SERMO O PSALM FORTY IE

W. J. STRACEY

' 'But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave : for He
shall receive me." Psalm xlix. 15.

" POITED out the particular occasion on which the

last psalm before this may well be supposed to have
been used ; viz., in the deliverance of Jerusalem from
the combined armies of Moab and Ammon in the reign
of Jehoshaphat, as described in 2 Chronicles xx. That
psalm is a song of thanksgiving to God for a great
national deliverance. It ends with the faithful deter-
mination, " This God is our God for ever and ever : He
shall be our guide unto death."

ow this last word " death " is really the key to this
next psalm. As the last relates to a great national
deliverance, this relates to the greatest of all changes
that can happen to us personally and individually. It
begins with calling upon all men to attend to it; for
all are equally concerned in it. "Hear this," it says,
" all ye people ; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world :
both high and low, rich and poor, together." The ques-
tion for you all to consider and attend to is this, How

232 PSALM XL1X.

can all these children of Adam be delivered from death

and its consequences ? Thus the subject of the last
psalm, which concerned the Jews only, has grown here
into one in which all are alike interested. Can any
human power, wealth, or greatness deliver a soul from
death ? " There le some that put their trust in their
goods, and boast themselves in the multitude of their
riches. But no man may deliver his brother from death,
nor make agreement unto God for him ; for it cost more
to redeem their souls, so that he must let that alone
for ever." The history of Job forms an excellent com-
mentary on this psalm. Job was an instance of one
who trusted in God faithfully ; who went through the
temptations of wealth and high position at one time,
and then of extreme sorrow, poverty, pain, and degrada-
tion afterwards ; and then again had a return to all his
former plenty and prosperity ; and in all conditions
alike, whether exalted or made low, whether sorrowful
or rejoicing, retained his integrity and trust in God,
and, though tried, was not disappointed. He was one
of whom we might truly say, in words which occur very
nearly the same twice over in this psalm : " Man being
in honour continueth not, but is like unto the beasts
that perish."

S. Augustine enters largely into the illustration

afforded of this psalm by our Lord's parable of the rich
man and Lazarus. There we find, as the psalm says,
no riches could deliver the owner of them from death,

THE BEST AD GREATEST PASS AWAY. 233

and even after death, Lazarus, though in paradise with

Abraham, and heard the cry of Dives, still had no power
to help him, or to assuage his pressing want. " Between
us and you there is a great Gulf fixed, which no man
can pass." And so we find our Lord telling us, very
much as this psalm does throughout, that " a man's life
cousisteth not in the abundance of the things that he
possesseth." The psalm says : " Wise men " (that is, holy
and good men ; for to be good and holy is the only true
wisdom) " die and perish, like as do the ignorant and
foolish, and leave their riches for others." And our Lord,
after giving His own illustration of the same great truth,
says : " So is he who layeth up treasure for himself, and
is not rich toward God."
And yet, brethren, in the midst of all prosperity and
abundance of all things, how sad and common is the
temptation for the possessor both to forget God, and
in the contemplation of themselves to think that " their
houses shall continue for ever, and that their dwelling-
place shall endure from one generation to another, and
call the lands after their own names. evertheless " (is
the repetition of warning, which reads like an explana-
tion of the whole of this psalm) " man being in honour
abideth not : he is like unto the beasts that perish."
One by one we see, even within our own memory and
times, the best, and greatest, and noblest of earth pass
away and descend into the grave, and are soon for-
gotten, or nearly so. Some twenty years have scarcely

234 PSALM XLIX.

passed since we lost our great countryman great in

peaceful influence as in war the Duke of Wellington,
a name which once filled every tongue from day to day ;
and nine years only later we lost the great and good
Prince Consort of England, in the prime of his life and
usefulness ; yet even now how seldom comparatively
do either of those names, so familiar as they once were
to all, occur to the minds and memory of most of us !

Another generation rises up "which knows not

Joseph;" and as time passes away those great names,
so dear and familiar as they once were to our land, will
be but seldom repeated or referred to. We cannot
make the dead to live in the fresh and new memories of
the world. But so is the way of this world, "Man
cometh up, and is cut down like a flower; He fleeth
away, and never continueth in one stay." The longest-
lived memories on earth are of those who in their
generation have lived not for themselves, but for others ;
not for this world, but for God, and the life with Him
beyond the grave. " Their woi'ks do follow them." Even
though no name attach itself to their works, yet, like
the nameless founders and builders of our ten thousand
ancient Parish Churches, round which each Parish
clusters, the works themselves remain in their infinite
blessings to a thousand generations.

