Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
1 Chronicles 22:18

Clarke's Commentary

Verse 1 Chronicles 22:18. Is not the Lord your God with you? — "Is not the WORD of the Lord your God your assistant?" - T.

Hath he not given you rest on every side? — David at this time was not only king of Judea, but had also subdued most of the surrounding nations.

Thus Solomon came to the Jewish throne with every possible advantage. Had he made a proper use of his state and of his talents, he would have been the greatest as well as the wisest of sovereigns. But alas! how soon did this pure gold become dim! He began with an unlawful matrimonial connection; this led him to a commerce that was positively forbidden by the law of God: he then multiplied his matrimonial connections with heathen women; they turned his heart away from God, and the once wise and holy Solomon died a fool and an idolater.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

22:2-29:30 PREPARATIONS FOR THE TEMPLE

David’s encouragement to Solomon (22:2-19)

God’s purpose was that Solomon, not David, should build the temple. Although David understood the reason for this and accepted it humbly, he did all he could to help Solomon in his task. He gathered construction materials in great quantities, and put all foreigners in Israel to work preparing the stones for building (2-5). Most importantly, he encouraged Solomon to seek wisdom from God and obey his commandments, so that he might govern the nation according to the law of God (6-13). David provided Solomon with further practical help by arranging for various kinds of craftsmen to be ready to start work when the time arrived. (14-16).
David’s conquests gave Israel such strength and security that it was safe from attack. This allowed Solomon to concentrate on his building program without interference (17-19).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

DAVID'S COMMAND FOR THE PRINCES OF ISRAEL TO AID SOLOMON

"David also commanded all the princes of Israel to help Solomon his son, saying, Is not Jehovah your God with you? and hath he not given you rest on every side? for he hath delivered the inhabitants of the land into my hand; and the land is subdued before Jehovah, and before his people. Now set your heart and your soul to seek after Jehovah God, to bring the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built to the name of Jehovah."

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 22

Now as we get into chapter twenty-two,

He then called for Solomon his son ( 1 Chronicles 22:6 ),

He had gathered together the men of Israel and he called Solomon his son.

and he charged him to build a house for the LORD God of Israel. And David said to Solomon [verse seven], My son, as for me, it was in my mind to build a house unto the name of the LORD my God: But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and you've made great wars: and thou shall not build a house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight. Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all of the enemies round about: for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days. And he shall build a house for my name; and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever. Now, my son, the LORD be with thee; and prosper thou, and build the house of the LORD thy God, as he hath said of thee. Only the LORD give thee wisdom and understanding, and give thee charge concerning Israel, that you may keep the law of the LORD your God. Then shalt thou prosper, if you take heed to fulfil the statutes and the judgments which the LORD charged Moses with concerning Israel: be strong, be of good courage; dread not, nor be dismayed ( 1 Chronicles 22:6-13 ).

Now David had his admirable points, but David also had his weak points. And David, for the most part, was a poor father. And as the result of the fact that he was a poor father, he had problems with his children. Now Solomon, in observing this and later writing the Proverbs, had many things to say about correcting children. That's one thing that David was very lax in, that was the correction of his sons.

One of his sons that rebelled against him and it said, "And David never at any time said anything to correct the son." Never even challenged him. "Why did you do this?" And he never challenged. He just let the kid go. And he ended up rebelling against his dad. So Solomon, in observing David as a poor disciplinarian and seeing the result of David's laxity in this particular area, speaks about "if you spare the rod, you'll spoil the child." "The foolishness of the world is bound up in the heart of the child but the rod of instruction driveth it far from him" ( Proverbs 22:15 ). A child left to himself will bring a reproach unto his mother. And so Solomon had a lot to say concerning the discipline of children because he saw where David lacked in the discipline. But where David, for the most part, was a poor father in his failure in the disciplining of his sons, yet in this particular case, David shines as he is now instructing his son Solomon in the ways of the Lord.

Now David did not take enough time with his children. But now in his old age as he has got to turn the reins of the government over to his son and this tremendous task of building this temple unto the Lord, he gives to Solomon the best advice that any father could ever pass on to his son, marvelous advice. David encouraged Solomon to seek wisdom and understanding. And I think that it is significant that when Solomon began his reign and God said to Solomon, "What do you want Me to give to you?" No doubt remembering the advice of his father David, "Seek wisdom and understanding," Solomon said, "Grant unto thy servant that I might have wisdom and understanding that I might be able to rule over this thy great people."

