THE BLESSING OF A FIXED HEART
The gist of what I am about to say to you can be presented in a few sentences. It is this, the work of God for us at the cross and the work of God in us by His Spirit, and the ways of God with us down here, are the activities of His love in order to bring us into the light of His purpose for us that we might have the blessing of a ‘fixed heart’.
Now perhaps you will say, why do you choose the Psalms for such a subject? Of course, I must refer to Christian scriptures, I mean those scriptures of the New Testament which bring out Christianity. I will bring it into the psalm as I open it up; God's ways with His earthly people set forth very largely in type His thoughts for us. All scripture is written for us and for our instruction. In the Psalms, properly speaking, we are not contemplated. You do not get Christianity in the Psalms, but you get the blessing of God's earthly people in the latter day. You get great principles in the Psalms which are very helpful. Some of us have said, ‘Ah! it does not apply to us, but to God's earthly people’; but I believe we have sadly neglected this book, and lost thereby. What I like in the Psalms is, that you have what is moral as well as dispensational, and it is connected with the experience of the soul. Dear Christians, our great danger is being too theoretical; the truth is given to us for practice.
I want to know how these blessed doctrines work out in the history of my soul. That is why I turn to the Psalms, because it is presented there in a very beautiful way. Now I would like to make this remark. Any one reading this psalm must be struck with the triumphant tone of it. This psalm was, I believe, sung before the Passover; indeed, the three psalms, 113, 114 and 115, were all sung before the Passover. Psalms 116 to 118 are the psalms they sing after the Passover. Psalm 118 was probably sung when they went up the Mount of Olives Jesus could sing going up the Mount of Olives, with death before Him: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord”, v 178.
Psalm 114 is a very triumphant one, as the most casual reader must see. It sets forth God's great triumph for Israel and for us. When God brought His earthly people out of Egypt, He had two great thoughts in view. These two great thoughts are set forth in the second verse of our psalm: “Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion”. (v 2) They are that He should dwell with them, and reign over them, and these two thoughts come out in the song of the Red Sea. In the song of the Red Sea they rise up to these two thoughts. What I want to shew you is this: in the Red Sea and Jordan you get the power of death, and that was lying across the path of God in connection with His purpose for His people. Now I have come to the point. It is a wonderful link, that that which was a witness of God’s judgment now becomes the everlasting witness of His love through His blessed Son. Death was here and claimed all. Think of it, dear Christians, death was the strongest thing here. The eater and the strong one was death, but there came down in the person of the Son of God that which was stronger than death. He brought the holy love of God into this world. Who but a divine Person could bring the love of God here? What a wonderful thing that He lit up this dark world with the love that gave Him and sent Him! He came from the abode of love into this world, and He brought the light of God's love into it. On He went in grace, He alone was competent to do it. We discover who He is by what He wrought. He has been into death, and He has lit up the darkness of death by the holy love of God. In this, God was saying in unmistakable language to us, ‘I want you to know Me, in order that you may love Me and live to Me’. The greatness of the gospel lies in the word “revelation” - God revealed. He has been pleased to reveal Himself. In every step of love’s blessed journey God was saying in unmistakable language, ‘I want you to know Me’. Our blessing now and evermore lies in the knowledge of God. Death had to give way; both the Red Sea and the Jordan had to give way because God was there. Let us come now to what it typified. Samson's riddle (“Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness” (Judg 14: 14)) was God's great riddle, and only One was competent to solve it. The blessed Jesus, the Son of God, solved the riddle. He has done it. He set forth in the dark and distant spot the infinite blessedness of what God is. That which was the witness of His judgment now becomes the everlasting witness of His heart. Such a God is surely worthy to be loved, and to be lived to, now and for ever. Now my point is this, that the first part of the triumph of God is that He makes death to be the witness of His love. I wish you could say it, dear Christians, that in the death of Christ you have lost yourselves and found God. In the death of Christ I see God's perfect answer to all that I am. He has ended my sad history in His death. If I think of the cross, I think of another psalm: “Thou hast searched me, and known me”, Ps 139: 1. Where was that? At the cross. There I was exposed, and God was disclosed. So that God has given an answer in the death of Christ to all that I am as a natural man. That death entitles me to turn from myself to God - a very good exchange. What constitutes my happiness is that I know God.
Now the other part of the triumph is that He turns the rock into standing water, and the flint into a fountain of waters. There you see the other side. It is to make our hearts responsive to His love. And for the Christian to love is to live, and to live is to love. The first answer in us to the love of God is to respond to that love.
