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2 Samuel 22:29-30:
29For thou art my lamp, O LORD: and the LORD will lighten my darkness.
30For by thee I have run through a troop: by my God have I leaped over a wall.
Psalm 18:28-29:
28For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
29For by thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall.
When God created our first parents, He gave them paradise for their home, where they were not exposed to dangers of any sort. Neither the elements of nature, nor wild animals, nor the climate nor any sickness made them run any risks. All paradise was with them. It was, altogether, pleasure without drawback. At one point only, danger threatened. That one point was their soul's condition. Therein they were vulnerable. And if they were injured in the soul, they were overcome. And if God did not save them they were vanquished forever.
The curse which came upon the earth immediately after their fall showed that at once pandemonium—the power of hell—had been let loose against them, that the whole creation on all sides had entered, as it were, in conclave to destroy them.
If, now, you think how absolutely helpless these two people stood, almost without clothing and altogether unfortified, in the face of these unloosed and raving forces of the world and of nature, then you understand at once that nothing, absolutely nothing, would have remained of them, and that in less than twenty-four hours they would have perished as the prey of wild beasts, if in no other way, if from the side of God no hidden wondrous grace had watched over them.
You need not ask how our human life now saves itself. Now, in the face of the evil and destructive powers of nature, we stand strongly fortified in all sorts of ways. It is the exception when a flood surprises, a hurricane destroys, an epidemic works havoc, or wild animals carry off human victims. But Adam and Eve had none of the means of resistance at hand which are now at our disposal, and they were but by themselves.
It is therefore most remarkable that our race was not at once destroyed, that it maintained itself, that it increased and obtained the upper hand. Even for centuries together, after paradise had disappeared, man, in need of help, was forced to wage war to the death with the wild forces of destruction. To this day the name of a Nimrod, or of a Hercules, is alive in the memory of nations, as of heroes who were able to restrain the monster of destruction.
Most people live by their ordinary strength. Weaklings do not use such as they have. There have always been a few who have excelled themselves. And these heroes have been honored by after generations as men who have achieved the superhuman, and who, by labors which required an almost superhuman inspiration, have left a blessing behind them for the entire human race.
At times difficulties stood before them like a wall. And while others stood before that wall in utter helplessness these knew how to scale it, and to clear a way for those who followed after.
When the fight against the monster of the elements and the forces of nature had so far led to victory that with much caution and watchfulness human life to a certain extent became possible, Satan set up man against man, and an entirely new conflict arose, the conflict of human beings against human beings—the evil game of Cain and Abel.
To despoil the other of his goods, to aim at one another's life, to subject the other as slave to oneself. No longer now the pandemonium of nature, but of human wickedness, broke loose in the bosom of humanity itself. And the misery that has come upon our race by this second conflict is untold. First lust of robbery and of murder, of man against man, of house against house. And then from this, war of nation against nation, of people against people.
And then heroes have arisen. Men, again, who have excelled others and themselves. A Samson and a David, a William the Silent and a Washington. Heroes who under the inspiration of a lofty idealism have broken the aggression of the tyrant and have worked deliverance for their people.
It was again the wall against which every other man dashed his head, but over which they leaped. And thus the deliverance of the people came about. And the names of these heroes are held in lasting honor. Not by our whole race, but by the people whose deliverance they have wrought.
In between these two, a third conflict has then ensued. Not against nature now, and not against the lust of robbery and of murder, but the struggle of the kingdom of the world against the kingdom of heaven.
The grace of God descending, the light of God shining within, in order to bring the children of men into the inheritance of the children of God. And in opposition to this, the power of Satan, sin and the world to bring to naught the cause of God in the earth.
And then, again, there have been heroes who, excelling others, themselves have stood their ground where others fainted. It was again a wall which inexorably foiled the many, but over which in high exaltation of spirit they leaped. A Noah, an Abraham, an Isaiah, presently the martyrs and the Apostles and after them the saints of the Christian centuries. It is always the high exaltation of soul—and the wall at length thrown down, and their name held in grateful remembrance, not by one people now, nor by our whole race, but by the generation of all the children of God.
The center of this conflict was the Lion of Judah's tribe, the supreme Leader and the Finisher of the Faith, the Son of God and the Son of man, the vanquisher of death in His glorious Resurrection.
He Himself God, and, therefore, by Him the wall of sin and death demolished forever and the way opened to everlasting peace.
And now your conflict.