That's exactly what David told Solomon to seek. And when Solomon prayed unto the Lord and desired that he might receive the wisdom and understanding, God was pleased with the request of Solomon and said, "Because you did not ask for fame or riches but for wisdom and understanding, I will not only give you what you ask, but I'm going to give you what you didn't ask for. I'm going to give you great wealth and fame and so forth so that your fame will spread throughout all the world." So Solomon was no doubt remembering these sagacious words of his father to seek wisdom and understanding. And then David said, "And walk in the statutes and the judgments and the commandments of the Lord in order that you may be prosperous."

Now in the first Psalm, David links prosperity with the keeping of the law of God. And many places in the Scriptures these things are linked together. When Moses turned over the reins to Joshua, he commanded him to meditate in the law and in the commandments. "And thus shalt thou make thy way prosperous, and thus shalt thou have good success" ( Joshua 1:8 ). Now David is again linking a prosperous reign to obedience to the law, the statutes, the judgments, the commandments of God. In other words, the law is God's rules for a happy, prosperous life.

You see, there are spiritual rules that govern in the universe or spiritual laws even as there are physical laws that govern in the universe in which we live. Now, we are very conscious of the physical laws. You're all sitting in your chairs instead of floating in the room because there is a law of gravity. And it's the attraction of masses. And thus we know that the law of gravity exists. Now, just why masses attract we may not know. I don't know why there is a attraction of masses and a pull of masses according to the size of the mass. I don't understand Mark 2:1-28 but I know that it's there. I know that it exists, and I live by the law.

Now I don't, knowing and understanding the law, I don't go out and defy the law of gravity because I know that that will bring problems, too. I don't test to see if the law is still working day by day. Nor do I defy it because I can't understand how it works. I don't understand how gravity works. I'm going to jump off this building because I just don't understand how it works. I don't see why I have to obey it; why I have to do it if I can't understand it. If I defy the law, I'm going to suffer. Whether I understand it or not, it's still going to operate. There is a law of magnetism. There is a law of electricity. And there are certain natural laws that govern our universe and we are aware of them. We learn to use them. We learn to abide by them and respect them.

Now, in the same token there are certain spiritual laws that govern in the spiritual world and in the spiritual universe, and though you still may not understand them, how they operate, yet they do operate, and it's wise that you learn to live by them. Respect them. And of course, you can use them for great advantage.

Now God has set forth these spiritual laws. There are laws for happiness. There are laws for prosperity. There are laws for many things that do govern our lives and God has set them forth. Now I can't understand how they work; that doesn't keep them from working. And many times because we can't understand, and in fact, we almost defy the law, we say, "Well, that isn't true in my case. My case is different." And we sometimes violate the law of God thinking that we have some kind of a special case that the law doesn't apply to us, or we don't understand it and so we defy it. And then we wonder why we're hurting. We wonder why we're in such sorrow and such misery. We wonder why we're having so many problems. Well, I've defied the laws of God, the spiritual laws of God is set.

Now, how in the world can it be that the more I give, the more I'm going to receive. That doesn't make sense to me. And yet, that's what the Bible declares. "Give, and it shall be given unto you; measured out, pressed down, running over, shall men give in your bosom. And whatsoever measure you mete it's going to be measured to you again" ( Luke 6:38 ). "If you sow abundantly you're going to reap abundantly; if you sow sparingly you're going to reap sparingly" ( 2 Corinthians 9:6 ). Oh, I'm beginning to understand a little bit now. I have a field out here. And I take five kernels of corn and I go out and plant those five kernels of corn. Chances are, I'll get four stalks of corn. But I'm not going to get much of a return. But if I take a bushel of corn and out in that field and plant a bushel, the more I sow the more I'm going to reap come harvest time.

Oh yeah, I can understand that. Well, it's a principle and it works. I don't know how it works but it does work. The more you give to God the more God returns to you, measured out, pressed down, running over. It's a spiritual law. I can't explain how it operates. All I can do is affirm that it does operate; it does work. There are spiritual laws that govern the universe, and many people, because they can't understand them, fail to use them. And thus lack the benefits. Now, what if you said I am not going to use any electrical appliance until I fully understand the laws of electricity? I want to know why these positive charged currents and so forth can bring power and, you know, the alternating currents and so forth, and I want to know whether or not electricity runs through the wire or around the wire or how it's transmitted and... Think of all the benefits you would be missing out on if you had to understand completely the law of electricity before you attempted to use it for your benefit.

