livering manifestation of the Most High God, which, though he knew it
was for the deliverance of God's people, shed awe and terror over his
soul. Then he gathers himself together to vow that in this God, thus
manifested as the God of his salvation, he 'will rejoice,' whatever
penury or privation may attach to his outward life. Lastly, he rises, in
these final words, to the apprehension of what this God, thus rejoiced
in, will become to those who so put their trust and their gladness upon
Himself.

The expressions are of a highly metaphorical and imaginative character,
but they admit of being brought down to very plain facts, and they tell
us the results in heart and mind of true faith and communion with God.

It is to be noticed that a parallel saying, almost verbatim the same as
that of my text, occurs in the 18th psalm, and that there, too, it is
the last and joyous result of a tremendous manifestation of the
delivering energy of God.

Without any attempt to do more than bring out the deep meaning of the
words, I note that the three clauses of our text present three aspects
of what our lives and ourselves may steadfastly be if we, too, will
rejoice in the God of our salvation.

I. First, such communion with God brings God to a man for his strength.

The 18th psalm, which is closely parallel, as I have remarked, with this
one, gives a somewhat different and inferior version of that thought
when it says, 'It is the Lord that girdeth me with strength.' But
Habakkuk, though perhaps he could not have put into dogmatic shape all
that he meant, had come farther than that with this: 'The Lord is my
strength.' He not only _gives_, as one might put a coin into the hand of
a beggar, while standing separate from him all the while, but 'He is my
strength.'

And what does that mean? It is an anticipation of that most wonderful
and highest of all the New Testament truths which the Apostle declared
when he said: 'I can do all things in Christ which strengtheneth me
within.' It is the anticipation in experience--which always comes before
dogmatic formulas that reduce experiences into articulate utterances, of
what the Apostle recorded when he said that he had heard the voice that
declared, 'My grace is sufficient for thee, and My strength is made
perfect in weakness.'

Ah, brother! do not let us deprive ourselves of the lofty consolations
and the mysterious influx of power which may be ours, if we will open
our eyes to see, an