LivePrayerSermon 1350. Enlivening and Invigorating
(No. 1350)
DELIVERED BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Quicken me according to Your Word." Psalm 119:25.
You will frequently find David uttering this petition. It is a favorite prayer of his, "Quicken me, O Lord!" And, as Davidwas like the rest of us-indeed, his experience is the mirror of the experience of all Believers-you may depend upon it, weall have a great need to pray as he did, "Quicken me, O Lord!" If he felt a coldness and deadness frequently stealing overhim, so do we. Did he find it hard to endure such a wretched state? So ought we, also, to loathe and abhor it. And as he criedto the Strong for strength and knew that quickening must come from God, we ought to know-I trust we know-the same resourceunder the same necessity. Therefore, let it be our prayer now and let the prayer be repeated often-"Quicken me, O Lord, accordingto Your Word."
How are we to understand this quickening? It means, of course, making alive, keeping alive, and giving more life- in a word,enlivening. He was alive-he was a spiritual man, or else he would not have asked for life. Dead men never pray, "Quicken me."It is a sign that there is life, already, when a man is able to say, "Give me life, O Lord!" This is not the prayer of theunconverted! It is the prayer of a man who is already regenerate and has the love of God in his soul- "Quicken me, O Lord,according to Your Word." Quickening, of course, comes to us, first, by regeneration. It is then that we receive spirituallife. And as there is no natural life in the world except that of which God is the Author, so assuredly in the new world thereis no spiritual life except that which God has created.
The first quickening is that which comes upon us when we begin to feel our need of a Savior, when we begin to perceive thepreciousness of that Savior and when, with a feeble finger, we touch the hem of the Savior's garment. Then are we quickenedinto newness of life! But that spiritual life needs to be kept alive. It is like the life of a fire which must be fed withfuel and supported with air. It is like our natural life which needs food to sustain it and needs to breathe the atmospherein order to its continuance. We are as much creatures of God's power in our continuing to live as in our commencing to live!And, spiritually, we owe as much to Divine Grace that we remain Believers as that we became Believers. As soon as we get spirituallife, this prayer is most proper as a sacred instinct, "Lord, continue this life in my soul, continue to quicken me, for,if You do not, I have no life in myself apart from You and I would die were I severed from You, as does a branch when severedfrom the vine. Continue therefore, good Lord, to quicken me."
Obviously, too, some special invigoration and excitement of life must be implied here. The trees, all through the winter,are alive. Their substance is in them when they cast their leaves. The vitality is not extinct, though our poet of "The Seasons"does sing-
"How dead the vegetable kingdom lies: How dumb the tuneful choir!"
A Divine act of power secretly maintains the life, hidden away till spring comes. Then the chains of frost are broken, thegenial warmth begins to light upon the sealed buds, the sap flows and the trees, in their reviving tints and bursting buds,give such promise of returning foliage and flower that in a very special sense they may be said to be quickened. As soon asthe sap begins to rise, the buds swell, the leaves unwrap themselves and the concealed flowers gradually open-a quickeningcomes over what was alive and what had been kept alive all through its dreary, wintry time.
So, Beloved, you see, first of all, God gives us life then He maintains life. And then, at times and seasons, (would to Godthey were more frequent and without intermission!), He gives vigor to that life so that it becomes more manifest and mighty.And then it is that in a conspicuous manner the quickening is seen. I would to God that He would lead some poor sinner topray in the very first sense of the word, "Lord, quicken me! Give me life!" It would be a sign that life was coming! I wouldthat every Christian would incessantly pray the prayer in the second sense-"Quicken me, Lord"-that is, "Continually keep mefaithful and true to Your Word." And then, thirdly, I would that we would all go on to the
third sense and say, "Lord, inspirit me, revive me, lift me up unto a higher life. Fill me with more of Your Holy Spirit andso make me more truthful and more like Your ever living Son Jesus, who has life in Himself."
Having thus introduced to you the prayer, I would use the Psalm to explain it-to explain, rather, the experience which commendsthe prayer to our constant use. First, Brothers and Sisters, I would assign some reasons why you need quickening. Secondly,I would point out some motives to see it. Thirdly, we shall mention some ways in which it is worked. And, fourthly, we willsuggest pleas such as the Psalmist used, for obtaining it.
