THE REAR-GUARD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25428, 8 January 1944, Page 3

THE REAR-GUARD

Written for the Otago Daily Times By the Rev. Gardner Miller I love the twenty-third Psalm. I could not tell you how often I have preached from it—and never repeated myself. As for singing it, I declare that when Brother Death leads me across the border he will hear me singing it, and he and I will make a duet of it. I cannot recall a time when I did not know this old psalm, and I am sure eternity will not dim its glory for me. Of course, it must be sung to a tune, and ordinary folks can sing without, losing their breath. I cannot abide chants. Some hymns and psalms are wedded to their tunes. I will not sing the twenty-third Psalm to any other tune than “ Wiltshire.” Long ago I did learn another tune. I think it was the tune which the covenanters used to sing to this old psalm as they tramped across the moors to their meeting place. I have forgotten it, but “Wiltshire” remains with me, and I am content. Even to recognise a tune is ciuite remarkable for me, for my friends insist that if . the musical scores of the Old Hundred and “ God Save the King ” were placed before me I would not know which is which. But have you ever noticed the wording of the last verse (verse 6) of the twenty-third Psalm? It reads: “ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me.” Most people have a vague feeling that the wording is wrong. Why should goodness and mercy “ follow ” me? Why should it not read, “go before me? ” Or even why should not goodness and mercy keep step with me until I reach the “ House of the Lord ”? Here we have something deeply significant, something that should prove a great relief to us. Goodness and mercy “follow” us because many cf our enemies are in our rear. This verse reminds us of our rear-guard—-that is, the provision God has made for us that we be not overcome by the enemy from behind. Is it not true that we are all Dogged by our Yesterdays? Most of our foes are the memories of our sins. And these memories have a habit of coming alive again and causing us great sorrow of heart. Our yesterdays cah stab us in the back. What would not we do to get away from our past! It is ever at our heels. True, we have turned our faces to the light, but our yesterdays pursue us and we see their shadow. Paul felt this very acutely when he cried out, “ O wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from, this body of death? ” And we all know that remorse is only for the things that are past. We do not have any remorse for things that have not yet happened. Remorse is like a pursuing hound. We have become so refined in our preaching these days that our pulpits no longer thunder against the effects of sin. I have always wished that my lot as a student had brought me into contact with Dr Alexander Whyte, of Free St. George’s, Edinburgh. My student days were; spent in Glasgow, and my only recollection of the great preacher was a visit he paid to college on the death of another great man, Dr Denney. Dr Whyte once electrified his congregation when speaking about the effects of our yesterdays. Here is how his biographer describes the incident: “It told of the hell-hounds of remorse in pursuit of a man who had come to see the horror of his sin. At night he could not sleep for the baying of these hounds of vengeance, nor would he ever shake them off as long as he lived. And what of the end? ‘You may be saved,’ the preacher exclaimed, ‘ but they will pursue you up to the very gates of heaven, and leave the bloody slaver of their jaws upon the golden bars! ’ ” I would have given a lot to have been in Dr Whyte’s congregation that day. But God takes care of our yesterdays. God is in the Rear Our foes do not get it all their own way. Following us are God’s goodnessand mercy, just as real and certainly more potent than remorse. Between us and our guilt is the infinite love of the Lord. It is a thing most surely to be rolled round the tongue like a sweet morsel that our Lord is the Lord of the past as well as of to-morrow and all the to-morrows that follow. The memories of the past may haunt us, but they cannot destroy us. God is our rearguard. The foe cannot get past Him. They will snipe at us, but we will never be their prisoner. The man who leaves his past'in the hands of God has no fear of his future. It is because God takes care of the past that we have no fear of the future. “And I shall dwell in the House of the, Lord for ever.” That is the end of the journey. But look back now along the road you have travelled. What do you see? Do you not see that Goodness and Mercy are following you?