CONTRACTED NOT TO FAIL by Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 18, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 32.

CONTRACTED NOT TO FAIL

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

An Inspired Prophetic Prayer—Maligned and Hunted of Men, Yet the Master Succeeds—“Thy Vows Are upon Me”—Hope for Every One

By MRS. L. D. AVERY-STUTTLE

My pen hesitates as I undertake to express a few of the thoughts which come to me as I analyze some of the astonishing sentences in the beautiful prophecy of Psalm 56. “Prophecy?” you question. “I had never supposed it to be a prophetic psalm.”

I myself used to regard it as a simple statement of the trials and persecutions the psalmist suffered, at the hands of Saul in particular, and of his enemies in general. But as I study it closely, I perceive that only in a secondary sense does it relate to David. Of course, Scripture oftentimes has a double meaning and a twofold application. But I believe that this is one of those wonderful prayers which the Master Himself prayed when alone upon the mountains, centuries after it had been written concerning Him.

“WOULD SWALLOW ME UP”

“Be merciful unto Me, O God: for man would swallow Me up.” What touching pathos! Man, whom He came to save! Man, for whom He left the glory of His heavenly home! He continues, “Every day they wrest My words.”

When the Master said to the unbelieving Jews, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will build it up,” they wrested and distorted His words. When He spoke His most beautiful and touching parables, He was not understood. His chosen disciples failed to comprehend Him; and even the mighty baptizer of the wilderness, of whom the Master declared that there was none greater born of women—even he, when under terrible temptation, so far yielded his faith as to inquire, “Art Thou He that should come? or look we for another?” The prophetic psalmist continues, “They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark My steps, when they wait for My soul.”

HUNTED AND PERSECUTED

How completely was this fulfilled in the life of the Man of Nazareth! From His very birth until His cruel death, He was hunted and persecuted. The bloody soldiers of King Herod sought the divine Babe in every home, up and down the streets of Bethlehem; and His innocent childhood was embittered by the jealousy, hatred, and envy of His misguided nation. There was not a moment, during His entire wonderful ministry, but that He was hunted by murderous spies sent to trap Him in His words and to take away His life.

Still, in the midst of all the cruelty that could be invented by the fiends of hell, the incarnate Son of God continued to bless and to heal poor fallen humanity, even until the cross of Calvary loomed up before Him, and threw its accursed shadow across His pathway. “I will not be afraid what man can do unto Me.” This was the keynote of victory.

“THY VOWS ARE UPON ME”

But what was it—what indomitable spirit was it that so possessed the Divine One, that He heeded not the scoffs nor the taunts nor the curses of the sin-hardened nation whom He came to save? Ah, here is the secret: “Thy vows are upon Me, O God.” The divine compact must be kept. The terms agreed upon in the ages of the past, the contract long ago written and signed by the pen of the Eternal and His divine Son, were still sacredly guarded in the heavenly archives; and that compact must be sealed and ratified. That contract called for the life-blood of the Son of the Eternal. Ah, “Thy vows are upon Me”! To shrink from the suffering, or to faint and give up the struggle, was not to be thought of for a single moment. His word was pledged; and sooner might heaven and earth pass away, than one promise fail.

“PUT UP THY SWORD”

When the howling rabble invaded the sacred retreat of Gethsemane, the impulsive Peter, thinking to do the Master a service, rashly drew his sword, and cut off the ear of Malchus.

Quickly came the word of the Master: “Put up thy sword. Do you not know that I could at once speak the word, and legions of mighty angels, accustomed to do My slightest bidding, would rush to My assistance? But if I should thus do, how then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?”

Ah, “Thy vows are” indeed “upon Me”! “In the volume of the book it is written of Me”—written in the eternal archives above, with the finger of Omnipotence—this solemn compact between Jehovah and His Son. And in the fulness of time, the wonderful words, “Lo, I come,” rang out above the music of the heavenly choir.

SHALL NOT FAIL

Fail?—Never! O fellow traveler, have you become discouraged because of your mistakes? Do your sins rise mountain high against you? Does the miserable, haunting memory of your vileness rise black above you, until the sweet light of heaven seems almost blotted out?

Then wait. I have a word for you,—a sweet message of cheer and hope. When you have heard it, you shall bid adieu to darkness and doubt. When you have heard it, you shall, in the name of the Lord, command the hosts of Satan to depart. When you have heard it, your poor heart shall leap with joy, and your faltering tongue shall sing; for help is laid upon One who is mighty. It does not matter so very much if you are discouraged and bowed down. He, the Mighty One, He, the Strong One, He, the Everlasting One, has assured you that He will never be discouraged. O, rejoice, rejoice, because it is He who has undertaken to save us! He has signed the contract to bring us through. Listen:

"I have raised up One from the north, and He shall come." "A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench." "He shall not fail nor be discouraged."