I. THERE ARE MANY REASONS WHY WE SHOULD SEEK QUICKENING. You cannot overlook that confessed in the text-because of the deadeninginfluence of this world-"My soul cleaves unto the dust: quicken me according to Your Word." We are surrounded with dust. Weare associated with dust. The best and brightest things that are in this world are made of dust. And as for ourselves, althoughwe have within us a new and higher life that has no fraternity with the dust, there is an old life belonging to us which isbrother to the dust-which says to the worm, "You are my sister." "Dust you are, and unto dust you shall return," is true ofevery one of us.
Yet, Beloved, we cannot feed on the dust-that is the serpent's meat-it is not ours. The new life in us craves for somethinghigher, but the old nature tries to be content with dust. It clings to it-the dust cleaves to it and it cleaves to the dust.You know how the care and cross, the work and worry of a busy day will often dampen your ardor in prayer and disqualify yourthoughts for devout meditation? You cannot think much of treasure laid up in Heaven if you think a great deal of this world'sgoods.
Riches are often a dangerous encumbrance to those who seek after righteousness. They steal the heart away from God. MatthewHenry, in his own sharp style, warns us that the care in getting, the fear in keeping, the temptation in using, the guiltin abusing, the sorrow in losing and the responsibility of giving account for gold and silver, houses and lands, accumulatea heavy burden for him to bear who would have a conscience void of offense toward God and toward man. And yet if you havebut little of this world's wealth, you will find poverty a trying ordeal. The cares of poverty, like those of property, oftenbreak the calm repose which our faith ought to enjoy.
If things go smoothly with you in business, then those smooth, deceitful streams bear you away from God. And, if they go roughlywith you, then in the deep and in the storm you are too apt to forget the Lord or to murmur against His Providence. Thereis nothing in this world to help a Christian-it is all against him! The world holds us to itself as tightly as it can-it actslike bird-lime to us. When we would mount on the wings of eagles, we are often like the eagle that you see in the gardenswhere they keep such creatures-there is a chain on our foot and we cannot rise. Our soul cleaves to the dust.
Now, as this is the case and as you cannot get out of the world, pray that you may rise superior to its influence. You menof business, you heads of families, you who guide and you who follow, you who are sociable and you who are solitary-all ofyou must still be in the world and mix with men of the world-therefore cry to God, yes, cry mightily, "Lord, deliver us fromthe deadening influence of the world in which we live! Quicken us, we beseech You, from day to
day!"
A second reason for our need of quickening lies in the influence of vanity-of that which is actually sinful. Refer to the37th verse-"Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity, and quicken me in Your way." As we go about in the world we see a greatdeal of that which is injurious to us. The sins of others leave some kind of stain upon the conscience. I question whetheryou can read a newspaper and scan the story of a murder or a robbery, or survey with more distant glance in any book of historythe sin of your fellow men without being, in a degree, injured. We are compelled to see much of vanity and sin in our dailycallings. We do not merely read of profanity but we hear the oaths.
You enter into a railway carriage and you cannot always avoid hearing conversation which is the reverse of pure. You go intoyour house and, unless you are happily situated so that all are Christians, there will be a great deal of which you cannotapprove and which can be of no benefit to your soul. Besides, the whole world runs after its own idols-men each seek his own,and not the things of Christ-and all these things are vanity. "Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, all is vanity."
Our eyes are often fascinated by the glitter and the glare of these vanities. The world puts on a very beauteous complexion.She attires her head and paints her face like Jezebel. And it is not always easy, like Jehu, to detest her, and to say, "Flingher down, and let the dogs consume her." We have nothing to do with this vain world! We are not citizens of
this land! But, truly, Madam Bubble, as Bunyan calls her, with her purse and her person, continually presenting herself, isenough to make even Standfast, himself, to stagger and even he needs to fall on his knees, and cry, "Quicken Me, O Lord, andturn away my eyes from beholding vanity."
There is thus a second good reason why we should seek for quickening. Sometimes we shall have need to cry for quickening becausewe are surrounded by deceivers. Turn to the 87th and 88th verses-"They had almost consumed me upon earth; but I forsook notYour Precepts. Quicken me after Your loving kindness; so shall I keep the testimony of Your mouth." If you are often assailedby foes and if those foes happen to be the men of your own household-if they jeer at your faith, if they make a jest of holinesson purpose to pain you-you will need a great deal of Divine Grace not to be ruffled.
