Spurgeon on God the Rock
September 24, 2009 by pastorstjohn
Filed under Weekly Words
Because our church office was closed most of the week for the national holiday, I am sending out this edited “Guest Edition” of the Weekly Words from C.H. Spurgeon’s, Morning and Evening. Spurgeon’s devotionals can be read each day at http://www.spurgeon.org/daily.htm Your servant, Stephen
“When my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.”—Psalm 61:2.
MOST of us know what it is to be overwhelmed in heart; emptied as when a man wipes a dish and turns it upside down; submerged like a vessel mastered by the storm. Discoveries of inward corruption will do this, if the Lord permits the great deep of our depravity to become troubled and cast up mire and dirt. Disappointments and heart-breaks will do this when billow after billow rolls over us, and we are like a broken shell hurled to and fro by the surf. Blessed be God, at such seasons we are not without an all-sufficient solace, our God is the harbour of weather-beaten sails, the hospice of forlorn pilgrims. He is higher than we are, His mercy higher than our sins, His love higher than our thoughts.
It is pitiful to see men putting their trust in something lower than themselves; but our confidence is fixed upon an exceeding high and glorious Lord. He is a Rock, since He changes not, and a high Rock, because the tempests which overwhelm us roll far beneath at His feet; He is not disturbed by them, but rules them at His will. If we get under the shelter of this lofty Rock we may defy the hurricane; all is calm under the shelter of that towering cliff.
Alas! such is the confusion in which the troubled mind is often cast, that we need piloting to this divine shelter. Hence the prayer of the text:
“O Lord, our God, by Your Holy Spirit, teach us the way of faith, lead us into Your rest. The wind blows us out to sea, the helm answers not to our puny hand; You, You alone can steer us over the bar between the sunken rocks, safe into the fair haven. How dependent we are upon You—we need You to bring us to Yourself. To be wisely directed and steered into safety and peace is Your gift, and Yours alone. Be pleased to deal well with your servants.”
Rev. C.H. Spurgeon
