A Sermon Delivered By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.  

To him who struck great kings: for his mercy endures for ever: and killed famous kings, for his mercy endures for ever: Sihon king of the Amorites: for his mercy endures for ever: and Og the king of Bashan: for his mercy endures for ever: and gave their land for an inheritance: for his mercy endures for ever: even an inheritance to Israel his servant: for his mercy endures for ever. [Ps 136:17-22]

For other sermons on this text:
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   [See Spurgeon_SermonTexts "Ps 136:19"]
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   [See Spurgeon_SermonTexts "Ps 136:21"]
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1. These six verses iterate and reiterate the same fact; they rehearse and repeat the same reflection. Is the tautology tedious; do the chimes weary you with their monotony? No; but this is a veritable charm in poetry. When the poet touches upon some important theme, which illuminates his soul and kindles his nobler passions to a flame, he is very apt to dwell upon it with enthusiasm, constrained to pursue it with avidity, to follow it up with feeling, and echo it over and over again with strong and yet stronger emotion. No one feels that repetition is out of place in poetry, because in weal or woe, with pleasure or with pathos we dwell on the theme which awakens our sympathy. This psalm, of which the refrain is always the same, — “His mercy endures for ever,” has in it several examples of this repetition. “To him who made great lights” is followed by “The sun to rule by day,” and by the next, “The moon and stars to rule by night: for his mercy endures for ever.” The repetition is natural and secures attention, the words are musical as they strike our ears, and the style is not only allowable, but acceptable as a beautiful licence of the poetic school. For my part, I like a repetition in the tune of a psalm as well as in its language. There has sprung up a fashion in music now to complain about repetition. I must confess I do not feel of the same mind as some who, when the psalm or hymn is given out, seem to say, “Now, let us go through it as fast as we can ever go from beginning to end.” I prefer to chew some of the words — to have them come over again — to get the flavour of them in my mouth, or rather in my soul. For example, an old tune like the one we have sung is none the worse because it gives us the repeat of “his lovingkindness.” Such a word as that you would like to keep on repeating, if it were necessary, a dozen times —

   “His lovingkindness, his lovingkindness, oh, how good!”

2. A repeat ought to be considered rather a beauty than a blemish in music. There is, moreover, a reason for every repetition in Scripture, for we may say of the ornaments of poetry when we find them in the sacred volume that they are never mere ornaments. The repetitions, though elegant, are not merely flowers of rhetoric: they have a purpose. The Holy Spirit dwells upon a theme because he has an intention in doing so. My present purpose is to endeavour to show you why there should be six verses here when one verse might have sufficed. One might have been quite sufficient, it is clear. Suppose it had run like this — “Who killed famous kings, Sihon king of the Amorites and Og king of Bashan, and gave their land for an inheritance to his people: for his mercy endures for ever.” That would have encompassed all the sense; but the Holy Spirit did not judge that to be the best way of speaking, and so he divided it into six parts. He repeated it so that there the refrain might be heard six times — “His mercy endures for ever”; but not, I think, merely for the sake of repeating that beautiful truth so often; but for other reasons besides connected with the truth of which he was writing. It is well to dwell long, and to dwell deliberately, upon some of God’s dealings with us. This is the theme on which I want to thread a few reflections.

3. I. And, first, IT IS WELL TO DELIBERATE LONG OVER THE MERCIFUL SIDE OF GOD’S JUDGMENTS.

4. One does not always see that he “killed mighty kings: for his mercy endures for ever and struck famous kings, for his mercy endures for ever.” It would have read more naturally if he had said, “Who struck mighty kings: for his justice endures for ever: and killed famous kings; for his vengeance endures for ever.” The point to be brought out, however, was that there was mercy in these judgments. The Holy Spirit would have us know that there is mercy abroad in the world even —

   When God’s right arm is bared for war,
   And thunder clothes his cloudy car.