And yet, there are people that do say that concerning spiritual laws. "Well, I don't understand how it works." And thus they don't use. And thus they don't advantage from the spiritual laws that God has set. Now basically, the law that God gave was a law of prosperity. A law of happiness. "Blessed or happy is the man who meditates in the law day and night. For he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper" ( Psalms 1:1-3 ). And so David relates it in the first Psalm, and he relates it here with Solomon. "Now keep the law and the statutes and the judgments of the Lord that you might be prosperous, that your reign might be prosperous over these people. And thou shalt prosper if you take heed to fulfill the commandments, the statutes, the judgments."

Now "be of good courage; dread not, don't be dismayed."

Now, behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the LORD a hundred thousand talents of gold, and a million talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight; the timbers. Moreover there are workmen with thee in abundance, the hewers and the workers with stone and timber, all manner of skillful men for every manner of work. Of the gold, and silver, the brass, the iron, there is no measuring of it. Arise therefore, and be doing, and the LORD be with thee ( 1 Chronicles 22:14-16 ).

That's usually the way the work of God is done. "Arise and get going, and the Lord be with thee."

David also commanded all of the princes of Israel to help Solomon, saying, Is not the LORD your God with you? and hath he not given you rest on every side? for he hath given the inhabitants of the land in mine hand; and the land is subdued before the LORD, and before his people. Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God; arise therefore, and build the sanctuary of the LORD God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD, the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built to the name of the LORD ( 1 Chronicles 22:17-19 ). "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Preparations for temple construction ch. 22

This chapter is unique to Chronicles. It records David’s plans to assemble building materials and workers for the construction of the temple. He instructed Solomon carefully in what God had promised so his son would carry out the work as God wanted it done (1 Chronicles 22:5-13). This is the first of three speeches by David that the Chronicler recorded: 1 Chronicles 22:2-19; 1 Chronicles 28:1-21; and 1 Chronicles 29:1-9.

The writer provided another reason God did not permit David to build the temple himself. God wanted a man characterized by peace to build His house (1 Chronicles 22:8). David not only shed blood in obedience to God (1 Chronicles 14:10; 1 Chronicles 19:13), but he had also been guilty of excessive violence (cf. 2 Samuel 8:2; 2 Samuel 11:4; 2 Samuel 11:15). Solomon not only ruled in peaceful times, after David had subdued Israel’s enemies, but his name even relates to the Hebrew word for peace (shalom). "Shalom" does not just mean the absence of war, however. It includes the fullness of Yahweh’s blessing that Israel enjoyed because of David’s reign.

If God’s revelation to David (1 Chronicles 22:8) took place at the same time as the one mentioned in 2 Samuel 7:2, Solomon’s birth appears to have followed the giving of the Davidic Covenant (cf. 1 Chronicles 22:9). However, it seems probable that God gave the revelation in 1 Chronicles 22:8 to David before Solomon was born (1 Chronicles 22:9). He evidently repeated it after Solomon’s birth when He gave David the covenant (2 Samuel 7:2). Such a repetition is very probable in view of David’s great desire to build a house for the Lord. This was the passion of his life at the time he became king and from then on.

David also mentioned a qualification on God’s promise: obedience to God’s will (1 Chronicles 22:13). Solomon would only prosper as he submitted obediently to God’s authority. Solomon and all who followed him failed God. Consequently, the original readers of Chronicles anticipated a Son of David who would yet come and complete what Solomon and the other kings of Judah could not. These promises were still unfulfilled in the returned exiles’ day, as they are in ours.

"David is here to Solomon much like Moses was to Joshua. David could do all the preparations for the temple but could not build it, just as Moses could not lead Israel into Canaan." [Note: Thompson, p. 165.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Is not the Lord your God with you?.... Blessing them with wealth and riches:

and hath he not given you rest on every side? from all enemies within and without; so that they had peace and quietness, and leisure to attend the service he recommended to them:

for he hath given the inhabitants of the land into my hand; meaning the rest of the Canaanites, who before were unsubdued, as even the Jebusites in Jerusalem:

and the land is subdued before the Lord, and before his people; and the extent of it carried to its utmost bounds, as God had promised.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      17 David also commanded all the princes of Israel to help Solomon his son, saying,   18 Is not the LORD your God with you? and hath he not given you rest on every side? for he hath given the inhabitants of the land into mine hand; and the land is subdued before the LORD, and before his people.   19 Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God; arise therefore, and build ye the sanctuary of the LORD God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built to the name of the LORD.

