Planted And Protected
“The Lord will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.”—Psalm 94:14
Therefore, drooping soul, cast not off thy confidence in him. A meteor will expire when the earthly matter is spent that maintained the blaze for a time. Profession may carry to a high elevation. Persons may appear as fixed stars in the church of Christ, but time may discover them to be no other than shining meteors, or shooting and falling stars. Yea, angels kept not their first estate; but the Lord’s chosen people is his portion. The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church of Christ. ‘All those that be planted in the house of the Lord, shall flourish in the courts of our God.’ Psal. 92:13. Here is the consolation of Christ, the comfort of love, the fellowship of the Spirit, ‘He that believeth in Jesus shall be saved;’ not for days, months, years, but saved with an everlasting salvation. All such are the objects of the everlasting love of an unchangeable God: he never casts off nor forsakes them. Even when in the furnace of trials and afflictions, hear the declarations of Love concerning them: ‘They shall call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, It is my people.’ Hear the claim of faith: ‘Then shall they say, The Lord is my God.’ Zech. 13:9.
David knew that friends had cast him off; yea, father and mother might forsake him, his frames and feelings had forsaken him, his joys had withered, and his comforts seemed all blasted in an hour. But says he, age and observation have fully confirmed me in this truth, ‘I never saw the righteous forsaken’ of his God. ‘Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down.’ Why so? Truly saith he, ‘The Lord upholdeth him with his hand.’ Psal. 37:24 Falls may wound the soul, bruise the spirit, cause sinkings of heart, and dejections of mind. Satan may sadly dawb and bespatter the poor child of God, and endeavour to persuade him that he is in such a filthy condition, that his Father doth not know him, will not own him. The Lord help us to fear such a state, and to watch and pray that we may stand. Yet the Lord will not cast away his people whom he did foreknow, nor forsake his chosen inheritance. There is balm in Gilead. Jesus is the skilful physician; he will heal and restore his beloved members; he knows them, he loves them, they are his property. Oh how should this endear Jesus to our souls, cause us to cleave unto him with full purpose of heart, embitter sin, and cause us to cry continually, ‘Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.’ Psal. 17:5.
Praise to the goodness of the Lord,
Who rules his people by his word,
And there, as strong as his decrees.
He sets his kindest promises.
Whence then should doubts and fears arise,
Why trickling sorrows drown our eyes?
Slowly, alas, our mind receives
The comforts that our Saviour gives.
William Mason (1719-1791) was a High-Calvinist author. For many years he served as a Justice of the Peace, and in 1783 was appointed a Magistrate. He served as editor of the Gospel Magazine before and after the editorship of Augustus Toplady. He is best known for a morning and evening devotional entitled, “A Spiritual Treasury For The Children Of God.”
