Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him from them all. Sermons
The face is the organ of expression. The thoughts, the feelings, the inward movements of the soul, show themselves by the face. Therefore "the lace" stands for the man ( Genesis 48:11); and when God is spoken of after the manner of men, his face is put for himself ( Exodus 33:14). The text is like the mystic pillar of the wilderness. It has two aspects. While God looks forth with love and favour towards his people, he shows himself as terrible to his enemies ( Exodus 14:24). His face, wherever seen, is always against those who wilfully and wickedly persist in doing evil. I. GOD'S FACE IN NATURE IS AGAINST THEM THAT DO EVIL. There is law in nature. To obey the law is to conquer, to disobey is to suffer. As to transgressors, there is neither exception nor immunity. We see the stern, unbending severity of law in the awful passage, Proverbs 1:24-31. II. GOD'S FACE IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES IS AGAINST THEM THAT DO EVIL. Take the ten commandments, and from the first to the last it is the same. The Law is holy and just and good. It demands obedience from all, and denounces condemnation and wrath against transgressors, without respect of persons. The recorded judgments of God may be held as expressing the same thing. All through, from Genesis to Malachi, whether as respects nations or individuals, God's face is against the evil-doer. In no part of Scripture is this brought out more vividly and forcibly than in the Psalms. III. GOD'S FACE, IN THE PERSON OF HIS SON AND OUR SAVIOUR, IS AGAINST THEM THAT DO EVIL. Christ, in his doctrine, his precepts, his example, and in his redemptive work, is wholly and for ever against sin. His object is to "take away sin," and to bring them that do evil to do good and to be the loving and obedient children of God, that they may walk in the light of God's favour for ever. - W.F. Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth them out of them all. The sum of this verse is as if he should say, Let the righteous look for more troubles than others, and likewise let them hope for greater comforts than others; for when they are well, they shall be eclipsed again, to show that their light was but borrowed; and when they are eclipsed, their light shall return, to show their difference from them whom God hateth, which fall from plague to plague, as they run from sin to sin. I. WHAT MAKES OUR TROUBLES SO HARD TO BEAR IS OUR LACK OF PATIENCE, HOW great is our need of this grace! "A sound spirit," saith Solomon, "will bear his infirmity, but a wounded spirit what can sustain?" (Proverbs 18:14). Therefore as the lid is made to open and shut, to save the eye, so patience is set to keep the soul, and save the heart; whole, to cheer the body again. Therefore if you mark, when you can go by an offence, and take a little wrong and suffer trouble quietly, you have a kind of peace and joy in your heart, as if you have gotten a victory, and the more your patience is, still the less your pain is. For as a light burden, borne at the arm's end, weigheth heavier by much, than a burden of treble weight, if it be borne upon the shoulders, which are made to bear; so if a man set impatience to bear his cross, which is not fit to bear, it will grumble, and murmur, and let the burden fall upon his head, like a broken staff, which promiseth to help him over the water, and leaveth him in the ditch. But if you pug it to patience, and set her to bear it, which is appointed to bear, she is like the hearty spies that came from Canaan, and said, "It is nothing to overcome them" (Joshua 2.). Among the strange cures of patience, David may report of his experience what this plaster hath done for him; for, being a figure of Christ, he was always hedged about with the Cross, which proved his patience like a touchstone every day. As Christ was contemned of his countrymen, so David was contemned of his brethren (1 Samuel 26:2); as Christ fled to Egypt, so David fled unto Gath; as Christ received food of women, so David received food of Abigail (Luke 8:2); as Herod persecuted Christ, so Saul persecuted David. Thus, by his own foot, David measured the condition of the righteous, and saith, "Many are the troubles of the righteous"; and then, by his own cure, he showeth how they should be healed, saying, "The Lord will deliver him out of all." If ye mark, the Spirit hath directed David to those two things which make us take our troubles grievously: one, because we do not look for them before they come. Therefore, as Christ told Peter before he suffered, to strengthen him when he suffered (John 21:18); so the Holy Ghost doth run upon the cross to keep us in expectation of troubles, that we might prepare faith, and patience, and constancy for them, as Noah prepared an ark for the flood. II. The second thing which makes us to start so at the cross is, because we are like the prophet's servant, which did see his foes, but not his friends (2 Kings 6.); so WE SEE OUR SORE, BUT NOT OUR SALVE, Comfort seems afar off, like Abraham in the heavens (Luke 16.), as though it would never come so low. Therefore we go about to deliver ourselves, as it is said, Psalm 2., "Let us break his bands," as though we could deliver ourselves. But "hold your peace," saith Moses, "the Lord shall fight for you" (Exodus 14:14). So David comes in like a pacifier, and saith, "Vex not yourselves, for the Lord will deliver you." Bear both these sentences in mind, that you must go through a sea of troubles, and that then you shall come to the haven of rest, and no affliction shall take you before you be armed for it, or you be without your remedy: "Many are the troubles of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of all." Here be the two hands of God, like a wound and a plaster, one casteth down, and the other raiseth up. It is good for a man to know his troubles before they