To always be a dove-to be a dove in the midst of ravens. To always be a lamb-to be a lamb in the midst of wolves-is not soeasy. He must have much spiritual life who shall be able, wisely and discreetly, to behave himself in the midst of those wholie in wait to entrap him in every word that he says. Remember how David acted in the court of Saul, when Saul eyed him. Unsulliedpurity is the safest policy. Though Saul eyed David, he could not see any fault or rake up any charge that he could bringagainst him. Oh, that all of you young people, especially those of you who are subjected to scorn and contempt because ofyour fidelity to Christ, may be doubly blessed with Grace-may you be, indeed, quickened to the full spiritual life that youmay stand the test of persecution and reproach, of suspicion and disparagement, of misrepresentation and slander which issure to come upon you!
Do not pray to be rid of the grievance-rather rejoice that you are counted worthy to suffer shame for your Savior's sake!You may pray, if you like, that the distress may be lightened because your strength is small. You may pray that your flightis not in the winter-but do not make that the special object of your petition. Rather pray for Grace to endure it! Pray forlife, spiritual life, that you may throw it off. I suppose that, in order to prevent disease, it is a good thing to removethe cause of the disease and take away everything that produces ill savors in the air. But the sure thing is for the man himselfto be vigorous as to his own life.
I have no doubt many die in moderately healthy localities because they have no stamina. They are constitutionally weak, whilethe young man who is in robust health may even pass through a pestiferous district and be for hours in the midst of malariawithout falling a prey to its deadly influence. And this simply because the life that is in him resists the disease. Yourbusiness, dear Friend, if you live in the midst of those that are set on fire by Hell-those who pour out venom against you,is to pray- "Lord, quicken me that I may have so much spiritual life that these evil influences may not be ruinous to me.Deliver me from them when it is Your will, but meanwhile let me have such a full tide of life that I may be able to endurewhat I must encounter without being injured."
Another reason for seeking quickening will be found in the 107th verse: "I am afflicted very much: quicken me, O Lord, accordingunto Your Word." In seasons of affliction we are very apt to fall into a dark, cold, dead state of mind. We have known manypersons in poverty. I have often been sorely pained by it-when members of this Church, who have much, become very poor-andhave given up attendance at the House of God. I could understand their reasons far better than I could appreciate them. Theirpride was doubtless wounded, because they could not dress as they used to do, though I am sure nobody here thinks any betterof you for dressing yourselves in fine clothes. I do not think so much of you, myself.
As they could not dress quite so well they felt they could not mix as they did with some with whom they were once equal incircumstances. So they have gone out by the wayside. It is a sad thing when they do so. I am much saddened by it. I hope noneof you ever will. You ought to think that you will be more welcome at the House of God when you are in trouble than you everwere before! And if you lose your earthly possessions, it is all the more reason why you should seek to hold faster to theriches which are above.
If you are in pain, too, that kind of affliction has a great tendency to distract the mind. Who can think when the brow isthrobbing? Who can be calm when every vein becomes a road for the hot feet of pain to travel on? It is not easy. Well now,we have reason, when we feel weak, when we feel that the mind is suffering in sympathy with the body, to cry, "Lord, let Gracetriumph over nature. Let Your Spirit have power-Your blessed comforting Spirit-to lift me up above the weight which now islaid upon me, that I may glory in tribulation because Your power rests upon me."
You look upon a weight as a heavy matter which keeps you down, but mechanics know how to make a weight raise you. A littleadjustment of ropes and pulleys and such-like contrivances, and the weight shall lift you up! And the Lord knows how to makeour afflictions minister to our quickening, as we shall have to show you directly. But in themselves they deaden us. Theydo not assist, but rather hinder and so, whenever they come, then is the time for us to pray with special emphasis, "Quickenme, O Lord, according to Your Word." Thus have I endeavored to show you from the Psalm itself some of the reasons why we needquickening.
II. Now, let us pass on to describe SOME OF THE MOTIVES FOR SEEKING QUICKENING. There are very
many. Seek it because of what you are. You are a Christian and, therefore, already alive unto God. Life seeks more life- itis its natural tendency. If there is life in a tree, it seeks to put forth its branches. And when it has had its spring growthspurt, you will notice that it then begins to seek for its midsummer spurt. And when the midsummer growth is over, the treealways has an eye to the growth of the next spring! And before the old leaves go there is every preparation made for the newleaves. Life is always aiming at more life. It a law of Nature. There is a propagation continually progressing in which lifedevelops and multiplies itself. Now, if you have the life implanted by the Holy Spirit, you will long for more. If you donot long to have more life, it surely must be because you have no life. The living man will be sure to cry to God that hemay have life more abundantly.
