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Joseph Charles Philpot Bevindelijke geschriften & prediking
Vandaag

3 min. read

Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies.
Psalm 103:4

The coronation of a king puts the last and highest seal upon his reigning authority. This made the spouse say, “Go forth, O daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown with which his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart” (Song Sol. 3:11). And what a day will that be when the anti-typical Solomon is crowned Lord of all.

Thus there is a crown put upon the soul which is healed of all its diseases, and whose life is redeemed from destruction. It is as if God could not be satisfied until He had put the crown of His loving-kindness upon the soul, until He had Himself crowned the heart with His own love. And what is the effect? The soul puts a crown of glory upon His head. So the soul has the crown of grace, and God has the crown of glory. This is being crowned with loving-kindness and tender mercies. And O what a crown it is!

How it crowns all our iniquities, hides them from God’s sight as a crown covers a monarch’s brow. How it crowns all our trials that we have had to pass through, severe and cutting as they were at the time to the flesh. How it crowns all our bereavements by putting upon the bereaved heart the crown of God’s loving-kindness. How it crowns all our prayers by enabling us to see their gracious answer. How it crowns all God’s dealings with us in providence and in grace, and stamps loving-kindness upon them all; for the crown includes everything in it. As the Queen’s crown includes her royalty, her dignity, her power–for all are symboled thereby–so God’s loving-kindness, put upon the heart as a crown, includes and secures every blessing for time and eternity.

To the reader…

Do you know this? You look back on your way and perhaps see mainly iniquities, shortcomings and trials that were sharp to the flesh. But see what the Lord lays over all that: the crown of His lovingkindness. It covers your iniquities from God’s sight, as a crown covers a monarch’s head. It also crowns your feeble prayers, and sometimes lets you see how graciously they have been answered.

God is not satisfied until He has crowned the heart with His own love. If you have tasted something of that, you will not want to set the crown of glory on your own head, but on His. For He wears the crown of glory, and the soul the crown of grace. What shall you render unto Him? Call upon Him with glad thanksgiving, for in His lovingkindness every blessing for time and eternity is contained.

With warm regards,
The compilers of jcphilpot.nl