And is there not in such thoughts as these a great

consolation for us all ? Though we be unknown, un-
noticed, and pass our life forgotten by the great world

OT FORGOTTE BEFORE GOD. 235

in which we live, yet what we do for God may cause

future generations to rise up and call us blessed, though
they know nothing of those to whom their gratitude
is due. In a quiet country parish like this, in which
you and I, my friends, are passing away our earthly
life, many or most of us unknown beyond a mile or two
from where we live, no one of us fills any space in the
eyes, or hearts, or thoughts of the great world beyond
us; no "lands are called after our names;" we shall
probably pass away like so many of our companions and
neighbours have already done before us, and shall cause
little or no thought or attention in yielding our place
and calling to others after us. A short record of our
name and age may be all at most that will bear testi-
mony to what we were, and what we have been here,
and what we have done.

But what matters it how little those next after us

may take account of us, if it can but be truly written
over our graves, " Eight dear in the sight of the Lord is
the death of His saint;" or, "He asked life of Thee,
and Thou gavest him a long life, even for ever and
ever." Who records on earth the little daily acts of
goodness of each good Samaritan ? Who writes down
the giver of each cup of cold water to a little child,
simply as an act done for Christ ? Yet though man
passes by such small things, God, Who is so great, does
not. He has minute records of every heart, and of all
such acts of devotion; and "He Who seeth in secret,

236 PSALM XLIX.

will reward thee openly." So even in this way the words

of my text from this 49th Psalm become true : " But
God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave ;
for He shall receive me." Though the grave obliterates
the greatest names in history, dwarfs into nothing the
best and noblest records of an earthly life, yet God does
not forget. They live unto Him. They will hear said
to them, " Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have
done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye
have done it unto Me." "Come, ye blessed of my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world."

This verse of my text is one of those many sentences

which each true Christian may have written at the
head of his grave. They were true of Christ Himself,
and they belong to each of His faithful people. He
raised Himself by His own power as God from the
tomb. " I have power," He said, " to lay down My life,
and I have power to take it again. This commandment
have I received of my Father." His human soul was
not left in Hell the hidden place, the place of departed
spirits neither did His human flesh see corruption ;
the morning of the third day saw Him restored by His
own power to a ew Life : the form that was crucified
was unmistakable in its identity, though made death-
less, and having properties which it had not before, nor
have we as vet. " Christ being raised from the dead
dieth no more ; death hath no more dominion over Him.
I CHRIST ALL MADE ALIVE. 237

For in that He died, He died unto sin once : but in that

He liveth, He liveth unto God." And all this He is,
not in and for Himself alone, but is become "the
Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey
Him." " Christ in us [is] our hope of glory." If we
be one with Him, one with Him by faith on our part,
and by sacraments, as the secret channels of His grace
on His, then because He lives, we shall live also. "I
am the Bread of life." " This is that Bread which came
down from Heaven : not as your fathers did eat Manna,
and are dead : he that eateth of this Bread shall live
for ever."

Brethren, these are living words of Christ Himself,

who cannot err or deceive. It is through Him that we
can take the words of my text upon our lips, and say,
" God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave ;
for He shall receive me." He is but the first-fruits of
the Besurrection. " As in Adam all die, even so in
Christ shall all be made alive." We shall be like Him,
not only in His Resurrection, but in His life of Glory,
and in His Ascension into Heaven. " Where I am, there
shall ye be also," is His promise. God will not only
redeem our souls from the power of the grave, restore
them to life, and re-unite both body and soul in an
endless continuance, but He will receive us. He will
claim us for His own, and make us and keep us His
for ever. " In my Father's house are many mansions. I
go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare

238 PSALM XLIX.

a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto
Myself ; that where I am, there ye may be also."

The simple question will be of each of us, How far

have we loved Christ, and loved one another for Christ's
sake in this world ? It matters little how we are in
this world, if we are but making the best use we
can for God of all we are or have. S. Peter may be fast
shut into the inner prison, and be guarded by four
quaternions of soldiers, but outside those prison walls
are the prayers of others going up continually before
God on his behalf ; within himself is the sure trust that
God will do all that is right and best with him. And so
his prison is but a mere temporary place of detention,
which the Angel entered, and all its bars and bolts are
drawn back in a moment, and the heavy chains fell off
from the imprisoned hands. " Our soul is escaped even
as a bird out of the snare of the fowler : the snare is
broken, and we are delivered."

So this world is our prison-house for a time ; but it

will not be for long. The longest life soon passes away.
" The days of man are but as grass. In the Morning it
is green, and groweth up : but in the Evening it is cut
down, dried up, and withered." Only let us labour, not
" to call lands after our own names," but to " lay up
treasure in heaven." See that we live our life here below,
not for ourselves only, but for God ; helping one another
when and as we can; praying for one another; keeping
steadfastly to the strait and narrow way of life. Let us

LORD, WHAT IS MA'. 239

leave all without care in God's hands, assured that He

will do for each of us what is best; and that at last
" He will redeem our soul from the power of the grave :
and will receive us " into His heavenly kingdom through
Jesus Christ our Lord.

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