The next motive is not only because of what you are, but because of what you ought to be. Here is a question for you whichI will leave you to answer-"What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness?" We like, sometimes,to work out a problem. There is one to solve. Draw a picture, if you can, of what you ought to be. I will tell you, if youdraw that picture accurately, what it will be like. It will be like Jesus Christ! That is the answer to this question-"Whatmanner of persons ought we to be?"
Now Christ was full of life. Although He did not strive or cry, or lift up His voice, or cause it to be heard in the streetsby way of seeking after popular notoriety, yet what life was in Him! He was brimful of life! There was nothing stagnant, indifferent,or purposeless in any of His actions or in all His career. Why, the life of Christ was so full that it seemed to flow outeven onto His garments, so that when they touched His garments, virtue went out of Him! How full must He have been of theliving force-the inward power! O Beloved, we ought to be so! As we are redeemed, as we are quickened by Christ-as we are membersof His body, as we belong to Him-we ought to reckon ourselves dead unto sin, but alive unto God by Jesus Christ!
Above all men that live, the Christian ought to live at the most vigorous rate. We have a race to run! We must not creep andcrawl, or we shall not win the prize. We have a battle to fight! If we should sheath our sword, put off our armor and go tosleep, how can we overcome our enemies? We have an agony to endure, according to His power that works in us mightily, andthere cannot be this resisting unto blood-striving against sin-unless all our passions are awakened and all our powers arestirred for the wondrous inward strife. We ought to ask for quickening because of what we ought to be.
Then, we ought to ask for quickening because of what we shall be. "It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know thatwhen He shall appear we shall be like He, for we shall see Him as He is." Brothers and Sisters, you are to be a pure spiritin Heaven! Be spiritual now! Brothers and Sisters, you are to sing among the angels! Rehearse the music now! Brothers andSisters, you are to see His face that is as the sun that shines in its strength! Let not your eyes be now sealed with dust!Let them be clear, as clear as they can be in this misty atmosphere of earth. Brothers and Sisters, you are to sit upon theThrone with Christ, for He says, "As I have overcome, and have sat down with My Father upon His Throne, so, also, shall yousit with Me upon My Throne." Remember where you are to be and behave yourself accordingly! You cannot maintain the dignityof your high calling, or your heavenly destiny unless you have an abundance of spiritual life-so pray, "Quicken me, O Lord."
Now, to come back to the Psalmist's own confessions and reflections. He gives us another motive for seeking this in the 88thverse: "Quicken me after Your loving kindness; so shall I keep the testimony of Your mouth." We need quickening in order toobedience. If our life decays, then the power of sin will get the mastery over us. We cannot go in the way of obedience andpunctuality and scrupulous care and inward heartiness unless we are daily quickened. I am sure you want to be holy, Brothersand Sisters. I am sure you do! Well, then, pray, "Quicken me." There is no such thing as dead holiness-it must be living holinessand you must be made alive in order to be obedient-for there is no such thing
as dead obedience. Up to the altar of God they brought birds and they brought beasts, but they never brought fish! Why? Becausethey could not bring live fish and there must be no sacrifice presented to God but that which has life! Ask for life, thatyou may have obedience!
Look at the 107th verse and you have another reason for seeking quickening, because it will be your comfort. "I am afflictedvery much: quicken me, O Lord, according to Your Word." Or, better still, at the 50th verse, "This is my comfort in my affliction:for Your Word has quickened me." Do you need comforting? Get quickening! Do not so much ask the Lord to give you sweet promises,as to give you inward life, for in life there is always light. "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." As thelight is the life, the life is the light-and when you get the life of God within your soul, you will get the comfort of God.I urge you to seek quickening, then, if you are under any distress, because it will be the quickest means of your findingconsolation in your trouble.
Look, also, at the 87th and the 88th verses, to which we have already referred, and you will see that we ought to seek quickeningas the best security against attacks of enemies. We need not examine how we can meet the foe, or with what argument we canrefute his sophistries, or with what weapons we can overthrow him. "Quicken me, O Lord," is still the prayer, even thoughthey threaten to consume us from off the face of the earth! We have but to keep close to the precepts of God and pray forquickening, and we shall be "more than conquerors through Him that loved us." The use of the word, "quicken," will be seenin the 93rd verse. "I will never forget Your Precepts: for with them you have quickened
me."