come, because afflictions are lightened in the expectation (Acts 9:16; Matthew 16:24; John 2:10). This is the manner of God's proceedings to send good after evil, as He made light after darkness (Genesis 1:3). The knife of correction must prune and lop off men's rotten twigs before they can bring forth fruit. III. YET OUR TROUBLES ARE BUT TROUBLES. When God doth visit the wicked, His punishments are called plagues and destructions; the plagues of Egypt, the curse of Cain, the destruction of Sodom. But when He doth visit the righteous, His punishments are called corrections, and chastisements, and rods, which proceed from a Father, not to destroy us, but to try us, and purge us, and instruct us. And as Jacob was blessed and halted both at one time, so a man may be blessed and afflicted both together. Afflictions do not hinder our happiness, but our happiness cometh by affliction, as Jacob's blessing came with halting (Genesis 32.), and as peace is procured by war. () I. AFFLICTIONS OFTEN BEFALL THE BEST OF MEN; some, that are common to them with the rest of mankind, and others, that are peculiar to persons of this character. The righteous man, as well as others, may be deserted by his friend, and abused by his enemies. Death may deprive him of those dear to him, and swell his heart with sorrow. His virtue will not secure him from infamy and contempt, from losses and disappointments in his worldly affairs; from poverty, and the thousand hardships that attend it, from bad health and painful distempers. Then, besides his own private afflictions, the good man, through the tenderness of his heart, feels the calamities of his fellow-creatures, and shares in the manifold evils he sees them suffer. Righteousness or virtue sometimes draws upon itself the hatred of bad men, with all the evils they are able to inflict. Eminent worth, which outshines others, and makes them appear despicable and mean, provokes their envy, the most bitter and deadly of human passions. Besides, integrity may lead a man to oppose the wicked in their unjust and mischievous designs; wherefore these will join themselves to such as envy him, and increase the number of his enemies. II. WHY THE RIGHTEOUS ARE AFFLICTED. If God lays affliction upon the righteous, it is not because He has no distinguishing regard for them; but because their sufferings may answer many valuable purposes both to others and themselves. 1. I say, others may reap various advantages by observing the sufferings of good men. By such events God may intend to admonish us, that prosperity is not the best of blessings, nor adversity the worst of evils; since He frequently dispenses the one, and denies the other to His own children. The suffering of the righteous may also be of service to the world; as by this means their virtues are more clearly displayed, and recommended with greater force to the imitation of mankind. 2. Their afflictions often produce great advantages to the sufferers themselves. Among these, I am not afraid to mention the glory they derive from hence. Suffering virtue at least may surely be allowed to comfort itself with the foresight of that veneration, which is wrongfully withheld from it when living; but which posterity will pay with interest to its surviving memory. ,Nor is it a small advantage, that by means of their sufferings the righteous may attain a comfortable assurance of their own constancy. Sometimes also adversity is profitable to good men, as it helps to cure them of their remaining imperfections. III. THE RIGHTEOUS MAN'S SUPPORTS UNDER AFFLICTIONS. 1. The native strength of his virtue, which enables him to break their forte by opposing to them a firm and constant mind. 2. Religion also lends him a powerful aid. () People Abimelech, David, PsalmistPlaces JerusalemTopics Adversities, Afflictions, Deliver, Delivereth, Delivers, Evils, Ills, Righteous, Safely, Takes, Troubles, UprightOutline 1. David praises God, and exhorts others thereto by his experience
8. They are blessed who trust in God
11. He exhorts to the fear of God
15. The privileges of the righteous
Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 34:19 5562 suffering, innocent
6634 deliverance Psalm 34:19-20 5137 bones Library Struggling and Seeking
'The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.'--PSALM xxxiv. 10. If we may trust the superscription of this psalm, it was written by David at one of the very darkest days of his wanderings, probably in the Cave of Adullam, where he had gathered around him a band of outlaws, and was living, to all appearance, a life uncommonly like that of a brigand chief, in the hills. One might have pardoned him if, at such a moment, some cloud of doubt or …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy ScriptureNo Condemnation
'None of them that trust in Him shall be desolate.' --PSALM xxxiv. 22. These words are very inadequately represented in the translation of the Authorised Version. The Psalmist's closing declaration is something very much deeper than that they who trust in God 'shall not be desolate.' If you look at the previous clause, you will see that we must expect something more than such a particular blessing as that:--'The Lord redeemeth the soul of His servants.' It is a great drop from that thought, instead …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture The Encamping Angel
'The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them.'--PSALM xxxiv. 7. If we accept the statement in the superscription of this psalm, it dates from one of the darkest hours in David's life. His fortunes were never lower than when he fled from Gath, the city of Goliath, to Adullam. He never appears in a less noble light than when he feigned madness to avert the dangers which he might well dread there. How unlike the terror and self-degradation of the man who 'scrabbled …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Religion Pleasant to the Religious.