      David here engages the princes of Israel to assist Solomon in the great work he had to do, and every one to lend him a hand towards the carrying of it on. Those that are in the throne cannot do the good they would, unless those about the throne set in with them. David would therefore have the princes to advise Solomon and quicken him, and make the work as easy to him as they could, by promoting it every one in his place. 1. He shows them what obligations they lay under to be zealous in this matter, in gratitude to God for the great things he had done for them. He had given them victory, and rest, and a good land for an inheritance, 1 Chronicles 22:18; 1 Chronicles 22:18. The more God has done for us the more we should study to do for him. 2. He presses that upon them which should make them zealous in it (1 Chronicles 22:19; 1 Chronicles 22:19): "Set your heart and soul to seek God, place your happiness in his favour, and keep your eye upon his glory. Seek him as your chief good and highest end, and this with your heart and soul. Make religion your choice and business; and then you will grudge no pains nor cost to promote the building of his sanctuary." Let but the heart be sincerely engaged for God, and the head and hand, the estate and interest, and all will be cheerfully employed for him.

Spurgeon's Verse Expositions of the Bible

The Best of All, God Is With Us

June 24th, 1886, by C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892)

"Is not the Lord your God with You?" 1 Chronicles 22:18 .

While we were reading this chapter, you must all have been struck with the melting of one man's life into another. Here is David most anxious about the building of the temple at Jerusalem; he is not permitted to erect it himself, and therefore he sets to work with diligent care to gather together the gold and the silver, the brass and the iron, the timber and the stone, that would be required. He also instructed the workmen who would be needed, so that, when he was gone, and his son Solomon had ascended the throne, the temple might be built. Did David live in vain? Can it be truly said that he failed in the grandest project of his life? Assuredly not; he did all that he was permitted to do, and by making those elaborate preparations, he was really the means of the building of the temple. Let every man and every woman among us judge of our life, not merely from that little narrow piece of it which we ourselves live, for that is but a span; but let us judge it by its connection with other lives that may come after our own. If we cannot do all we wish, let us do all we can, in the hope that someone who shall succeed us may complete the project that is so dear to our heart. That is a blessed prayer which Moses wrote in the 90th Psalm, "Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children." We shall be quite satisfied to do the work, and scarcely see the glory, if we may but know that, in another generation, the work that we shall have dons shall produce glory to God which shall be seen among the sons of men. No, Elijah, thou must not do all the Lord's work; but thy mantle must fall upon Elisha, and with it shall come a double portion of thy spirit, and he shall work twice as many miracles as ever thou didst, and shall do greater things for the Lord God of Israel. I do not think it ought ever to be any question of ours what people will do after we are dead and gone. The God who did very well without us before we were born, will do very well without us after we are dead. It is enough for us to do to-day's work in the day; let somebody else do to-morrow's work if we are not spared to do it. To-day, do that which cometh to thy hand, and be not dreaming of the future. Put down that telescope; you have nothing to do with peering into the next hundred years. The important matter is, not what you spy with your eye, but what you do with your hand. Do it, and do it at once, with all your might, believing that God will find somebody else to go on with the next piece of the work when you have finished your portion. There is also another delightful thought here, and that is, the continuity of the divine blessing. God was with David in the gathering together of the great stores of treasure for the building of the temple; but then God was also with Solomon. Oh, what a mercy it is that God did not give all his grace to other people before we came into the world! The God of grace did not empty the whole horn of grace upon the head of Whitefield or Wesley; he did not pour out all the blessings of his Spirit upon Romaine and John Newton, so as to leave nothing for us. No; and to the end of time he will be the same God as he was yesterday, and as he is to-day. There is no break in the Lord's blessing; he has not ceased to be gracious, his arm is not shortened that he cannot save, nor is his ear heavy that he cannot hear. God buries his workmen, but his work goes on; and he, the Great Worker, wearies not of it, nor shall he ever fail or be discouraged. All his everlasting purposes shall be accomplished, and Christ shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. Wherefore, let us be of good heart, if we have been apt to look upon the future with fear. The Lord Jesus still lives, and he will take care that his Church shall live and work on until he himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. This text seems to me, dear friends, to have a very immediate bearing upon ourselves. David is talking to Solomon and the princes of Israel about the building of a temple; we are not building a material temple, but we are building a spiritual temple. We do not believe in gorgeous architecture, nor in the expenditure of needless gold and silver upon the house wherein we meet to worship God, for we still hear our Lord and Master say, "The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." We sing with Cowper,

"Jesus, where'er thy people meet, There they behold thy mercy-seat: Where'er they seek thee, thou art found, And every place is hallow'd ground."

