The Everlasting Arms

“Underneath are the everlasting arms.” Deuteronomy 33:27

There are times in a man’s life when he has to come down. It is not a very easy matter to go down the hill safely. Some persons have proved that it is difficult to grow old gracefully, but to the Christian it ought not to be impossible or unusual to grow old graciously. Still, there are difficulties about that coming down the hill of life—coming down in a very material sense, perhaps, from competence to real poverty. Coming down as to your mental powers. Being conscious of losing your former influence over your fellows. Coming down in general repute, through no fault of your own, but through circumstances of which you are not the master. All this is very trying to human nature. You know that on the way to heaven there are many Hill Difficulties—and brave spirits rather enjoy climbing to the top of them! We like a craggy path, hard and rough, where we can keep on looking upward all the way even if we have to scramble on our hands and knees. There is something pleasant in going up in that fashion, but it is when going down into the Valley of Humiliation that we are apt to slip. We do not like going down, and as many horses fall at the bottom of the hill, so I believe that many people trip at the end of a trial when they think it is nearly over and they have no need to look so carefully to their feet. Well now, dear friends, if any of you are going down the hill, I think the text comes in very sweetly: “Underneath are the everlasting arms.” You cannot go so low but that God’s arms of love are still lower! You get poorer and poorer, but, “underneath are the everlasting arms.” You get older and feebler. Your ears are failing, your eyes are growing dim, but, “underneath are the everlasting arms.” By-and-by, unless the Lord speedily returns, you will have to die—and you will come down very low, then—but still it will be true, “underneath are the everlasting arms.” 

Further, I think that we may use the text as referring to a matter of intense concern. Sometimes we say to one another, “Is our religion real? We trust we love the Lord, but do we really love Him? We think we are reposing in Christ, but are we really doing so? We have a measure of joy and peace—does it really come through believing in Jesus, or is it a delusion of the flesh or of the devil? We have, so far, come a long way in the heavenly trail, but are we really going towards heaven, or is it all a mistake?” It is a good thing, occasionally, brothers and sisters, to look underneath. He who never sees what is under him may have great cause to do so. Examine your foundations—see what your cornerstones are, for if you should be building on the sand, then, in the time of storm, your fine building will be all swept away! It is a grand thing if we can find this text to be true: “Underneath are the everlasting arms.” I dig through my experience, and, “underneath are the everlasting arms.” I question my joys. I examine myself about my sorrows, but do I come down on the purposes of God, the immutable faithfulness of the Most High, the eternal truths of God revealed in Scripture? Do I come down upon the everlasting arms? If so, I am resting where the whole universe may rest—I am resting on a faithful God and I need not be afraid! Do not fear to examine yourself! If you do, there is, perhaps, all the graver need for the testing and trying. Search and look, and go to the bottom of these matters. Happy shall you be if, diving to the very depths, you can say, “Yes, underneath are the everlasting arms.”

The Everlasting Arms, Sermon 2435 - Charles Haddon Spurgeon