ADDITIONAL EXAMPLES.
Turn to Exodus 6:6-7-8. In these verses we find seven “I wills.”
I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians.
I will rid you out of their bondage.
I will redeem you with a stretched-out arm.
I will take you to me for a people.
I will be to you a God.
I will bring you in into the land [of Canaan].
I will give it to you for a heritage.
Again: Isaiah 41:10. “Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” Mark what God says:
He is with His servant.
He is his God.
He will strengthen.
He will help.
He will uphold.
Again: Psalm 103:2: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” If you can not remember them all, remember what you can. In the next three verses there are five things:
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities.
Who healeth all thy diseases.
Who redeemeth thy life from destruction.
Who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies.
Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things.
We can learn some things about the mercy of the Lord from this same Psalm:
v. 4.—Its quality, “tender.”
v. 8.—Its measure, “plenteous.”
v. 11.—Its magnitude, “great,” “according to the height of the heaven above the earth.” See margin.
v. 17.—Its duration, “from everlasting to everlasting.”
Twenty-third Psalm. I suppose I have heard as many good sermons on the twenty-third Psalm as on any other six verses in the Bible. I wish I had begun to take notes upon them years ago when I heard the first one. Things slip away from you when you get to be fifty years of age. Young men had better go into training at once.
With me, the Lord.
Beneath me, green pastures.
Beside me, still waters.
Before me, a table.
Around me, mine enemies.
After me, goodness and mercy.
Ahead of me, the house of the Lord.
“Blessed is the day,” says an old divine, “when Psalm twenty-three was born!” It has been more used than almost any other passage in the Bible.
v. 1.—A happy life.
v. 4.—A happy death.
v. 6.—A happy eternity.
Take Psalm 102:6-7: “I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert. I watch and am as a sparrow alone upon the housetop.” It seems strange until you reflect that a pelican carries its food with it, that the owl keeps its eyes open at night, and that the sparrow watches alone. So the Christian must carry his food with him—the Bible—and he must keep his eyes open and watch alone.
Turn to Isaiah 32, and mark four things that God promises in verse 2: “And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” There we have:—
The hiding place from danger.
The cover from the tempest.
Rivers of water.
The Rock of Ages.
In the third and fourth verses of the same chapter: “And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken. The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.” We have eyes, ears, heart and tongue, all ready to pay homage to the King of Righteousness.
Now turn into the New Testament, John 4:47-53.
The noble heard about Jesus.
went unto Him.
besought Him.
believed Him.
knew that his prayer was answered.
Again: Matthew 11:28-30:
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Someone has said these verses contain the only description we have of Christ’s heart.
Something to do, come unto Jesus.
Something to leave, your burden.
Something to take, His yoke.
Something to find, rest unto your soul.
Again: John 14:6. “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
The way, follow me.
The truth, learn of me.
The life, abide in me.