5. The removal from the earth of these great oppressive kings, though it was terrible for them, was a great blessing. When tyrants die, nations have time to breathe. When great oppressors are cut off, it is as when a lion falls, or as when wolves are slain, and the deer and sheep have time to rest. Who knows how often, in answer to the tear of the slave, God has been pleased to strike his tyrant master. Mercy herself had brushed the tear from her eye, and said, “Strike, oh God.” Sometimes when we have read stories of oppression and tyranny, wrong, and violence, the gentlest among us, who would not have harmed a hair of a man’s head, have been the very first to express indignation, and to marvel that God kept back the thunderbolt — that he did not pour vengeance on the adversary, and deliver the injured and downtrodden. If you read all through history and see how dynasties have crumbled and empires have melted away — if you could only discern the secret history of the nations, and how much there was of robbery and oppression, injustice and cruelty, you would understand that when emperor after emperor was killed in battle, or overtaken by sudden death, and king after king was swept from the throne, it was because God’s mercy endures for ever. It was not mercy to the one man, perhaps — to Nero, Caligula, Tiberius, or the like; but was it not mercy to the millions who had grown weary of his abominable rule? The sufferings of the helpless cried to God for redress. The moans and tears of serfs and vassals, prisoners and captives, presented their wretchedness before him, until his mercy linked hands with his wrath, and he struck great kings, and killed famous kings, because his mercy endured for ever. Read the page of history, I say, with this sentiment in your mind, and you will often judge that what seemed to be a very severe retribution upon some man of eminence, may turn out, after all, only to have been an act of mercy towards those who were under his power.

6. Apply the thought another way. There are huge systems of power in the world, and such there always have been — systems, like Sihon, king of the Amorites, whose force and fame have held vast hordes and populations in terror, and the defences of these systems have been strong as the walled cities of Og, king of Bashan; but since the day when Christ came into the world and gathered his twelve disciples around him, how many of these systems have been utterly destroyed? Ask, at this moment, where are the gods that were worshipped when Paul entered Athens and preached Jesus and the resurrection? Where are all the gods that held sway over Greece and Rome when Peter, and the rest of the fishermen, were telling about our Lord Jesus Christ, and the propitiation that he made for sin? They have passed away, and they are not. And, since then, there have risen up great systems and schools of thought — in which human wisdom has opposed the divine wisdom. They have been strong and mighty systems, but the student of history knows how they have all passed away one after the other. And in our own land there has passed away — I pray God never to return — the system of Popery, more terrible than Sihon, king of the Amorites, or Og, king of Bashan. And now our ruined abbeys are scattered all over the land — ruins which make our souls rejoice as we look upon them, for we say, “Come, behold the works of the Lord; what desolation he has made in the earth.” And here is another example of how he can put his foes to flight. At this day there are other systems still standing, crushing down the people, darkening the night of nature with a denser darkness of superstition — turning a midnight of human depravity into a darkness that might be felt, as in the plague of Egypt of old. But, as the Lord lives, as he has scattered falsehoods one after the other, so he will scatter all these systems, and the day shall come when we shall say, “Mohammed’s crescent is forgotten now, for his mercy endures for ever; and the pomp of antichrist has passed away and all his infallibility; for the mercy of the Lord endures for ever.” One great error after another is brought down by the strong hand of the God of Jacob, for his mercy endures for ever; and though in each case these things seem like judgments upon the people, yet they are judgments full of mercy, for it is a blessing when God strikes any system which is contrary to himself and to his truth, contrary to his Son, contrary to the liberties and the rights of man, and, above all, contrary to the gospel life and the holy purity of the church.

7. Now, brethren, there are other judgments yet to come judgments — which we, surely, are to look forward to with great hope as examples of the mercy of God. The day is coming when he who is more terrible than Sihon, king of the Amorites, shall be cast out. Christ, by his death, has broken the power of Satan, but Satan still holds sway to a great extent over the sons of men. As the gospel spreads his power shall lessen, and eventually there shall come the time when he shall be bound — when he shall be cast into the lake of fire, and his power shall cease. It will be a judgment upon him. But what an illustration it will be of how God’s mercy endures for ever. Then he shall lift “his brazen front with thunder scarred,” receive his sentence, and begin anew his hell; and in that day the saints shall sing “His mercy endures for ever.” And death, too, that terrible thing, that also is to be destroyed, it is the last enemy, but it is the last enemy that shall be destroyed; and when death itself shall cease to be, and the sepulchre shall be rifled of all its treasures, then we shall magnify and bless the Lord, as Israel did when they thought of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan; for his mercy endures for ever. And when that last tremendous act of vengeance shall come, and death and hell shall be cast into the lake of fire; and all the hosts of evil, even all that have done iniquity and have rejected Christ, shall be cast out for ever from all hope and joy — in that dread day, while it shall be to them weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, it shall be to the righteous “Hallelujah! hallelujah! for God and goodness, the right and the Christ, have triumphed for ever.” Yes, even in the condemnation of the lost, it shall be a sign of mercy to the universe that sin was not permitted to triumph, that evil was not allowed to have its sway, but that God overcame it at a mighty cost, and, at last, shut it up within its proper bounds, never to break out again, for “his mercy endures for ever.”

