"YOU, O LORD, Have Helped And Comforted Me!"

Soul-Comfort
(Susannah Spurgeon, "Words of Cheer and 
Comfort for Sick and Sorrowful Souls!" 1898)

"When my anxious thoughts multiply within me--
YOUR comforts delight my soul." Psalm 94:19 

"YOUR comforts delight my soul!" 

Blessed LORD, how sweet is this 
text in my mouth! The taste of it 
is "like wafers made with honey." 
It is both food and drink to my heart, 
for every word has joy and refreshing 
in it; so that, like the "best wine" 
of the Canticles, it "goes down sweetly." 

The first of YOUR comforts, 
gracious GOD, is this--
that YOU have said unto 
my soul, 
"I am your salvation!" 

HE saves us, not because of any 
merit in us, or any deservings of our 
own; but because sovereign grace 
chose us, and Divine compassion 
redeemed us. And when we were 
afar off, infinite pity brought us back, 
and made us near by the precious 
blood of CHRIST. 

This may well comfort our hearts--
coming as it does directly from 

"our LORD JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF, 
and our GOD and FATHER, who has 
loved us and given us eternal comfort 
and good hope by grace!" 
(2 Thessalonians 2:16)

A saved and pardoned 
sinner can truly say, 

"YOUR comforts delight my soul!"

The next thought is that, having saved us--
HE keeps us. 

"We are kept by the power of GOD 
through faith unto salvation." 
(1Peter 1:5)

Comparatively few Christians put 
GOD'S keeping power fully to the test. 
If we would trust HIM for the keeping, 
as we do for the saving--
our lives would be far holier 
and happier than they are. 

"I will keep it every moment," 
is one of those grandly unlimited 
promises which most of us are afraid of; 
and we store them away in the background 
because we dare not believe them, and 
bring them out into the light of our 
daily practice. O foolish and 
unbelieving hearts, how 
much of soul-delighting 
comfort do we thus miss!

Then comes another thought--
HE cares for us. Dear friends, if 
you are HIS, you know the exceeding 
comfort of casting all your care upon HIM--
and being quite sure that HE will "undertake" 
for you. Have we not often come to 
HIM oppressed and burdened with an 
intolerable weight of anxiety and distress--
and been enabled to roll the whole mass 
of it on HIM, leaving it all at HIS feet, 
and returning to our work with 
a lightened and restful heart? 

Some of us have had burdens and 
sorrows, which would have crushed 
the very life out of us--
if we had not been enabled 
to look up and say,

"YOU, O LORD, have helped 
and comforted me!" (Psalm 86:17c)

Yes, truly, GOD'S care for us 
is one of the sweetest comforts 
of our mortal life!

Closely linked with this, 
is the thought that HE knows 
all about us. Our enemies--
sometimes, even our friends--
misunderstand and malign us; 
they misconstrue our words and 
actions, and impute to us motives 
which never actuated us. 

But our GOD knows the thoughts 
and intents of our heart, and never 
makes a mistake in the judgment 
HE passes on us. The comfort of 
this knowledge on the LORD'S part, 
to those who are "suffering wrongfully," 
is inexpressibly precious. 

They can lift up their heads 
with joy, and say, 

"The LORD is good. HE knows 
those who trust in HIM." (Nahum 1:7)


I have known this comfort to so 
delight my soul, that trials and 
temptations had no power to vex 
or annoy it, for my soul was hidden 

"secretly in a pavilion from the strife 
of tongues." (Psalm31:20)

Lastly (though there are many, 
many more), one of the multitude 
of thoughts which stand out 
prominently from the rest, as 
a comfort which delights the soul--
is that HE loves us. 

This truth has been running 
through the fields of previous 
thought, as a silver streamlet 
glides through the meadows--
here, it would deepen and expand 
to a broad and fathomless ocean, 
had I the power to speak of its height, 
and depth, and length, and breadth, 
and to tell of the love of CHRIST, 
which surpasses knowledge! 

But my pen utterly fails here. 
You who love HIM, and know 
that HE loves you--
must each one say to himself 
what that "comfort of HIS love" 
is to your own heart. This will be 
a better commentary than any 
I can offer. 

And, if some poor distressed soul 
is mourning the loss of the sweet 
consolation which CHRIST'S 
love alone can give--
let him call to remembrance 
a tenderly precious promise 
which the LORD put into the lips 
of the prophet Isaiah, 

"I have seen his ways--
but I will heal him; I will guide 
him and restore comfort to him!" 
Isaiah 57:18 

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GraceGems has published James Buchanan's short article, 
"Christ the Keyholder of the Eternal World".