The first action of the life of Christ is Godward in holy love. And when a man begins to love God he begins to live. Only the Spirit of God is competent to make my heart answer to the love of God. That is how the love is put into our hearts. Now, beloved friends, that is the triumph of God. He says of Israel, ‘I will take all the trouble with you, because I want your love. I sent My Son, and He took love’s journey, all because I want your love’. Therefore He will have His earthly people to love Him by-and-by. That is the reason I have read the first verse of Psalm 116, “I love the Lord”. The hearts of His people answer back. This is the first time you get in the Psalms the words, “I love the Lord”. God has gained the hearts of His people, and they say, “I love the Lord”. Therefore we must be drawing near to the end of the Book of Psalms; Psalm 118 is the close of the book as to subject matter.
Now let me give you a Christian scripture, and may it lead you to prayer, that you may realise it. “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life”. Oh! the grandeur of that! I put it to you, do you think the Son of God would tantalise us with impossibilities? The water that I shall give him, &c., what does that mean? That my heart in the power of the Spirit shall well up in answer to the holy love of God; that I shall be delivered from lust, that is, I shall not wish for a thing I have not got; something that shall satisfy our hearts in such a way that we shall not wish for a thing we have not got. The work of God in us by the Spirit is to make our hearts responsive to that love. “He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost”, John 20: 22. He breathed His own life into them that you and I might answer to His love. Say to yourself, that is God's thought for me. Do not look at yourself, but at the grandeur of the proposal.
I will give you a few instances from Psalm 116 of how the hearts of His people turn back to Him. “Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee”, v 7. “I will pay my vows unto the Lord”, &c, v 18. But the lever to the whole psalm is “I love the Lord”. “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free”, &c. (Rom 8: 2), the law of the Spirit of life is to love God. The law of sin and death is to love myself. Permit an illustration. I say to you I love my mother, I revere her memory. That love I have for her never started with me, it started with her. Let God love you into loving Him back again. Let the cross be the lesson book from which you learn it. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts”, &c., that is love realised. Our hearts are made responsive. Do not look into your heart, you will not see it there. A man once said to me, ‘I am waiting for the blessing’. I said, ‘What is the blessing you are waiting for?’ ‘I am waiting for the love of God to be shed abroad in my heart’, he replied. I asked him for the passage, but he did not know. I took my Bible and showed him Romans 5: 5. He stopped reading at the end of the verse. I said, ‘Read on’. “For when we were yet without strength ... God commendeth his love towards us”, &c. That is where you see it not in yourself. When God speaks of realised love, He points to where the love can be seen, that it may be kept up. “In this was manifested the love of God toward us” (1 John 4: 9), look there and see it. If we are exhorted to love one another, we are shown where the love was manifested, that there may be a realisation of it, and then there will be the exhibition of it. That is as simple as daylight. Love was manifested toward us in order that it might be realised in us. And realised in us to be exhibited by us. We love up to God, and out to the brethren. We love the begotten ones because we love Him who begat.
Now I am going to another subject: the ways of God with us. Turn to Psalm 107: 43. Also the first verse of the next psalm. These two psalms are dovetailed. My third point was the ways of God with us. “Whoso is wise, and will observe these things”, that is the way of God with us. “Even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord”, the love of God is behind all His ways with us.
Beloved brethren, we miss a lot through not seeing that God's love is behind all His ways with us. In Psalm 107 you get God's ways with His people, and the psalm touches the history of every child of God that ever lived in this world. The first nine verses are the first section - they give the ways of God. You find God’s people are “in a solitary way”, and they are “hungry and thirsty”. Well now, God brings them into a dwelling-place, and He satisfies their hunger and thirst. He creates the desire in His people, and He satisfies that desire; these are His normal ways with His people. “He satisfieth the longing soul”, &c., there is comfort for you. He will do it for you. If He creates in your heart the hunger and thirst, He does it in order to meet it. ‘You have as much of Christ as you want’, an aged servant of God once said.
Let us read verse 10: “Such as sit in darkness”, &c., they got there through their self-will. They ceased to be simple, and took matters into their own hand. Then they come under the government of God. Here are these people sitting in affliction and iron, because they rebelled against the words of God. Is there not a lot of rebellion? Christianity is exceedingly simple, but we are not simple about it. We think we can do better for ourselves than God can do for us, but that will lead us into affliction and sorrow. Let us read on: “He brought down their heart with labour”, &c. If we make mistakes through lack of nearness to God, we have to suffer the consequences, but He hears our cry. “Then they cried unto the Lord … and he saved them”, v 13. He will hear us, not according to our cry, but according to Christ's cry. He has heard His cry. Cherish that in your heart. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, He did hear their cry. “Praise the Lord … for he hath broken the gates of brass”. That is section No. 2.