8. We do not know, brethren, what may happen to ourselves, but we know what has happened, and, in the light of the truth I am now dwelling upon, we may now sing a new song to the Lord. We have had our smitings, and we have had our slayings. We have had sins within us slain that were mighty kings, and we have had corruptions that were famous kings, but they have been brought down; we have had our idols broken, and judgments have come upon our inventions. Oh, what a smashing of idols there has been with many a heart here present, how have you stood with tears in your eyes as your Dagon was made to fall before the ark of the Lord! You tried to set it in its place again, but you could not, for the Lord broke it to pieces; and he has taken away the gods in whom you trusted and the things that your heart doted upon, and the delight of your eyes, and the joy of your spirit — he has taken these away one by one — mighty kings who swayed you, and famous kings who ruled your heart and mind, and engaged the best of your affections. These have been killed because his mercy endures for ever, and, for my part, I would say, “Oh sword of the Lord, do not rest: do not return to your scabbard if you are slaying my sin, if you are overcoming my corruptions, go through me, Lord, and strike again, and if you break up the idols, break on.”

   The dearest idol I have known,
      Whate’er that idol be,
   Help me to tear it from its throne
      And worship only thee.

Still I would say of every act of idol breaking and of king slaying within my soul, “His mercy endures for ever, his mercy endures for ever.” Hence these strikings, hence these trials, hence these afflictions; they are sent, not in anger, but in his dear covenant love — not to harm us, but to bless us; not to impoverish us, but to make our inheritance wider and larger, both here and in the world to come. This is our first thought. In the midst of judgments we should wait and watch until we see the mercy side of them, for then we shall sing, “Who struck great kings, for his mercy endures for ever: and killed famous kings, for his mercy endures for ever.”

9. II. Secondly, EACH MERCY DESERVES TO BE REMEMBERED. With what special point and emphasis each case is put, “Sihon king of the Amorites, for his mercy endures for ever: and Og the king of Bashan, for his mercy endures for ever.” Why not give them in the gross — Sihon and Og? Why not, as we commonly and often say, lump them together, and thank God for them in the mass? No, no, they must come in detail — “Sihon king of the Amorites, for his mercy endures for ever: and Og the king of Bashan, for his mercy endures for ever.”

10. Why should they thus come in detail? Because every mercy we have received is undeserved. The Israelites did not deserve that God should strike Sihon, king of the Amorites, or Og, king of Bashan. It was a mercy so rich and gracious that it deserved to be recorded. In that very chapter, from which I read to you just now, where God struck Sihon, you will find that the children of Israel murmured, so that God sent fiery serpents among them. In that same chapter we have the record of his chastening them with fiery serpents, and yet he is giving them victory over their foes. Oh, it brings the tears into our eyes, and fills us with humiliation, when we remember that many of our choicest mercies have come to us just after our very blackest sins. It is not that the Lord gives us his mercy when we are walking consistently — when we are obedient, when we are what we ought to be; there would be great grace in that; but the crowning mercy is that when we have gone out of the way — when we have gone down Bypath Meadow, when, like Peter, we have denied our master, yet still some great mercy has been bestowed to set us right again. Sihon, king of the Amorites, just when we had provoked the Lord, has come down upon us to destroy us; but the Lord has said, “No, I will strike my children, but I will not let you strike them. I will chasten them and send fiery serpents, but, Sihon, you must not touch them. Get back. If you dare lay a finger upon them my jealousy shall burn and smoke against you; for they are my children, and I will deliver them in the day of their afflictions.” Oh, bless the Lord for each mercy, because it has been so undeserved.

11. Nor have we received a mercy that we could have dispensed with. Had God struck Sihon, king of the Amorites, and then when Og came against them had said, “I have done enough for you, and I will do no more; the nation would have been destroyed.” No, Sihon, king of the Amorites, is struck. Bless the Lord for that. Yet if the Lord does not strike Og, king of Bashan, what will become of Israel? Thus each mercy is needed, why then should not each mercy have a separate song? When you are in present trouble you think much of the present mercy. My dear brother, when you have gotten through the trouble, why not think a great deal of the mercy afterwards? Then as it comes, a brand new mercy in a fresh dilemma, the more you need it, the more you value it. Why not set the same value upon these mercies after you have received them, and commemorate in particular the benefits which flow out of each? Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan — each one shall be sung about separately, because neither victory could be dispensed with. They were both necessary so that Israel might enter into the promised land.

