David sounds the praise of thanksgiving from the beginning of Psalm 138, “I will give you thanks with all my heart.” And where will David herald his thanksgiving? He says, “I will sing your praise before the heavenly beings” (v. 1). The meaning of this last phrase is not clear and is also translated as “before the gods” (so ESV) or “before judges” or “before kings” (see the translation note in the CSB). Allen Ross favors the translation “before the gods” and writes, “Other passages in this part of the Psalter refer to pagan gods as well (Pss. 95:3; 96:4–5; and 115:3–8). The psalmist praises the greatness and glory of Yahweh ‘in the face’—so to speak, of false gods.”1 We prefer this understanding. Verse 2 expands the thought of verse 1, explaining just how David will testify and sing his thanksgiving of the Lord before these false gods. He will “bow down toward [God’s] holy temple [or tabernacle]” in Jerusalem. There he will “give thanks to [the Lord’s] name for your constant love [Heb. hesed] and truth [Heb. emeth, ESV “faithfulness”].” And why will he bow down and sing of the Lord’s love and truth, his “steadfast love and faithfulness” (ESV)? Because “you [the Lord] have exalted your name and your promise (ESV, “your word”) above everything else.” Commenting on this verse, Charles Spurgeon writes,
The name of the Lord in nature is not so easily read as in the Scriptures, which are a revelation in human language, specifically adapted to the human mind, treat- ing of human need, and of a Saviour who appeared in human nature to redeem humanity. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the divine word will not pass away, and in this respect especially it has a pre-eminence over every other form of manifestation. Moreover, the Lord lays all the rest of his name under tribute to his word: his wisdom, power, love, and all his other attributes combine to carry out his word. It is his word which creates, sustains, quickens, enlightens, and comforts. As a word of command it is supreme; and in the person of the incarnate Word it is set above all the works of God’s hand. . . . Let us adore the Lord who has spoken to us by his word, and by his Son; and in the presence of unbelievers let us both praise his holy name and extol his holy word.2
If ever there was a follower of the Lord Jesus who praised the name of the Savior and extolled his gospel before the lost and their false gods, it was Sarah Hall Boardman Judson. Sarah was born on November 4, 1803, in Alstead, New Hampshire. She was the oldest of thirteen children in a family that was extremely poor. At the age of seventeen, she was converted, professed Christ, and was baptized. She felt the call to missions immediately and wished “to follow in the footsteps of her heroine Ann Judson, who visited America in 1823.”3 In the book Missionary Biography. The Memoir of Sarah B. Judson, Member of the American Mission to Burmah, Emily Judson (pen name Fanny Forester), the third and last wife of Adoniram Judson, includes an entry from Sarah’s journal written less than a month after her baptism. There Sarah writes, “While I have this day had the privilege of worshipping the true God in solemnity, I have been pained by the thoughts of those who have never heard the sound of the gospel. When will the time come that the poor heathen, now bowing to idols, shall own the living and true God? Dear Saviour, haste to spread the knowledge of thy dying love to earth’s remotest bounds!”4
Her passion for the lost would continue to grow. She became involved in tract distribution and established a prayer meeting. All but one who attended became Christians. However, her heart for the nations would not wane. In a letter to a dear friend she would write,
It is my ardent desire . . . that the glorious work of reformation may extend till every knee shall bow to the living God. For this expected, this promised era, let us pray earnestly, unceasingly, and with faith. How can I be so inactive, when I know that thousands are perishing in this land of grace; and millions in other lands are at this very moment kneeling before senseless idols!
