Divine gentleness acknowledged
‘Thy gentleness hath made me great.’
Psalm 18:35
Suggested Further Reading:
Deuteronomy 8:11–20
There are several readings of this text. The word is capable of being translated, ‘thy goodness hath made me great.’ David saw much of benevolence in God’s action towards him, and he gratefully ascribed all his greatness not to his own goodness, but to the goodness of God.
‘Thy providence’ is another reading, which is indeed nothing more than goodness in action. Goodness is providence in embryo; providence is goodness fully developed. Goodness is the bud of which providence is the flower; or goodness is the seed of which providence is the harvest.
Some render it, ‘thy help,’ which is but another word for providence; providence being the firm ally of the saints, aiding them in the service of their Lord. Some learned annotators tell us that the text means, ‘thy humility hath made me great.’ ‘Thy condescension’ may, perhaps, serve as a comprehensive reading, combining the ideas which we have already mentioned, as well as that of humility.
It is God’s making himself little which is the cause of our being made great. We are so little that if God should manifest his greatness without condescension, we should be trampled under his feet; but God, who must stoop to view the skies and bow to see what angels do, bends his eye yet lower and looks to the lowly and contrite, and makes them great.
While these are the translations which have been given to the adopted text of the original, we find that there are other readings altogether; as for instance, the Septuagint, which reads, ‘thy discipline’—thy fatherly correction—‘hath made me great;’ while the Chaldee paraphrase reads, ‘thy word hath increased me.’
Still the idea is the same. David ascribes all his own greatness to the condescending goodness and graciousness of his Father in heaven.
I trust we all feel that this sentiment is echoed in our hearts.
For meditation:
We should rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ—in his gentleness (2 Corinthians 10:1), goodness (Acts 10:38), help (Hebrews 4:14,16) and humility (Philippians 2:8). As the result of these attributes God has done great things for us (Psalm 126:2–3; Matthew 12:29; Luke 8:39; 2 Corinthians 8:9).
Sermon no. 683
1 April (1866)
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
♥ <(((>< † ♥ † ><)))> ♥
“The true minister of Christ knows that the true value of a sermon must lie,
not in its fashion and manner, but in the truth which it contains.
~ C. H. Spurgeon ~
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
The purpose of these pages is to share the precious word of God, without acquiring any monetary reward. God gave me the salvation for free, so I share the gospel of his word the same way ..( NO ADVERTISEMENTS ) ...
♥♥♥
Blessings to all of You, rejoice in the sublime and infallible word of God
♥♥♥
PRAYER
Father, I ask You to bless my friends, relatives and those that I care deeply for,
who are reading this right now. Show them a new revelation of Your love and power.
Holy Spirit, I ask You to minister to their spirit at this very moment.
Where there is pain, give them Your peace and mercy..
Where there is self-doubt, release a renewed confidence through Your grace.
Where there is need, I ask you to fulfill their needs.
Bless their homes, families, finances, their goings and their comings.
Amen.
"HAVE A BLESSED DAY FULL OF PEACE, LOVE AND HAPPINESS"
You can see two post at the time, please go to the bottom and look for the "Blog Archive", there is many more, sometimes I do many during the day as the time permits.
DO YOU ENJOY THIS BLOG ? ..
If you like to visit my other blogs, please click at the link and If not clickable, please copy and paste the address to your browser, Thanks...
ENGLISH:
SPANISH:
TRANSLATORS ARE AVAILABLE TO ANY LANGUAGE..
TRADUCTORES AL ESPAÑOL O CUALQUIER OTRO LENGUAJE...
Don't forget to spread The Word of GOD by sharing today's passage with friends...
Please share with your family and friends using small envelope (E-mail) next to a pencil, under my name at the bottom of post, or using the share link..
Copyright Statement
Reflection and inspiration from the "Prince of Preachers,"
Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
This resource was produced before 1923 and therefore
is considered in the "Public Domain".
"COPYRIGHT POLICY"
We respect copyright laws and are committed to remove any copyright infringing material from our website. If you find any content on our website which infringes your copyrighted work, please contact us, we’ll be happy to verify and remove such content. Please do provide us the following details: 1) Your name, E-mail Address. 2) Location (URLs) of your copyrighted work on your website. 3) Location (URLs) of your copyrighted work on our website.
Some of images taken from Flickr under Creative Commons License and also the bank of free Creative images for non commercial usage...
Everything we do is for God Almighty's glory our creator and we pray for all the people that are making images available to continue spreading the Gospel.
Thank YOu and God Bless.
Blog created February 15, 2010 .