12. Moreover, there was a peculiarity about each mercy. This was sure to be the case. You never had two mercies from God that were quite alike. There were some special circumstances which made a marked difference. Pick the leaves from a tree: commonly speaking, they are alike, yet there are no two leaves veined in exactly the same way. So too with mercies. There is some distinction, if you look closely into them. Generally, when we are in deep waters, there is some particular feature to distinguish the trial and to identify it afterwards. I know that Monday’s mercy will not do for Tuesday, and I should be sorry if I had nothing but Tuesday’s mercy to help me through Wednesday. His mercies “are new every morning: great is his faithfulness.” Now, since they are all new, and each one separate, why should not each one be spoken of by itself? Since God paints so many fresh pictures, why should we not set them in appropriate frames, saying of each one, “His mercy endures for ever?” There is a specialty about each. Sihon is not Og, and Og is not Sihon. Well may my text assign to each one its place in the song of praise.

13. But if any mercy deserves to be rehearsed more distinctly than another, it is early mercy. The children of Israel had not gotten their hands into fighting yet. They had not crossed the Jordan; they had not entered Canaan, where they were to be soldiers every day; they were on this side the Jordan, and they had not learned war. They offered to Sihon, and to Og, to go quietly through their land, and not so much as pick a fruit from their trees, or drink a drop of water from their wells. But Sihon and Og were in an ill temper, and they would not allow them to go through peaceably. There was a battle — the first of their battles — the beginning of their warfare, and so they always looked back with happy and grateful memories to their first fights and their first victories. No doubt they remembered all about Adonibezek, and about the king of Ai, and all those other kings; but these were afterwards, their first battles were with Sihon and Og. Oh, my dear brothers and sisters, I should like you to recall your first troubles — your first labours for Christ, your first trials, and your first successes. You remember the first soul that you brought to Jesus — you cannot forget the little room where you began to work. You remember the half dozen girls whom you collected for the first time to form a class — those two or three boys whom you got into that little room down in the back slum. Now, remember your Sihon, king of the Amorites, and your Og, king of Bashan, and how God helped you over those beginnings. It was a great thing, you know, for you were not so big then as you are now. You begin to think (I am only saying out aloud what your heart whispers to you) — you begin to think that you can do it. Why, you are a man of experience, are you not? And you, young man, why, you are a well developed minister now; you can do a great deal. We too often feel as if our experience had matured us into something far more important than we dreamed of in the first stage of our little career. It is a wicked feeling, but the vanity of our hearts will sometimes assert itself. Now, just let us revert to the time when we were little in Israel, and all unknown, some of us were, perhaps, really boys and girls, though we truly loved our Lord. We were weak and feeble; no one thought there was anything in us; or, if they did, we ourselves did not think so. We were all trembling, and afraid; but, glory be to God, we overcame Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, the king of Bashan, and our early victories are fresh in our memories. Let us recall them, partly to humble us, and partly to strengthen us. Let us, like David, say, “Your servant killed both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them.” The Lord who helped you in those young days will not forsake you now. Only trust him with the same simplicity; only distrust yourself as much as you did then, and a little more; only sink into the very dust of self-abasement, and rise in all the grandeur of childlike confidence in God, and just as he struck Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, so he will make all your foes as driven stubble before your face. He will make you as a new, sharp threshing instrument, having teeth, and you shall thresh the mountains and make them as chaff.

14. Thus each mercy deserves to be specially remembered, for not one is deserved, not one is needless, and every one has its peculiarity, and especially the early ones, — they have a never-to-be-forgotten speciality.

