"Hold me up, and I shall be safe."--Psalm 119:117 We are surrounded with snares; temptations lie spread
every moment in our path. These snares and temptations are so suitable to
the lusts of our flesh, that we shall infallibly fall into them, and be
overcome by them but for the restraining providence or the preserving grace
of God. The Christian sees this; the Christian feels this. He has had, it
may be, a bitter experience of the past. He has seen how, from lack of
walking in godly fear, for lack of circumspection and standing upon his
watch-tower, he has been entangled in times past in the snares of death. He
has regretted the consequences, felt the misery of having slipped and
fallen; the iron has entered into his soul; he has been in the prison house,
in bondage, in darkness, and death. In consequence of his transgressions he
has been "the fool" described in Psalm 108, as "afflicted because of his
iniquity." As, then, a burnt child dreads the fire, so he dreads the
consequence of being left for a moment to himself; and the higher his
assurance rises and the clearer his views become of the grace of God which
brings salvation, and of his own interest in it, the more is he afraid that
he shall fall. If his eyes are more widely opened to see the purity of God,
the blessedness of Christ, and the efficacy of atoning blood, the more also
does he see of the evil of sin, and his own weakness and inability to stand
against temptation in his own strength. And all these feelings combine to
raise up the earnest cry, "Hold me up, and I shall be safe." January 24 |