We believe that God is as much present beneath the blue sky, and out there in the street, as he is in any kind of building that we can erect for Him. It is very singular that, as soon as ever the temple was built, true religion began to decline; the day when Solomon opened it was the culmination of the glory of true godliness in Israel, and from that hour it began to darken down into an awful night. Yet it was proper that there should be a temple which, in its magnificence, should call for the respect of men towards God, being typical of that far greater temple, not made with hands, even the glorious person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We, however, are engaged in the building of a temple, in a spiritual sense. God has sent his servants into the world, to gather together for his beautiful house, stones hewn out of the quarry of nature, to be shaped, polished, and prepared for building into the temple of his grace. The Church is the living temple of God, "exceeding magnifical." It is a wondrous idea that men's hearts and souls can be blended together, and built up into a spiritual temple wherein God will dwell. This temple is to be builded of stones taken from the quarry of nature, and, God being with us, you and I are to go forth, and to hew out and shape and prepare the stones for the building of this house of the Lord which shall endure for over. In order to do this, we certainly need the presence and the help of God; for what can we do without him? In the work of conversion, what can be done without the Spirit of God? I would like anybody who thinks he can convert another person without divine help, to try and do it, and see what a wretched failure he will make of it, or what a dire hypocrisy he will produce by his apparent success. We must have God with us for this work; we cannot create a spark of grace, how then can we create a new heart and a right spirit? Conversion is an absolute creation, regeneration is a miracle of divine grace, the work of the Spirit of God; and this is altogether beyond our power. We need the Spirit of God to aid us in the building of a temple for God; but, brethren, with the Lord's presence we can do it. The text says, "Is not the Lord your God with you?" I will go any length with the brother who likes to preach upon the incapacity of man, the utter and entire weakness of the creature apart from the Creator. You cannot, I think, exaggerate there; but do not always keep dwelling upon your own weakness, recollect that, when you are weak, thou you are strong, if you do but fall back upon the omnipotence of God. "Is not the Lord your God with you?" Has he sent us into the world will the gospel, and will he not be with us in the preaching of it? Has he sent us to be the means of seeking souls, and made our hearts to ache because of the sins that men have committed against him, and will he not be with us? Do not let us talk as if we had to live and labor without our God. We have been brought to know him, we have been made members of the mystical body of Christ the Holy Spirit dwells in us, if we are what we profess to be, the Church of the living God; will he not occupy the house that he has built? "Is not the Lord your God with you?" Then, what can be too difficult for you? Now, dear friends, I shall treat our text, first, as an assertion; for, oftentimes, in Scripture, a question is one of the strongest modes of assertion when it is anticipated that to that question there can be no other reply than "Yes." Secondly, I shall treat it as a question, for there are some here to whom it is a question, some doubting, trembling ones to whom we must say, "Is not the Lord your God with you?" When I have handled it first as an assertion and then as a question, I will briefly use it as an argument: "Is not the Lord your God with you?" Therefore, arise and be doing. Something great and glorious ought to be done by men who have so divine a Helper with them. I. First, then, this is AN ASSERTION. Brethren and sisters in Christ, the Lord our God is with us. I do not entertain any doubt upon that point, and I hope you do not. Is the Lord your God? Is he your God by a holy covenant? Have you entered into bonds of fellowship with him? Have you taken him to be your God by trust, by love, and by the consecration of your body, soul, and spirit to him? Can you say of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, "This God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our Guide even unto death"? Very well, then, if he be your God, he is with you. Do you ask how I know that? Well, I know it, first, because he has pledged himself to be with his people. "He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Is not the Lord your God with you, then? Assuredly he is, if he keeps his promise; and you do not doubt his fidelity, do you? Can he forget his promise, or, remembering it, will he treat it as if it were more verbiage, words without moaning? There are men who can do that, we know; but coos God act so? Can you suppose it possible? No, not for an instant; then, as he hath said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee," he will keep his word. We say, "Never is a long day," and so it is, for it covers all time; and the Lord hath said, "I will never leave thee," in poverty, in sickness, in slander and reproach, in depression of spirit, in the hour of death, in the day of judgment, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." He has pledged himself to this, and God forbid that we should, for even a moment, doubt that he will