15. III. Thirdly, EACH MERCY DOES REALLY IN ITSELF DESERVE SEPARATE CONTEMPLATION.

16. I will show you exactly why I think so. I go to visit a sick person. He has been in trouble. Let me suppose it is yourself who makes the visit, for I dare say you have done the same thing. Very soon after you enter you get an account of the trouble in pretty full details; and then you have all the special circumstances related to you. “You see, my dear sir, I should not have felt the loss of this dear child so much, only it is the second or the third I have lost; and then, you see, sir, she was such a sweet girl”; or, “It was that dear boy upon whom I had set all my hopes.” These little points are always mentioned as occasions of special grief or aggravations of a heavy sorrow. “My dear husband is taken away,” says the disconsolate widow; and, unwilling to mingle her tears indiscriminately with other weepers in similar afflictions, she adds, “Ah, sir, but in my widowhood there are pangs particularly bitter. Just after he had been toiling and struggling with the tide against him, and we were beginning to get on more smoothly, he was taken away with a sudden stroke or a slow consumption before there was a proper provision made for these dear children. When they seemed to need a father’s care and tenderness, it was then, just then, he was struck, and I am left with a heart withered like grass.” Then you meet another who has lost money, and you hear of the failure that is likely to come on. And then there are certain reasons about the loss — about the person that was trusted, certain circumstances about the cruel manner in which he acted, and the shameful way in which he betrayed confidence. You hear all that. Oh, I know all about it. I have heard it, and, moreover, when I have gotten some trouble of my own, I think I generally find myself turning it inside out, like a child does a new dress, saying, “Look here,” and showing every bit of it — every point of it — upside down, the right way up, the wrong side up, and the wrong side out, and all ways. You always do that, do you not, with all your troubles? Now then, dear friends, ought you not to do the same with all your mercies? Do you not think so? If the Lord gave you nothing but troubles, then, I think, there might be some justification in dwelling so much upon them, but since there are so many mercies, would it not be wisdom to tell your friends, sometimes, all about those mercies with a sparkling eye, and say, “They were manifold mercies. There was fold upon fold. See the goodness of the Lord in this thing. He sent that mercy just when I needed it — just when I most required it, and it came to me in such a beautiful way, too, and it was delivered to me by the very person that made it most acceptable. The way in which the gift was bestowed so sweetened it, that I do not know how to praise the Lord enough for it.” Oh, that I heard Christians often saying one to another, “Have you heard what the Lord has done for me? Sit down for a little while, and let me fill your ears with the sweet story of his lovingkindnesses and his tender mercies.” Is this not justice? Mere justice? If you will harp on your sorrows, you should, in a better sense, harp on your joys, and bring out the best harp with all its ten strings, and touch all those strings with praise to him who has done so much for you. Tell the world not only that he overcame your foes, but say, “To him who struck great kings, for his mercy endures for ever: and killed famous kings, for his mercy endures for ever: Sihon king of the Amorites, for his mercy endures for ever: and Og the king of Bashan, for his mercy endures for ever.” “We might tire people,” one says. I am glad you are a little sensitive on that point, because you have been rather inconsiderate sometimes when you have been talking about your troubles, and I think you might be excused if you were to weary us occasionally by declaring your mercies. Oh, but the ears of saints are not tired with such themes as this; on the contrary, they are gladdened and made to rejoice. “Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what he has done for my soul.” I am sure the response of all God’s people will be — “Let us hear it. Tell it to us, for we will rejoice with you and magnify the name of the Most High.”

17. IV. Fourthly, CONTINUED BENEFITS ARE A SPECIAL PROOF OF ENDURING MERCY.

18. For God to kill Sihon king of the Amorites may hardly prove by itself that his mercy endures for ever, though it does prove that he had mercy then. Hence the inspired poet wisely strikes that string, and before the note has died away upon the listening ear he touches another. “Og king of Bashan,” he says; “for his mercy endures for ever.” One, two, three, four, five, six succeeding stanzas — these mercies come quickly one after the other, and so they show the continuance of the mercy, while the unbroken succession of wave upon wave in ceaseless regularity gives sanction to the chorus, “his mercy endures for ever.” Thus, dear brethren, if we were in the habit of dwelling distinctly upon God’s distinct mercies, do you not think we should have in our souls a firmer faith concerning the endurance, the continuity, the everlastingness of the mercy of God? Oh, what the Lord did for us when we were babes in grace! When we think of what he did then, we say, “His mercy endures for ever.” Then consider what he did for us when we were young men in Christ Jesus. “His mercy endures for ever.” Think of what he has done for us after we have grown to be fathers, “His mercy endures for ever.” And oh you grey heads, tell of what the Lord has done for you, for when you put all four ages together you can say with particular emphasis, “His mercy endures for ever.” I wish I had a memory strong enough to remember all the mercies of God to me in the past year. They have been very many, very great, and taken one by one they have been very sweet. As I look at them one after the other, the evidence seems to accumulate until the argument becomes conclusive that “His mercy endures for ever.” It has endured all through the year, it was connected with all the years that went before, it is gathering fresh force in the year that is current, so I may trust for the years that are yet to come that he who was so full of mercy yesterday, and is so full of grace today, and will be for ever the same. Do you not see that the striking of these bells one by one — the bringing out of each mercy in its distinctness one after the other — goes to illustrate the precious and ever blessed truth that his mercy endures for ever? Let our hearts look forward with the calm confidence which must come to a soul that lives by faith and sings without fear —

   For his mercies shall endure
   Ever faithful — ever sure.

