In our previous post we noted the biblical worldview of Charles Spurgeon, the 19th century pastor of Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, England.

In this continuation we will again see Spurgeon cut through the chaff of modern and postmodern discourse, the superficiality of so much teaching in our churches today. For example, consider this excerpt from the “prince of preachers.”

Psalm 87 speaks of God’s goodness and power

For thou art great. He had before said, “thou art good”; it is a grand thing when greatness and goodness are united; it is only in the Divine Being that either of them exists absolutely, and essentially. Happy is it for us that they both exist in the Lord to an equal degree. To be great and not good might lead to tyranny in the King, and for him to be good and not great might involve countless calamities upon his subjects from foreign foes, so that either alternative would be terrible; let the two be blended, and we have a monarch in whom the nation may rest and rejoice. And doest wondrous things. Being good, he is said to be ready to forgive: being great, he works wonders: we may blend the two, for there is no wonder so wonderful as the pardon of our transgressions. All that God does or makes has wonder in it; he breathes, and the wind is mystery; he speaks, and the thunder astounds us; even the commonest daisy is a marvel, and a pebble enshrines wisdom. Only to fools is anything which God has made uninteresting: the world is a world of wonders. Note that the verb doest  [“do”] is in the present, the Lord is doing wondrous things, they are transpiring before our eyes. Where are they? Look upon the bursting buds of spring or the maturing fruits of autumn, gaze on the sky or skim the sea, mark the results of providence and the victories of grace, everywhere at all times the great Thaumaturge [a worker of wonders and performer of miracles] stretches forth his rod of power. [emphasis added]

Yahweh alone is God

Why will the nations be drawn in worship? Because He alone is God (Deu. 6:4; Isa. 37:16; 44:6,8; 1 Cor. 8:4,6). When we abandon the living God we worship instead the gods of our own imagination. We begin to live in a world of our own illusions. Spurgeon speaks from the ages to the age; he challenges our modern and postmodern minds. Let us hear from this orthodox voice from a bygone day:

Thou art God alone. Alone wast thou God before thy creatures were; alone in godhead still art thou now that thou hast given life to throngs of beings; alone for ever shalt thou be, for none can ever rival thee. True religion makes no compromises, it does not admit Baal or Dagon to be a god; it is exclusive and monopolizing, claiming for Jehovah nothing less than all. The vaunted liberality of certain professors of modern thought is not to be cultivated by believers in the truth. “Philosophic breadth” aims at building a Pantheon, and piles a Pandemonium; it is not for us to be helpers in such an evil work. Benevolently intolerant, we would, for the good of mankind, as well as for the glory of God, undeceive mankind as to the value of their compromises, —they are mere treason to truth. Our God is not to be worshipped as one among many good and true beings, but as God alone; and his gospel is not to be preached as one of several saving systems, but as the one sole way of salvation. Lies can face each other beneath one common dome; but in the temple of truth the worship is one and indivisible. [emphasis added]

Psalms 86  and 87 point to the future

To end this reflection we must note that Psalm 86:9 and Psalm 87 in its entirety point to the end of time. In fact, Psalm 86:9 is quoted in the song of the Lamb (Rev. 15:3b-4). As the Apostle John records his Revelation he sees “a sea of glass mingled with fire” (Rev. 15:2) and “those who had conquered the beast and its image” (Rev. 15:2). He hears the conquers singing “the song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb” (Rev. 15:3a).

 Great and amazing are your deeds,

    O Lord God the Almighty!

Just and true are your ways,

    O King of the nations!

 Who will not fear, O Lord,

    and glorify your name?

For you alone are holy.

    All nations will come

    and worship you,

for your righteous acts have been revealed.

• Darrow Miller

… to be continued

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