Section No. 3 begins, “Fools because of their transgression”, &c. (vv 17-22) Here it is more folly than rebellion. They cry unto the Lord, and He hears them. Verse 22 finishes section 3. Now they are getting back and they sacrifice the sacrifice of thanksgiving.
Section 4 begins with the seafaring people. They go down to the sea in ships. What does this mean? It means that Israel go down to the sea of nations, and they are tossed about to this very day. For us, it means that there are things that are legitimate for me, subject to the will of God. I may want a little home of my own - that is, I am launching a little bark on the sea. Very well, “such shall have trouble in the flesh”, 1 Cor 7: 28. He will raise the storm. You reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man - do you ever know what it is to feel like that? You are at your wit's end, and you cry to the Lord. If He raises the storm, He can bring you to the calm. I have got my little bark out on the sea every day of the week, and I need priestly grace and support.
I know what it is to steer my little bark into the desired haven (the assembly), and there I drop my anchor. Look at verse 32. “Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders”; there is the assembly in principle. You have your home circle, &c., your little ship is on the sea, and up and down you go; but mind you, you may have God with you. He will teach you in these things what a blessed God He is. He will bring your bark into the haven and you drop your anchor and you praise Him in the assembly. When there, I say, ‘Lord, I have felt your touch in the week, and your support, and now I leave my place, and come to you in your place’. Then the remainder of the psalm is a recital of God's governmental ways. Now I come to the last verse - it is the moral conclusion: “Whoso is wise, and will observe these things”, what shall they do? They shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord, which is behind it all. Observe His ways with you. If people had very easy times down here, they would be very uninteresting people.
Directly I see the storm rising, I say, I will watch that man, God is going to make a man of him. The crying need of the moment is for experimental and practical ministry. You can learn doctrine, and recite it clearly if you have a good memory. If you are going to be a man of God, He will put you through your paces.
Now my heart begins to say, “O God, my heart is fixed”, Ps 108: 1. God has been pleased to take the halves of two psalms and stitch them together in Psalm 108. God emphasises by repetition. The purpose of God is in Psalm 108. If God takes all that trouble with you He must have some purpose for you. I repeat my little motto. It is this, ‘I had to come here, because I had to go there”. Many a time I say it. l had to come into this world, because I had to go there. That is God's purpose for me - that is my business - “O God, my heart is fixed”. Caleb says in principle, “O God, my heart is fixed”. I say, ‘But, Caleb, you have the manna, and the palm-trees, and the water out of the rock’. ‘Thank God’, says he but listen to me, “O God, my heart is fixed”. “I brought him word again as it was in mine heart”, Josh 14: 7.
Let me give you New Testament language for a fixed heart. “All things work together for good to them that love God”, Rom 8: 28. All His ways work together for good to those that love God, and are called according to His purpose. Many a time I have watched a piece of driftwood washed up on shore being tossed to and fro by the waves. I have said to myself, ‘That is often just like you, it is washed up and then washed back again - you are a creature of circumstances at such times’. On the other hand, I have seen a huge ironclad riding majestically upon the waves. I would prefer to be like the ironclad, rather than like the piece of wood tossed at the mercy of the waves. Look at the ironclad - that is, “O God, my heart is fixed”. It is the light of His purpose that fixes our heart. “One thing I do”, &c, Phil 3: 13. Mary came and sat at the Lord's feet; that sets forth what I mean. She sat at His feet to get her heart fixed. The “good part” is to sit at His feet. To her God was saying, “This is my beloved Son: hear ye him” (Matt 17: 5) - “hear Him”, not serve Him, like Martha. Be a Mary to-night, and get your heart fixed. He said, ‘Mary, you are wanted in the spot where I came from’. Beloved Christians, you are wanted in heaven. The Son came because the Father wanted you in that spot. When that gets into your heart, your heart will be fixed. It will teach you how to pray “Father … hallowed be thy name”, &c, Matt 6: 9. It is not Me, My, Mine; but Thee, Thy, Thine. Normal prayer is Thee, Thy, Thine.
Look at Ps 108: 7, and I will close. God hath spoken in His holiness; He said, “I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem”, &c. Gilead is mine; you may say they have turned out a bad lot, still He says, ‘They are mine’. “Moab is my washpot”, God will wash His people through Moab. Philistia, I will triumph over you - that is the triumph of God. I do not wonder at the close of the psalm, “Through God we shall do valiantly”. Why you are not victorious in conflict is because you do not sing. The man whose heart is fixed is the man who sings. The Lord send you away with the sense in your soul that you are the object of the purpose of God. May you be able to say, “Through God we shall do valiantly”. In conclusion, I would say again what I said at the outset, that the work of God for us at the cross, and His work in us by His Spirit, and His ways with us are to bring us into the light of His purpose, that we may know the blessing of a fixed heart. May you know it.
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