19. V. Fifthly, THE OVERRULING OF TRIALS IS A SUBJECT TO DWELL UPON WITH DELIGHT.

20. Read the verses — “And gave their land for an inheritance, for his mercy endures for ever: even an inheritance to Israel his servant, for his mercy endures for ever.” The Israelites did not expect to have the territory of Sihon and Og. Their land was on the other side of Jordan, but since Sihon and Og assailed them as unexpected foes, they got out of them unexpected territory. You and I have had, and we do have, unexpected trials. In looking back we have suffered many trials which we did not anticipate from unlikely quarters, from people who ought to have been our friends, our helpers, our comforters. The result has shown that we have had unexpected advantages: our perils have proved to be pioneers of our progress. I want you to remember this, so that you may sing all the more sincerely, “His mercy endures for ever.”

21. How many sins and how much unsuspected treachery of heart have we been led to discover through our troubles. Those vipers would have slept in our soul quietly: they would have bred disease there of the deadliest kind; but trouble came, and we were put in such a state of trembling that we began to search; and as we searched we found the deadliest evil, and we put it away. How many a vice has been revealed to us in the hour of trial. Whenever I hear of a brother who thinks his corruptions are dead, I feel inclined to say, “Put him half an hour in the furnace, and if he does not hear the dogs bark inside his soul, I am mistaken.” There they are, sure enough. Depend upon that. He is possessed by the most demons who thinks he has the fewest imperfections, as a general rule. Only let us get into trouble — be thrown into the sieve, and let the devil give us an extra shake or two, and there is enough of chaff or dust in us all to blind our eyes, or to fill them with tears, when our Lord sends us repentance. It must come — this trouble, and we must be thankful for the trouble since it winnows the wheat and makes us clean before the living God.

22. Besides helping to cleanse us, how many times has trouble helped to instruct us. You may read the book all through, young man, and you may think that you know all about it; but your grandfather knows the meaning of texts that you cannot spell yet. “Oh,” you say, “I have been studying the commentators; I have been looking into them for the meaning of the passages.” Yes, but there is another way of reading the commentators, and it comes from experience; experience is the grand way of getting texts written upon your heart. There are many texts that cannot be brought home to your own heart yet. A text of that kind must be brought home to you when you are in such a position as to need its application, and it cannot be understood until then. You may have learned all about anchors, sir, but you never know the value of a sheet anchor [a] until you have gotten into a storm. You may read and hear on shore all about a tempest, and you may have found beautiful descriptions of it, and think you know how it tosses the ship about; but I will warrant you that a good heave or two will let you know more about sea sickness and the effects of those mighty tempests that rouse the billows and rock the vessels than all the books you have ever read for sound instruction or seasonable entertainment.

23. And how much has the character of God been revealed to us in trouble. We do not know who our friends are until we fall into adversity; neither is that “friend who sticks closer than a brother” truly prized by us until we are brought into trouble, and then we know his power to sympathise and to help.

24. Trials help to strengthen us. It is impossible for a Christian to be very strong — in certain ways, at any rate — unless he grapples with difficulties and endures hardships. There is no proving your courage and prowess in war, unless you smell gunpowder, and are exposed to the dread artillery. There is no learning to be strong in the battle unless you pass through trouble: depend upon it. My arm would soon weary if I had to lift the blacksmith’s hammer for an hour or two, and make horseshoes. I am afraid I should soon give up the business. But the blacksmith’s arm does not ache, for he has been at it so many years, and he rings out a tune on the anvil, so joyfully does his strong arm do the work. Practice has strengthened him. And so, when we have become accustomed to trial and trouble, faith is to us a far more simple matter than it was before, and we become “strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.” What shall we say then? Thanks to Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, for teaching us war? Indeed; but we will thank the Lord, who has given “their land to be an inheritance, even an inheritance for Israel his servant, for his mercy endures for ever.”

