the shadow of his wings, for indeed he would have you do so, because
you do fear the Lord.
Second Privilege. God hath also proclaimed concerning the man that
feareth the Lord, that he will also be his teacher and guide in the way
that he shall choose, and hath moreover promised concerning such, that
their soul shall dwell at ease—“What man is he that feareth the Lord?”
says David, “him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose” (Psa
25:12). Now, to be taught of God, what like it? yea, what like to be
taught in the way that thou shalt choose? Thou hast chosen the way to
life, God’s way; but perhaps thy ignorance about it is so great, and
those that tempt thee to turn aside so many and so subtle, that they
seem to outwit thee and confound thee with their guile. Well, but the
Lord whom thou fearest will not leave thee to thy ignorance, nor yet to
thine enemies’ power or subtlety, but will take it upon himself to be
thy teacher and thy guide, and that in the way that thou hast chosen.
Hear, then, and behold thy privilege, O thou that fearest the Lord; and
whoever wanders, turns aside, and swerveth from the way of salvation,
whoever is benighted, and lost in the midst of darkness, thou shalt
find the way to the heaven and the glory that thou hast chosen.
Further, He doth not only say, that he will teach them the way, for
that must of necessity be supplied, but he says also that he will teach
such in it—“Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.” This
argueth that, as thou shalt know, so the way shall be made, by the
communion that thou shalt have with God therein, sweet and pleasant to
thee. For this text promiseth unto the man that feareth the Lord, the
presence, company, and discovery of the mind of God, while he is going
in the way that he hath chosen. It is said of the good scribe, that he
is instructed unto, as well as into, the way of the kingdom of God
(Matt 13:52). Instructed unto; that is, he hath the heart and mind of
God still discovered to him in the way that he hath chosen, even all
the way from this world to that which is to come, even until he shall
come to the very gate and door of heaven. What the disciples said was
the effect of the presence of Christ, to wit, “that their hearts did
burn within them while he talked to them by the way,” shall be also
fulfilled in thee, he will meet with thee in the way, talk with thee in
the way; he will teach thee in the way that thou shalt choose (Luke
24:32).
Third Privilege. Dost thou fear the Lord? he will open his secret unto
thee, even that which he hath hid and keeps close from all the world,
to wit, the secret of his covenant and of thy concern therein—“The
secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will shew them
his covenant” (Psa 25:14). This, then, further confirmeth what was said
but just above; his secret shall be with them, and his covenant shall
be showed unto them. His secret, to wit, that which hath been kept hid
from ages and generations; that which he manifesteth only to the
saints, or holy ones; that is, his Christ, for he it is that is hid in
God, and that no man can know but he to whom the Father shall reveal
him (Matt 11:27).
But O! what is there wrapped up in this Christ, this secret of God?
why, all treasures of life, of heaven, and happiness—“In him are hid
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” And “in him dwelleth all
the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Col 2).
This also is that hidden One, that is so full of grace to save sinners,
and so full of truth and faithfulness to keep promise and covenant with
them, that their eyes must needs convey, even by every glance they make
upon his person, offices, and relation, such affecting ravishments to
the heart, that it would please them that see him, even to be killed
with that sight. This secret of the Lord shall be, nay is, with them
that fear him, for he dwelleth in their heart by faith. “And he will
shew them his covenant.” That is, the covenant that is confirmed of God
in Christ, that everlasting and eternal covenant, and show him too that
he himself is wrapped up therein, as in a bundle of life with the Lord
his God. These are the thoughts, purposes, and promises of God to them
that fear him.
Fourth Privilege. Dost thou fear the Lord? his eye is always over thee
for good, to keep thee from all evil—“Behold the eye of the Lord is
upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy; to deliver
their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine” (Psa
33:18,19). His eye is upon them; that is, to watch over them for good.
He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. His eyes are upon
them, and he will keep them as a shepherd doth his sheep; that is, from
those wolves that seek to devour them, and to swallow them up in death.
