REMEMBERING OUR LORD JESUS

"A psalm of David to bring to remembrance." -Psalm 38 in the title


This psalm, as well as the seventieth, is particularly marked in the title, and distinguished from every other; and it will be worth while to seek into the cause. A great light will be thrown upon it, if we connect with this title, the character of the great Author, under whose inspiration David, as the penman, wrote it: I mean, that sweet and blessed office of the Holy Ghost, the Remembrancer of the Lord Jesus. "He shall teach you" (saith the Lord Jesus, when describing the blessed Spirit in His offices) "all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (John 14:26.)


Now, if this psalm be found, on examination, to be speaking much of the person and character of Christ, ought it not, when read under the divine teaching of its Almighty Author, to act as a psalm to bring to remembrance, how Jesus thus suffered, thus groaned, bled, and died for His people? He it was, as this psalm represents, whose lovers and friends stood aloof from Him, in His sorrows; for in the trying hour, all His disciples forsook Him and fled: and He was the only person of whom it could be said, that as a deaf man who heard not, and as a dumb man who opened not his mouth, so Jesus stood, as a lamb before her shearers, when in the hall of Pilate, He was accused and condemned without opening His mouth.


If then the great design of this psalm is to bring to remembrance the Redeemer, in those solemn seasons; shall we make application of the contents of it to David, king of Israel, and overlook David's Lord? Oh! Thou great and divine Remembrancer of the Lord Jesus! I beseech Thee, Thou matchless Instructor! To cause every thing, and every incident, to call my poor forgetful heart to remember its Lord!


Lord, I blush to think how men of the world feel interested in the most minute concerns of the histories of any characters of supposed eminence, which in former ages have lived among them; every memorandum of them that can be gathered, is treasured up with more avidity than gold: if a letter, or the hand-writing can be found, how they expressed themselves, or how their hours were engaged, with all, or any of the little events which marked their lives; Oh! what attention it gains in the world! But, as if to shew their indiffercnce to Him, who, strictly speaking, is the only one worthy regard, what heart is alive to the ever blessed Jesus? Do Thou, I beseech Thee, Thou eternal Spirit, in this gracious office of Thine, as the Remembrancer of my Lord, make this psalm, as oft as I read it, a psalm to bring Jesus to remembrance in all His endearments: and also cause all Thy sacred word to minister to this one great end!

Here let me learn a lesson from men of the world; and while they feel rapture in the memorandums and reliques of poor sinners, whose places know them no more; let my soul delight in the views His sacred word affords concerning Jesus. 'Thus Jesus spake,' I would say: and 'thus He stood;' and 'thus He was encircled by the astonished multitude, who witnessed the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.' Every incident then in His divine life, will be as a psalm to bring to remembrance; and I shall enjoy a thousand things, when the Holy Ghost, as His Remembrancer, brings them forth to view, which, without His gracious office and word, would be lost to my poor forgetful mind.


-preacher Robert Hawker (1753-1827 A.D.) 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Putrid Cup of Tolerance: When Evil Poses as Progress

"Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: He preserveth the souls of His saints; He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked." -Psalm 97:10 [KJV] "Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil." Thomas Mann's chilling words pierce through the fog of modern moral relativism like a shard of ice. It's a warning that echoes through the blood-soaked pages of history, a truth we ignore at our peril. The Seduction of False Neutrality We live in an age where tolerance is held up as the supreme virtue, the golden idol before which we must all bow. We're told to accept everything, question nothing, and embrace a faux-unity that sacrifices truth on the altar of political correctness. But what happens when this tolerance becomes a blindfold, obscuring the stark reality of evil lurking in our midst? Like a ravenous wolf, evil doesn't care for our carefully crafted social constructs. It doesn't respect boundaries, it doesn't play fair, and it ce...
Read more

According to God's Good Pleasure...

"According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will." -Ephesians 1:4, 5 [KJV] It is a very solemn but a very true assertion, that no man can quicken his own soul; and it is an equally solemn, we might almost say, a tremendous truth, that the gospel only comes in power to those whom God has chosen unto eternal life.  Indeed the one flows from the other; for if no man can quicken his own soul, it necessarily follows it must be of sovereign grace that it is quickened at all. Once you allow the fall, and acknowledge that a man is by nature so thoroughly dead in trespasses and sins that he cannot raise himself up out of this state to newness of life, then the doctrine of election necessarily follows.   A living soul may reason thus: "Am I quickened? Yes. Di...
Read more

Christ Alone Be Magnified!

"He MUST Increase, but I MUST Decrease" -J OHN 3:30 [KJV] This was spoken of the Redeemer by His forerunner John. And it is not to be considered as the language of complaint or sullen agreement as if he would say, "I dislike it; but it is unavoidable. It is my grief; and I must bear it." No. It was as agreeable to his feelings as it was firm in his belief. And it showed a fine and a noble soul in John. The spirit that is in us lusteth to envy. We love to be distinguished above others. We wish to rise, even by the fall of others. It is trying, even to a good man, to withdraw, and see a successor filling his place better than himself, and, as the honors he has worn are transferred to another, to say, "He must increase, but I must decrease." It is not an easy thing to go down well, or for a setting star to exult in a rising sun. But it was thus to John. He knew his rank and approved his place. He was the servant, not the Master: the friend, ...
Read more