We are always in danger of forgetting God's precepts. So, to invigorate our memories and to fortify our hearts, we must getquickening. Nothing can make a man so secure of walking rightly and defying all the attacks of his enemies as the receptionof spiritual life. The young man can only cleanse his way by taking heed to it according to God's Word. But he cannot takeheed to his way if he is not alive in the way. Life is the great thing. Look at a pool of water when it stands still-how itbecomes mantled over with weeds-how stagnant and defiled it is. But give it vent and let it run down yonder brook among thestones-let it leap in little cascades on its way down to the river. It is alive and see how pure it gets, refining as it goes,dropping all the filthiness it had accumulated before! It become sweeter and clearer because of life! So it must be with us.We must have life!
We shall forget God's precepts, also, and lose the purity of life unless quickening is abundantly given to us. If I neededsome one thrilling motive to awaken the reluctant, I would resort to this-the terrible consequences of losing spiritual life.I do not mean the effect of losing it, altogether, but of lacking it in its manifest display. Alas that it should be so easyto give obvious illustrations! But I could tell you of many congregations and Churches where there is no evidence of vitality,growth or increase. It is as if they were all dead. I do not say that there is no spiritual life, but there is none in thesense in which I am using the term. They have fallen into a dead sleep and the members of the Church are cold, apathetic,spiritless.
Life among them is at the lowest ebb. You cannot be sure they breathe. By breathe I mean-a breath of prayer. Some of themhave not been to a Prayer Meeting, they could not tell when. Some do not know if they ever were. And when they attend Lord's-Dayservices, not a few of them literally sleep-and the rest of them sleep with their eyes open. The minister is dozing, dreaming,snoring, talking in his sleep-that is what his preaching is like. There is plenty of preaching like that-an inarticulate snoringof the everlasting Gospel! The preacher, perhaps, reads, or else he repeats what he has laboriously committed to memory andsays it as a school boy does his lesson-and he is glad when it is over-for he considers that preaching twice on Sunday wearshim out, dear man!
And well it may, as he does it. It wears his people out as well. They have no evangelical spirit. The surrounding neighborhoodis not evangelized by them. They do not increase-they do not think of increasing. In fact, they get fewer as the good peoplego home to Heaven. Any attempt to do anything there would be looked upon as "an innovation." Yet they do something-they havea disturbance every now and then. They hold what they call a, "Church meeting," which means, in their case, a spiritual bear-gardenin which they show their life. And one minister after another is driven away-not that it is a fit place for anybody to desireto go, you know, for there is very little to be had except abuse. But still, that is the style of the thing-and there arehundreds of churches in England in that condition.
O that the Lord would quicken them! May this place be reduced to ashes and may the congregation be scattered to the four windsof Heaven sooner than it should become a huge mausoleum, a catacomb of which it may be said, "the dead
are there"! Ah, it is ill to have "the means of Grace" without the Grace of the means-to have a name to live and to be dead!God save us from it! Take heed to yourselves! Some of the members of this Church, I fear, are getting into that condition!Yet not, I know, you that are present this evening. You would not, most likely, have been here on such a wet night as thisif you had not some care for the things of God.
I refer to those that are not here. When you get home tell them so-tell them what I have said about it-and then perhaps theywill say, "Well, if the pastor always speaks severely of those who are not there we had better go, so as to escape his censures."
III. Now let us mention briefly SOME OF THE WAYS BY WHICH THIS QUICKENING MAY BE WORKED IN
US. Of course the Lord, Himself, must do it. In prayer it must be sought because by His power it must be worked. The prayeris, "Quicken me, O Lord, according to Your Word." He does not expect the quickening from any but a Divine source. From wherecan life come but from the ever living God? How can we expect that we should get life if, while we seek the gratuity, we totallyforget the Divine energy of Him who alone can bestow it? In the 37th verse we are told how the Lord often quickens His people,namely, by turning off their eyes from beholding vanity. "Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken me in Yourway."
The Lord sometimes takes the vanity away of which we made our idol-or else He takes us away from the idol and does not permitus to find any contentment in it. Oh, it is half the battle to be weaned from the creature! It is half the battle, I say,to get the eyes off vanity, for then you are likely to get your eyes turned upon God! May He be graciously pleased to quickensome of you in that way. In the 50th verse we find that God quickens His people by His Word. "Your Word has quickened me."And the part of the Word which He often blesses to this end is remarkable, for, in the 93rd verse it is written, "I will neverforget Your Precepts; for with them You have quickened me."