And in her journal—
Sinners perishing all round me, and I almost panting to tell the far heathen of Christ! Surely this is wrong. I will no longer indulge the vain foolish wish, but endeavor to be useful in the position where Providence has placed me. I can pray for deluded idolaters, and for those who labor among them, and this is a privilege indeed.5
Sarah, however, could not shake loose her concern for the lost who were far away. Her heart for international missions would find a companion in a man named George Boardman. Moved by a poem he read on the death of a missionary named Colman, who died in Chittagong after only two years on the field, Boardman tracked down its author, who happened to be Sarah Hall. He proposed to her almost immediately, and she accepted. Initially, her friends and family discouraged her in this action, with her parents withholding their consent. Eventually, however, they gave their permission. George and Sarah wed on July 4, 1825. They would leave for Burma the same month, and the voyage would take 127 days. The moving scene of their departure, never to return, is one of the most heart-wrenching in all missionary lore. Sarah’s departure is recorded in this way:
We recollect that when she left her paternal home, to reach the ship which was to convey her “over the dark and distant sea,” after she had taken her seat in the stagecoach with her chosen companion . . . and had bestowed her last farewell upon the family group—as though she felt that she had not obtained that free and full consent to her abandonment of home and country which her filial heart craved, she looked out at the coach window and said, “Father, are you willing? Say, father, that you are willing I should go.” “Yes, my child, I am willing.” “Now I can go joyfully!” was the emphatic response; and the noble wanderer went on her way with cheerful composure.
Of this scene [Sarah] writes to her husband’s parents, “My mother embraced me as tenderly, when she whispered, ‘Sarah, I hope I am willing,’ as she did one month before, when she wildly said, ‘Oh! I cannot part with you!’”6
Fanny then adds to this sorrowful scene:
And so the fond child’s heart was made glad even in the moment of its agony; for something of the previous reluctance of the sorrow-stricken parents to resign their treasure may be gathered from such pleadings as these [from Sarah].
“Let us, my dear parents, go to Calvary; let us behold for a few moments, the meek, the holy Lamb of God, bleeding for our transgressions. Then let us inquire, ‘Shall I withhold from this Saviour any object, however dear to my heart? Shall I be unwilling to suffer a few short years of toil and privation for his sake?’ Let us call to remembrance those days of darkness through which we passed before Jesus lifted upon us the light of his countenance. We have, I trust, each of us, seen our lost and ruined condition by nature, have seen ourselves exposed to the righteous indignation of our Creator, have felt ourselves sinking into endless despair and ruin, and all this is merited. But oh, amazing love! at that desperate moment the Saviour smiled upon us. He opened his arms of compassion, all polluted as we were with iniquity, he received us, forgave our sins, and bade us hope for joy unutterable beyond the grave. Did we not, then, surrender all into his hand? Was not this the language of our hearts,
‘Had I a thousand lives to give,
A thousand lives should all be thine!’
And has not the precious Redeemer as strong claims upon us now as he had then?”7
May we, like David and like Sarah, thank God and proclaim his love and faithfulness before the nations and their false gods so that they too may worship and sing praises to our Lord!
This is an excerpt from Daniel L. Akin’s book, 10 Women Who Changed the World, a tribute to the transformational work done by some truly inspiring female Christian missionaries. With each profile, he journeys into the heart of that gospel servant’s mission-minded story and makes a compelling connection to a similar account from the Bible. By reading each missionary story, and how each woman embodies a certain passage of Scripture, prepare to be challenged and inspired to follow in their footsteps—because intentionally living on mission isn’t something reserved for heroes of the past. It’s something each one of us can pursue in everyday life!
Works Cited
- Allen P Ross, A Commentary on the Psalms 90–150, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 2014), 804.
- C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David: Psalm 111–150, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1979), 244–45.
- Rosalie Beck, “More Than Rubies,” Christian History Institute, accessed January 16, 2020, https://christianhistoryinstitute.org /magazine/article/more-than-rubies.
- Fanny Forester, Missionary Biography. The Memoir of Sarah B. Judson, Member of the American Mission to Burmah (London: Aylott & Jones, 1848), 11.
- Arabella W. Stuart, Lives of the Three Mrs. Judsons (Charleston, SC: BiblioBazar, 2007), 135.
- Forester, Missionary Biography, 24–25.
- Forester, Missionary Biography, 25–26.