25. VI. Lastly, THE HAPPENING OF ALL THIS TO THE SAME PEOPLE IS A FURTHER ILLUSTRATION THAT HIS MERCY ENDURES FOR EVER.

26. These six verses tell of great things done for Israel, all for Israel. That last verse is very sweet to me — “Even an inheritance for Israel his servant.” What are the kings killed for? For Israel. What does Sihon die for? For Israel. Why does Og fall? For Israel. For whom is the inheritance? For Israel. And who is Israel, and what has Israel done, to have all this? What have they done? Brethren, it is a sad but gracious story. Israel! Israel! Why, that is the nation that made the golden calf, and said, “These are your gods, oh Israel.” Israel! Why, these are the people who said, “Because there were no graves in Egypt have you brought us into this wilderness to destroy us?” Israel! Why, these are the people who took the daughters of Moab and committed lewdness with them. Israel! Why, these are the people who provoked the Lord, so that he said to his servant Moses, “Leave me alone! Leave me alone, so that I may destroy them,” for they provoked the Lord to jealousy. Israel! Why, these are the people of whom God swore in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest. Yet it is the same nation. Their children have followed them; it is still Israel, and God has done all this for Israel. Now, while you are thinking about Israel, just begin to think about yourselves. For whom has God done all this — turned judgment into mercy, fought great battles on their behalf, and given them a great inheritance of mercy and lovingkindness and favour? Who is it for? Well, I will not mention anyone’s name, but I will mention my own to myself; and as I mention it I think —

   Oh grace, it is thy wont
   Into unlikeliest hearts to come.

How exceptional that you should do all this for such a one as I am. Brother, sister, I can better understand God’s mercy to you than I can his mercy to me. I know one who has, in distress, sometimes doubted the lovingkindness of the Lord. I know one who has been proud, envious, and worldly. I know one whose heart has been cold, dead, callous, and careless, when it ought to have been tender, and full of compassion and full of love. I know one who is all imperfections, all faults. He seems to himself to grow worse instead of better every day: at least he loathes himself more a hundred times than he used to do. And yet I know that the Lord loves that man; but why I do not know, except “even so, Father, for so it seems good in your sight.” And if you tell your own story honestly, and know your own hearts and your own lives, you will wonder and be astonished to the extreme of wonderment that the Lord should give an inheritance to Israel — to you, his servant — truly his servant, but a poor, faulty servant to have such an inheritance given to him from the abundance of the grace of God. And why does he do it, except that his mercy endures for ever? Is there one of us who might not justly be in hell before the clock ticks again, if it were not that his mercy endures for ever? The brightest saint here has no brightness except what God lends to him, and he only lends it to him because his mercy endures for ever. Oh, bless his name, you children of his who live near to him — you who have climbed to the highest stage of communion. Remember, you do not stand there because of anything in yourselves, but because his mercy endures for ever. If you have conquered your sins — Sihon king of the Amorites — it is because his mercy endures for ever; and if today you put your foot upon the neck of Og, king of Bashan, it is not because you are strong, but because his mercy endures for ever. If you have grown in sanctification, and begin to possess the land which God has given to be an inheritance to his people, it is still because his mercy endures for ever; and when death itself is dead, and you have passed beyond the gate of pearl, and taken possession of the throne reserved for you with Christ at God’s right hand, the only reason why you shall get there will be because his mercy endures for ever. This is the song of every saved soul in this tabernacle, as it shall be in the temple above, from henceforth even for evermore.

27. I think it ought to be a great encouragement to those of you who are not God’s people, if there are any such present, and there may be. Oh, how it ought to ring in your ears, “His mercy endures for ever.” You are very old, but his mercy endures for ever. You are very sick and close to death, but his mercy endures for ever. You have gone to the utmost extreme of sin, but his mercy endures for ever. You have resisted his Spirit, you have stifled your conscience, you have been disobedient to Christ, but his mercy endures for ever. You have indulged every evil passion, you have broken loose from every bond that ought to have held you to the way of right, but his mercy endures for ever. The last day of your life is almost come, but his mercy still endures, and will endure until you die. If death comes, we have no gospel for the dead, but as long as you live that mercy still endures.

   While the lamp holds out to burn,
   The vilest sinner may return.