Promises are quickening, doctrines are quickening, but David says, "Your Precepts-with them you have quickened me." If wepreach frequently and earnestly the precepts of our Lord there are hearers who will complain and say, "The minister is gettinglegal." No, Brothers and Sisters, it is you that are getting dead, for when you are alive you will love God's Laws and thoseprecepts will quicken you. "But they pain me," says one. That is often how people are quickened! While a person is drowning,we have heard that his sensations are often really delightful-but when he is fished out of the water, as soon as he beginsto recover life, the blood begins to tingle in the veins and the pain is intense. The pain of returning life is somethingterrible.
Well, so it is with God's precepts when He quickens us with them. These Laws pain us because they show us our shortcomings,expose to us our faultiness and humble us. Brothers and Sisters-that is the way to be quickened! When you are numbed, youknow that is next door to being dead. But when that numbed flesh of yours begins to come to life again-you have felt it, youmust have felt it-when the blood begins to circulate by rubbing, a sharp pain is excited in the part that, before, was numbedand painless. Be thankful for the pain-that is an index of life. "I love Your Precepts, for with them you have quickened me."
May the Lord apply a text of Scripture to your soul with power, or let Him send a Word from the minister as he speaks in Jehovah'sname with a Divine force, and you will soon feel the effect. Though you appeared to be dead, you will start up and begin tolive again! Have you not often found it so? Have you not often found great reviving come to your sinking spirit? Pray theLord to make His Word always thus vivifying and inspiriting to you. In the 107th verse we have another means of quickeningwhich God frequently uses, namely, affliction. "I am afflicted very much: quicken me, O Lord, according to Your Word." Godfrequently employs adversity as a black poker to stir us up that the flame of devotion may be brighter.
When you observe the fire in your sitting room getting dull and going out, you do not always put more coals on, but you stirit-and sometimes affliction does that for us. It stirs us and makes the life which was languishing to briskly burst forth.Be thankful if God stirs your fire. Then, again, this quickening is sometimes worked in us by means of Divine comfort, asin the 50th verse-"This is my comfort, for Your Word has quickened me." The great flush of comfort, the sudden inflow of supremejoy when you were much depressed-this has greatly cheered and invigorated you. At least I know it has often been so with me.
When very despondent and sad at heart, I have felt a soft stream, as though it were the Gulf Stream with its warm, genialtemperature, flowing into my soul, melting all the icebergs that had gathered round my heart. and I have wondered what itwas. How has my gratitude turned to my gracious God and found sweet expression in that hymn-
"Your mercy is more than a match for my heart, Which wonders to feel its own hardness depart, Dissolved by Your goodness,I fall to the ground, And weep to the praise of the mercy I've found." You will often have proved, I doubt not, how God usesthe comfort of His Spirit to quicken His children.
IV. Our last point is to enquire WHAT ARE OUR PLEAS WHEN WE COME BEFORE GOD TO ASK FOR
QUICKENING? What arguments shall we use? Well, Brothers and Sisters, use first the argument of your necessity. Whatever thatnecessity is, particularize it, as David does in the 107th verse-"I am afflicted very much; quicken me." Or take our text,"My soul cleaves to the dust, quicken me." Plead your necessities! Your needs shall be the argument for the oil and wine.Your emaciation and your hunger shall be the argument for a festival. Show the Lord what you are and where you are. Confessit before Him and this shall be good pleading.
Also plead, if it is in your power to do so, the earnest desire that God has kindled in you. Read the 40th verse- "BeholdI have longed for Your Precepts; quicken me in Your righteousness." This is as much as to say, "Lord, You have given me greatlongings after You. You gave me these cravings-will You not satisfy them? Do You torture me with the miseries of Tantalus?Do You grieve me with a thirst which You will not gratify? Have You given me a hunger for the Bread of Heaven only for thesake of torturing me?" Beloved, if you have a desire, you may depend upon it, the desire of the righteous shall be granted.God does not excite the appetite without providing the nourishment.