His eyes are upon them; for they are the object of his delight, the
rarities of the world, in whom, saith he, is all my delight. His eye is
upon them, as I said before, to teach and instruct them—“I will
instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go; I will
guide thee with mine eye” (Psa 32:8; 2 Chron 7:15,16). The eye of the
Lord, therefore, is upon them, not to take advantage of them, to
destroy them for their sins, but to guide, to help, and deliver them
from death; from that death that would feed upon their souls—“To
deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine.” Take
death here for death spiritual, and death eternal; and the famine here,
not for that that is for want of bread and water, but for that which
comes on many for want of the Word of the Lord (Rev 20:14; Amos
8:11,12); and then the sense is this, the man that feareth the Lord
shall neither die spiritually nor eternally; for God will keep him with
his eye from all those things that would in such a manner kill him.
Again, should there be a famine of the Word; should there want both the
Word and them that preach it in the place that thou dost dwell, yet
bread shall be given thee, and thy water shall be sure; thou shalt not
die of the famine, because thou fearest God. I say, that man shall not,
behold he shall not, because he feareth God, and this the next head
doth yet more fully manifest.
Fifth Privilege. Dost thou fear God? fear him for this advantage more
and more—“O fear the Lord, ye his saints, for there is no want to them
that fear him. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that
seek the Lord,” that fear him, “shall not want any good thing” (Psa
34:9,10). Not anything that God sees good for them shall those men want
that fear the Lord. If health will do them good, if sickness will do
them good, if riches will do them good, if poverty will do them good,
if life will do them good, if death will do them good, then they shall
not want them, neither shall any of these come nigh them, if they will
not do them good. The lions, the wicked people [19] of the world that
fear not God, are not made sharers in this great privilege; all things
fall out to them contrary, because they fear not God. In the midst of
their sufficiency, they are in want of that good that God puts into the
worst things that the man that feareth God doth meet with in the world.
Sixth Privilege. Dost thou fear God? he hath given charge to the armies
of heaven to look after, take charge of, to camp about, and to deliver
thee—“The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him,
and delivereth them” (Psa 34:7). This also is a privilege entailed to
them that in all generations fear the Lord. The angels, the heavenly
creatures, have it in commission to take the charge of them that fear
the Lord; one of them is able to slay of men in one night 185,000.
These are they that camped about Elisha like horses of fire, and
chariots of fire, when the enemy came to destroy him. They also helped
Hezekiah against the band of the enemy, because he feared God (2 Kings
6:17; Isa 37:36; Jer 26:19). “The angel of the Lord encampeth round
about them”; that is, lest the enemy should set upon them on any side;
but let him come where he will, behind or before, on this side or that,
the angel of the Lord is there to defend them. “The angel.” It may be
spoken in the singular number, perhaps, to show that every one that
feareth God hath his angel to attend on him, and serve him. When the
church, in the Acts, was told that Peter stood at the door and knocked;
at first they counted the messenger mad, but when she did constantly
affirm it, they said, It is his angel (Acts 12:13-15). So Christ saith
of the children that came unto him, “their angels behold the face of my
Father which is in heaven.” Their angels; that is, those of them that
feared God, had each of them his angel, who had a charge from God to
keep them in their way. We little think of this, yet this is the
privilege of them that fear the Lord; yea, if need be, they shall all
come down to help them and to deliver them, rather than, contrary to
the mind of their God, they should by any be abused—“Are they not all
ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs
of salvation?” (Heb 1:14).
[Quest.] But how do they deliver them? for so says the text—“The angel
of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth
them.” Answ. The way that they take to deliver them that fear the Lord,
is sometimes by smiting of their enemies with blindness, that they may
not find them; and so they served the enemies of Lot (Gen 19:10,11).
