The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1902-11-06
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED
"A GREAT VICTORY"
The Rev. j. Wilbur Chapman breaches
Upon the Souls Deep Longing After
God-Faith Will Conquer in the End
God 10 Our Strength and Life.

The Rev. j. Wilbur Chapman breaches
Upon the Souls Deep Longing After
God-Faith will Conquer I'm the End
God 10 Our Strength and Life.
New YORK CITY.-The Rev. Dr. Will
bur Chapman has furnished to the press a
most striking and popular sermon which
is intended for all those who would rise to
better things. 1t is entitled "a Great
Victory" and is preached from the texts:
Gas the hart panteth after the water
brooks, SO panteth my soul after Thee, 0
God" Psalm AZ: l. Hope in God, for [
shall yet praise Him who is the health of
my countenance." Psalm 40: s.
The first verse is lamentation in the
wilderness, the second is a shout of re-
joicing when victory is won. The terri
tory stretching out from the wilderness in
the one text to the presence of God in the
other is not only the story of the expe-
rience Of David, but of the most of Chris
tians. My message last week was to those
who occasionally fall under juniper trees
and want to die; here it is to all who
would rise to better things.
The Psalms are divided into five books,
and the ancient Rabbins say in these five
books in the Psalter we have the image of
the hive books of the law, or in other
words kind of second pentateuch, the
echo OF the first. In the first God speaks
and In the second the voice of the people
Is heard. God presents Israel with the
shout OF praise: These two Psalms form
tn first division of the second book
They are dedicated to the master must
cans or the sons of Horah. They were
the celebrated musicians and singers OF
the day; they were in David's time the
keepers of the threshold of the tabernacle.
and still earlier In the time of Moses they
yn0 RI hyNNn ~ II
camp OF the Levites; they were part of
that band that acknowledged David as
leader at Liklag; they were warriors with
faces like lions, and who for speed were
like gazelles on the mountains
Mr.. Spurgeon says that although David
IS not mentioned as the author of these
psalms they must be his, for the truth is
SO like him; 1t has the character of his
style and the work of his experience in
every letter. I had sooner question the
authorship of Bunyan's second part of the
"P,l.lgrlm's Progress than to question Da-
vlds right to these psalms Whoever
wrote them has given name to the souls
deep longing after God and made a sigh a
melodious thing.
There are three divisions in the psalm,
each closing with the refrain, why art
psalm is the picture of soul climbing
Godward, not without backward slips,
but climbing nevertheless, until the sigh
OF the first text gives way to the shout of
the second. Perhaps the singer during his
exile on the eastern side of Jordan had
seen some gentle creature with open mouth
and heaving tanks eagerly seeking water
IN the dry river bed, and he saw in this
picture of himself. The whole psalm is
like what we hive seen on some early
spring day, when the sun was warm, the
sky blue, the trees ready to burst into bud
and the birds were singing, but only for
a day, then the clouds returned, the at
mosphere was chilled, the birds are all
stllled and the sun was under a cloud.
Viewed in one way it is psalm of gloom,
IN another way, it is psalm of glory.
Streaks OF brightness are ever flashing
through the gloom. First there is sigh
as OF breaking heart, then comes a word
OF hope like rainbow spanning the water
fall; once again the contending enemies
meet as in verses 8 and 10, but finally
above it all comes the refrain without a
complaint, :! shall yet praise Him who is
the health of my countenance."
There are certain expressions most strik-
ing in the psalm. Three times does David
say why art thou cast down, o my
soulv as though he were two men. The
psalmist talks to himself. John Trapp
says it is David Gliding David out of the
dumps. To search for the cause of sorrow
is often the best surgery for grief. In
verse notice the words. "The Lord will
command His Toying kindness in the day
time No>day has ever dawned in which
IN heir of grace could be utterly forsaken.
In the same verse we read I'm the night
His song shall be with me-" Affection
may put out our light at times, but if it
does not silence our song the light will
come again. Verse 8. psalm AZ, Send out
Thy light and truth" These are like an
gels to guide him to the object of his af-
fections, but finally above all sounds the
Is like the singing of Paul and Silas, it |
Iooses chains, shakes the prison walls and
sets the prisoner free. Two graces men
tioned in this psalm were used frequently |
by Christ. hope and faith. Faith tells us
what Christ has done; hope tells us what |
He will do, and hope is like the sun as we
Journey. toward it; our burden is cast |
struggle with fear, but it will conquer in
the end. These two psalms are really one;
there is a constant unfolding of expe-
rience and rising to higher appreciation |
If God. and as faith acquires more strength |
you will notice that not only David but |
ourselves come to think of God in a differ |
INT way and address Him in more endear-
ing terms. There is no better illustration |
# this than these two psalms.
20 God" Debarred from public. wor-
ship David is heart sick. He is not seek
ing ease, he needs God. He is not after |
comfort, but like a traveller whose water |
bottle is empty and who finds the web |
dry, so he must have God or he will faint. |
When it is as natural for us to long for |
God as for an animal to thirst, it is we'll |
with our souls. 20 God" we hear him |
saying. It is as if he can scarcely breathe |
for thirst. He does not know Just what |
be is needing or just how God would re.
real Himself to him, but he must have God.
All unrest or thirst or outgoing of desire |
are but the reaching out of the soul after |
God. We shall be satisfied only when we
ind Him.
'The Living God" My soul thirsteth
for God, for the living God. This is an
advance upon the first expression, and this
is Jehovah's name of power. Ancient
Israel was accustomed to use it before |
every victory, since it is higher than go
Cod. In the first cry we naturally find
it followed with a shout of victory, 81
shall yet praise Him." Hunger and thirst
are Gods instruments to call US to Him
self. When the prodigal was an hun.
gered he said, II will arise" It is pic
ture of one who has tried other things in
The world, pleasure, wealth, honor and I
then cries out, 20 for the living God"
But thirst is better than hunger; you may
PALATE hunger, but thirst is perpetual
- 1z~l - \