From: Suzianty Herawati
"I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint."
--Psalm 22:14
Did earth or heaven ever behold a sadder spectacle of woe! In soul and body,
our Lord felt Himself to be weak as water poured upon the ground. The placing
of the cross in its socket had shaken Him with great violence, had strained all
the ligaments, pained every nerve, and more or less dislocated all His bones.
Burdened with His own weight, the august sufferer felt the strain increasing
every moment of those six long hours. His sense of faintness and general
weakness were overpowering; while to His own consciousness He became nothing
but a mass o f misery and swooning sickness. When Daniel saw the great vision,
he thus describes his sensations, "There remained no strength in me, for my
vigour was turned into corruption, and I retained no strength:" how much more
faint must have been our greater Prophet when He saw the dread vision of the
wrath of God, and felt it in His own soul! To us, sensations such as our Lord
endured would have been insupportable, and kind unconsciousness would have come
to our rescue; but in His case, He was wounded,
and felt the sword; He drained the cup and _tasted every drop.
"O King of Grief! (a title strange, yet true
To Thee of all kings only due)
O King of Wounds! how shall I grieve for Thee,
Who in all grief preventest me!"
As we kneel before our now ascended Saviour's throne, let us remember well the
way by which He prepared it as a throne of grace for us; let us in spirit drink
of His cup, that we may be strengthened for our hour of heaviness whenever it
may come. In His natural body every member suffered, and so must it be in the
spiritual; but as out of all His griefs and woes His body came forth uninjured
to glory and power, even so shall His mystical body come through the furnace
with not so much as the smell of fire upon it.
CH Spurgeon
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From: Suzianty Herawati
"My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels."
--Psalm 22:14
Our blessed Lord experienced a terrible sinking and melting of soul. "The
spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear?"
Deep depression of spirit is the most grievous of all trials; all besides is as
nothing. Well might the suffering Saviour cry to His God, "Be not far from me,"
for above all other seasons a man needs his God when his heart is melted within
him because of heaviness. Believer, come near the cross this morning, and
humbly adore the King of glory as having once been brought far lower, in mental
distress and inward anguish, than any one among us; and mark His fitness to
become a faithful High Priest, who can be touched with a feeling of our
infirmities. Especially let those of us whose sadness springs directly from the
withdrawal of a present sense of our Father's love, enter into near and
intimate communion with Jesus. Let us not give way to despair, since through
this dark room the Master has passed before us. Our souls may sometimes long
and faint, and thirst even to anguish, to behold the light of the Lord's
countenance: at such times let us stay ourselves with the sweet fact of the
sympathy of our great High Priest.
Our drops of sorrow may well be forgotten in the ocean of His griefs; but how
high ought our love to rise! Come in, O strong and deep love of Jesus, like the
sea at the flood in spring tides, cover all my powers, drown all my sins, wash
out all my cares, lift up my earth-bound soul, and float it right up to my
Lord's feet, and there let me lie, a poor broken shell, washed up by His love,
having no virtue or value; and only venturing to whisper to Him that if He will
put His ear to me, He will hear within my heart faint echoes of the vast waves
of His own love which have brought me where it is my delight to lie, even at
His feet for ever.
CH Spurgeon
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From: Suzianty Herawati
"I called Him, but He gave me no answer." --Song of Solomon 5:6
Prayer sometimes tarrieth, like a petitioner at the gate, until the King
cometh forth to fill her bosom with the blessings which she seeketh. The Lord,
when He hath given great faith, has been known to try it by long delayings. He
has suffered His servants' voices to echo in their ears as from a brazen sky.
They have knocked at the golden gate, but it has remained immovable, as though
it were rusted upon its hinges. Like Jeremiah, they have cried, "Thou hast
covered Thyself with a
cloud, that our prayer should not pass through." Thus have true saints
continued long in patient waiting without reply, not be cause their prayers
were not vehement, nor because they were unaccepted, but because it so pleased
Him who is a Sovereign, and who gives according to His own pleasure. If it
pleases Him to bid our patience exercise itself, shall He not do as He wills
with His own! Beggars must not be choosers either as to time,
place, or form. But we must be careful not to take delays in prayer for
denials: God's long-dated bills will be punctually honoured; we must not suffer
Satan to shake our confidence in the God of truth by pointing to our unanswered
prayers.
Unanswered petitions are not unheard. God keeps a file for our prayers--they
are not blown away by the wind, they are treasured in the King's archives. This
is a registry in the court of heaven wherein every prayer is recorded. Tried
believer, thy Lord hath a tear-bottle in which the costly drops of sacred grief
are put away, and a book in which thy holy groanings are numbered. By-and-by,
thy suit shall prevail. Canst thou not be
content to wait a little? Will not thy Lord's time be better than thy time?
By-and-by He will comfortably appear, to thy soul's joy, and make thee put away
the sackcloth and ashes of long waiting, and put on the scarlet and fine linen
of full fruition.
CH Spurgeon
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From: Suzianty Herawati
"Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth."
--Song of Solomon 1:2
For several days we have been dwelling upon the Saviour's passion, and for
some little time to come we shall linger there. In beginning a new month, let
us seek the same desires after our Lord as those which glowed in the heart of
the elect spouse. See
how she leaps at once to Him; there are no prefatory words; she does not even
mention His name; she is in the heart of her theme at once, for she speaks of
Him who was the only Him in the world to her. How bold is her love! it was much
condescension which permitted the weeping penitent to anoint His feet with
spikenard--it was rich love which allowed the gentle Mary to sit at His feet
and learn of Him--but here, love, strong, fervent love, aspires to higher
tokens of regard, and closer signs of fellowship. Esther trembled in the
presence of Ahasuerus, but the spouse in joyful liberty of perfect love knows
no fear. If we have received the same free spirit, we also may ask the like. By
kisses we suppose to be intended those varied manifestations of affection by
which the believer is made to enjoy the love of Jesus. The kiss of
reconciliation we enjoyed at our conversion, and it was sweet as honey dropping
from the comb. The kiss of acceptance is still warm on our brow, as we know
that He hath accepted our persons and our works through rich grace. The kiss of
daily, present communion, is that which we pant after to be repeated day after
day, till it is changed into the kiss of reception, which removes the soul from
earth, and the kiss of consummation which fills it with the joy of heaven.
Faith is our walk, but fellowship sensibly felt is our rest. Faith is the road,
but communion with Jesus is the well from which the pilgrim drinks. O lover of
our souls, be not strange to us; let the lips of Thy blessing meet the lips of
our asking; let the lips of Thy fulness touch the lips of our need, and
straightway the kiss will be effected.
CH Spurgeon