Sometimes by smiting of them with deadly fear; and so they served those
that laid siege against Samaria (2 Kings 7:6). And sometimes by smiting
of them even with death itself; and thus they served Herod, after he
had attempted to kill the apostle James, and also sought to vex certain
others of the church (Acts 12). These angels that are servants to them
that fear the Lord, are them that will, if God doth bid them, revenge
the quarrel of his servants upon the stoutest monarch on earth. This,
therefore, is a glorious privilege of the men that fear the Lord. Alas!
they are, some of them, so mean that they are counted not worth taking
notice of by the high ones of the world; but their betters do respect
them. The angels of God count not themselves too good to attend on
them, and camp about them to deliver them. This, then, is the man that
hath his angel to wait upon him, even he that feareth God.
Seventh Privilege. Dost thou fear the Lord? salvation is nigh unto
thee—“Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him, that glory may
dwell in our land” (Psa 85:9). This is another privilege for them that
fear the Lord. I told you before, that the angel of the Lord did encamp
about them, but now he saith, “his salvation is also nigh them”; the
which although it doth not altogether exclude the conduct of
angels,[20] but include them; yet it looketh further. “Surely his
salvation,” his saving, pardoning grace, “is nigh them that fear him”;
that is, to save them out of the hand of their spiritual enemies. The
devil, and sin, and death, do always wait even to devour them that fear
the Lord, but to deliver them from these his salvation doth attend
them. So then, if Satan tempts, here is their salvation nigh; if sin,
by breaking forth, beguiles them, here is God’s salvation nigh them;
yea, if death itself shall suddenly seize upon them, why, here is their
God’s salvation nigh them.
I have seen that great men’s little children must go no whither without
their nurses be at hand. If they go abroad, their nurses must go with
them; if they go to meals, their nurses must go with them; if they go
to bed, their nurses must go with them; yea, and if they fall asleep,
their nurses must stand by them. O my brethren, those little ones that
fear the Lord, they are the children of the highest, therefore they
shall not walk alone, be at their spiritual meats alone, go to their
sick-beds, or to their graves alone; the salvation of their God is nigh
them, to deliver them from the evil. This is then the glory that dwells
in the land of them that fear the Lord.
Eighth Privilege. Dost thou fear the Lord? hearken yet again—“The mercy
of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him,
and his righteousness unto children’s children” (Psa 103:17). This
still confirms what was last asserted, that is, that his salvation is
nigh unto them. His salvation, that is, pardoning mercy, that is nigh
them. But mind it, there he says it is nigh them; but here it is upon
them. His mercy is upon them, it covereth them all over, it
encompasseth them about as with a shield. Therefore they are said in
another place to be clothed with salvation, and covered with the robe
of righteousness. The mercy of the Lord is upon them, that is, as I
said, to shelter and defend them. The mercy, the pardoning preserving
mercy, the mercy of the Lord is upon them, who is he then that can
condemn them? (Rom 8).
But there yet is more behind, “The mercy of the Lord is from
everlasting to everlasting upon them.” It was designed for them before
the world was, and shall be upon them when the world itself is ended;
from everlasting to everlasting it is on them that fear him. This from
everlasting to everlasting is that by which, in another place, the
eternity of God himself is declared—“From everlasting to everlasting,
thou art God” (Psa 90:2). The meaning, then, may be this; that so long
as God hath his being, so long shall the man that feareth him find
mercy at his hand. According to that of Moses—“The eternal God is thy
refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; and he shall thrust
out the enemy from before thee, and shall say, Destroy them” (Deut
33:27).
Child of God, thou that fearest God, here is mercy nigh thee, mercy
enough, everlasting mercy upon thee. This is long-lived mercy. It will
live longer than thy sin, it will live longer than temptation, it will
live longer than thy sorrows, it will live longer than thy persecutors.
It is mercy from everlasting to contrive thy salvation, and mercy to
everlasting to weather it out with all thy adversaries. Now what can
hell and death do to him that hath this mercy of God upon him? And this
hath the man that feareth the Lord. Take that other blessed word, and O
thou man that fearest the Lord, hang it like a chain of gold about thy
neck—“As the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy
toward them that fear him” (Psa 103:11). If mercy as big, as high, and
as good as heaven itself will be a privilege, the man that feareth God
shall have a privilege.
