He is on His throne

Today I was reading Iain H. Murray's "Spurgeon V. Hypercalvinism" and found a story I had not heard before about the great English preacher. In October of 1856 during a Sunday morning service in which thousands of people were packed into the Metropolitan Tabernacle to hear the eloquant young preacher, someone in the crowd yelled "Fire!" The stampede from one of the balconies resulted in 7 deaths. The commotion was so far from Spurgeon that he continued preaching without knowing what had happened. When he was told later about the tragedy, he collapsed in his office and many feared it might be the end of his preaching ministry.

It was a passage of scripture that finally lifted him out of his depression:

⁹"Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father."

(Philippians 2:9-11)

The next time he preached, he told his congregation that it was because of these words that he was instantly lifted out of the clouds of his depression and able to go on- it was the knowledge that in spite of what kinds of tragedies we go through in this life- that Christ is still on his throne.

The account reminded me of a story I once heard about Dr. Robert G. Lee, the former pastor of Bellvue Baptist Church in Memphis Tennessee. A family in his church was overcome by the grief of losing a young child in a kind of freak accident at their home. The boy had fallen off their roof on to a picket fence and had been killed instantly. In anquish, the mother asked Lee, "Where was God when my boy fell off that roof?"

Lee comforted her by saying softly, "He was in the same place as He was when they pulled the lifeless body of His Son off that cross- He was on His throne."

There is no greater knowledge in good times or bad than the central truth of our own existence- that God is in control in spite of our circumstances. The greatest tragedy that has ever occurred in human history is also the greatest victory. This means that as Christians we can always see that no matter what our circumstances bring, all things work for His glory.

He is on His throne.