keep his word! To believers in their church capacity, there is a pledge given by the blessed Lord Jesus himself which refers especially to his work: "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." "Lo, I am with you," says Christ, as much as to say, "Not only do I promise to be with you, but I am with you, I am already fulfilling my promise to you. For the past, for the present, and for the future, 'Lo, I am with you alway.'" Let not any Church of God hesitate to answer this question, "Is not the Lord your God with you?" If he be your God, he is with you as individuals, and he is especially with you as a Christian community going forth to preach his gospel to every creature. That ought to be enough, surely? He has pledged himself to be with us. Next, he is pleased to be with us. It is the good pleasure of God to be with his people. He is our Father; and do not fathers love to be with their children? The loving father says, when he has little ones at home, "I will get back from my business early, that I may spend my evening in the family." We feel ourselves happiest when, laying aside external cares, we leave the world, and rest with our loved ones at home; so God is at home with his people, as a Father he delights in his children. Remember how Divine Wisdom said, "My delights were with the sons of men." It in a wonderful thing to be able to say, but God takes a great deal more pleasure in us than we do in him; yet there seems in us nothing that can give him pleasure, while in him there is everything that can afford us delight. The Lord so loves his people that he is never long away from them. You know that dear relationship into which our Lord has entered with his Church; she is his bride, he loves her as he loves his own soul. In some respects, he loves her better than he loves himself, for he gave himself for her; and do you think that he is happy away from his bride, his spouse? It is not so; he saith to her, "Let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely;" and whenever she calls for him, saying, "Let my Beloved come into his garden," his quick answer is, "I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse." He so loves us that, when we shut the door against him, he stands and knocks, and cries to us, "Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled; for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night." Do not think that he has gone from you when he loves you so as your Father, and as the Husband of your soul. Moreover, he will be with his Church in her work, because her work is his work; and wherever there is a heart on the earth, sanctified by the Holy Ghost, in sympathy and harmony with the heart of Christ, depend upon it he is assuredly there, for that sympathy and that harmony are created by his very presence. Well, then, as he has pledged himself, and he is himself pleased to be with his people, we believe the assertion which is implied in the enquiry, "Is not the Lord your God with you?" I hope also, brethren beloved, we can say that we have had proofs that God is with us. In this house we have had many plain proofs of the Lord's presence. If you could have been with me last Tuesday week, and the Tuesday before that, it might have made your hearts ring for joy, all the bells of your soul would have given forth blessed chimes as you heard how God had saved one and another who had strolled in here as if by accident, and others who had come in great heaviness of heart, but who here found the Lord. Our ministry is nothing, but the Lord makes it something, he makes it everything to many souls; and blessed be his name for that! And you, brethren and sisters, in your labor and service for the Master, have brought many souls to Christ; therefore I say to you, "Is not the Lord your God with you?" Assuredly he is, or you would not have beheld all this blessedness. The Lord has proved his presence with us by preserving us in the hour of temptation. Some of you who have been lately converted to God have had very fierce temptations since then. In this wicked city, our young people yet I do not know that I need say our young people alone, have been exposed to a furnace of temptation which has been seven times heated. The days in which we live are grievous to the last degree; and if the Lord had not been with us, our soul would not have escaped like a bird out of the snare of the fowler. Often our feet have well-nigh slipped, and we should have fallen if the Lord had not been with us to preserve us. "Is not the Lord your God with you" when you have boon kept alive with death so near? Assuredly, he is. Some of you also know that the Lord is with you because you have been so greatly comforted in time of trouble. A sister said to me, the other day, "I could not have thought that I could have lived through the bereavements I have lately endured. When I used to think of the possibility of my husband's death, it seemed to me that I must die with him." Yet she is not dead; and she does not despair; though she had to endure that bereavement, and another as well, she said, "Oh, how good God was to me to sustain me as he did!" "Is not the Lord your God with you?" I know some dear friends who have experienced very great temporal trouble through heavy losses in these trying times; yet they are as happy as when they had ten times as much. The little bird still sings at the window, the blue sky hovers overhead, and the heart's-ease still grows in their garden, and they love it well. Yes, dear friends, the comforts that God gives us in times of deep trouble