Ninth Privilege. Dost thou fear God?—“Like as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him” (Psa 103:13).
“ The Lord pitieth them that fear him”; that is, condoleth and is
affected, feeleth and sympathizeth with them in all their afflictions.
It is a great matter for a poor man to be in this manner in the
affections of the great and mighty, but for a poor sinner to be thus in
the heart and affections of God, and they that fear him are so, this is
astonishing to consider. “In his love and in his pity he redeemed
them.” In his love and in his pity! “In all their affliction he was
afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in
his pity he redeemed them, and he bare them, and carried them all the
days of old” (Isa 63:9). I say, in that he is said to pity them, it is
as much as to say, he condoleth, feeleth, and sympathizeth with them in
all their afflictions and temptations. So that this is the happiness of
him that feareth God, he has a God to pity him and to be touched with
all his miseries. It is said in Judges, “His soul was grieved for the
misery of Israel” (Judg 10:16). And in the Hebrews, he is “touched with
the feeling of our infirmities,” and can “succour them that are
tempted” (4:15, 2:17,18).
But further, let us take notice of the comparison. “As a father pitieth
his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.” Here is not only
pity, but the pity of a relation, a father. It is said in another
place; “Can a woman,” a mother, “forget her sucking child, that she
should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may, yet
will not I forget thee.” The pity of neighbours and acquaintance
helpeth in times of distress, but the pity of a father and a mother is
pity with an over and above. “The Lord,” says James, “is very pitiful,
and of tender mercy.” Pharaoh called Joseph his tender father,[21]
because he provided for him against the famine, but how tender a father
is God! how full of bowels! how full of pity! (James 5:11; Gen 41:43).
It is said, that when Ephraim was afflicted, God’s bowels were troubled
for him, and turned within him towards him. O that the man that feareth
the Lord did but believe the pity and bowels that are in the heart of
God and his father towards him (Jer 31:18-20).
Tenth Privilege. Dost thou fear God?—“He will fulfil the desire of them
that fear him; he also will hear their cry, and will save them” (Psa
145:19). Almost all those places that make mention of the men that fear
God, do insinuate as if they still were under affliction, or in danger
by reason of an enemy. But I say, here is still their privilege, their
God is their father and pities them—“He will fulfil the desire of them
that fear him.” Where now is the man that feareth the Lord? let him
hearken to this. What sayest thou, poor soul? will this content thee,
the Lord will fulfil thy desires? It is intimated of Adonijah, that
David his father did let him have his head and his will in all things.
“His father,” says the text, “had not displeased him at any time in (so
much as) saying, Why hast thou done so?” (1 Kings 1:6). But here is
more, here is a promise to grant thee the whole desire of thy heart,
according to the prayer of holy David, “The Lord grant thee, according
to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel.” And again, “The Lord
fulfil all thy petitions” (Psa 20).
O thou that fearest the Lord, what is thy desire? All my desire, says
David, is all my salvation (2 Sam 23:5), so sayest thou, “All my
salvation” is “all my desire.” Well, the desire of thy soul is granted
thee, yea, God himself hath engaged himself even to fulfil this thy
desire—“He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him, he also will
hear their cry, and will save them.” O this desire when it cometh, what
a tree of life will it be to thee! Thou desirest to be rid of thy
present trouble; the Lord shall rid thee out of trouble. Thou desirest
to be delivered from temptation; the Lord shall deliver thee out of
temptation. Thou desirest to be delivered from thy body of death; and
the Lord shall change this thy vile body, that it may be like to his
glorious body. Thou desirest to be in the presence of God, and among
the angels in heaven. This thy desire also shall be fulfilled, and thou
shalt be made equal to the angels (Exo 6:6; 2 Peter 2:9; Phil 3:20,21;
Luke 16:22, 20:35,36). O but it is long first! Well, learn first to
live upon thy portion in the promise of it, and that will make thy
expectation of it sweet. God will fulfil thy desires, God will do it,
though it tarry long. Wait for it, because it will surely come, it will
not tarry.
