There never has been a year in which, when we look back, we have been unable to say, "The Lord hath been mindful of us." And we may be sure there never will be a year of which, when we look forward to it, we may not say, "The Lord will bless us." The psalmist is quite sure about this: may we be so likewise! But -

I. LET US LOOK BACK ALONG THE COURSE OF THE OLD YEAR.

1. We affirm our conviction that we all should make thankful confession of the Lord's mindfulness of us.

2. But many will look back in far other ways.

(1) Some in self-congratulating spirit, but with no thankfulness to God. They will say to themselves, that what good they have won has been all their own doing. But for their own mindfulness of them selves, there would have been but little to be glad about.

(2) Others will deny that the Lord hath been mindful of them; it seems to them that he has forgotten them, if he has not turned against them. They point to their lessened, much lessened, resources. They were ever so much better off at the beginning of the year than they are now. Or here is a widow mourning bitterly the loss of her husband and the father of her now helpless children. Or a husband, whose home is darkened by bereavement of his beloved wife. Or others, who are kept prisoners on beds of weak ness, hopeless disease, or pain. "What!" say these, "hath the Lord been mindful of us? It does not at all seem like it."

3. Well, we reply, if he has not, then it is very unlike him.

(1) For his mindfulness of us is certainly not a recent thing; he says to his people that the kingdom has been prepared for them from before the foundation of the world.

(2) And all around us are proofs of his loving forethought. See in the history of creation how all our needs were thought of before man was placed on the earth. You cannot do so simple a thing as put some coal on the fire without being reminded of this. Where did that coal come from? Was it not got ready for our use long ere we could need it?

(3) And in the kingdom of his grace this mindfulness of us is conspicuously seen. Christ was the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world. God was not taken by surprise when sin entered our world and began to do its deadly work. God had reckoned with it, and had determined that where sin did abound, grace should much more abound. The two arms of Christ's cross embrace - one, all the sinners of the past; the other, all that shall be to the end of time. "The mischief is more than met by the remedy, the malady by the medicine, and the plaster is as wide as the wound" (M. Henry).

(4) And it is true also in God's personal dealings with us. Reckon up your mercies - spiritual, temporal, personal, relative - and set them over against your sorrows, and see which are most numerous.

(5) And think, too, of what our deservings have been. Then see if you can deny any more that God has been mindful of you.

II. LET US LOOK ON THROUGH THE NEW YEAR, AND BE ASSURED THAT GOD WILL HELP US.

1. It is an argument drawn from what has gone before - and it is valid. We reckon, in regard to men, that what has been will be. The law of habit ensures this. And we may reverently say that God himself conforms to this law. Hence we may reason from what he hath done to what he will do.

2. Furthermore, he has known all along what reasons there are why he should not bless us. No one can tell God anything worse of us than he already knows.

3. And we are in Christ by faith in him. Therefore we are accepted in Christ. Shall not, then, God with him freely give us all things?

CONCLUSION.

1. We will believe that he will bless us.

2. Inasmuch as his blessing is given into the hands outstretched in prayer and faith, and that move in obedience to him, so shall our hands be, and thus will we confidently expect his blessing.

3. And we will tell others of this. - S.C.

I. A BLESSING BELONGING TO A PECULIAR PEOPLE,

1. A people whom God has blessed because He willed to do so.

2. A people to whom this first will of God to bless them has been certified by countless acts of indisputable love. Gethsemane and Calvary speak volumes concerning the reality of the blessings which God has given to His chosen, for there they were loved to the death and redeemed by blood. An incarnate God, a Mediator covered with bloody sweat, a Redeemer wounded and slain, — What say you to this?

3. The people to whom this blessing comes are, after their conversion, known by their character. They "fear the Lord."

4. It is very sweet to notice that this benediction is common to all Godfearing persons, — "both small and great;" and the small are put first, lest they should think they are forgotten.

II. A BLESSING FROM A PECULIAR QUARTER. "Ye are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth."

1. This is a blessing from one peculiarly related to us, and therefore it is the more to be prized. All other blessings are only blessings in proportion as they contain the essence of this blessing; God's blessing is the sea, and others are but drops; that is the sun, and others are but sparks.

2. This blessing comes not from an idol-god. The psalm leads us to make that observation. The gods of the heathen had mouths, but they spake not; ears, but they heard not: any benediction from them would be a mockery: but the children of God are not blessed of Baal or Ashtaroth, but of Jehovah, the self-existent Lord of all!

3. This benediction comes from the omnipotent Creator, "who made heaven and earth." This intimates that the blessing is almighty in power. Have I the blessing of Him who said, "Let there be light," and there was light? Then He can speak into my darkness, and cheer the gloom of my despair. Does the blessing of Him who brought order out of chaos rest upon me? then He can speak to the confusion of my circumstances, and the turmoil of my desponding mind, and charm all things into harmony. The blessing of Him who clothed the earth with beauty, piled the hills, and digged the channels of the sea, must have in it a fulness unrivalled.

4. It is a blessing from the All-wise One "who made heaven and earth." His infallible counsels shall conduct thine affairs to a blessed issue.

III. A BENEDICTION WITH A PECULIAR DATE. "Ye are the blessed," etc. This verb is in the present tense, and, indeed, it may be said to be in all the tenses put together, in a tense that is not a tense, a time that hath no time, but lasteth on evermore, till time shall be no more.

1. This blessing embraces all circumstances. You are laid low and pining away with consumption, but "You are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth." You are smitten down in the very heyday of your usefulness, and laid aside, but "You are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth." Oh, that your faith may lay hold of this when you are very sorely exercised, for happy is the man whom God correcteth, and blessed is the man whom thou chastenst, O Lord!

2. Our text reaches to all time and beyond all time, because it runs thus: "Ye are blessed of the Lord that made heaven and earth." While I am on earth, this shall console me: "I am blessed of the Lord that made the earth;" and He Himself has said of His servants, "Blessed shalt thou be in the city," etc. When I have to go out of this earth into another world, this shall console me: "I am blessed of the Lord that made heaven." I shall still dwell in a place which my Father made. I am not going into a foreign country when I leave the warm precincts of this house of clay. I shall emigrate to the country where flowers never fade, and winter never chills.

IV. A BLESSING WITH A PECULIAR CERTAINTY. Scripture does not lie, or utter "perhapses" and "ifs" and "buts." "Ye are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth." Oh, ye that fear God, this is a matter of fact, ye daily and continually abide under a true and real blessing. Some blessings are vain words: the utterer is a hypocrite. Other blessings are sincere, but the person pronouncing them has no power to fulfil them. Such blessings are wells without water, or barren fig trees bearing leaves but no fruit. The Lord blesses not in word only, but in deed; not in futile wishes, but in omnipotent acts. We may fail to obtain the benedictions which our friends invoke upon us, but God's blessings are sure to all the seed.

V. This BLESSING INVOLVES A PECULIAR DUTY, for, if God has blessed us, the succeeding duty is that we should bless Him (ver. 18). "Praise Him from this time forth." If the past has been marred by any other talk, now "from this time" bless the Lord. Wash thy mouth of all complaining, take the cup of gratitude to sweeten thy soul, and bless His name from this time forth. What, dumb till now? An heir of heaven speechless? May a sight of God's blessing open thy mouth. From this time forth begin to bless Him. Then the psalmist resolves to praise the Lord "for evermore." Our adoration of God is never to cease. As long as there is breath in our body let us praise Him who gives it to us. "Dum spiro spero," said the heathen, "While I breathe, I hope." But the Christian says, "Dum expire spero," "When I die, I will still hope in God." While we exist we will adore.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)