If He makes you hunger and thirst after righteousness, remember the promise, "Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst afterrighteousness, for they shall be filled." They shall not have merely a little, a crumb or two to stay their stomachs, butthey shall be filled! Go and plead that before God. "I have longed after Your Precepts; quicken me in Your righteousness."There is the second plea. And then you may find a third in the very righteousness of God, as we have seen in the 40th verse.Appeal to His righteousness! Do I see you start back abashed? Do I hear you say, "Oh no! I could not appeal to that, for therighteousness of God must condemn me."
Stop a minute. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." Why, the Justice of God is on theside of the man who has received God's promise because it were unjust of God to break it! He will not alter the thing thathas gone out of His mouth! The Lord has given His Word that He will give His people life. The very fact of His having madethem live at all is the proof that He means to continue to make them live! Go and plead it, then. Say-"In Your righteousness,oh Lord, quicken me." David is very often harping upon that string. As I showed you in the reading, he twice appeals to God'sjudgment, or His Justice, that He would quicken him.
Another, and a very sweet plea is that of God's loving kindness. Read the 88th verse-"Quicken me after Your loving kindness."Look at the 149th verse-"Hear my voice according unto Your loving kindness: O Lord, quicken me according to Your judgment."And so again in the 156th verse-"Great are Your tender mercies, O Lord: quicken me according to Your judgments." "You pityingGod, give me more life. O You who wills not the death of any, give me more life. O You that loves as a father loves, giveme more life! O You who have engraved me upon the palms of Your hands, quicken me! Quicken me, I beseech You." Are they notblessed pledges to lay hold on-His loving kindness and His tender mercies? With such promises you will be sure to prevail!
And then what a comprehensive plea is that of our text-"Quicken me according to Your Word." You have it in the 25th verseand you have it in the hundred and seventh. He pleads the Word of God. What that Word was that David had to appeal to, itwould rather puzzle me to tell you. His Bible was not so large nor near so full as ours. I do not find any promise of quickeningbefore David's time. Perhaps a special promise had been given to him, or, at any rate, the promise is virtually in the Pentateuch.But certainly, to us, there is abundant testimony to be found in the Word of God, for our Lord Jesus Christ Himself has toldus-"Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but it shall be in him a well of water springingup into everlasting life." "I give unto My sheep eternal life." The Son of man has come not only that we might have life,but that we might have it more abundantly!
Plead the promises, Brothers and Sisters! Plead the promises and, as you plead them before the Lord, you may rest quite certainthat God will be as good as His Word and, if you can plead the promise, the promise will be surely fulfilled
to you. Beloved in Christ, do tenderly watch over your spiritual life, or otherwise you are hypocrites when you pray "quickenme." Take heed lest you neglect the food of your souls! Do not go where your life would be in danger! Do not seek worldlycompany, do not indulge in worldly amusements. Keep out of all the deadening influences of the world as much as you can.
Have you ever seen the Grotto del Cane near Naples? It has a deadly gas at the bottom of it. They take a dog and throw himin and when they drag him up the dog looks as if he were dead. But by the aid of a fresh water bath he comes round again.As they thus kill the poor dog half a dozen times a day, I do not envy him his experience. Indeed, I rather think if I werethat dog I would lose no time in seeking another master! Yet there are some professing Christians that will go into bad company-getinto the bad gas of temptation-and then they go and hear a sermon and get back their spiritual life. I would advise you notto be like that poor dog, but to keep out of harm's way.
If you have life, do your best to maintain it and do not run the risk of suspended animation. Knowing the worth and joy oflife, yourself, pray very earnestly that God would give it to others. Look on the dead in sin, but not with stony eyes. Lookon them with tears. Even if I knew that my hearers must be lost, I would pray God to help me to weep over them, because ourSavior's tears over Jerusalem, you remember, were accompanied with a distinct indication that Jerusalem would be destroyed."Oh, that you had known, even you, in this your day, the things which make for your peace! But now are they hid from youreyes." Still He wept.
We have no such terrible knowledge about the destiny of any man. We look hopefully upon you unconverted people and we exhortyou because we expect you to believe in Jesus! We sincerely trust that you will be saved and, therefore, we pray for you inhope. May the Lord in infinite mercy lead you to feel for yourselves and pray for yourselves- "Quicken me, O Lord!" Do youfeel that prayer welling up from your soul? Does it rise from your heart? Then, already there is something of spiritual lifethere! Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall have life, for He who said, "He that lives and believes in Me shallnever die," said also, "He that believes in Me, though He were dead, yet shall He live."
God give you that living faith which is the token of the Divine life. To Him be glory forever and ever! Amen.