"O taste and see how gracious the Lord is; blessed is the man that trusteth in Him."--Psalm xxxiv. 8. You see by these words what love Almighty God has towards us, and what claims He has upon our love. He is the Most High, and All-Holy. He inhabiteth eternity: we are but worms compared with Him. He would not be less happy though He had never created us; He would not be less happy though we were all blotted out again from creation. But He is the God of love; He brought us all into existence, …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII Lions Lacking --But the Children Satisfied
RIGHT truly did Paul say, "Whereby he hath given unto us exceeding great and precious promises;" for surely this promise is exceeding great indeed. In the entire compass of God's holy word, there is not to be found a precious declaration which can excel this in sweetness; for how could God promise to use more than all things? how could even his infinite benevolence stretch the line of his grace farther than it hath gone in this verse of the psalm?--"They that seek the Lord shall not want any good …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856 A Poor Man's Cry, and what came of It
On this occasion I want to speak of what happens to those who do return to God; because many have newly been brought, through mighty grace. Some of them I have seen; and I have rejoiced over them with exceeding great joy. They tell me that they did distinctly lay hold on eternal life last Sabbath day; and they are clear about what it means. They came out of darkness into his marvellous light; they knew it, and could not resist the impulse at once to tell those with whom they sat in the pews, that …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891 Looking unto Jesus
"Till God in human flesh I see, My thoughts no comfort find,--" God shrouded and veiled in the manhood,--there we can with steady gaze behold him, for so he cometh down to us, and our poor finite intelligence can understand and lay hold upon him. I shall therefore use my text this morning, and I think very legitimately, in reference to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ--"They looked unto him, and were lightened;" for when we look at God, as revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord, and behold the Godhead …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 4: 1858 Seeking Richly Rewarded
"The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing."--Psalm 34:10. THE young lions are very strong; they are as yet in the freshness of their youth, and yet their strength does not always suffice to keep them supplied. The young lions are very crafty; they understand how to waylay their game and leap upon them with a sudden spring at unawares, and yet, with all their craftiness, they howl for hunger in the wood. The young lions are very bold and …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 60: 1914 Tender Mercies, on My Way
"I will bless the Lord at all times." -- Psalm 34:1. Tender mercies, on my way Falling softly like the dew, Sent me freshly every day, I will bless THE LORD for you. Though I have not all I would, Though to greater bliss I go, Every present gift of good To Eternal Love I owe. Source of all that comforts me, Well of joy for which I long, Let the song I sing to Thee Be an everlasting song. …
Miss A. L. Waring—Hymns and Meditations But God Wanted not Power to Make Man Such as that He Should Not...
16. But God wanted not power to make man such as that he should not be able to sin: but He chose rather to make him such, as that it should lie in his power [1859] to sin, if he would; not to sin, if he would not; forbidding the one, enjoining the other; that it might be to him first a good desert not to sin, and after a just reward not to be able to sin. For such also at the last will He makes His Saints, as to be without all power to sin. Such forsooth even now hath He His angels, whom in Him we …
St. Augustine—On Continence Letter xi (Circa A. D. 1120) the Abbot of Saint Nicasius at Rheims
The Abbot of Saint Nicasius at Rheims He consoles this abbot for the departure of the Monk Drogo and his transfer to another monastery, and exhorts him to patience. 1. How much I sympathize with your trouble only He knows who bore the griefs of all in His own body. How willingly would I advise you if I knew what to say, or help you if I were able, as efficaciously as I would wish that He who knows and can do all things should advise and assist me in all my necessities. If brother Drogo had consulted …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux Draw Me, we Will Run after Thee to the Odor of Thine Ointments.
This young lover prays the Bridegroom to draw her by the centre of her soul, as if she were not satisfied with the sweetness of the balsam poured forth among her powers; for she already comprehends, through the grace of the Bridegroom, who continually draws her with more and more force, that there is an enjoyment of Himself more noble and more intimate than that which she at present shares. This is what gives rise to her present request. Draw me, says she, into the most interior chambers of my soul, …
Madame Guyon—Song of Songs of Solomon Fourth Sunday after Easter Second Sermon.
Text: James 1, 16-21. 16 Be not deceived, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. 19 Ye know this, my beloved brethren. But let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: 20 for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II Biographical Preface.
