the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Mornings and Evenings with Jesus
As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him. - 2 Samuel 22:31.
GOD is here metaphorically set forth as the defence of his people. Let us first observe the metaphor employed. It is a “buckler.” A buckler is a shield: it is called a buckler, because it is bound by a buckle on the arm for security and use. The metaphor David here employs he explains himself, when he says, “But my defence is of God, who saveth the upright in heart.” Christians are exposed to ten thousand enemies; they have enemies temporal, spiritual, and infernal; and if they were left to themselves there would be enough to make their hearts sink within them: but, as David says, their “defence is of God.” Some bucklers have been made of leather, some of wood, some of iron, some of steel, and some belonging to David even of silver and gold; but the shield of the Christian is divine. How impenetrable is their defence!-how valuable!-how it covers all the interests of a believer in Jesus!
Protected by this, what can Satan or the world do? Injure his substance? But God has made a hedge round about it. His reputation? But “thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.” His body? “He keepeth all his bones.” His soul? “He shall preserve thy soul:” and this is the grand thing; this is the main interest: that which relates to his substance and his earthly interest may be injured; yea, he may lose these; not because God is unable to preserve them, but because he hath not promised to secure them absolutely. All temporal blessings are promised in the Scriptures only conditionally; that is, if they be good for us. As far as these outward blessings are for our good, they are equally sure with our spiritual ones; but the loss of them may be even beneficial to our religious welfare. However this may be, whatever is essential to our spiritual and everlasting welfare, we may rest assured, is absolutely promised. Hence the promises, “Sin shall not have dominion over you;” “The Lord shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.” Then let us observe,
Secondly, The characters that lay claim to his protection:-“He is a buckler to all them that trust in him.” It is common for all writers to express the whole by a part; but then it must be an essential part. It is the same with the sacred writers: they hold forth the whole by a part; hence they express the whole of religion by “trusting in the Lord;” and we need not wonder at this, because religion takes its rise from this source. Man fell by losing his trust in God, and is only to be recovered by the restoration of it.
Lastly, we may observe the universality of the claimants:-“He is a buckler to all them that trust in him.” Liberality has its bounds: it cannot do every thing, it often cannot do much. Friendship has its partiality: we cannot take every one into our own bosom; but as for God, his tender mercies are over all his works. And if we pass over his compassion and come to his complacency, we read that “he takes pleasure in them that fear him, in them that hope in his mercy.” It equally regards all these, without respect to persons; all of every nation that call upon his name; all of every condition,-Onesimus the slave and Philemon the master, Zenas the lawyer and Luke the physician; all of every degree of grace, and of every degree of faith, where it is real.
Thomas with his weak faith, and the centurion with his strong faith, are all one in him, and are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. “Happy is the people that is in such a case! Yea, happy is the people whose God is the Lord.”
They shall still bring forth fruit in old age. - Psalms 92:14.
NOT that all the people of God live to be old; this is not the meaning of it; sometimes they have been removed in early life, in the midst of their days, and these occurrences in Providence are very mysterious-that men who are likely to be useful should be so soon cut off, while a Voltaire is suffered to live, poisoning men’s minds, to the age of ninety. But though they die young they fill up their days; they die old, for life is not measured by days.
There was a Being once that lived in Judea who died at thirty-three, yet lived much longer than Methuselah, for every action, word, and feeling of that Being said, “I must work the work of him that sent me while it is called to-day.” Under the former economy long life was reckoned a peculiar honour and blessing; it was made a matter of promise; and we find in the Scriptures that the “hoary head is spoken of as a crown of glory when found in the way of righteousness.” Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Caleb, Joshua, David, Samuel, John, Peter and Simeon, and Mnason (an old disciple with whom the Apostles lodged, all were spared to a fine old age, and were gathered in like a shock of corn when it is ripe.
But when it is said “they shall still bring forth fruit in old age,” it is not to be taken as if they were not to bring forth fruit at any other time, but just to show the permanency of their fruits and disposition; that though others fail they will endure. That which comes from God will not fail to lead to God. It is thus a Christian is distinguished from all the works of nature.
“The plants of grace shall ever live,
Nature decays, but grace must thrive;
Time, that doth all things else impair,
Still makes them flourish strong and fair.”
Not that they escape the effects of old age, but, as the Apostle says, “when the outward man perisheth the inward man is renewed day by day;” when the outward ear grows deaf, then the inward man hears the voice of God; when the eye grows dim, the mind is irradiated and enlightened; when the fleshly parts grow weak, “we are strengthened with all might in our inner man.” We look for this in the old Christian.
The young Christian may be compared to a tree in spring covered with blossom; that is the loveliest period to see it. An old Christian is like a tree in autumn bending with fruit; it is not more beautiful, but more valuable. In them we look for weanedness from the world. It is one of the consequences of old age in Christians to look towards heaven; there he reckons upon meeting his relations and friends; he seems to have more communion with that world than this. We look for meekness in the aged.
The young are giddy, fiery, and determined; the older are willing to give up for the sake of peace, unless it is a good conscience and truth. There we look for maturity of judgment: that he should be able to distinguish between things that differ; that his heart is established in righteousness. He has not only had faith but experience; the one is a help to the other. “I know,” says Paul, “whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”
The young have had few trials, and have seen but little of the power and providence of God; but the old Christian can endure longer and can better bear hardships; he has seen the interpositions of Providence and of grace, so that he does not despair, for “tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope.”
