Spurgeon: September PM
* 09/21/PM
"Gather not my soul with sinners."
--Psalm 26:9
Fear made David pray thus, for something whispered, "Perhaps,
after all, thou mayst be gathered with the wicked." That fear,
although marred by unbelief, springs, in the main, from holy
anxiety, arising from the recollection of past sin. Even the
pardoned man will enquire, "What if at the end my sins should be
remembered, and I should be left out of the catalogue of the
saved?" He recollects his present unfruitfulness--so little
grace, so little love, so little holiness, and looking forward
to the future, he considers his weakness and the many
temptations which beset him, and he fears that he may fall, and
become a prey to the enemy. A sense of sin and present evil, and
his prevailing corruptions, compel him to pray, in fear and
trembling, "Gather not my soul with sinners." Reader, if you
have prayed this prayer, and if your character be rightly
described in the Psalm from which it is taken, you need not be
afraid that you shall be gathered with sinners. Have you the two
virtues which David had--the outward walking in integrity, and
the inward trusting in the Lord? Are you resting upon Christ's
sacrifice, and can you compass the altar of God with humble
hope? If so, rest assured, with the wicked you never shall be
gathered, for that calamity is impossible. The gathering at the
judgment is like to like. "Gather ye together first the tares,
and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into
my barn." If, then, thou art like God's people, thou shalt be
with God's people. You cannot be gathered with the wicked, for
you are too dearly bought. Redeemed by the blood of Christ, you
are His for ever, and where He is, there must His people be. You
are loved too much to be cast away with reprobates. Shall one
dear to Christ perish? Impossible! Hell cannot hold thee! Heaven
claims thee! Trust in thy Surety and fear not!