"The Church! Am I asked again, What is the Church? The ploughman at his daily toil--the workman who plies the shuttle--the merchant in his counting-house--the scholar in his study--the lawyer in the courts of justice--the senator in the hall of legislature--the monarch on his throne--these, as well as the clergymen in the works of the material building which is consecrated to the honour of God--these constitute the Church. The Church is the whole congregation of faithful men, in which the pure word …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety The Dead Christ
It was not usual to remove bodies from the cross immediately after their death. They were allowed to hang, exposed to the weather, till they rotted and fell to pieces; or they might be torn by birds or beasts; and at last a fire was perhaps kindled beneath the cross to rid the place of the remains. Such was the Roman custom; but among the Jews there was more scrupulosity. In their law there stood this provision: "If a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be put to death, and thou hang …
James Stalker—The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ The Abbots Euroul and Loumon.
To the examples already given in the previous biographies, of the power which religion exercised over the rough and savage mind, we may add the following. The abbot Ebrolf (Euroul) had settled with his monks in a thick forest, infested by wild beasts and robbers. One of the robbers came to them, and, struck with reverence at their aspect, said to them: "Ye have chosen no fit dwelling for you here. The inhabitants of this forest live by plunder, and will not tolerate any one amongst them who maintains …
Augustus Neander—Light in the Dark Places Letter Xli to Thomas of St. Omer, after He had Broken his Promise of Adopting a Change of Life.
To Thomas of St. Omer, After He Had Broken His Promise of Adopting a Change of Life. He urges him to leave his studies and enter religion, and sets before him the miserable end of Thomas of Beverley. To his dearly beloved son, Thomas, Brother Bernard, called Abbot of Clairvaux, that he may walk in the fear of the Lord. 1. You do well in acknowledging the debt of your promise, and in not denying your guilt in deferring its performance. But I beg you not to think simply of what you promised, but to …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux Letter Xlix to Romanus, Sub-Deacon of the Roman Curia.
To Romanus, Sub-Deacon of the Roman Curia. He urges upon him the proposal of the religious life, recalling the thought of death. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, to his dear Romanus, as to his friend. MY DEAREST FRIEND, How good you are to me in renewing by a letter the sweet recollection of yourself and in excusing my tiresome delay. It is not possible that any forgetfulness of your affection could ever invade the hearts of those who love you; but, I confess, I thought you had almost forgotten yourself …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux Bunsen's Biblical Researches.
When geologists began to ask whether changes in the earth's structure might be explained by causes still in operation, they did not disprove the possibility of great convulsions, but they lessened necessity for imagining them. So, if a theologian has his eyes opened to the Divine energy as continuous and omnipresent, he lessens the sharp contrast of epochs in Revelation, but need not assume that the stream has never varied in its flow. Devotion raises time present into the sacredness of the past; …
Frederick Temple—Essays and Reviews: The Education of the World Second Sunday after Easter
Text: First Peter 2, 20-25. 20 For what glory is it, if, when ye sin, and are buffeted for it, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye shall take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. 21 For hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow his steps: 22 who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: 23 who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, threatened not; but committed …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II The Great Privilege of those that are Born of God
"Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin." 1 John 3:9. 1. It has been frequently supposed, that the being born of God was all one with the being justified; that the new birth and justification were only different expressions, denoting the same thing: It being certain, on the one hand, that whoever is justified is also born of God; and, on the other, that whoever is born of God is also justified; yea, that both these gifts of God are given to every believer in one and the same moment. In one …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions Fifth Lesson. Ask, and it Shall be Given You;
Ask, and it shall be given you; Or, The Certainty of the Answer to Prayer. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened,'--Matt. vii. 7, 8. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss.'--Jas. iv. 3. OUR Lord returns here in the Sermon on the Mount a second time to speak of prayer. The first time He had spoken of the Father who is …
Andrew Murray—With Christ in the School of Prayer Cæsarius of Arles.
He was born in the district of Chalons-sur-Saone, A. D. 470. He seems to have been early awakened, by a pious education, to vital Christianity. When he was between seven and eight years old, it would often happen that he would give a portion of his clothes to the poor whom he met, and would say, when he came home, that he had been, constrained to do so. When yet a youth, he entered the celebrated convent on the island of Lerins, (Lerina,) in Provence, from which a spirit of deep and practical piety …
Augustus Neander—Light in the Dark Places Links Psalm 34:19 NIV
Psalm 34:19 NLT
Psalm 34:19 ESV
Psalm 34:19 NASB
Psalm 34:19 KJV
Psalm 34:19 Bible Apps
Psalm 34:19 Parallel
Psalm 34:19 Biblia Paralela
Psalm 34:19 Chinese Bible
Psalm 34:19 French Bible
Psalm 34:19 German Bible
Psalm 34:19 Commentaries
Bible Hub
|
