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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Tuesday, April 15, 2008
MORNING:
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
-- Psalms 22:1
We here behold the Saviour in the depth of his sorrows. No other place
so well shows the griefs of Christ as Calvary, and no other moment at
Calvary is so full of agony as that in which his cry rends the air-"My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" At this moment physical
weakness was united with acute mental torture from the shame and
ignominy through which he had to pass; and to make his grief culminate
with emphasis, he suffered spiritual agony surpassing all expression,
resulting from the departure of his Father's presence. This was the
black midnight of his horror; then it was that he descended the abyss
of suffering. No man can enter into the full meaning of these words.
Some of us think at times that we could cry, "My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me?" There are seasons when the brightness of our
Father's smile is eclipsed by clouds and darkness; but let us remember
that God never does really forsake us. It is only a seeming forsaking
with us, but in Christ's case it was a real forsaking. We grieve at a
little withdrawal of our Father's love; but the real turning away of
God's face from his Son, who shall calculate how deep the agony which
it caused him?
In our case, our cry is often dictated by unbelief: in his case, it was
the utterance of a dreadful fact, for God had really turned away from
him for a season. O thou poor, distressed soul, who once lived in the
sunshine of God's face, but art now in darkness, remember that he has
not really forsaken thee. God in the clouds is as much our God as when
he shines forth in all the lustre of his grace; but since even the
thought that he has forsaken us gives us agony, what must the woe of
the Saviour have been when he exclaimed, "My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?"
EVENING:
"Lift them up for ever."
-- Psalms 28:9
God's people need lifting up. They are very heavy by nature. They have
no wings, or, if they have, they are like the dove of old which lay
among the pots; and they need divine grace to make them mount on wings
covered with silver, and with feathers of yellow gold. By nature sparks
fly upward, but the sinful souls of men fall downward. O Lord, "lift
them up for ever!" David himself said, "Unto thee, O God, do I lift up
my soul," and he here feels the necessity that other men's souls should
be lifted up as well as his own. When you ask this blessing for
yourself, forget not to seek it for others also. There are three ways
in which God's people require to be lifted up. They require to be
elevated in character. Lift them up, O Lord; do not suffer thy people
to be like the world's people! The world lieth in the wicked one; lift
them out of it! The world's people are looking after silver and gold,
seeking their own pleasures, and the gratification of their lusts; but,
Lord, lift thy people up above all this; keep them from being
"muck-rakers," as John Bunyan calls the man who was always scraping
after gold! Set thou their hearts upon their risen Lord and the
heavenly heritage! Moreover, believers need to be prospered in
conflict. In the battle, if they seem to fall, O Lord, be pleased to
give them the victory. If the foot of the foe be upon their necks for a
moment, help them to grasp the sword of the Spirit, and eventually to
win the battle. Lord, lift up thy children's spirits in the day of
conflict; let them not sit in the dust, mourning for ever. Suffer not
the adversary to vex them sore, and make them fret; but if they have
been, like Hannah, persecuted, let them sing of the mercy of a
delivering God.
We may also ask our Lord to lift them up at the last! Lift them up by
taking them home, lift their bodies from the tomb, and raise their
souls to thine eternal kingdom in glory.
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