are a sufficient proof that he is with us. Beside that, there have been times when we have been in the house of prayer, or when we have been alone in our chamber, ay, in the middle of the night sometimes, when pain has kept us from sleeping when we have felt that we did not want to sleep; for we have been flooded with delight. Did you ever feel that deep calm which sometimes comes over a believer, when there seems to be no evil in the world, when we could not invent a doubt if we tried, when we could not have a dark thought concerning our Lord? After our Savior had been tempted in the wilderness, angels came and ministered unto him. Do you know what that experience is when there seem to be angels upstairs, and downstairs, and all through the house, ministering to you, and your life seems set to a gentle psalm tune, and instead of the sound of the trumpet calling you to battle, there is only the dulcet music of an instrument of ten strings praising the God who has given you rest? So, when the question is put, "Is not the Lord your God with you?" you can answer, "Ay, that he is, and blessed be his holy name!" Oh, what a blessing it is to live with a present God! If anyone says to me that there is no God, he might as well tell me that there is no air. I cannot we it, but I know that I am living in it, and that I could not live without it; so, "in him we live, and move, and have our being." The Lord is life, and light, and love, and liberty, and all in all to some of us. "Is not the Lord your God with you?" is no question to us, for we know that he is with us, and we glorify his holy name that so it is. II. Now, secondly, we must devote a few minutes to those poor weary souls to whom this is A QUESTION: "Is not the Lord your God with you?" "Oh!" says one, "I have no joy; I have very little rest; I nave nothing but trouble; deep calleth unto deep at the noise of his waterspouts, and I am so weak, so feeble, so faint, I cannot imagine that the Lord is with me. I see no signs of his presence, neither do I perceive even a star of hope amid the dense darkness of the night." Listen, dear friend; have you taken him to be your God? Are you trusting him? Are you determined to rely on nothing but the finished work of Christ? Then, he is with you; though you do not perceive his Holy Spirit, in the deepest darkness he is with you. If the Lord had not been with you, your despondency might have become despair. If he had not been with you, your despair might have gone further still. You are yet alive, remember, you have not laid violent hands upon yourself, as you might have done if you had been left to yourself. God is with you, keeping you, even while you live on the very brink of despair. I know that there are some here who were sure God was with them in their darkness because it did not grow any darker. It was a black night, but still it was not altogether dark, there was a gleam of light left. Ah, yes! it was your gracious Lord who gave you that little ray of hope. Tell me, sad heart, what is it that causes you to hate sin, and makes you so wretched without the presence of the Savior? It is because you have his presence though you do not know it. You have, perhaps, seen your boy play with a magnet and a needle; the needle is above the table, and the magnet, though out of sight, acts upon it, the needle feels the attraction of the magnet, and moves after it; and those desires, those groans, those cries, that inward anguish, that self-despair, that horror of great darkness, all these prove that God is secretly working with you, and drawing you to himself. He is with you; and if you take him afresh to be your God, if you come and trust in his promises, I should not wonder but that, even now, your midnight shall burst into a glorious meridian. The Lord send it to you right speedily! Only, do rest in him. The Lord is not far from any one of us; a cry will fetch him, he will hear even a groan, and he will quickly come to the rescue of those who call upon him. Do but trust him, do but take him to be yours, and then he cannot leave you. "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee." There is such love in God's heart towards the very feeblest of his people, that he cannot turn away from them. Mother, is it not so in your family, that the child who is most ill, most weak, most full of pain, is the one who is best remembered by you? While you have been sitting here, this evening, you have not thought of John and Thomas, who have grown up, and gone out into the world, and are strong and healthy, but you have thought of poor little Jane, whose spine is injured, or of the little boy who has to lie still so many hours a day, and who suffers so much. I am sure that, while I have been preaching, your thoughts have been trotting home to that dear child, and you have been thinking much of him. Well, remember that, "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him;" and remember also how the Lord takes the mother's part as well as the father's, and says, "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem." These are cheering truths for those who do raise the question; I wish they could enable you to get rid of that question, and to know assuredly that the Lord is with you. I recollect how Mr. Joseph Irons used to say of some who were always hoping, "It is all very well to have hope, but do not keep on hoping and hoping, or hopping and hopping, but put both feet down, and begin to run." I trust you may do the same, and get beyond the "hoping" and the "hopping" to the full assurance of faith.