The returning prodigal trusting in Jesus Christ shall find mercy. If you say, “Oh, but, Lord, my sins are strong, how can I master them?” the answer I shall give you is in the words of my text, “He killed great kings, for his mercy endures for ever: yes, killed famous kings, for his mercy endures for ever.” Cannot God slay your sins? As for Satan and the world, he killed Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, for his mercy endures for ever. If you say that you never can be holy, and never can grow like his children, I know “he gave their land to be an inheritance, for his mercy endures for ever, even an inheritance to Israel his servant, for his mercy endures for ever,” and why should he not even thus enrich you with sanctifying grace? May God by his rich mercy abundantly bless you, so that you may sing his praise for ever. Amen.

[Portions Of Scripture Read Before Sermon — Nu 21:21-35 De 2:16-3:11]
[See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Spirit of the Psalms — Psalm 136” 136]
[See Spurgeon_Hymnal “God the Father, Attributes of God — Lovingkindness” 196]

[a] Sheet anchor: A large anchor, formerly always the largest of a ship’s anchors, used only in an emergency. OED.

Spirit of the Psalms
Psalm 136 (Song 1) <7S. />
1 Let us, with a gladsome mind,
   Praise the Lord, for he is kind:
   For his mercies shall endure,
   Ever faithful, ever sure.
2 Let us sound his name abroad,
   For of gods he is the God:
   For his mercies shall endure,
   Ever faithful, ever sure.
3 He, with all commanding might,
   Fill’d the new made world with light;
   For his mercies shall endure,
   Ever faithful, ever sure.
4 All things living he doth feed;
   His full hand supplies their need:
   For his mercies shall endure,
   Ever faithful, ever sure.
5 He his chosen race did bless
   In the wasteful wilderness:
   For his mercies shall endure,
   Ever faithful, ever sure.
6 He hath, with a piteous eye,
   Look’d upon our misery:
   For his mercies shall endure,
   Ever faithful, ever sure.
7 Let us then, with gladsome mind,
   Praise the Lord, for he is kind,
   For his mercies shall endure,
   Ever faithful, ever sure.
                           John Milton, 1645
 

Psalm 136 (Song 2) L.M.
1 Give to our God immortal praise;
   Mercy and truth are all his ways:
   Wonders of grace to God belong,
   Repeat his mercies in your song.
2 Give to the Lord of lords renown,
   The King of kings with glory crown;
   His mercies ever shall endure,
   When lords and kings are known no more.
3 He built the earth, he spread the sky,
   And fix’d the starry lights on high:
   Wonders of grace to God belong,
   Repeat his mercies in your song.
4 He fills the sun with morning light,
   He bids the moon direct the night:
   His mercies ever shall endure,
   When suns and moons shall shine no more.
5 The Jews he freed from Pharaoh’s hand,
   And brought them to the promised land:
   Wonders of grace to God belong,
   Repeat his mercies in your song.
6 He saw the Gentiles dead in sin,
   And felt his pity work within:
   His mercies ever shall endure,
   When death and sin shall reign no more.
7 He sent his Son with power to save
   From guilt, and darkness, and the grave
   Wonders of grace to God belong,
   Repeat his mercies in your song.
8 Through this vain world he guides our feet,
   And leads us to his heavenly seat;
   His mercies ever shall endure,
   When this vain world shall be no more.
                        Isaac Watts, 1719.
 

God the Father, Attributes of God
196 — Lovingkindness
 1 Awake, my soul, in joyful lays,
   And sing thy great Redeemer’s praise:
   He justly claims a song from me,
   His loving kindness, oh, how free!
2 He saw me ruin’d in the fall,
   Yet loved me, notwithstanding all;
   He saved me from my lost estate,
   His loving kindness, oh, how great!
3 Though numerous hosts of mighty foes,
   Though earth and hell my way oppose,
   He safely leads my soul along,
   His loving kindness, oh, how strong.
4 When trouble, like a gloomy cloud,
   Has gather’d thick and thunder’d loud,
   He near my soul has always stood,
   His loving-kindness changes not.
5 Often I feel my sinful heart
   Prone from my Jesus to depart;
   But though I have him oft forgot,
   His loving kindness changes not.
6 Soon shall I pass the gloomy vale,
   Soon all my mortal powers must fail;
   Oh may my last expiring breath
   His loving kindness sing in death!
7 Then let me mount and soar away
   To the bright world of endless day;
   And sing with rapture and surprise,
   His loving-kindness in the skies.
                     Samuel Medley, 1787.