It is a conflict in threefold form. Against the forces of nature, in sickness, and dangers that threaten your ruin; the struggle for a living and for comfort of existence. Against your fellowmen, when they do you wrong, slander you or threaten your rights and liberties. And, in the third place, against the power of Satan, sin and the world, in behalf of God's honor, the cause of the Lord and of your own soul's salvation.
From the combination of these three powers that array themselves against you, spring all your woes and miseries, all your sorrows of soul and carping anxieties. Man has a battle to fight here on earth. This conflict is not equally fierce and sharp in every case. But it frequently appears that on the part of some it is a struggle against hellish powers.
And in this conflict one stands cowardly and helpless. The larger numbers struggle with little more than ordinary effort. But there are always a few that take up the fight with uncommon heroic courage and triumph through the faith. It is again the wall. Others falter before it, but they know how to leap over it. They do it with their God and in the name of their God. And they leave a blessing behind them to the good of their kindred and their whole circle of life.
Wherein now lies the secret of the courage and the vanquishing power of these heroes and heroines?
Of course in that they excelled themselves, that is to say, in that they were able to apply a power of will which really far outreached their own strength. And this great power does not come from without, but from within. From their fixed heart, from their soul that takes hold of itself, from the spirit that is within them.
By comparison one perceives something of this high tension in the man who runs amuck, in the drunkard, in the insane, in the man who is carried away by his passion.
Every one runs out of the way of him who runs amuck, because every one knows that no one can face him. So he is thrown by a shot from a gun. Sometimes three police officers are unable to overpower a subject of delirium tremens. The insane must be rendered harmless sometimes by a straight-jacket, which shows what gigantic strength they can develop. And in a fit of passion many an excited person has withstood three men and thrown them.
These are altogether exhibitions of human misery, but in them all a gigantic development of strength shows itself because an inward something was able to cause this tension of spirit and muscle, such as passes all measure.
But even as such a tension of the muscles can spring from evil excitement and over-exertion of spirit, so by an inner tension of the Holy Spirit our soul can double its strength, yea, increase it threefold. Not in this instance by reason of human misery, but by reason of a holy exaltation of spirit which is bent upon resisting human woe.
Then there is again a wall: The wall of injustice that is committed against us. The wall of trouble that overwhelms us. The wall of a wrong that can not be tolerated. The wall of opposition that threatens to undo us. The wall of sin that aims at our descent into hell. A wall which must be demolished, which must be broken through, or we are vanquished and lost.
And then heroic courage must show itself. Not the heroic courage of wild, ungovernable excitement, but the pure, calm, persevering courage of the hero who never gives up and in the strength of God overcomes.
Then it is the making true for ourselves of what the Psalmist sang (Psalm 18:29): "By my God have I leaped over a wall."
"By my God;" this does not mean to say with the help of God, or through a miracle which God wrought, but it means: With God in my heart, with this highest inspiration which the working within of the Holy Ghost alone can bring about in my soul, so that I know that God wills it, and that, therefore, it must be done.
Then it is, if you like, a miracle, for what you do and endure goes far beyond your own strength.
But the wall yields, the wall breaks down and you leap over.
And on the other side of it you kneel down to ascribe praise and honor, and to make great the Name of Him Who has enabled you to do the superhuman.
* * * * * * *This devotional classic offers 110 meditations on a single thought from Psalm 73: "As for me, it is good to be near to God." The author states, "The fellowship of being near unto God must become reality ... it must permeate and give color to our feeling, our perceptions, our sensations, our thinking, our imagining, our willing, our acting, our speaking. It must not stand as a foreign factor in our life, but it must be the passion that breathes throughout our whole existence."
The meditations reflect the blending of spiritual vigor with doctrinal loyalty so consistently expressed in the life of Abraham Kuyper. These are devotions with true substance, avoiding the extremes about which Kuyper adds a word of caution: "Stress in creedal confession, without drinking from the Living Fountain, runs dry in barren orthodoxy, just as truly as spiritual emotion, without clearness in confessional standards, makes one sink in the bog of sickly mysticism."
Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) was a Dutch political leader and Calvinist theologian. Elected to parliament in 1874, he became Prime Minister in 1901 and served in that capacity until 1905. As a theologian, he revived a systematic, orthodox Calvinism. He founded the Free Reformed Church and the Free University of Amsterdam. His other works include Principles of Sacred Theology, Lectures on Calvinism, and The Work of the Holy Spirit
Further information about Abraham Kuyper's life can be seen in the translator's "Biographical Note"; further information about To Be Near Unto God can be Abraham Kuyper's "Preface" to that book.
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