"And art thou with us, gracious Lord, To dissipate our fear? Dost thou proclaim thyself our God, Our God for ever near?"

Then, as Doddridge continues to sing,

"Why droop our hearts, why flow our eyes, While such a voice we hear? Why rise our sorrows and our fears, While such a Friend is near?"

III. Our last point is that, here is AN ARGUMENT: "Is not the Lord your God with you?" It is a reason for us to arise, and be doing. You observe how it is put in the sixteenth verse, "Arise therefore, and be doing, and the Lord shall be with thee," so it is in the original let all true Christian people arise, and be doing, because the Lord is with them. Perhaps, I need not say much to my own people about that matter, for most of you are doing what you can for your Lord. There is a brother who is just going out to Australia; when he came to bid me farewell, he gave me a little sketch of his life during three-and-twenty years. It has been a time of incessant activity in the church; and he said to me, "Yes, sir, you drove me out to work for Christ, you would not let me be idle. You said, 'The worst kind of lazy people are lazy Christians,' and you also said, 'To come here twice on a Sunday, and hear me preach, and to be doing nothing for the Master, is not at all the right thing.'" Then the good man added, "I do not often get to hear you now. I have been secretary of a Sunday-school for some time, and I often go out preaching, so I cannot come to the Tabernacle." I do delight in so many of the members not coming to hear me because they are doing the Master's work elsewhere! I know that in many churches the main thing is to sit down in a corner pew, and be fed. Well, of course, every creature needs to be fed, from the pig upwards; you must excuse my mentioning that unclean animal, for he is the creature whose principal business it is to food, and he is not a nice creature at all, and I do not at all admire Christian people whose one business is to feed and feed. Why, I have heard them even grumble at a sermon that was meant for the conversion of sinners, because they thought there was no food for them in it! They are great receptacles of food; but, dear Christian people, do not any of you live merely to feed, not even on heavenly food; but if God be with you, as you say he is, then get to his work. "What shall I do?" asks one. That is no business of mine; you have to find work for yourself. He who works for God does not need to go to this man, or that man, and enquire, "What shall I do?" Why, do the first thing that comes to hand, but do get to work for your Master! Many Christians live in country villages where there is no preaching of the gospel; then, preach it yourself, brother, "Oh, but I could not!" Well then, get somebody who can. "But we have no chapel," says one. What do you want with a chapel these bright days? Preach on the village green, where the old trees that were cut down a year or two ago are still lying, and will serve for seats. "I could not preach," says one, "I should break down." That would be a capital thing to do; break-down sermons are often the best for breaking down other people as well as the preacher. Some of the greatest enterprises in the world have sprung from very little causes; the forest of the mightiest oaks in the world was once only a handful of acorns. Oh, that we might all do what we can for him who laid down his life for us, and who still continues to abide in us, to be our joy and our strength! David also exhorted these people to set their hearts upon what they had to do: "Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God." Oh, how much there is of our religion that is a kind of celestial going to sleep! The preacher preaches as if he had not really woke up yet; and the people hear in the same fashion. Are there not, even in our churches, many who, if a guinea were to jingle, would be sufficiently wide awake to look for it, but when the gospel is being preached, they are not thoroughly aroused? As to speaking to strangers, and saying a word for the Master, that has not yet occurred to them. "I do not know what I can do," says one. Brother, if the text is true, I do not know now what you cannot do. The text says, "Is not the Lord your God with you?" "Well, I could not " "Could not, could not;" do you put God and "could not" together? I think it would be infinitely better to put God and "can" or God and "shall" together. If God be with us, what can be impossible, what can be even difficult to us? God being with his people, "he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them." I cannot speak longer to you, nor is there any need that I should do so. If you Christians will all go out and seek to save sinners, you will be prolonging my sermon, not only for a few minutes, but for many a day and many a year to come. God be with you, brothers and sisters, in this holy service! And if any to whom I am speaking are obliged to say, "No, God is not with me, I am not saved;" remember that the way of salvation is to trust the Lord Jesus Christ. If you trust him, he is with you, and you are saved; for "he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." God is with you if you are trusting him, and you may go forth in his might to serve the Lord who has redeemed you. God bless you, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.