Eleventh Privilege. Dost thou fear God?—“The Lord taketh pleasure in
them that fear him” (Psa 147:11). They that fear God are among his
chief delights. He delights in his Son, he delights in his works, and
takes pleasure in them that fear him. As a man takes pleasure in his
wife, in his children, in his gold, in his jewels; so the man that
fears the Lord is the object of his delight. He takes pleasure in their
prosperity, and therefore sendeth them health from the sanctuary, and
makes them drink of the river of his pleasures (Psa 35:27). “They shall
be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt
make them drink of the river of thy pleasures” (Psa 36:8). That or
those that we take pleasure in, that or those we love to beautify and
adorn with many ornaments. We count no cost too much to be bestowed on
those in whom we place our delight, and whom we make the object of our
pleasure. And even thus it is with God. “For the Lord taketh pleasure
in his people,” and what follows? “he will beautify the meek with
salvation” (Psa 149:4).
Those in whom we delight, we take pleasure in their actions; yea, we
teach them, and give them such rules and laws to walk by, as may yet
make them that we love more pleasurable in our eyes. Therefore they
that fear God, since they are the object of his pleasure, are taught to
know how to please him in everything (1 Thess 4:1). And hence it is
said, that he is ravished with their looks, that he delighteth in their
cry, and that he is pleased with their walking (Can 4:9; Prov 15:8,
11:20).
Those in whom we delight and take pleasure, many things we will bear
and put up that they do, though they be not according to our minds. A
man will suffer that in, and put up that at, the hand of the child or
wife of his pleasure, that he will not pass by nor put up in another.
They are my jewels, says God, even them that fear me; and I will spare
them, in all their comings-short of my will, “even as a man spareth his
own son that serveth him” (Mal 3:16,17). O how happy is the man that
feareth God! His good thoughts, his good attempts to serve him, and his
good life pleases him, because he feareth God.
You know how pleasing in our eyes the actions of our children are, when
we know that they do what they do even of a reverent fear and awe of
us; yea, though that which they do amounts but to little, we take it
well at their hands, and are pleased therewith. The woman that cast in
her two mites into the treasury, cast in not much, for they both did
but make one farthing; yet how doth the Lord Jesus trumpet her up,[22]
he had pleasure in her, and in her action (Mark 12:41-44). This,
therefore, that the Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, is
another of their great privileges.
Twelfth Privilege. Dost thou fear God? the least dram of that fear
giveth the privilege to be blessed with the biggest saint—“He will
bless them that fear the Lord, small and great” (Psa 115:13). This word
small may be taken three ways—1. For those that are small in esteem,
for those that are but little accounted of (Judg 6:15; 1 Sam 18:23).
Art thou small or little in this sense, yet if thou fearest God, thou
art sure to be blessed. “He will bless them that fear him, small and
great,” be thou never so small in the world’s eyes, in thine own eyes,
in the saints’ eyes, as sometimes one saint is little in another
saint’s eye; yet thou, because thou fearest God, art put among the
blessed. 2. By small, sometimes is meant those that are but small of
stature, or young in years, little children, that are easily passed by
and looked over: as those that sang Hosanna in the temple were, when
the Pharisees deridingly said of them to Christ, “Hearest thou what
these say?” (Matt 21:16). Well, but Christ would not despise them, of
them that feared God, but preferred them by the Scripture testimony far
before those that did contemn them. Little children, how small soever,
and although of never so small esteem with men, shall also, if they
fear the Lord, be blessed with the greatest saints—“He will bless them
that fear him, small and great.” 3. By small may sometimes be meant
those that are small in grace or gifts; these are said to be the least
in the church, that is, under this consideration, and so are by it
least esteemed (Matt 25:45). Thus also is that of Christ to be
understood, “Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye
did it not to me” (1 Cor 6:4).