Evening and Morning
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon
August 13
Morning
"The
cedars of Lebanon which He hath planted."—Psalm 104:16.
LebanonŐs cedars are
emblematic of the Christian, in that they owe their planting entirely to the
Lord. This is quite true of every child of God. He is not man-planted, nor
self-planted, but God-planted. The mysterious hand of the divine Spirit dropped
the living seed into a heart which He had Himself
prepared for its reception. Every true heir of heaven owns the great Husbandman
as his planter. Moreover, the cedars of Lebanon are not dependent upon man
for their watering; they stand on the lofty rock, unmoistened
by human irrigation; and yet our heavenly Father supplieth
them. Thus it is with the Christian who has learned to live by faith. He is
independent of man, even in temporal things; for his continued maintenance he
looks to the Lord his God, and to Him alone. The dew of heaven is his portion,
and the God of heaven is his fountain. Again, the cedars of Lebanon are not
protected by any mortal power. They owe nothing to man for their
preservation from stormy wind and tempest. They are God's trees, kept and
preserved by Him, and by Him alone. It is precisely the same with the
Christian. He is not a hot-house plant, sheltered from temptation; he stands in
the most exposed position; he has no shelter, no protection, except this, that
the broad wings of the eternal God always cover the cedars which He Himself has
planted. Like cedars, believers are full of sap having vitality enough
to be ever green, even amid winter's snows. Lastly,
the flourishing and majestic condition of the cedar is to the praise of God
only. The Lord, even the Lord alone hath been everything unto the cedars,
and, therefore David very sweetly puts it in one of the psalms, "Praise ye
the Lord, fruitful trees and all cedars." In the believer there is nothing
that can magnify man; he is planted, nourished, and protected by the Lord's own
hand, and to Him let all the glory be ascribed.
Evening
"And I
will remember My covenant."—Genesis 9:15.
Mark the form of the
promise. God does not say, "And when ye shall look upon the bow, and ye
shall remember My covenant, then I will not destroy the earth," but
it is gloriously put, not upon our memory, which is fickle and frail,
but upon God's memory, which is infinite and immutable. "The bow
shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the
everlasting covenant." Oh! it is not my
remembering God, it is God's remembering me which is the ground of my
safety; it is not my laying hold of His covenant, but His covenant's laying
hold on me. Glory be to God! the
whole of the bulwarks of salvation are secured by divine power, and even the
minor towers, which we may imagine might have been left to man, are guarded by
almighty strength. Even the remembrance of the covenant is not left to
our memories, for we might forget, but our Lord cannot forget the saints
whom He has graven on the palms of His hands. It is with us as with Israel in
Egypt; the blood was upon the lintel and the two side-posts, but the Lord did
not say, "When you see the blood I will pass over you," but
"When I see the blood I will pass over you." My looking to
Jesus brings me joy and peace, but it is God's looking to Jesus which secures my salvation and that of all His elect, since it is
impossible for our God to look at Christ, our bleeding Surety, and then to be
angry with us for sins already punished in Him. No, it is not left with us
even to be saved by remembering the covenant. There is no linsey-wolsey
here—not a single thread of the creature mars the fabric. It is not of
man, neither by man, but of the Lord alone. We should remember
the covenant, and we shall do it, through divine grace; but the hinge of
our safety does not hang there—it is God's remembering us, not our
remembering Him; and hence the covenant is an everlasting covenant.