From J. C. Philpot's Daily Portions
August 5 "He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach
of him that would swallow me up. God shall send forth his mercy and his
truth." Psalm 57:3 And where is God's mercy revealed? Outwardly in the word
of God; inwardly in the heart. And it is by sending his mercy into the
conscience, shedding abroad his love in the soul, manifesting his pardoning
favor within, that God "saves from the reproach of him that would swallow us
up." Man may say, 'I do not doubt your religion; surely you have marks and
testimonies of being a child of God!' Ministers may come and endeavor to
soothe you, and often by their soothing make more mischief than they
mend--'O, no doubt, if you are exercised with these things you are a child
of God;' as though a man could be satisfied with exercises, and because he
is hungering and thirsting after the Lord, could be contented with his
famine and his drought. No; these things do not touch the secret malady, do
not go far enough, nor deep enough, nor come with divine power as from the
mouth of the Lord himself. All short of this leaves the poor patient
afflicted, desolate, and dejected; and does not remove that under which his
soul labors. But mercy, sweet mercy, sent from heaven, and dropped
from above into his spirit, applied to his conscience, revealed to his
heart, and brought warm into his very soul by the Spirit of God--that
saves him from the reproach of every enemy that would swallow him up. For if
he can lean, confidently lean upon the arms of mercy, what can man do, what
can Satan do, what can sin do, what can death do, what can hell itself do to
hurt him? If the mercy of God is upon his side, revealed to his heart, and
sent from heaven into his soul, who or what shall swallow him up?