The Spurgeon Series 1857 & 1858. Charles H. Spurgeon

by the voice of the tempest; the winds resound it, and the waves, with their thousand hands, clap, keeping chorus in the great march of God. The whole earth is still a great orchestra for God’s praise, and his creatures still take up various parts in the eternal song, which, ever swelling and ever increasing, shall by and by mount to its climax in the consummation of all things. In that sense, therefore, the prayer is still inappropriate. God, who fills all in all, and fills earth and heaven, does not need to have more glory, as to the essence of his glory; for he is still glorified in the whole earth.

      3. But David intended this prayer in another sense. “Let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen”; not as Creator, but as a moral Governor, and a Ruler. It is as Governor that we have revolted from God and done dishonour to him; it is as our Master, our Ruler, our Judge, that we have done despite to his glory, and have trampled on his crown. It is, therefore, in this respect that David wished that the whole earth might be filled with God’s glory. He desired that every idol temple might be cast down — that the name of Jehovah might be sung by every lip, that he in his person might be loved by every heart, and be for ever adored as “God over all blessed for ever.” A foolish wish, you say, for it never can be accomplished. Surely the day will never come when hoary systems of superstition shall die. What! shall colossal systems of infidelity and of idolatry totter to their fall? They have resisted the battering ram for many a year; and yet shall they pass away, and shall God’s kingdom come, and his will be done on earth, even as it is in heaven? No, it is no daydream of a boy, it is no wish of the enthusiast. Notice who uttered that prayer, and where he was when he uttered it. It was the prayer of a dying king; it was the prayer of a holy man of God, whose eyes were just then shining with brightness in view of the celestial city, as he stood on the mighty Pisgah, “and looked over the landscape” — the prayer of the dying psalmist, when on the margin of his life he surveyed the ocean — the prayer of a mighty king, when he saw the scroll of prophecy unfolded before him for the last time, and was about to be ushered into the presence of his Maker. He uttered this as his last best wish and desire; and when he had uttered it he sank back in his bed, and said, “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” It was his last prayer: “Let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.”

      4. First, this morning, I shall try to explain the prayer; then I shall labour as God shall enable me, to inflame the hearts of all Christian men to desire the object of this prayer; then offer a word or two of counsel as to the pursuit of the object here spoken of; and conclude by noticing the promise to buoy our hopes up. By and by “the earth shall be filled with his glory.”

      5. I. First, then, let me EXPLAIN THE PRAYER. It is a large prayer — a massive one. A prayer for a city needs a stretch of faith; indeed, there are times when a prayer for one man is enough to stagger our belief; for we can scarcely think that God will hear us for even that one. But how great this prayer is! how comprehensive! “Let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.” It does not exempt one single country, however trodden under the foot of superstition; it does not leave out one single nation, however abandoned. For the cannibal as well as for the civilised, for the man that grasps the tomahawk as well as for the man who bends his knee in supplication, this prayer is uttered, “Let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen and Amen.”

      6. Let me just very briefly note what I believe the psalmist meant. He desired that the true religion of God might be sent into every country. Looking from that point of view, as we utter this prayer, what a multitude of thoughts rush into our minds! Lo, over there we see the hoary systems of ancient superstition; we behold multitudes bowing down before Buddha and Brahma, and paying their adorations to idols that are not gods: we pray for them, that they may cease to be idolaters, and that God’s name may be known among them. Over there we see the crescent, gleaming with a pale and sickly light, and we pray that the followers of Mohammed may bow themselves before the cross, renounce the scimitar, and return to the one who loved them, casting away all the uncleanness and filthiness of their former religion. We see over there the scarlet woman on the seven hills, and we include her in our prayer; we pray that God may cast down Rome; that he may overturn her deep, hell rooted foundations, and may cause her tyranny over the nations to cease, that she may no more be drunk with the blood of the slain, and no more with her idolatries and witchcrafts lead the nations astray. We include her in our supplications. We look on nations that are almost too debased to be included in the roll of mankind; we see the Hottentot in his kraal, {fenced village} the Bushman and the Bechuana, and we put up our prayer for these: “Let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen and Amen.” Let Africa’s centre, once thought to be barren but now discovered to be glorious in fertility, become fertile also in works of grace; let the regions from where our black brethren have been driven to slavery become the homes of blessedness, and the regions of God’s praise. We cast our eye to other regions, where the scalp is still at the Indian’s girdle, where still they wash their hands in blood and delight themselves in murder; or we look to that huge empire of China, and we see the myriads still lost in infidelity, and a partial idolatry, which is consuming them and destroying them, and we pray, “Let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.” Yes, it is a great prayer, but we mean it. We are praying against Juggernaut, and against Buddha, and against every form and fashion of false religion; we are crying against antichrist, and we are praying that the day may come when every temple shall be dismantled, when every shrine shall be left poor as poverty, and when there shall be no temple but the temple of the Lord God of Hosts, and when no song shall be sung but the song of “Hallelujah; to the one who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.”

      7. But we mean more than this. We ask not merely the nominal Christianity of any country, but the conversion of every family in every country. “Let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.” Is that wish too great, too high? Are we too sanguine in our expectations? No; “The knowledge of the Lord” is to “cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea,” and that is entirely. We do not wish to see dry places here and there; but as the deep foundations of the depths are covered with the sea, so we wish that every nation may be covered with God’s truth. And so we pray that every family may receive it; yes, we pray that every household may have its morning and its evening prayer; we pray that every family may be brought up in the fear of the Lord, that every child may, on its mother’s knee, say, “Our Father,” and that the answer may come to the infant’s prayer, “Your kingdom come.” Yes, we ask from God that every house may be like the tents of Judah, consecrated to God; we ask that even the kraal of the Hottentot may become a synagogue for God’s praise. Our desire is, that man may become so holy, that every meal may become a eucharist, and every cup a chalice, and every garment a priestly vestment, and that all their labours may be consecrated to the Lord. We are bound to expect it, for it is said, “Even the bells upon the horses shall be holiness to the Lord, and even the pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar.”

      8. But, we go further than that. We do not ask merely for household conversion, but for the individual salvation of every being existing. “Let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.” Should there be one heart that does not beat in God’s praise, or one lip that is dumb in the melody of thanksgiving, then there would be yet a spot left which would not be filled with God’s praise, and that one left unconverted would blot and blur the whole great work of filling the earth with God’s glory. A missionary once said, and said truly, that if all the people in the world were converted, except one man in Siberia, it would be worth while for all the Christians in England to make a pilgrimage to Siberia, if that man’s salvation could not be accomplished in any other way. And so it would. The salvation of one soul is unutterably precious, and when we offer this prayer we exclude no one. We pray that the atheist, the blasphemer, the hardened rebel, the profligate, may each be filled with God’s glory; and then we ask for mercy for the whole earth; we do not leave out so much as one, but so hope and expect the day when all mankind shall bow at the Saviour’s feet, when every hand shall bring tribute, every lip a song, and every eye shall speak its gladness and its praise. This I believe to be the psalmist’s prayer — that every man might be converted, and that in fact everywhere, in every heart and conscience, God might reign without a rival,